Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what are the current rules on (1) eligibility, and (2) sponsorship of Parliamentary passes for lobbyists.
Answered by Lord McFall of Alcluith
Nobody is entitled to a parliamentary pass by virtue of being a lobbyist. Any passholder who has an external lobbying role separate to their parliamentary role is not permitted to use their pass for lobbying purposes. The rules governing the sponsorship of passes by members of the House of Lords, which were recently amended, say: "Such passholders must use their Parliamentary pass only to provide Parliamentary support to the sponsor and other members of the House, and not in furtherance of any other interests of their own or of other organisations for which they work. Members may not sponsor a pass for anybody whose primary role is to support an All-Party Parliamentary Group."
The Code of Conduct for House of Lords Members’ Staff requires them to register their outside interests, including "any … financial interest in businesses or organisations involved in parliamentary lobbying".
Anybody who has evidence that an individual is breaching any of these rules may complain to the independent Commissioner for Standards at lordsstandards@parliament.uk.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria were used in the Town Deals selection process in rejecting four of the eleven towns in the north east of England that had been recommended by officials to ministers.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Ministers considered a range of factors as part of the selection process for Town Deals, including income deprivation, productivity and exposure to economic shocks. We recognise that there are more towns in need than we were able to support through this first set of Town Deals and have committed to a further competitive element of the Towns Fund. More information will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with churches and faith communities about the difficulties of obtaining broadband access for places of worship which do not have a postcode; and what plans they have to arrange a debate on this issue in the House.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government has been in discussion with representatives from the Church of England, in particular, regarding the issue of broadband access where places of worship do not have postcodes, or are otherwise missing from telecom provider databases. In some cases this leads to issues in identifying and providing service to such locations.
Over 31,000 premises are listed in relevant databases accessible to the Government as being used as places of worship. Of these, approximately 86% of premises used for religious purposes in Great Britain can access Superfast broadband speeds or better on fixed networks, compared to the UK average of 95%. Approximately 4% of premises used for religious purposes in Great Britain cannot access ‘decent broadband’ speeds of 10 Megabit/s on Fixed networks, compared to the UK average of 2%, largely due to their rurality. However, 4G data services are also widely available, and this reduces the number of such listed places of worship with no potential service to less than 0.2% of the total.
We are working with relevant stakeholders, including telecom operators (such as Openreach) and Ofcom, to ascertain the extent of this problem, and how many religious premises are still facing these barriers. This includes whether data used by operators is consistent with that available to the Government and to identify appropriate solutions, including ensuring that databases are up to date, but also that all broadband technology solutions that are available to places of worship are considered. Therefore, there are no current plans to debate the matter in the House.
We understand the importance for broadband access in places of worship to help improve connectivity for local communities, as well as practical benefits for such premises, including streaming services, security, and accepting contactless donations or administration.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what new deadlines the Department for Education has set to (1) evaluate tender bids, (2) hold clarification meetings, and (3) announce the preferred bidder of the tender process for the contract for "an information and advice service for families including kinship carers of children at risk or involved in the care system".
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department is in the process of tendering for an information and advice service for families including kinship carers of children at risk or involved in the care system.
Our intention remains to award this contract in March 2020 in order for the service to commence on 1 April 2020. As per our most recent indicative timeline, we hope to evaluate tender bids on 3 February 2020, hold clarification meetings between 14 February 2020 to 20 February 2020, and announce the preferred bidder soon after.
Any further unexpected delays will be communicated to all interested bidders. The department will work with any winning bidder, and the existing provider to ensure the service is not interrupted.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that information and advice services for families, kinship carers and special guardians of children at risk or involved in the care system in England can continue uninterrupted, following the reported delay in the procurement of this service.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department is in the process of tendering for an information and advice service for families including kinship carers of children at risk or involved in the care system.
Our intention remains to award this contract in March 2020 in order for the service to commence on 1 April 2020. As per our most recent indicative timeline, we hope to evaluate tender bids on 3 February 2020, hold clarification meetings between 14 February 2020 to 20 February 2020, and announce the preferred bidder soon after.
Any further unexpected delays will be communicated to all interested bidders. The department will work with any winning bidder, and the existing provider to ensure the service is not interrupted.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support manufacturing in the North East of England.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The Government recognises the importance of manufacturing to the North East and to the economy. Through the North East Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal, we are supporting job growth and economic development with £379.6 million of funding from the Local Growth Fund. This includes £42 million of funding for the International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP) in Sunderland. Sunderland Council estimates that the IAMP will attract £300 million of private sector investment to help grow local manufacturing sectors.
We are also giving over £600 million to support the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network; their Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton focuses on the commercialisation of innovation, research and development, helping North East manufacturers to develop and adopt cutting edge technology.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to appoint a "turnaround director" for NHS England and NHS Improvement; and to whom such a director would be accountable.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS England and NHS Improvement are not in the process of recruiting a turnaround director for the organisation.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether regional directors of NHS England and NHS Improvement are responsible for tackling bullying in their regions; and whether regional directors are responsible for the conduct of any "turnaround directors" appointed in their regions.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Individual National Health Service organisations are primarily responsible for addressing and preventing bullying in the workforce and for the conduct of all their employees including temporary staff or specialist contractors.
To ensure consistency the performance management of NHS organisations is underpinned by a single oversight framework, which is overseen by Regional Directors.
The NHS Constitution also sets out the rights and responsibilities of all NHS staff to be free from harassment, bullying or violence.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the cost to the NHS of the Turnaround Programme in each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average daily rate earned by "turnaround directors" in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The information requested is not held centrally.