Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to mark White Ribbon Day on 25 November.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are considering our activity to mark the day. Last year, there was a programme of cross-Governmental activity around the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and the 16 days of activism that followed. This included Ministers across Government conducting visits, attending events, making speeches, debating these important issues in Parliament and a series of announcement on action to tackle VAWG.
Tackling VAWG is a Government priority. We have made significant progress since we published the Tackling VAWG Strategy in July 2021 and the complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in March 2022.
In July, we launched the fifth round of the Safer Streets Fund which provides an additional £43 million in funding to projects focused on protecting women in their communities across England and Wales. We also announced the launch of a new national operating model for the investigation and prosecution of rape, which all forces and CPS Areas in England and Wales are implementing to ensure investigations of rape are suspect-focused and considerate to the needs of victims.
To improve the police response to tackling these crimes, we have supported the introduction of a new full-time National Policing Lead for VAWG, DCC Maggie Blyth, and have added VAWG to the Strategic Policing Requirement, meaning it is now set out as a national threat for forces to respond to alongside other threats such as terrorism, serious and organised crime and child sexual abuse.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures the NHS workforce plan will include to support a sustainable NHS mental health workforce in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce, including mental health; however, it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services or staff groups.
The mental health workforce has grown. Latest data shows that as of December 2022 there has been an increase of over 8,900, 6.9%, full-time equivalent staff compared to December 2021. This includes only those people who work directly on mental health, across NHS trusts and integrated care boards in England.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect a report from the Office for National Statistics on the number of victims of domestic abuse of those over the age of 74.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Noble Peer’s Parliamentary Question of 29 March is attached in the answer. It should be noted that these estimates are not National Statistics and caution should be taken when using this, data due to the impact of the reduced data collection period and lower response rates on the quality of the estimates.
The Rt Hon. Baroness Gale
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
31 March 2023
Dear Lady Gale,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when to expect a report from the Office for National Statistics on the number of victims of domestic abuse of those over the age of 74 (HL6995).
Data collection for the face-to-face Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) resumed on 4 October 2021, with the upper age limit for the self-completion modules on domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking removed. Data based on six months of CSEW interviews between October 2021 and March 2022 were used in our domestic abuse articles for the year ending March 2022 [1].
The CSEW estimated that 2.1% of adults aged 75 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022. These data, as well as prevalence rates for other personal characteristics can be found in Table 6 of our Domestic abuse prevalence and victim characteristics tables [2]. Estimates for numbers of victims are only produced for our headline domestic abuse measures. It should be noted that these estimates are not National Statistics and caution should be taken when using these data due to the impact of the reduced data collection period and lower response rates on the quality of the estimates.
We plan to release domestic abuse data for those aged 75 years and over for the year ending March 2023 in late November 2023 and will share this with you once published.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinen glandandwalesoverview/latest
[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/domesticabuseprev alenceandvictimcharacteristicsappendixtables
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park on 27 April 2022 (HL7869), when they expect to receive the Animal Welfare Committee’s updated opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We expect to receive the Animal Welfare Committee’s updated opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing by the end of March this year.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS staff providing care to people with Parkinson's are given training on the importance of time-critical medication.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service employers are responsible for ensuring that staff are trained and competent to carry out the duties for which they are employed, including those providing care to those with Parkinson’s disease.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the commitment in their policy paper Gender equality at every stage: a roadmap for change, published in July 2019, to provide an annual progress report to Parliament, where the reports they have already made can be found; and when they plan to publish their next report.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
In December 2020 the Minister for Women and Equalities set out a new approach to tackling inequality, including in relation to gender. This involves moving beyond the previous roadmap and narrow focus of protected characteristics; and reflects the new expanded remit of the Equality Hub.
Since then, the Hub has been concentrating on improving the quality of evidence and data about disparities and the types of barriers different people face. This evidence is enabling us to support the development of policy across government to make the UK a fairer place to live and work.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce mandatory pre-stun slaughter for farmed fish in line with the protection afforded to terrestrial farmed animals.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Regulation 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing requires that farmed fish are spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing and related operations.
Following publication of the Post Implementation Review of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 in January 2021, and as part of the Action Plan on Animal Welfare, we are currently considering a number of improvements that could be made to the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing.
We have also asked the Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) to update its 2014 Opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing and look forward to receiving AWC’s updated advice later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (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 National Clinical Director for Neurology.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Whilst there is currently no specific National Clinical Director or Specialty Adviser for neurology services, NHS England and NHS Improvement keep this under review and new National Clinical Directors or Specialty Advisers are appointed as necessary. The recent review of the clinical advisory infrastructure is concluding and the outcome will be announced in due course. The proposed changes will enable clinical leaders to continue to play an important role alongside NHS England delivering shared goals for service transformation and clinical improvement
Asked by: Baroness Gale (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 current (1) waiting times for treatment, and (2) staffing shortages, for neurological patients.
Answered by Lord Kamall
While no formal assessment has yet been made waiting times and staffing levels for neurological patients are kept under review.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to enact section 106 of the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government keeps section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 under review but remains of the view that political parties should lead the way in increasing diverse electoral representation through their own approaches to the selection of candidates.