European Union Settlement Scheme

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 16th July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

In answer to the noble Lord’s first point—that we have a long way to go—given the number of citizens we are talking about, it sounds to me as though we are almost a third of the way there. In answer to his point about pre-settled status, interestingly enough, just before we came into the Chamber, I had a conversation with his noble friend, the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, about a question she had raised with me previously on a reminder system for people coming to the end of their pre-settled status. That is certainly being worked on. He also asked me about the app. I am aware of the problem and we intend that from the end of July, it will be possible for people with pre-settled status to apply online to convert it to settled status as soon as they become eligible.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, I understand that there are 2.5 million people of European Union descent working in the UK who have still to apply for settled status. What happens to those people in just over two and a half months when we have Brexit?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I hope the noble Lord will be comforted to hear that people will have at least until 31 December 2020 to apply, which is a significant way off. It is pleasing to note that, three months into the scheme, the number of people who have applied is significant—as I said, nearly a third of the total.

EU Settlement Scheme

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Thursday 14th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My noble friend is right to point that out. The UK has given that comfort to any EU citizen and I hope that, through the negotiations, our citizens living in the EU will have similar comfort.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister has been supportive of this approach and I applaud her for that. However, are the Government not being a tad complacent when they go on about the fact that 100,000 people have already applied? That is about 2% of those eligible to stay. Bearing in mind that the Government keep saying that D-day is 30 March, is there not a long way to go yet, and should we not step up the campaigns?

Westminster: Security

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 5th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I have got mine too. There should be none of this, “Do you not know who I am?”; I have never heard people say that in this House. The only reason we are ever asked is in order to protect us.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, it used to be a cardinal democratic principle that elected representatives of our people had the right to attend Parliament and voice opinions on behalf of those constituents. Is that still the case?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

It absolutely is, and it is the central plank of our parliamentary democracy.

Brexit: EU Citizens in the UK

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for advance notice of his concern about this. Like any EEA nationals who settled in the UK before 1973, the Italians in Bradford already have indefinite leave to remain and do not need to apply to the EU settlement scheme. They can if they want make a free application to the Windrush scheme for documentation to confirm that status. In any event, the Windrush scheme is open to a person of any nationality who arrived in the UK before 31 December 1988 and believes that they have settled status in the UK.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, is the noble Baroness saying that the Italians in Bradford have nothing to worry about?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

Yes, my Lords, I am.

EU Settlement Scheme

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Thursday 21st June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My noble friend will have heard in the Statement that we will start to roll out the process in the summer and towards the end of the year. I would not call it a trial run, but the “private beta” phase—which I had never heard of before—is apparently a dry run, using real people who will get real documents. That is a good way to test how the system is working.

I also mentioned earlier the delivery of the settlement scheme and the Treasury’s allocation of £170 million for the further development and delivery of the settlement scheme. As my noble friend alluded to, we do not underestimate the scale of the challenge and we want to get it right. Every year, we process millions of visa and passport applications, but that does not undermine our wish to get it right. Our passport service has a good customer service record and I can tell my noble friend that, over the past year, the average turnaround time for passport applications was approximately seven days. I might add that the Institute of Customer Service ranks HMPO in the top 50 high-scoring organisations across the public and private sector.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister knows that we have discussed this matter across the Floor on a number of occasions, and I am very grateful for her lucidity today. I have been arguing that, for those European Union citizens who have been successfully granted permanent right of residency, the right should be continued. As I understand it, that is what the Minister, in a rather roundabout way, has announced today. But, in view of the pressure in the Home Office, what is the logic of requiring European Union citizens who have acquired the right of permanent residency in this country to reapply—adding to the burden—for settlement? Why do we not simply grant that without them having to go through the process, as it has already been cleared by the Home Office?

