Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) what assessment they have made, if any, of the decision by Air Traffic Controllers at Luton Airport to continue flights into the airport during a red storm warning across London and the South-East and (2) what plans they have, if any, to issue new guidance to Air Traffic Controllers to ensure the safety of passengers on flights happening during storm periods.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Air traffic control services in the UK are highly regulated. The effects of strong winds, and other weather events which may have a potential impact on passenger flights, are well understood and reviewed on a regular basis. Information relating to weather (wind speed & direction/ snow and ice/visibility etc.) is constantly available to pilots planning an approach to land at an airport. This provides them with the necessary information on which they can base their judgement as to whether it is safe to continue with the approach or not. The commander of the aircraft and the airline are entirely responsible for making these judgments, based on the conditions that exist at any particular time.
Aircraft and airlines have operational limitations that stipulate maximum winds (including crosswind components and associated gusts) that are acceptable. Crew are trained for approaches in such adverse weather conditions and will abort any landing where they believe continuing the approach will be unsafe or if the wind limits are exceeded. The Civil Aviation Authority’s ongoing review of standards suggests that the limitations and training, together with pilot performance, meant that safety barriers were maintained during storm Eunice.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the announcement that under-30s in England will now be invited for their COVID-19 vaccinations, (1) what arrangements they have made for those who (a) have anaphylaxis and cannot have the Pfizer vaccine, and (b) cannot have the Astrazenca jab due to age; and (2) how they will ensure that the Moderna vaccine is made available to such individuals.
Answered by Lord Bethell
If an individual is allergic to any component of a COVID-19 vaccine, they may be directed towards a suitable alternative vaccine following a discussion with a healthcare professional.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that it is preferable for adults aged under 30 years old without underlying health conditions that put them at a higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease, to be offered an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, if available. The JCVI currently advises that in addition to those aged under 30 years old, unvaccinated adults aged 30-39 years old who are not in a clinical priority cohort at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease, should also be preferentially offered an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, where available.
If a person is under 40 years old, the National Booking Service will direct them to appointments for the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support vulnerable women leaving prison by ensuring (1) access to housing, (2) access to benefits and employment, and (3) access to health services.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
We are investing more than £20m in supporting prison leavers at risk of homelessness into temporary accommodation. Individuals released from prison will be provided up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation and will be supported to secure long-term settled accommodation before the end of that 12-week period. Initially launching in five probation regions, the service will support around 3,000 offenders in its first year and will be commencing this Summer. It will be in operation during the financial year 2021-22, with a view to scaling up and rolling out nationally.
The service will take account of the needs of women, including those with complex needs, and accommodation provision will be dedicated to single gender usage as required. Community Probation Practitioners, working together with local partners, will be responsible for ensuring that vulnerable female prison leavers receive appropriate support and are provided with housing beyond the 12 weeks’ emergency accommodation.
Commissioned Rehabilitation Services are due to start delivery on 26 June 2021 which includes services to assist in accommodation; employment training and education; financial benefit and debt and personal well-being.
These provide a holistic service for all women leaving prison by providers based in the community in to which they are released. The accommodation service and mentoring service both start pre-release. The mentoring service aims to support those who lack social support in making the transition from prison to community and to assist in building social networks.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure that those seeking support for managing pain are offered a choice of options through the NHS including mindfulness-based therapies, to reduce the proportion of treatments that rely on medication and the risk of overprescribing.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline, Chronic pain (primary and secondary) in over 16s: assessment of all chronic pain and management of chronic primary pain, published in April 2021, recommends a range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options for pain management. NICE found there was insufficient evidence on mindfulness to recommend it as an option for pain management within this guideline. However, it made recommendations for research on mindfulness to inform future guidance. A copy of NICE’s guideline is attached.
The National Health Service is also taking a holistic approach to supporting people’s health and wellbeing by expanding its social prescribing services. This enables general practitioners to refer people to community groups and agencies for practical, emotional and social support, for example when managing pain.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report Safety in Custody Statistics, England and Wales: Deaths in Prison Custody to December 2020 Assaults and Self-harm to September 2020, published on 28 January, what steps they are taking to address the reported increase in self-harm in the female prison estate in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
We recognise that the level of self-harm in the women’s estate is too high and are determined to reduce this. A Women’s Self-Harm Task Force was set up in April 2020 in response to our increasing concerns about the level of self-harm in the Women’s estate. We know that many of the drivers (risks and triggers) and protective factors linked to women’s risk of self-harm in prisons have been adversely affected by Covid-19 and the restricted regimes that have been put in place to control the spread of infection.
