Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) what proportion of, asylum appeals were successful due to the absence of a Home Office legal representative at the appeals tribunal.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
Information on Home Office attendance at Immigration & Asylum Tribunal hearings is not collated centrally by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. Any decision to allow an Asylum appeal is made by a Judge based on the merits of each case.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House how many times the closure motion has been moved in the House of Lords in the last 20 years; and on what dates.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
In the last 20 years the closure motion has been moved in the House of Lords 13 times: on 22 July 1999; 6 October 2003; 17 January 2011; 19 January 2011; 21 October 2011; 31 January 2014; 15 March 2019; and six times on 4 April 2019.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to ensure that European Health Insurance Card application forms on the official NHS or gov.uk websites appear at the top of internet search engines rather than those websites charging a fee.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
The Department is aware of a problem with third-party websites presenting themselves as legitimate providers of Government services. The Government has taken robust steps to tackle misleading websites, routinely monitoring unofficial sites and reporting any cases of specious advertisements to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and National Trading Standards (NTS). This helps to ensure that only official European Health Insurance Card application websites appear at the top of Internet search results.
The Government has also set up a webpage to enable members of the public to report misleading websites and lodge a complaint with Google and other search engine providers. Such customer insight forms an important aspect of representations made by Government authorities to the ASA and NTS in the continued effort to tackle misleading websites.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the 31 safety recommendations made by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in its report on the accident to Boeing 737-236 series 1, G-BGJC at Manchester International Airport on 22 August 1985 remain extant, or have been improved, within current UK or EU aircraft airworthiness requirements or operational procedures; and what specific procedures are in place consistently to monitor the implementation of all of those AAIB recommendations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
After detailed analysis of the 31 recommendations made by the AAIB to the CAA, 28 were implemented and another was partially implemented. The CAA's initial response to the AAIB’s recommendations, including any resulting changes to requirements or operational procedures, were published in their publication CAP593 ‘Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) Recommendations: Progress Report 1990’.
Recommendations are not tracked once implemented as routine regulatory oversight arrangements will then apply.Changes to legal requirements or guidance introduced as a result of a recommendation may be superseded as aircraft design, technology and legislation develops.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to change the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
The Government has no plans to change the £10 Christmas Bonus.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the total cost of distributing the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
This information is not available.
Both Pensioners and working age people in receipt of certain benefits receive the Christmas Bonus. Christmas Bonus payments are usually automatically generated based on receipt of a qualifying benefit. The cost of doing this is not separately identifiable from the administrative costs of the qualifying benefits.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the value, in current prices, of the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners when it was first introduced.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
The Christmas Bonus was introduced in 1972 and was £10. In current (October 2015) prices, the value of the 1972 Christmas Bonus was £115.41.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Authority to reduce the risk to life caused by passengers on United Kingdom registered aircraft who retrieve, or attempt to retrieve, and remove cabin baggage from the aircraft during an emergency evacuation, against the explicit instructions and lawful orders of the aircraft's crew and commander and in contravention of the Air Navigation Order.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Her Majesty’s Government are aware of concerns regarding passengers attempting to retrieve or remove cabin baggage from the aircraft during an emergency evacuation. The Department for Transport are working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and our international partners at the European Aviation Safety Agency to review the current requirement for passenger briefings.
In advance of any amendments to European Aviation Regulations, the CAA will be publishing a Safety Notice on the management of passengers and cabin baggage in the event of an aircraft evacuation.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Kramer on 27 January (HL4238), when they last made an assessment of driver training and testing standards in each of the designated countries; which body carried out the assessment; where the assessments were carried out; and whether any countries have been removed from or added to the list of the designated countries in the last ten years.
Answered by Baroness Kramer - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Treasury and Economy)
Designation of a country is based on an assessment of driver training and testing standards in that country to ensure that they are comparable with those in this country. A full assessment is carried out prior to the designation of each country. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) requests relevant information about the country’s testing and licensing systems. This is then passed to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) for consideration and approval. If the decision is made to designate the country, the law is then amended to include the new country.
The table below shows when each designated country was fully assessed:
Date of Last full Assessment | Designated Country |
1984 | Australia; Hong Kong; New Zealand; Singapore; Switzerland |
1985 | Barbados; British Virgin Islands; Zimbabwe; Japan |
1999 | South Africa; Canada |
2002 | Republic of Korea; Monaco |
2004 | Falkland Islands |
2007 | Faroe Islands |
2013 | Andorra |
When reviewing these arrangements the DVLA contacts each country and requests updated information about the country’s testing and licensing systems. When changes are identified, information is passed to the DVSA for further consideration and approval.
A review of Canada, Falkland Islands, Monaco, Republic of Korea and Zimbabwe was carried out in January 2014 and the remaining designated countries (Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Faroe Islands, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland) are currently under review. To date, it has not been necessary to refer a designated country to the DVSA for full reassessment.
In the last 10 years the Faroe Islands (2007) and Andorra (2013) have been designated for driving licence exchange in Great Britain. To date, only one country has been de-designated, this was Kenya in 2002.
Asked by: Lord Brabazon of Tara (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take in respect of the import, mainly through the internet, of laser pointers above classes 1 and 2, in the light of the study "‘Toy’ Laser Macular Burns in Children", published in <i>Eye, </i>the scientific journal of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, in January; and what assessment they have made of the impact of such lasers being pointed at aircraft pilots, train drivers and motorists.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Public Health England (PHE) and its predecessor organisations first issued advice on these matters to the then Department for Trade and Industry in October 1997 suggesting that laser products on general sale to the public should be limited to Class 1 or Class 2. This advice is still relevant. Trading Standards Officers use existing powers under the General Product Safety Regulations to take enforcement action against traders in the United Kingdom supplying high-power laser products, which are usually Class 3B or Class 4.
Following the publication of the paper in the journal Eye, PHE organised a workshop on 20 June 2014. This brought together two of the authors of the paper and stakeholders from across Government, the police and experts on the health implications of exposure to laser beams. PHE agrees with the journal article that it is important parents are aware of the risks of laser products to their children. It was felt that the most appropriate course of action was a campaign to increase awareness of the risks associated with the use of these lasers, including the likelihood that the power in the laser beam could be significantly higher than stated. PHE is now preparing additional material to inform the public.
The ability to impair the vision of a pilot or a vehicle driver depends on the colour of the laser beam, the ambient light conditions and the task being undertaken. Although Class 1 or Class 2 lasers are unlikely to impair the vision of a pilot, under specific conditions, they can cause distraction, glare and afterimages to drivers targeted at close range. Therefore, any inappropriate use of a laser, irrespective of the laser classification, should be taken seriously.