Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Basildon Borough Council sought advice from ministers or officials at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government regarding the sale of council-owned land at (1) a price below market value, and (2) a lower price than had previously been agreed with the vendor without reopening the offer of sale to previous bidders.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Basildon Borough Council are not required to and have not sought advice from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government regarding the sale of general council owned land.
However the Council did submit an application under section 25 of the Local Government Act 1988 in respect of housing land at Buckingham Green. The application was approved on 4 April 2018 in favour of the disposal to Swan Housing Association Limited, with the Council maintaining nomination rights over new homes delivered.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to appoint auditors to investigate the sale by Basildon Borough Council of a plot of land for development for £1, having purchased the land for £1 million two years earlier.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
There are no plans to appoint auditors to investigate the sale. Local authorities have a duty to manage their housing stock and have the statutory power to dispose of properties and land. They also have a fiduciary duty to their council tax payers.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Basildon Borough Council regarding commercial decisions in the last two years.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Officials from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government met with Basildon Council in April 2018 as part of their ongoing general engagement with local government. As part of a wide ranging discussion, Basildon Council made reference to its policy of commercial asset acquisition and plans for future housing development in the borough.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what advice and guidance is available to ministers about answering written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Guidance on responding to Parliamentary Questions, and details of ministerial responsibilities, can be found on Gov.uk. This guidance states that Ministers must:
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the independent review of the Disabled Facilities Grant was commissioned; when it will report; when the report will be published; and when they expect to respond to that report.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
This Government welcomes the independent review and is carefully considering the recommendations it has made and will respond in due course. The independent review of the Disabled Facilities Grant was commissioned in January 2018 and reported back to Government on 12 July. We expect to publish the findings shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to respond to the Director of Labour Market Enforcement's Strategy Document for 2018–19; and what plans they have to implement its recommendations.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government is carefully considering all 37 recommendations made by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and we will respond in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders have been breached in each year since 2015; and, in each case, whether they were dealt with (1) by criminal prosecution, or (2) in the Family Court.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Following their introduction in July 2015, there have been 222 applications and 205 orders made for Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders, up to 31 December 2017.
In this period no breaches of an FGM Protection order have been dealt with in the criminal courts. In the Family Courts, proceedings for breach would be dealt with as a contempt of court matter and are not recorded separately. The information could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Statistics on FGM Protection Orders are publicly available as part of the Family Courts Statistics Quarterly series at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly. The next publication of Family Court Statistics Quarterly is due on 28 June 2018. This will provide data up to the end of March 2018.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Female Genital Mutilation Orders have been (1) sought, and (2) issued, since they were introduced under the Serious Crime Act 2015.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Following their introduction in July 2015, there have been 222 applications and 205 orders made for Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders, up to 31 December 2017.
In this period no breaches of an FGM Protection order have been dealt with in the criminal courts. In the Family Courts, proceedings for breach would be dealt with as a contempt of court matter and are not recorded separately. The information could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Statistics on FGM Protection Orders are publicly available as part of the Family Courts Statistics Quarterly series at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly. The next publication of Family Court Statistics Quarterly is due on 28 June 2018. This will provide data up to the end of March 2018.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions there have been under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 in each year since 2015; and how many have been successful.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
In the period 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017, there was one prosecution (in 2016) under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, and that did not result in a conviction. This data relates only to those proceedings where the principal offence prosecuted was under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.
Where a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, data would only record the offence for which the heaviest penalty was imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected would be the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty was the most severe.
Data for 2018 will be published in May 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they have taken to ensure, in determining how many people are in the United Kingdom illegally, that exit checks and the International Passenger Survey cover dual nationals.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Any estimate of the exact size of the illegal population is extremely difficult and there would be considerable uncertainty around it.
Exit checks were introduced in April 2015 and are, over time, providing more detailed insights into the behaviour of migrants and how they comply with the restrictions placed upon their length of stay in the UK, but the data obtained does not provide the total number of illegal migrants in the UK. Instead of producing inaccurate numbers, the Government is focused on making it harder for people to live in the UK illegally.
The International Passenger Survey is the responsibility of the Office for National Statistics and does not provide estimates of the size of the illegal population.