Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what the final cost will be of recent works at Peers Entrance.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
For security reasons, the Houses do not publish capital expenditure on security mitigating projects as providing this level of detail could enable an individual to infer the extent and nature of the works, and thus the vulnerabilities which they were intended to mitigate.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many people, in the most recent two years for which figures are available, have used the entrance to the Parliamentary Estate located by the Westminster Underground Station.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
For security reasons, the Houses do not publish data about the movements of passholders on the Parliamentary Estate.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in each of the past five years, what was the average length of time in England and Wales for the police and Crown Prosecution Service to investigate allegations of (1) murder, and (2) rape, before a decision was made on whether to proceed with prosecution.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the time taken by the police in England and Wales to reach an investigative outcome for notifiable offences.
Below is a table showing the median number of days taken to assign a charge/summons outcome, from date recorded by the police, for rape and homicide offences, for each year from 2018/19 to year ending September 2023:
Financial Year | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
| YE Sept 2023 |
Homicide1,2,3 | 40 | 21 | 25 | 30 | 29 |
| 23 |
Rape offences1 | 381 | 395 | 465 | 467 | 421 |
| 426 |
Notes:
1. Only includes data for forces who send offence-level data to the Home Office Data Hub
2. The number of median days for Year ending September 2022 and Year ending September 2023 includes 37 territorial police forces. Excludes Devon and Cornwall, Humberside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester Police. The data for these forces was identified to have quality issues or the data was not provided at record level to the Home Office Data Hub in for the reporting period.
3. 2018/19 excludes the 97 homicides which were assigned a charge/summons outcome in relation to the Hillsborough disaster by South Yorkshire Police Force. When these are included, the median number of days taken to assign a charge for homicide was 115 days in 2018/19.
4. Data are shown to the nearest whole day.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what length of time passed between the original incident or complaint, and the end of the final public inquiry or related prosecutions, in relation to (1) the Hillsborough stadium disaster, (2) the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, (3) the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash, (4) Operation Conifer, and (5) the Iraq Inquiry.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Hillsborough stadium disaster occurred on 15 April 1989. Lord Justice Taylor published an interim report into the disaster in August 1989, and delivered his final report in January 1990. The Hillsborough Independent panel was instituted in 2009, and published its final report on 12 September 2012.
The independent inquiry into child exploitation was commissioned by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council in October 2013. It covered the period between 1997 and 2013, and published its report in August 2014.
The Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash happened on 2 June 1994. The final inquiry into the crash published its findings in July 2011.
Operation Conifer, the police investigation into allegations made against the late Sir Edward Heath, began in August 2015, and published its findings in October 2017.
The Iraq Inquiry was announced in June 2009 to identify lessons that could be learned from the Iraq conflict. It considered the period between 2000 and July 2009, and published its report in July 2016.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in each of the past five years in England and Wales, how many prosecutions were brought for rape and serious sexual assault; how many allegations of rape or serious sexual assault reported to police have not been taken to prosecution; and what percentage of prosecutions have resulted in conviction.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
This government is committed to increasing the volumes of rape and serious sexual offence cases that reach court.
In 2019, we commissioned our end-to-end Rape Review to better understand the justice system’s response to adult rape. Published in 2021, our watershed report set stretching ambitions to return the volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and reaching court back to 2016 levels by the end of this Parliament. In practice, this meant more than doubling the number of adult rape cases reaching court compared to when the Review was first commissioned, in 2019.
The latest data shows that we have exceeded each of these ambitions ahead of schedule. In July – September 2023, we recorded:
In addition, the number of people prosecuted for an adult rape offence went up by 54% in the last year (12 months to June), rising from 1,410 to 2,165. This is 32% higher than in 2010 (1,644).
But we are determined to build on these successes, and continue to make excellent progress in delivering our Rape Review Action Plan to support victims throughout the criminal justice system:
As far as possible, we have provided the requested data in Tables 1-3. Please note that each table contains data extracted from different administrative systems, and for different operational purposes. Whilst every effort has been made to answer the question and keep the data similar it is important to note that the data presented is complementary, rather than directly comparable. Below is a summary of each table and its contents, including a final Annex table (Table A1) which specifies how offences for rape and serious sexual assault have been captured.
