Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports by UN experts on 19 February of “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank by Israel Defence Forces; and whether they have offered practical support for investigating these alleged crimes, and for caring for survivors and witnesses.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK condemns human rights abuses and sexual violence unequivocally and without exception. As I [Lord Ahmad] said to the UN Security Council during the 11 March debate following the release of Special Representative Pramila Patten's report, it is vital that all reports of sexual violence are fully investigated to ensure justice for all victims and survivors and perpetrators are held to account.
The FCDO continues to closely monitor the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and stands ready to further utilise our Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) expertise and tools to ensure victims and survivors of CRSV, both Israeli and Palestinian, receive the holistic and survivor-centred support they need.
Through our PSVI programmes and dedicated funding totalling £60 million since 2012, we are leading work internationally to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and strengthen justice and support for all survivors.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific action they have taken to mitigate risk factors, and prevent atrocity crimes, in response to the conclusion of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia in October 2023 that “eight of the Common Risk Factors for atrocity crimes are present in Ethiopia and that there is evidence to suggest that certain indicators of majority of the Specific Risk Factors for atrocity crimes are also present”; and what steps they are taking to support continued international scrutiny and independent investigations into past and ongoing violations in Ethiopia.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has repeatedly called for those responsible for atrocities in Ethiopia to be held to account. The UK was strongly supportive of the establishment of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE). The UK has deployed an expert to support the drafting of Ethiopia's national Transitional Justice Policy and we are working to promote a survivor-centred, gender-sensitive approach. We fund UNOHCHR to deploy international human rights monitors and build early warning networks of CSOs and human rights defenders. Through our Human Rights and Peacebuilding Programme, we are supporting the investigative capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and facilitating dialogue between groups from across Ethiopia. We regularly convene with likemindeds to coordinate support and ensure accountability for atrocities and human rights violations and to ensure the effective, full implementation of the Tigray peace agreement and the Transitional Justice Policy once finalised.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of efforts since the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in November 2022 to achieve justice and accountability for conflict-related sexual violence in Tigray, and what support they are providing to those efforts.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence in Ethiopia. We have consistently called for an end to the appalling gender-based violence committed across Ethiopia, including sexual violence, particularly during the Tigray conflict. We therefore welcome the recent agreement to implement a comprehensive national Transitional Justice policy aimed at accountability, redress for victims, reconciliation, and healing. The UK has called for the perpetrators to be held to account and the importance of a victim-centered, gender-sensitive approach. We will work with the Ethiopian Government and civil society in their efforts to hold perpetrators to account, including building the capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission through the UK's Human Rights and Peacebuilding programme (HARP).
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative Team of Experts have been deployed to Ethiopia since 2020; for what purposes; how long each deployment lasted; and what assessment they have made of the impact of its work.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), including through the PSVI Team of Experts. Since its launch, the UK has deployed experts over 90 times globally to enhance UK and international efforts.
From June to August 2021, an expert was deployed to Ethiopia to identify opportunities for scaling up the response to CRSV. We worked with partners to implement recommendations, including enhancing support for survivors, commissioning research into the dynamics of CRSV and deploying longer-term Gender expertise. From June to October 2022, another expert provided capacity-building training to civil society on CRSV. These deployments have provided the foundation for the UK's ongoing work on CRSV in country.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the measures relating to hare coursing introduced by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 since they came into force.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Official figures are not held on the number of instances of violent crime or intimidation related to hare coursing or poaching. Hare coursing or poaching are not crimes which the police are required to notify to the Home Office. However, where violence or intimidation is used in connection with an incident of hare coursing or poaching this would be recorded under the relevant violence against the person or public order offence classification. However, it is not possible to separately identify those that are connected to hare coursing or poaching in the data held centrally by the Home Office.
It is standard practice for primary legislation to be subject to a post-implementation review after sufficient time has passed to assess its impact.
