Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of value lost to the economy through period inequity, as set out in the report, The State of Period Equity in the UK, published by In Kind Direct on 29 February.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal assessment has been made. Menstrual health and gynaecological conditions are a priority in the Women’s Health Strategy for England. This strategy sets out our ambitions for improving information provision and tackling stigma surrounding topics such as periods and menstrual health, so society is better able to support women across their lives, including in schools and in workplaces. The statutory relationships, health, and sex education curriculum covers several areas of women’s health, including menstrual health. In July 2023 we launched a women’s health area on the National Health Service website, which brings together over 100 health topics, and includes a section on periods.
The Government is also committed to making period products more financially accessible, which will reduce barriers faced by women and girls in accessing education and work. The Period Product Scheme is available to girls and women in state-funded schools and colleges, providing a wide range of free period products, so that periods are not a barrier to education. 99% of secondary schools, 94% of post 16-year-old education organisations, and 75% of primary schools have used the scheme since it began in 2020. Free period products are also available for people in hospital and in custody. Since 1 January 2021, a zero rate of VAT has applied to sanitary products, and in January 2024 this was extended to include period pants.
Within the workplace, flexible working arrangements can allow individuals, including women suffering from menstrual problems, to work at a time, place, and during hours that support their needs. The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act makes changes to the right to request flexible working, to provide employees with better access to flexible working arrangements.
More widely, the Government continues to support people on lower incomes, including those who struggle to afford period products. We will spend approximately £124 billion on people of working age and children, through the welfare system in Great Britain, and the Government has provided support, totalling £96 billion, from 2022 onwards to help households with the cost of living. We are providing further support for 2024/2025, including uprating working age benefits by 6.7%, raising the National Living Wage, and extending the Household Support Fund in England for a further six months.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made, if any, of how many preventable hospitalisations have occurred as a result of medication shortages caused by Brexit.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global. Supply disruption is an issue which affects the United Kingdom as well as the other countries around the world, and it can have a variety of causes, including manufacturing issues, problems with access to raw ingredients, and sudden spikes in demand.
Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a responsibility to manage and mitigate them, working in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the devolved administrations, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain, to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised.
Following the exit from the European Union (EU), the Department has worked collaboratively with industry to support trader readiness for the new border controls. While some suppliers experienced delays at the border associated with trader readiness, these issues were swiftly resolved with no sustained impacts on medical supplies, and the Department has no evidence of the EU Exit leading to sustained medicines shortages.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the peregrine falcon population in England of the theft of peregrine falcon eggs for sale of chicks to the Middle East.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra has not made any assessment of the impact of peregrine falcon egg theft on the peregrine population.
The Government does, however, take all wildlife crime seriously, including the theft of wild bird eggs, which is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
In 2022 Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25 to target wildlife crime priorities, in particular crimes against birds of prey, which is a national wildlife crime priority.
Defra supports the work of the Bird of Prey Crime Priority Delivery Group, and that of the CITES Priority Delivery Groups, which bring together police, government and stakeholders from conservation organisations to tackle this type of persecution. In addition, we are providing funding to Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) to develop DNA forensic analysis for the police and other organisations investigating crimes against peregrine falcons.
Additionally, the UK is an active member of the Intergovernmental Task Force on the Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean (MIKT). The MIKT facilitates international cooperation to tackle bird crime, including the illegal persecution and taking of raptors.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to scrapping tax breaks for all second homes, and not just short-term lets, as a further step in dealing with the rural housing affordability crisis.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has announced that it will abolish the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) tax regime, equalising the tax treatment of landlords with short-term holiday lets and those with standard residential properties.
More broadly, the government has recently introduced a new power which will allow local authorities to double the council tax charge on second homes from 1 April 2025. In 2016, the government also introduced a three percent Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge on purchases of additional homes.
The government has no current plans to make further changes to the tax system with respect to second homes. All government tax policy remains under review.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to increase multi-year funding to support the most food-insecure people in Sudan and Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK continues to provide assistance to people in need in Sudan through our humanitarian aid package of £38 million for 2023-2024, The UK is providing more than £38 million in humanitarian funding in 2023-24, including £12.2 million to UNICEF for lifesaving nutrition activities. We are also helping those fleeing to neighbouring countries, with £7.75 million to support Sudanese refugees in South Sudan, including £3.5 million for food security in the Maban refugee camps and £15 million to Chad. In 2024/2025, the UK bilateral Official Development Assistance to Sudan will double to £89 million.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to secure guarantees from Sudan’s warring factions for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK welcomes the UN Security Council passing Resolution 2724, which the UK had drafted. Our top humanitarian priority remains securing immediate humanitarian access and operational security guarantees for humanitarian agencies. We urge the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces to honour their commitment to facilitate access to crossline and other cross-border routes for the delivery of life-saving assistance. The UK continues to work with regional and international partners to secure safe humanitarian access for at need communities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made to Amnesty International’s claim that the Myanmar authorities’ treatment of Rohingya amounts to apartheid; and what steps they plan to take, if any, in response.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains deeply concerned by ongoing discrimination against the Rohingya in Myanmar. We will continue to use our role at the UN Security Council to maintain a spotlight on Myanmar, including the treatment of the Rohingya, the need for unhindered humanitarian access and for the root causes of the conflict in Rakhine State to be addressed. The UK supports efforts to strengthen accountability in Myanmar. We have provided over £600,000 to the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, and established the Myanmar Witness project, in order to collect and preserve evidence of human rights violations, including against the Rohingya.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal were successful in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice holds information on prosecutions, convictions and sentencing outcomes for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, covering the period requested. The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained through the Outcomes by Offence data tool in the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Prosecutions and convictions for all years requested, from January 2019 until data is available up to June 2023, has been provided in Table 1. These totals relate to both the summary non-motoring and triable either way classifications of the offence. The full calendar year for 2023 will be available in the next update of the Outcomes by Offence tool, expected in May 2024.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for stealing protected wild birds' eggs in England were successful in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice holds information on prosecutions, convictions, and sentencing outcomes for summary offences in relation to nests and eggs of birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (HO offence code 19002). The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained through the Outcomes by Offence data tool in the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
A further breakdown of the published data is required to extract figures specific to stealing the eggs of protected wild birds, for the offences ‘Take eggs of Schedule 1 wild bird’ and ‘Take eggs of non-Schedule 1 wild bird’, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Between 2019 and June 2023, there was one prosecution and one conviction in 2021 on a principal offence basis, relating to the eggs of a non-schedule 1 wild bird. Figures for the rest of 2023 will be available in the next update of the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly publication, expected in May 2024.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for poaching in England were successful under the Game Act 1831, the Hunting Act 2004 and the Night Poaching Act 1828 in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on prosecutions, convictions, and sentencing outcomes for poaching offences. The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained through the Outcomes by Offence data tool in the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
A further breakdown of the published data is required to extract figures specific to poaching offences under the Game Act 1831, the Hunting Act 2004, and the Night Poaching Act 1828. Prosecutions and convictions for all years requested, from January 2019 until data is available up to June 2023, has been provided in Table 1 on a principal offence basis. The full calendar year for 2023 will be available in the next update of the Outcomes by Offence tool, expected in May 2024.