Table 1 – Volume of defendants proceeded against for rape or ‘serious’ sexual assault offences, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and Wales
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publish the data set out in Table 1 in Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023, in the Outcomes by Offence data tool (last updated 18 January 2024).
The MoJ tool contains data on the volume of convictions, but it is advised these are not used to calculate conviction rate (the number of convictions as a proportion of the number of prosecutions). This is due to the Court Proceedings Database counting two separate records at two separate stages (one for prosecution, one for conviction). An individual may appear at each court in separate years, or for a different principal offence at different stages. As a result, this rate is not an accurate measure of the proportion of prosecutions that result in a conviction and we recommend table 3 for that purpose.
Table 2 – Rape and ‘serious’ sexual offences (RASSO) recorded by the police that were not assigned a charge outcome, as a proportion of all RASSO cases closed each year, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and Wales
The Home Office (HO) publish the data set out in Table 2 in the quarterly publication Open Data Tables, in the Outcomes Open Data files (last updated on 25 January 2024). It is important to note that the Home Office do not hold data on prosecutions, but publish data on recorded cases that do not receive a charge outcome, presented in Table 2.
Table 2b – Number of reported incidents of rape (excluding offences recorded by the police) and cancelled rape offences, year ending March 2019 to year ending March 2023, England and Wales
Since April 2015, the police have been expected to record all allegations of rape that are reported to them as soon as they are received, unless they are immediately recorded as a confirmed crime. These are recorded under the reported incidents classification. Reported incidents of rape are then either confirmed as a crime and re-classified accordingly (as recorded offences) or are retained in the police data as an incident. Table 2b shows a total of reported incidents that do not go on to be recorded as a crime, and cancelled rape offences. An incident does not go on to be recorded as a crime if the victim or third party reporting the incident cannot confirm it or cannot be traced, if credible evidence to the contrary exists, or if it is transferred to another police force. These data are published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/652eaab16b6fbf000db75843/prc-rape-incidents-2016-2023.ods). Rape allegations are ‘cancelled’ when there is additional information to confirm the offence did not take place or where the entry is made in error (such as a duplicate of an existing allegation). Home Office can be contacted directly for further comment on these data.
Table 3 – Conviction rate for suspects with a rape flagged offence, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and Wales
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) publish the data set out in Table 3 in CPS quarterly data summaries (last updated on 18 January 2024). Prosecution crime type data tables were used to extract conviction rates for rape flagged cases. Due to the nature of CPS systems, the conviction rate based on rape flags will include cases where the eventual outcome is different to the flagged offence of rape.
Table A1: Definition of rape and 'serious' sexual assault by organisation (MoJ, Home Office, Crown Prosecution Service)
This table sets out how rape and ‘serious’ sexual assault offences have been selected for each of the tables. The most substantial difference is between CPS and MoJ/Home Office data, as the CPS rely on the use of flags and do not record offences by detailed offence code in the same way as the MoJ/Home Office (meaning detailed offences would need to be extracted manually, and are not published). Home Office and MoJ offences broadly correspond but, due to differences in recording practices and operational uses some of the offences follow different description conventions.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to identify the origins of Covid-19, other than by cooperating with the WHO; and what estimate they have made of the cost of that work.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The United Kingdom Government believes that an impartial scientific and expert group is best-placed to lead the review into the origins of COVID-19. As the only independent, technical health organisation with the mandate of 194 Member States, it is right that the investigation sits within the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group on Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) is composed of experts acting in a personal capacity and therefore can provide independent technical and scientific advice on the origin and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK continues to support SAGO’s review, including through the provision of technical support via the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
In light of COVID-19, the UK has strengthened our pandemic preparedness approach to ensure we are prepared for all possible pathways of disease emergence, we have conducted a thorough assessment across the breadth of our pandemic capabilities, including surveillance, diagnostics, contact tracing, clinical countermeasures, non-pharmaceutical interventions, technology, and data, which will allow us to protect the health of the UK population from the spread of infectious diseases.
