Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints the Health and Care Professionals Council has received since 2020 regarding professionals under their regulation providing evidence of parental alienation in court cases.
Answered by Lord Markham
The Department does not hold the information requested. As the independent regulator of 15 health and care professions, the Health and Care Professions Council is responsible for receiving and handling complaints about practitioners on its register.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the school attendance rates are in (1) Leicester, (2) Leicestershire, and (3) nationally, broken down in each case by (a) primary, (b) secondary, and (c) special schools; and how these rates have changed since 2019.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department publishes national statistics on pupil absence from schools in England. Figures covering the full academic year are available up to 2021/22. Figures for Leicester, Leicestershire and England from 2018/19 to 2021/22 are available in attachment table 1.
Since September 2022 the department has also published attendance statistics based on daily data collected from schools that are signed up to do so. These are not directly comparable with the national statistics but are intended to provide an early indicator. Figures for Leicester, Leicestershire and England for 2022/23 are available in attachment table 2.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish a response to the report by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner The Family Court and domestic abuse: achieving cultural change, published on 17 July.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government has received the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report; “The Family Court and domestic abuse: achieving cultural change”. We are considering the recommendations made and will publish a full response by early November 2023.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to update the Implementation Plan which accompanied the report by the Ministry of Justice Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases, published in June 2020.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government published a delivery update on the Implementation Plan on 25 May 2023. The update sets out the comprehensive action taken so far and the next steps.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the National Audit Office's report on the Government's Asylum and Protection Transformation Programme.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The NAO report into the Asylum & Protection Transformation Programme fully recognises the significance of the transformation programme, and the efforts of the Home Office to reform the asylum and protection system.
The report acknowledges the key work the programme has done to date to tackle the challenges facing the asylum system, but notes concern around securing dispersal accommodation, and the ability of decision makers to clear the backlog. The report suggested three recommendations for the programme to increase its chances of success, all of which are accepted and embedded within our programme approach going forward.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the value of the Inter-Faith Network, and (2) the risks of withdrawing funding from the Network.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This department has provided funding to the Inter Faith Network since 2006/07 and is grateful to the Inter Faith Network for its work to promote understanding between different faiths and none. The department monitors all funded organisations throughout the lifecycle of their project for the purposes of assessing delivery against workplan targets, compliance and evaluation, in line with best practice for the management of public funding and to ensure value is demonstrated. When making funding decisions, the Government considers a wide range of factors, including government priorities and current budgetary pressures.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of using and converting (1) RAF Scampton, (2) MDP Wethersfield, (3) the Northeye site, and (4) the Bibby Stockholm barge for asylum-seeker accommodation; and what assessment they have made of the value of the contracts to the agencies managing these sites.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The United Kingdom has a legal obligation to provide asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute with accommodation and other support whilst their claim for asylum is being considered.
Ongoing work across government is being undertaken to identify and secure alternative, more appropriate, cost-effective accommodation options around the country. In exploring potential alternative large sites, we continue to consider all available options to source appropriate and cost-effective temporary accommodation.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs of implementing the recommendations made in the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration 2021, An inspection of asylum casework (August 2020–May 2021), published on 18 November 2021.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home office welcomes the recommendations made in the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration 2021 “An inspection of asylum casework”; and we are taking immediate action to accelerate decision-making and rapidly speed up processing times to eliminate the backlog of people waiting for initial asylum decisions by the end of 2023.
Costs related to implementing the recommendations made in the report have not been assessed independently from the wider costs of the asylum system.
Asylum costs are detailed in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, with the most recent Annual Report and Accounts for 2021 to 2022 published on 14 July 2022 and available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to support (1) an international pledging conference to encourage humanitarian assistance to the East Africa region, and (2) negotiations for the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK is working closely with our partners to raise the profile of the crisis in East Africa to help secure a broad base of donor funding. We are considering all options on how best to do this, building on our existing life-saving aid, international partnerships and work to ensure a robust response from humanitarian and development actors.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) has successfully supported the export of over 23 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports since August 2022. The UK works closely with the UN and like-minded partners to ensure the continued success and stability of the initiative. We call on all parties to cooperate to ensure that the potential of the BSGI is maximised.
The UK is also providing £5 million towards the "Grain from Ukraine" initiative launched in Kyiv last November to deliver Ukrainian grain to humanitarian crises. The ship to which we have contributed this humanitarian assistance is currently on its way to East Africa loaded with 30,000 tonnes of much needed grain.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are evaluating the impacts of the various household support schemes delivered by county councils and unitary authorities.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
Local Authorities have the local ties and knowledge, making them best placed to identify and help those most in need. County Councils are expected to work together with District Councils to provide support and to ensure the funding meets its objectives by identifying those most in need.
Authorities provide management information to DWP which has been used for all the various household support schemes to evaluate how successful The Fund has been in providing support to households.
The published management information for the Household Support Fund covering the period 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 reports total grant allocation and spend, number of awards and the percentage spent on families with children, which relates to the condition that at least 50% of that grant be spent on families with children.
Management information for subsequent schemes will be published in due course.