Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what assessment they have made of the competence of the Youth Justice Board given that girls are being accommodated in male prisons, despite specific care needs illustrated by the official statistics 'Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate: Update to December 2023', published on 25 April, which stated that the rate of self-harm among girls on the secure estate is 66 times higher than for boys.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Responsibility for the management of the youth secure estate in England and Wales was transferred from the Youth Justice Board to the Youth Custody Service, a distinct arm of His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), in 2017.
There are various mechanisms to monitor the performance of the Youth Justice System, including youth custody. The Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation chairs the Youth Justice Quarterly Performance Board (YJQPB), which provides strategic oversight on how effectively the Youth Justice System is performing. The Board uses key metrics and other intelligence across the entirety of the system to identify challenges and drive action to address these. Senior representatives across the Youth Justice System, including the Youth Custody Service, Youth Justice Board and other stakeholders within Government and the public sector collaborate to monitor the key metrics and drive change.
In addition, the Minister monitors specific custody-related performance updates through regular meetings with senior managers from Youth Custody Service.
Girls in the youth estate may be accommodated in mixed-gender settings, including within the Secure Children’s Home sector, Oakhill Training Centre and at HMYOI Wetherby. Placement decisions are made according to individual need, within the placement options available. Within each sector, each child has his or her own room - boys and girls do not mix. However, as they may do while at school within the community, boys and girls do mix in education and association areas- and are supervised by staff at all times.
Any girl in the youth estate who is at risk of self-harm will be supported through the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process, ensuring she has a dedicated case manager; and girls with the most complex needs will receive additional monitoring and more intensive case management.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to house girls convicted of crimes in female-only prison units.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As of February 2024, girls make up less than 1 per cent of the children and young people in the youth estate. There have been fewer than 10 girls in the youth estate at any one time during the period September 2023 to February 2024 (the latest for which figures are available).
Within the youth estate, girls may be placed in establishments that also accommodate boys: in Secure Children’s Homes, at Oakhill Secure Training Centre and at HMYOI Wetherby. Within each sector, every child has his or her own room. When boys and girls come into contact with each other – in education and association areas – they are supervised by staff at all times. The availability of these options is designed to enable the needs of each individual girl to be met in the most appropriate way. We are keeping the position of girls in the youth estate under constant review, and the Youth Custody Service is developing a gender-specific operating model for HMYOI Wetherby, as well as gender-responsive guidance for the wider youth estate.
For the longer term, we are reviewing options, and examining future placement locations and services, for girls who require custody, together with the training and operational support that staff need to enable them to care for girls in the youth estate.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans if any they have to provide level access on to trains by (1) lowering the track bed, (2) raising platforms, or (3) purchasing trains with a lower central section between the wheel bogies; and if not, why none of these options is acceptable.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government appreciates how frustrating the issue of the difference in platform-to-train gap can be for passengers with disabilities and we remain committed to ensuring that all passengers have the same opportunities to travel on the rail network.
Gaps can vary at stations across the network, due to both the design of the station and the platforms at the time of construction, sometimes more than a hundred years ago. It also has to vary according to the type of services which use the line, for example, high-speed, commuter and freight trains.
The rail industry takes several approaches to improving the stepping distance between platform and train, for example the Department for Transport has funded a number of raised sections of platforms across the country to provide level boarding on to trains e.g. Harrington, Whaley Bridge and Ty Croes. However, these may not be suitable for all locations.
There are also 378 carriages forming 58 trains currently in service with Greater Anglia that have lower floor sections with in-built ramps. Under delivery are a further 133 carriages forming 35 trains for Transport for Wales and 208 carriages forming 54 trains for Merseyrail, all of which have in-built ramps.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government for each of the past five years, how much money has been spent by Network Rail on footpaths and roads next to railway lines for use by rail staff and workers, and how many miles have been completed.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail does not have a complete inventory of constructed pathways on its infrastructure. Network Rail is looking to tender a piece of work to use satellite imagery to identify the constructed pathways adjacent to the running railway.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any correlation between (1) Avanti trains being awarded a performance bonus, and (2) subsequent train cancellations by Avanti.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As part of National Rail Contracts, operators must meet challenging operational targets to earn performance-based fees. If performance falls below a pre-determined level, the Department can intervene to act in passengers’ best interests.