Responsibility for leading on animal diseases resides with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), an executive agency of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. APHA leads on identifying and controlling zoonotic diseases including surveillance, scientific research, and food safety. UKHSA works closely with APHA to understand and control the risk new infectious diseases pose to health and society when they emerge.
The UK also seeks to ensure the highest possible controls over laboratory biosafety and security to mitigate any threat of research-related incidents in the UK. Biosafety inspection and enforcement is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive in Great Britain and the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland. The UK approach to biosafety is underpinned by a risk-based regulatory framework designed to facilitate the effective and proportionate management of the risks that exist at facilities where work is undertaken with dangerous pathogens.
We will also continue to use the UK’s international influence to encourage other countries to have appropriate laboratory biosafety. UKHSA staff attend the European Biosafety Association (EBSA) and the American Biosafety Association (ABSA) meetings, and are also members of the Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Laboratory Network (BSL4ZNET) and Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) Lab Network. UKHSA staff regularly monitor developments to ensure UKHSA adopts the highest standards of biosafety and biosecurity.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent finding of the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that the "Covid-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident".
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Investigations into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic are ongoing. The United Kingdom notes the latest reports from the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee but is also aware of other studies that have reached different conclusions, for example that the likely source of COVID-19 was a natural spill over event from animals to humans. The global scientific community does not yet have sufficient data to determine conclusively where the virus originated. The UK is keeping the evidence under review and closely tracking the work of the independent investigations led by the Scientific Advisory Group on Origins of Novel Pathogens into the origins and spread of COVID-19.
Regardless of the origins of this pandemic, it is imperative that the UK seeks to ensure the highest possible controls over laboratory biosafety and security in order to mitigate any threat of research-related incidents in the UK. Biosafety inspection and enforcement is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive in Great Britain and the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland. The UK approach to biosafety is underpinned by a risk-based regulatory framework designed to facilitate the effective and proportionate management of the risks that exist at facilities where work is undertaken with dangerous pathogens.
We will also continue to use the UK’s international influence to encourage other countries to have appropriate laboratory biosafety. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) staff attend the European Biosafety Association (EBSA) and the American Biosafety Association (ABSA) meetings, and are also members of the Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Laboratory Network (BSL4ZNET) and Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) Lab Network. UKHSA staff regularly monitor developments to ensure UKHSA adopts the highest standards of biosafety and biosecurity.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total number of deaths in the UK to date attributed to COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government records deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the following ways: deaths that have COVID-19 recorded on their death certificate/registration; and any death that occurs 28 days after a positive COVID-19 test.
As of 24 March, 223,396 deaths in the United Kingdom have had COVID-19 recorded on death certificates/registrations.
As of 17 April, 213,637 deaths have been recorded in the UK 28 days after a positive COVID-19 test.
These two measures serve different purposes. Death registrations are a reference for overall death toll from COVID-19 (along with excess mortality estimates) and the 28-day death measure is most useful as a rapid indicator of death following COVID-19 infection, with peak utility when a new variant emerges, or during a new wave which requires timely monitoring of severity for public health purposes.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the total cost to date of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The total cost to date of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is approximately £7.3 billion.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total cost to the economy to date of COVID-19-related lockdowns.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the UK economy. Between 2019 Q4 and 2020 Q2, according to the Office for National Statistics the economy contracted by 23% - the steepest recession on record.
The success of the UK’s vaccination campaign lead to a strong recovery in GDP, with annual growth of 7.5% in 2021 and 4.1% in 2022. In both these years, GDP growth in the UK was the fastest in the G7.
The Government acted quickly to prevent catastrophic increases in unemployment during the pandemic. The Government provided up to £400 billion of direct support for the economy which helped to safeguard jobs, businesses and public services in every region and nation of the UK.
The Treasury is engaging constructively with the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which plans to examine the Government’s responses to the pandemic.