The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy aims to target hare coursing through better preventative action, improved intelligence, and enforcement activity.
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime and the Home Office continues to work closely with the National Rural Crime Unit to help ensure an effective police response to rural crime.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with, and what guidance they have issued to, the National Police Chiefs’ Council about tackling hare coursing.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Official figures are not held on the number of instances of violent crime or intimidation related to hare coursing or poaching. Hare coursing or poaching are not crimes which the police are required to notify to the Home Office. However, where violence or intimidation is used in connection with an incident of hare coursing or poaching this would be recorded under the relevant violence against the person or public order offence classification. However, it is not possible to separately identify those that are connected to hare coursing or poaching in the data held centrally by the Home Office.
It is standard practice for primary legislation to be subject to a post-implementation review after sufficient time has passed to assess its impact.
The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy aims to target hare coursing through better preventative action, improved intelligence, and enforcement activity.
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime and the Home Office continues to work closely with the National Rural Crime Unit to help ensure an effective police response to rural crime.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many instances of violent crime or intimidation related to hare coursing or poaching were recorded by police in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Official figures are not held on the number of instances of violent crime or intimidation related to hare coursing or poaching. Hare coursing or poaching are not crimes which the police are required to notify to the Home Office. However, where violence or intimidation is used in connection with an incident of hare coursing or poaching this would be recorded under the relevant violence against the person or public order offence classification. However, it is not possible to separately identify those that are connected to hare coursing or poaching in the data held centrally by the Home Office.
It is standard practice for primary legislation to be subject to a post-implementation review after sufficient time has passed to assess its impact.
The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy aims to target hare coursing through better preventative action, improved intelligence, and enforcement activity.
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime and the Home Office continues to work closely with the National Rural Crime Unit to help ensure an effective police response to rural crime.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are giving to (1) the National Wildlife Crime Unit, and (2) the National Rural Crime Unit, to address hare coursing and poaching.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Official figures are not held on the number of instances of violent crime or intimidation related to hare coursing or poaching. Hare coursing or poaching are not crimes which the police are required to notify to the Home Office. However, where violence or intimidation is used in connection with an incident of hare coursing or poaching this would be recorded under the relevant violence against the person or public order offence classification. However, it is not possible to separately identify those that are connected to hare coursing or poaching in the data held centrally by the Home Office.
It is standard practice for primary legislation to be subject to a post-implementation review after sufficient time has passed to assess its impact.
The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy aims to target hare coursing through better preventative action, improved intelligence, and enforcement activity.
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime and the Home Office continues to work closely with the National Rural Crime Unit to help ensure an effective police response to rural crime.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - 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 Benyon on 12 July 2023 (HL9069), which stated that “Introducing a close season for brown hares remains an option”, what indicators they are using to assess the necessity of this option, and how frequently they review it.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The proposal to introduce a close season for the brown hare, referred to in HL9069, was set out in the Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare. In terms of the necessity of a close season from a wildlife conservation perspective, the brown hare is one of the indicator species for our legally binding targets in England to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 and then reverse declines by 2042. We know that in order to meet these targets we will need large-scale habitat creation and restoration and improved connectivity but this will be supplemented where appropriate by intelligence on individual species. While there are no immediate plans to undertake a national mammal population review as was conducted in 2018, we should get an idea of trends in our brown hare population from published surveys, for example from the British Trust for Ornithology’s mammal recording, which it has been conducting since 1995 with a view to helping improve our knowledge of the distribution and population trends of some of our commoner mammals.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the links between hare coursing and organised crime, and what assessment they have made of the economic impact of hare coursing and poaching.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government recognises the impact which hare coursing has on rural communities. The Government has considered evidence from a wide range of stakeholders and the police on the problems caused by hare coursing, including with organised crime.
That is why we have introduced new measures to strengthen law enforcement and increase the powers of the courts through the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act. They have been widely welcomed. The new offences and higher penalties introduced by the Act are all being used and imposed by the courts.