Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Chairman of Committees when the current contract for floristry services is due for renewal.
Answered by Lord Laming
The floristry services contract is due for re-tender ahead of the expiration of the current contract, in September 2017.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many owners of Community Rehabilitation Companies have hired public relations companies or consultants since February.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), in line with Government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. CRCs are contracted to deliver services for a fixed fee. We are aware that some of the CRCs have contracted with Public Relations Agencies. However, we would not normally monitor information on how many owners hire PR companies or consultants.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research has been, or is being, conducted into whether there is a causal link between the use of growth-promoting oestrogens in poultry production and declining levels of male fertility in humans.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department has not funded, and is not currently funding research on this specific topic.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have a policy on the use of public relations companies by private organisations delivering public services under government contracts.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
We do not currently have a specific policy on the use of public relations companies by private organisations delivering public services under government contracts, but we expect the very highest value for money in all things.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proportion of people in the justice system currently supervised by the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies is different to the proportions predicted during the Transforming Rehabilitation contracting process; and whether any differences between the predicted and actual numbers of people so supervised has had any impact on the development of the supply chains contained in the winning Transforming Rehabilitation contract bids.
Answered by Lord Faulks
No prediction of the case allocation split between the National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) was made at the time of the Transforming Rehabilitation competition. Instead, actual data was used to identify the proportion of cases that sat with either the NPS or CRCs. The actual proportion of offenders allocated to the NPS or CRCs is now different compared to that at the time of the competition. Any shift in the relative caseloads held between NPS and CRCs would be as a result of a change in the mix of offenders within the system
The Ministry of Justice monitors offender case allocation and expects providers to implement the supply chains that were set out in their bids during the TR competition, unless otherwise agreed with the Authority. We are working with suppliers to ascertain any potential impact on the supply chain.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy in practice of the Weighted Annual Volumes estimated for each contract package area in order to develop contracts for the Transforming Rehabilitation programme.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Weighted Annual Volume (WAV) was not estimated. Flat projections were made for each contract package area and made available to bidders for the purposes of bid evaluation. The contracts held with Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) include a payment mechanism which accounts for changes in volumes (paying providers more if volumes increase, and less if volumes decrease). This was communicated to providers throughout the bidding and competition process.Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that women's centres that are not in Community Rehabilitation Company supply chains do not close due to a lack of funding.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) owners were required to put forward plans to make sure female offenders are properly supported as part of their bids. All eight owners of the 21 CRCs included in their bids organisations that deliver services for women. CRCs are currently in the process of finalising who they wish to commission services from on an ongoing basis. The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. This includes making sure they provide services that meet the particular needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are taking steps to monitor whether women's centres have lost funding since the Transforming Rehabilitation programme came into force in February.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) owners were required to put forward plans to make sure female offenders are properly supported as part of their bids. All eight owners of the 21 CRCs included in their bids organisations that deliver services for women. CRCs are currently in the process of finalising who they wish to commission services from on an ongoing basis. The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. This includes making sure they provide services that meet the particular needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many organisations now running Community Rehabilitation Companies included plans to contract women's centres in the bids for Transforming Rehabilitation contracts; and what steps will be taken if Community Rehabilitation Companies that included such plans in their bids fail to act upon them within a reasonable time.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) owners were required to put forward plans to make sure female offenders are properly supported as part of their bids. All eight owners of the 21 CRCs included in their bids organisations that deliver services for women. CRCs are currently in the process of finalising who they wish to commission services from on an ongoing basis. The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. This includes making sure they provide services that meet the particular needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the decision taken by the United States Special Forces to ban the use of Lariam (mefloquine) for malaria prophylaxis.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Lariam (mefloquine), is an extremely effective antimalarial and is one of a number of antimalarials for travellers currently recommended by the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP), an expert advisory committee of Public Health England (PHE) established in 1998 to formulate evidence-based guidelines on malaria prevention in the United Kingdom.
The use of mefloquine, for travellers, including military personnel, to high risk areas should be based on an individual risk assessment that takes into consideration the destination of travel, planned activities while travelling and the individual’s current health and medical history.
The ACMP regularly reviews data on safety and efficacy of all antimalarials. Whenever new evidence about antimalarials appears the ACMP considers this as part of its continuous process of developing advice.
The ACMP will be meeting in summer 2015 to finalise the 2015 revision of the ACMP guidelines. This meeting will review current evidence on the use of mefloquine, including data provided by Roche, and recommendations made by other countries including the United States with regard to the use of mefloquine for malaria prevention.