I come to my last point. As the Minister knows, my main driver in this has been the National Health Service. If I am right in saying that most of those who have five years’ residency can stay in this country, will the Minister write to National Health Service trusts to point that out and to ask them to communicate it to all European Union residents who are working in the health service and are still very confused about their status?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the noble Lord for making that point. Permanent residency status was afforded to EU citizens when we were—as we still are—in the European Union. That will change, but their settled status will not change once we leave the EU. They will move from the status we had when we were in the EU to one that we will have when we are outside the EU—settled status—and they will not be charged for it. I know that it is not ideal and that they should automatically have it. However, that is the reason for the change.

Home Office: Data Breaches

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I do not know whether my noble friend means lost documents or data protection, but I am sure that other departments have similar procedures for lost documents.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness correctly referred only to the Home Office, but a lost document from any government department could be critical. Will the Minister assure us that she will draw to the attention of other departments the need to ensure the safety of documents submitted to them?

Paradise Papers

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Monday 6th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

My noble friend is right. Indeed the ICIJ, which I mentioned and which released this leak, was keen to point out that it is not suggesting any wrongdoing and that there is legitimate use for these facilities, such as purchasing assets in currencies other than sterling, avoiding double taxation and pooling of investments from different tax jurisdictions. It is important to draw the line between that avoidance and the evasion which we talked about earlier.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, 20 years ago I had the responsibility of being the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and as such was responsible for the organisation. I well recall chairing meetings of all the senior officials and answering questions in the House of Commons. Does the current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Sir Patrick McLoughlin, have the same responsibilities? If not, as Her Majesty had no knowledge of these investments, who is responsible?

[Lord Bates]

I will have to check on the practices. However, my recollection is that Sir Patrick McLoughlin responds in his capacity as part of Cabinet Office Questions during regular Oral Questions. Members of all sides of the House and in both Houses are at liberty to table Questions for Oral Answer or debate at any point, and people will have to respond according to their responsibilities.

Public Sector Pay Cap

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

My noble friend has explained it rather well. Maintaining a good solid economy is good for the economy. It controls inflation and interest rates, which are at an historic low. It has contributed to the fact that we have record levels of employment and has also enabled us to cut taxes for some of the lowest paid, taking 1.3 million people out of tax altogether.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister says that public pay is a balance between the pay to the individual in the service and what the individual citizen feels is fair. How have the Government assessed what the view of the citizen is as regards National Health Service staff?

[Lord Bates]

On that specific point, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has reported that public sector workers earn on average 13% more than those in the private sector. Secondly—this is very important—the purpose of the pay review body is to make sure that we continue to attract people into the public services and deal with employment. That is why it is interesting and helpful to note that a public sector pay review body has said:

“We do not see significant short-term nationwide recruitment and retention issues that are linked to pay”.

International Development: Forestry

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

I do, and that is what DfID provides through many of its programmes and by working in public/private partnerships in this area. We recognise that tropical forests regulate weather patterns and that 25% of global greenhouse gases are a result of deforestation and land-use changes. It is therefore crucial that we make efforts in this area. Regarding my noble friend’s opening point about the US Administration’s policy, I would comfort him to an extent and say that that policy is a proposal. A full budget will be published in May and has then to find its way through Congress.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a former chair of the Forestry Commission. As the Minister is aware, Britain has a unique reputation as one of the few countries in the world that has successfully reforested its landscape. Traditionally, the Forestry Commission has offered much expertise and experience to countries seeking to reforest their landscape but of late, due to the financial cuts, it has been unable to sustain that at the level it would like. Will the Minister look again at how we could use money to utilise the expertise of the Forestry Commission to practically help countries grow more trees?

[Lord Bates]

I certainly pay regard to the noble Lord’s great experience and commitment to this area over many years. However, I would also say that, through DfID, we fund a number of programmes, such as the international forestry knowledge programme, which does a great deal around the world in terms of forest governance and partnerships in forests, and are part of the forest investment programme with the World Bank. A key part of those initiatives takes place in areas such as Indonesia, for example, where 80% of forestry was formerly illegal but now 90% is legally audited. We want to see more of that type of work and I assure the noble Lord that that will continue to happen.