The Task Force has led work to introduce a number of specific interventions to counteract the impact of Covid-19 on self-harm in the Women’s estate. This work has seen the introduction of bespoke well-being checks, increased credit to enable phone calls and increased access to Purple Visits (video calls with family and friends).
We have prioritised the roll out of the revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) multi-disciplinary case management system used in prisons to support people at risk of suicide and self-harm. We will also be implementing the Offender Management in Custody model in the female estate in April 2021. This will provide each woman in the female estate with a dedicated key worker who will be able to better support them and identify concerns at an early stage so that women can receive the right support at the right time.
We have also produced a range of products to support Governors in devising and implementing local safety and welfare plans designed to mitigate risks and promote wellbeing. We have developed new guidance for staff on understanding and supporting someone who is self-harming. We continue to make the Samaritans phone service available and are working with the Samaritans to ensure that the Listener peer support scheme continues to function effectively wherever possible.
We have also invested £5m in alternatives to prison, including new women’s centres which help people address issues such as alcohol or drug addiction which leads them to crime.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of demand for home visits during the managed migration process; and what resource is available to ensure that this service is accessible to all those that need it.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The Department has made no special assumptions for home visits for claimants going through managed migration. Between April 2017 and March 2018 290,000 cleared home visit referrals were made across all the Departments service lines.
To ensure all claimants are supported, the Department has allocated additional funding for the home visiting service. This year we have allocated £1 million of funding for the home visiting service. For 2019/20 the total fund allocated will rise to just under £2 million, and will continue to increase to over £5.5 million per year by 2023/24, reflecting the increase in the total number of claimants of Universal Credit whether through managed migration or from other sources.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether those currently in receipt of disability related benefits will be regarded as vulnerable claimants for the purpose of the Universal Credit managed migration process.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
We are committed to fully support all of our claimants through our managed migration processes, which we are working with stakeholders to co-design to ensure that they work for the most vulnerable.
There are many reasons why someone could be vulnerable or in need of additional support, and we work hard to ensure that the support we provide for each claimant is tailored specifically to their circumstances, making individual assessments of the help that each claimant needs.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that people do not incur extra costs, such as obtaining photographic identification, in order to complete Universal Credit applications.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
If a claimant does not have photographic identification, staff are able to use a number of alternative identification methods. For example, we can accept separate documentary evidence or we can contact trusted third parties (such as a doctor) in order to verify a claimants identity. These identification methods should not incur costs.
The Department take the security of Universal Credit very seriously, including verifying who our claimants are. We continue to work closely with Government Digital Service to support the success of the Verify online system. The high standards of ID verification achieved by Verify are used on our Universal Credit Full Service today in addition to a face-to-face alternative approach.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish further details of the planned test and trial phase of Universal Credit managed migration; and how managed migration will impact vulnerable claimants.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
As part of our design process for managed migration we are considering different approaches for how to best migrate claimants onto Universal Credit. We are currently working closely with a large and diverse range of stakeholders to design migration processes that work for everyone and most effectively support those who will need more help. We have said that we will begin managed migration on a small scale in 2019 to pilot our processes and ensure that they are working, adapting them and building on feedback before we begin to take on larger volumes of claimants.
In our published response on 5 November 2018 to the Social Security Advisory Committee’s report, we have committed to publishing an assessment of the managed migration pilot once it is complete, and prior to scaling up managed migration.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the cross-government suicide prevention strategy, including action on self-harm, will form part of their strategy on female offenders in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We are committed to improving the safety of female offenders to reduce rates of self-harm and prevent deaths.
The cross-government suicide prevention strategy recognises the importance of working across criminal justice settings to reduce suicide and self-harm. This approach will be reflected in our female offender strategy, alongside our work with the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody on the results of their rapid information gathering exercise on Preventing the Deaths of Women in Prison.