Lord Bradley

The Equality Act 2006 details the establishment, duties, powers and constitution for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Further information regarding the governance of the EHRC can be found on their website: www.equalityhumanrights.com.

The Office for the Children’s Commission does not have a terms of reference. Instead there is a framework agreement with the Department for Education, which can be found here: DfE framework agreement | Children's Commissioner for England.

The Children Act 2004 created the role for a Children’s Commissioner in England with the primary function of promoting and protecting the rights of children in England, ensuring that the views of the most vulnerable children are heard. The role was established following a recommendation in the Inquiry into Victoria Climbié’s death in 2000.

The intention of the Children and Families Act 2014 was to strengthen the remit, independence, and powers of the Commissioner. The Commissioner was given additional powers to effectively carry out the role.

These pieces of legislation set out the powers and responsibilities of the Children’s Commissioner for England.

The Victims’ Commissioner is appointed by the Secretary of State for Justice in accordance with the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. The functions of the role are set out in legislation and are to promote the interests of victims and witnesses, encourage good practice in the treatment of victims and witnesses, and to keep under review the operation of the Code of Practice for Victims (“the Victims’ Code). The Victims’ Commissioner is also required to make an annual report on the performance of their functions to the Justice Secretary, Attorney General and the Home Secretary and give advice to a Minister of the Crown or to the Treasury when required to do so, amongst other functions and duties.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. It operates within the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations, including the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, which sets out the fundamental standards that providers of health and social care are expected to meet.

The CQC among its other functions, inspects, assess and monitors providers, giving them a rating of either outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, to encourage continuous improvement. It has enforcement powers, to ensure the quality of care does not fall below the expected levels of standards.

The number of children in poverty has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. This not only harms children’s lives now, but it also damages their future prospects, and holds back our economic potential as a country.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister therefore announced, on 17 July 2024, the appointment of my right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Secretary of State for Education, as the joint leads of a new ministerial taskforce to begin work on a Child Poverty Strategy. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, to tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start at life.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper. Too many children, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, leave primary school with unresolved speech, language and communication needs that have a lasting impact on their life chances.

To help tackle this now, the department will provide targeted support for teachers in early years settings and primary schools to support children with the development of speech, language and communication skills. More broadly, the department will work with teachers and curriculum experts to identify how oracy can be woven into lessons across the curriculum to support all children to succeed. Through this, the department aims to support teachers across the country to realise the benefits of using oracy to teach, by adding it to their repertoire and enabling more children and young people to flourish in life and work.

Early language skills are vital to enable children to thrive in the early years and later in life, including for all aspects of later attainment in school. To support early language skills, the department is investing over £20 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme (NELI). NELI is an evidence-based programme targeting reception aged children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, which rises to seven months for those eligible for free school meals. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the NELI programme, which is equivalent to two thirds of all English state primaries, would continue for the 2024/25 academic year.

Professional dog walkers must comply with the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and other relevant legislation, such as welfare in transport regulations and the Health and Safety at Work Act, and any public liability or other insurance policy requirements.

The Government has no current plans to regulate professional dog walkers. The Canine and Feline Sector Group has published best practice guidance to assist dog walkers which can be found here.

There are no current plans to expand statutory powers in either the Animal Welfare Act 2006 or the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act 2022 to include RSPCA inspectors. The RSPCA has strong working relationships with the Police and Local Authorities who support them in protecting animals where needed.

This Government recognises the challenges unpaid carers are facing and is determined to provide them with the help and support they need and deserve. It is looking closely at how the benefit system currently does this, notably through Universal Credit and Carer’s Allowance.

With respect to benefit levels, the Secretary of State has a statutory obligation to review the rates of State pensions and benefits each year. In the case of Carer’s Allowance, the relevant statute provides that it must rise at least in line with the increase in prices over the preceding year. The review to set rates for 2025/26 will take place in the autumn.

Other support is available through the benefit system. Full-time unpaid carers on low incomes may also be eligible for means tested support, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.

In July, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asked Dr Penny Dash to carry out a review, looking at patient safety across the health and care landscape in England, within the context of the wider regulation and improvement of the quality of care. The guidance, Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape: terms of reference, published on 15 October 2024, is available on the GOV.UK website, in an online-only format.

Healthwatch England is the independent statutory national champion for people who use health and social care services. Its functions include gathering and communicating the views of the public on their needs and experiences of health and social care services. Healthwatch England also provides support and assistance to the 152 Local Healthwatch organisations in England.

As part of ongoing considerations, NHS England intends to launch a pilot in the coming months extending the Electronic Prescription Service to specific Detained Estate health services in England. Amendments to the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 will be made in the autumn, subject to parliamentary time.

The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure that patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting and palliative and end of life care, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by ICB area, and will, in part, be dependent on the breadth of a range of palliative and end of life care provision within their ICB footprint.

The Department will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.

NHS England is considering extending the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) to Detained Estate health services in England, and the Department is engaging with them on this work.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the remand status of defendants and subsequent outcomes at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Remands data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: December 2023

The proportion of females remanded in custody and subsequently (1) not sentenced, (2) receiving community sentence, and (3) receiving a custodial sentence of less than six months at criminal courts is provided below.

Proportion of outcomes for women remanded in custody at criminal courts, 2022 to 2023, England and Wales [note 1]

Source: Court Proceedings Database.

Notes:

[1] Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

[2] These figures are presented on a principal offence basis - i.e. reporting information relating to the most serious offence that a defendant was dealt with for. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

[3] These figures are presented on a principal disposal basis - i.e. reporting the most severe outcome issued for the offence.

[4] Defendants are reported against the most serious remand status recorded at a court hearing during their case (excluding the status recorded post-sentencing hearing, as this reflects the outcome of the sentence rather than a remand decision). A defendant’s remand status may change several times throughout their court journey, however only the most serious status during that period is reported and this does not reflect the number of remand decisions made.

[5] 'Not sentenced' includes the following outcomes: Case discontinued or discharged at Magistrates' court; charge withdrawn or dismissed at Magistrates' court; case discontinued at Crown Court; other disposal without conviction; and acquitted at Crown Court.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the remand status of defendants and subsequent outcomes in the Remands data tool.

The attached tables provide the proportion of outcomes for female defendants after being remanded in custody, split by magistrates’ court and Crown Court.

Defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and subsequently committed to the Crown Court will have separate remand decisions made in both courts and will be included in both totals.