Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any change in the number of arrests made by police officers in England and Wales in recent years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
There are a number of possible factors which may have contributed to the fall in the number of arrests since the year ending March 2008. Inspections carried out by HMICFRS in 2016, as part of their police effectiveness assessments, did not identify one single cause (PEEL report on police effectiveness).
One possible reason linked to the fall in the number of arrests is the increased use of voluntary attendance, where an individual attends voluntarily at a police station or at any other place where a constable is present without having been arrested for the purpose of assisting with an investigation. It is thought that the use of this practice has increased due to a more stringent application of the necessity test (which was introduced in 2012), where, for an arrest to be lawful, there must be reasonable grounds for believing that the arrest is necessary (PACE Code G).
There is also evidence of greater use of other outcomes, such as community resolutions, as part of efforts to reduce the number of young people entering custody. Other factors that may have had an impact on the fall in the number of arrests are discussed in the HMICFRS PEEL report 2016. See http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-effectiveness-2016.pdf
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the most recent rises in reported crime and the underlying trends relating to reported crime.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Police recorded crime figures for England and Wales are published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Annual figures for the years ending June 2014 to June 2017 are included in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Police recorded crime, ONS, year ending June 2014 – year ending June 2017. Taken from ‘Crime in England and Wales: Bulletin Tables’, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesbulletintables
| Year Ending | June 2014 | June 2015 | June 2016 | June 2017 |
| Total police recorded crime in England and Wales (inc fraud) | 3,717,089 | 4,260,239 | 4,577,375 | 5,156,928 |
Overall police recorded crime (including fraud) increased by 13% in the year ending June 2017 compared with the previous year. The ONS points to improvements to recording practices by forces, expanded offence coverage, an increased willingness of victims to come forward and report certain crimes like sexual offences and domestic abuse to the police and genuine increases in some crime categories, especially in those that are well recorded, as important factors in explaining trends in police recorded crime.
Crimes traditionally measured by the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales are down by almost 40% since 2010 and by 70% since their peak in 1995.
The most recent national crime figures are published by the Office for National Statistic in ‘Crime in England and Wales: year ending June 2017’ (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/june2017).
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by Norfolk Police to dispense with all of their Police Community Support Officers.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
It is for the Chief Constable and the directly accountable Police and Crime Commissioner of each force area to take decisions on the size and composition of the workforce including community support officers in order to meet local needs and priorities.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many British emergency services personnel are being deployed to assist in the aftermath of hurricane Irma; where those personnel will be deployed; and what range of assistance they will provide.
Answered by Lord Bates
We now have almost 700 military personnel, over 50 police, and a senior search and rescue adviser from the UK’s fire and rescue services in the Caribbean region to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. DFID has sent over 18 humanitarian and logistics advisers in the region, including humanitarian advisers in Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands, where they are supporting Governors and local authorities.
All UK personnel are deployed as part of a coordinated cross-Government response, bringing together military, aid, and consular effort. Across the affected area, our personnel have delivered urgent humanitarian relief, assisted in restoring vital infrastructure, and supported local institutions in maintaining law and order. We will continue to work closely with our advisors on the ground and with the Overseas Territories governments to deploy our specialists where they are most needed.
The Government will continue to do all it can to support those affected. Further details of our work are available on our website.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage the full-time employment of adults with special learning needs; and what progress was made in (1) 2015, and (2) 2016.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government strongly supports the need to provide more employment opportunities to adults with a learning disability or autism.
In 2015 3,140 individuals with a learning disability started the Work Choice programme, with 61% achieving a job outcome. 2016 annual data are not yet available. In 2015 the department introduced Specialist Employability Support (SES) to provide up to a further 1700 places per year intensive and personalised support for people, including those with learning disabilities.
Disability Confident works to influence employers to take on more disabled people, including those with learning disabilities, and to market Access to Work to disabled people.
Access to Work has a new Hidden Impairment Support Team which aims to give advice and guidance to employers, and offers eligible workers an assessment of their needs at work and a support plan.