Officials continue to closely monitor and review Avanti West Coast’s (AWC) progress to a sustained recovery, restoring services reliably on the West Coast and delivering good value for the taxpayer. The Department will hold AWC responsible for matters within its control.
To date, AWC has not received operational performance fees related to periods since the commencement of its National Rail Contract on 15 October 2023.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the amount, to the nearest one million tons, of (1) steel railway lines, (2) sacks of rubble, and (3) concrete sleepers and other concrete items, which are unused and lying on or beside railway lines or in sidings; what estimate they have made of the number of railway items littering railway property; and what plans Network Rail have to remove, sell or dispose of these items.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail needs to keep a supply of strategically placed rail on the network for track renewal and replacement, but it is also committed to removing excess scrap material from lineside, when commercially viable, to make the railway safer, higher performing and less visually impactful to customers and neighbours. Once routes have identified material for collection, it can either be recycled or reused on the infrastructure through three material handling depots, or it can be sold to wider markets.
Network Rail presently does not hold information on the amounts of these lineside materials.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the reason for removing the roof at Crewe Station and when they expect it to be reroofed, if at all.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The canopies and main trainshed roof have limited asset remaining life and Network Rail expects replacement work to be complete by 2029. The Government has provided £44.1 billion to Network Rail for renewals work during this Control Period (2024-29) which will be used to fund the work.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to take action against the management and guards of Wetherby Young Offenders Institution who permitted male officers to forcibly strip girls there, as reported by His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons in December 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is no plan to take formal action against staff members who were responding to an emergency to preserve life. In emergencies, the first priority of staff is always to safeguard the life and safety of those in their care.
This incident was not a strip search as erroneously reported but the removal of clothing from a child who was using it to create ligatures and self-strangulate. She was placed into anti-ligature clothing to prevent causing further harm to herself.
Following the incident highlighted by H M Inspectorate, a learning review has been conducted by the Youth Custody Service’s Safeguarding Team. It focused on four main themes:
protecting the well-being of children and staff during and after incidents
further training and guidance for staff in incident management of girls
integrated care management to ensure all departments work effectively with a child
management of resources to ensure there is an appropriate gender balance of staff on night duty.
The Youth Custody Service (YCS) will oversee the action in response to the learning review. This includes the provision of additional support to HMYOI Wetherby in its management of exceptionally complex high-risk, high-harm girls, the development of specific gender-responsive operating guidance, and effective use of available resources to support children.
The YCS has revised the Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint syllabus, which is the behaviour management and restraint system used to provide youth estate staff with the ability to identify behaviour that causes concern and use de-escalation and diversion strategies to minimise the use of restraint through the application of behaviour management techniques. This has been rolled out at HMYOI Wetherby.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government for what reasons the Islamic Army of Aden is a proscribed organisation; and whether they have any plans to proscribe the Houthi group as a proscribed organisation.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Islamic Army of Aden was proscribed in March 2001. It has a history of involvement in attempts to overthrow the Government of Yemen, including through use of terrorism to establish an Islamic State following Sharia Law.
The UK Government has been unequivocal: the illegal attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, as well as attacks against British and allied warships, are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Together with the US, the UK Government has imposed coordinated sanctions on the Houthis. This is in addition to the US-UK led strikes, conducted with support from the Netherlands, Canada, Bahrain and Australia.
The Government does not routinely comment whether an organisation is under consideration for proscription. The Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to work with other countries which have suspended funding to UNRWA to create a new independent funding agency to deliver aid to Gaza.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are appalled by allegations that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned.
The pause will remain in place until we review the allegations, and we are looking to our partners in the UN to carry out a robust and comprehensive investigation.
Any future funding decisions will be taken after this point.
We are getting on with aid delivery and the UK is providing £60 million in humanitarian assistance to support partners including the British Red Cross, UNICEF, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS) to respond to critical food, fuel, water, health, shelter and security needs in Gaza.