Last year, Paul Maynard MP led a taskforce that made recommendations to Government on how to improve access to apprenticeships for people with learning disabilities. Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education are working together to implement all of these recommendations.
Looking forward, we are testing ways to improve our support for people with learning disabilities through a Local Supported Employment proof of concept and Supported Work Experience for young people, which offers young people with learning disabilities and other long term conditions a chance to spend time with an employer.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to prevent tooth decay in children under the age of five, in the light of the increase in tooth extractions in England in the last ten years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Improving the oral health of young children is a Public Health England (PHE) priority. PHE’s Child Oral Health Improvement Programme Board provides national system leadership for the delivery of the shared ambition that every child grows up free of tooth decay as part of getting the best start in life.
The two key actions to prevent tooth decay are reducing sugar consumption and getting fluoride onto teeth which can be by means of fluoride toothpaste, fluoride varnish and water fluoridation. PHE has published a number of toolkits to support local authorities in improving child oral health.
In addition the Government’s Childhood Obesity Plan, launched in August 2016, contained proposals for a broad, structured sugar reduction programme to remove sugar from the categories of food that contribute the most to children’s sugar intakes. The Government also announced the Soft Drinks Industry Levy last year, which will apply from April 2018.
To support families to reduce their sugar intake, PHE’s Change4Life launched the Be Food Smart campaign in January 2017 which encourages families to download the app which reveals the amount of sugar, saturated fat and salt in food and drink.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made since February 2016 to protect and promote the rights of people with learning difficulties, in the light of the report by Sir Stephen Bubb <i>Time for Change: The Challenge Ahead</i>.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Transforming Care programme is making progress in moving people out of inpatient settings. Local Transforming Care Partnerships reduced the overall number of people with learning disabilities and/or autism in mental health hospitals by 11% from October 2015 to December 2016, according to published data. This is line with the 35-50% reduction we committed to achieving by 2019 in Building the Right Support.
NHS England is supporting areas to put in place new preventative services, such as intensive community support teams, to support people at points of crisis so that they do not need to be admitted to hospital. NHS England is investing £10 million per year, matched by clinical commissioning groups, to support the growth in services such as these.
NHS England is also rolling out pre-admission care and treatment reviews to assess whether there are viable alternative options when making a decision to admit an individual. NHS England is making available £20 million in capital per year to support an expansion in community based support for people with a learning disability.
The Department is commissioning a full and independent evaluation of the Transforming Care programme, which will focus on measuring changes in quality of life and of care over time, to assess the impact of the programme on the lived experience of people with learning disabilities.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to extend the use of smart motorways; and what criteria will be used to assess the safety and operational efficiency of the existing smart motorways.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government is increasing road capacity as outlined in the Road Investment Strategy (RIS) for 2015 to 2020 and includes the ongoing conversion of the motorway hard shoulder into a running lane, known as the Smart Motorways. Following construction, all smart motorway schemes are monitored to assess their safety and operational performance by measuring changes in journey times, congestion and journey time reliability, as well as safety figures.
England’s motorways are among the safest roads in the world and Highways England is confident that smart motorways will maintain this. On sections of the most recently completed schemes on the M25, the monitoring shows that collision and casualty rates are down, congestion is reduced and there are fewer unexpected delays.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to encourage the provision and wearing of body cameras by operational police officers to improve police and public confidence in cases of disputed incidents.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Home Office fully supports the police exploiting technology to help cut crime wherever possible. Body worn video can be a powerful tool to help the police be more effective, efficient and accountable. The decision to procure and deploy it is an operational one for chief officers.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to assist in the resolution of the industrial dispute between Southern Rail and some of its staff and their unions.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
This, like any other industrial dispute between a Train Operating Company and a trades union, is a matter for the union and operator to resolve. The Government condemns any industrial action that disrupts the travelling public. RMT has advised its members to accept the new On-Board Supervisor roles on offer. The Government’s strong opinion is there are no grounds at all for any further industrial action and these strikes must stop now.