Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received from Scottish Ministers, by (1) email, (2) letter, and (3) other means of communication, since August 2020 on matters which are reserved.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
In the time period outlined, the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland has received 11 letters (attached to emails) from Scottish Ministers in relation to reserved matters.
There are no further communications to report.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker when the terms of appointment for each member of the Conduct Committee will expire.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The terms of the five peers on the Committee are due to end in January 2022, though the Committee is considering seeking extensions for some of them in order to ensure continuity by staggering departure dates. The terms of the four current lay members will expire in July 2023. The lay members may be reappointed for one further three year term.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what are the total costs of (1) the meetings, (2) the production of reports, and (3) other activities, of the Conduct Committee in the most recent financial year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Committee’s costs cannot be disaggregated from staff, member and publishing costs in this way, except for the lay members’ claims which amounted to £38,250 in financial year 2020–21.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what (1) qualifications, and (2) experience, in (a) human resources, (b) parliamentary procedure, and (c) bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, the lay members of the Conduct Committee have.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The lay members of the Conduct Committee were not required to demonstrate specific qualifications or experience in any particular field, and the Committee had no preconceptions as to their professional backgrounds. Candidates were asked to demonstrate senior level experience in a complex organisation in the public, private or not-for-profit sectors; excellent analytical and decision-making skills; and personal qualities such as assertiveness and resilience. The biographies of the four lay members were circulated to members of the House at the time of their appointment, and collectively they bring a diversity of experience and an independent perspective to the work of the Committee.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what was the recruitment process for the lay members of the Conduct Committee; how many people applied for each lay member vacancy; who conducted the interviews for these positions; and what remuneration the lay members receive.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
I have consulted the Chair of the Conduct Committee in preparing this answer.
The four lay members of the Conduct Committee were appointed following an open and rigorous recruitment process. In common with other senior, lay member or non-executive positions, the House engaged a recruitment consultancy to conduct a search and initial sift of candidates. A total of 322 candidates were identified through this process. Of these, 12 were invited to interview by a panel consisting of two members of the Conduct Committee (Lord Mance, Chair, and Baroness Anelay of St Johns), the then Clerk of the Journals and two external members (Sheila Drew Smith and Emily Jackson), with the four top-ranked candidates accepting the offer of appointment. Lay members are remunerated at the rate of £600 per eight hour day.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how EEA nationals with settled or pre-settled status will be covered by the Right to Rent scheme checks after 30 June; and what the position will be for EEA nationals who are (1) tenants, or (2) prospective tenants, but fail to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford
EEA citizens with settled or pre-settled status granted through the EU Settlement Scheme will evidence their right to rent digitally using the Home Office online service on GOV.UK, ‘prove your right to rent in England’.
https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-rent
Where the landlord has carried out checks, in the prescribed manner, on or before 30 June, there is no requirement to carry out retrospective checks or evict a tenant, as they have a continuous statutory excuse against liability for a civil penalty.
Where an EEA citizen has reasonable grounds for missing the EUSS application deadline, they will be given an opportunity to make a late application. Any EEA citizen encountered by Immigration Enforcement after 30 June 2021, who may be eligible to apply to the EUSS, will be issued with a notice which provides a further 28 days for the individual to submit their application.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether EEA nationals over state pension age who have not applied to the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June will continue to be eligible to receive (1) Pension Credit, (2) Housing Benefit, and (3) other benefits.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
From 1 July 2021, EEA and Swiss citizens will be required to have immigration status to carry on living and working in the UK and to access non-contributory benefits in the UK.
EEA and Swiss citizens who were living in the UK by 31 December 2020, and their family members, need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June 2021.
DWP are working closely with the Home Office and other government departments to ensure we are using all available resources to engage with groups who need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).
Support for applicants who need it remains available, including from the network of 72 organisations across the UK grant-funded by the Home Office to help vulnerable people apply to the EUSS.
Those who have made an application to the EU Settlement Scheme, but have yet to receive an immigration status before the deadline, will continue to receive benefits as long as they satisfy the entitlement conditions for that benefit.
Where an EEA or Swiss citizen, who was resident here before the end of the transition period, has reasonable grounds for missing the EU Settlement Scheme application deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 1 March (HL12487), whether they will now commission a report from the Head of the Civil Service on the conduct of civil servants involved in (1) the preparation for the trial HM Advocate v Salmond, and (2) the alleged collusion in the Scottish Government regarding the bringing of charges relating to that trial.
Answered by Lord True
These remain matters for the Scottish Government. I would refer the noble Lord to the Deputy First Minister’s public statement of 23 March, which sets out that “The Scottish Government will carefully consider the recommendations from the Committee, alongside the other two review reports, in order to put improvements and an implementation plan in place.”
As with civil servants who support HM Government, the Civil Service in Scotland is accountable to Ministers in the Scottish Government and those Ministers are in turn accountable to the Scottish Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what reasons have been identified for unsuccessful applications for the EU Settlement Scheme from people over 65 living in Scotland; under what circumstances late applications will be permitted; what exceptional circumstances will be permitted; and how mitigation for (1) illness, and (2) disability, will be taken into account.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The latest published information to the end of December 2020 shows 3,670 people over the age of 65, resident in Scotland, were granted settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and a further 1,080 were granted pre-settled status, representing 98.5% of applications concluded for over 65s resident in Scotland. 20 applications were refused on eligibility or suitability grounds, 40 were withdrawn or void and less than 10 were invalid.
The latest figures can be found in table EUSS_04 on the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’ web page available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-december-2020
The published figures for the EUSS refer specifically to applications made to the scheme and cannot be directly compared with Office for National Statistics estimates of the resident population of EU/EEA nationals in the UK. The published EUSS figures include non-EEA national family members, Irish nationals and eligible EEA citizens not resident in the UK, none of whom are usually included in ONS estimates of the resident EU/EEA national population.
Furthermore, the population estimates do not take account of people’s migration intentions and will include people who have come to the UK for a range of purposes, including some who have no intention to settle in the UK.
On 1 April 2021, the Home Office published non-exhaustive guidance on what constitutes reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline for applications to the EUSS by those EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, and their family members, resident in the UK by the end of the transition period. This will underpin a flexible and pragmatic approach to considering late applications under the scheme, including in light of illness and disability issues.
The guidance can be found in ‘Making an application: deadline’ in ‘EU Settlement Scheme: EU, other EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members’ at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-caseworker-guidance
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many non-Irish EU citizens over the age of 65 living in Scotland they estimate have not applied for the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The latest published information to the end of December 2020 shows 3,670 people over the age of 65, resident in Scotland, were granted settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and a further 1,080 were granted pre-settled status, representing 98.5% of applications concluded for over 65s resident in Scotland. 20 applications were refused on eligibility or suitability grounds, 40 were withdrawn or void and less than 10 were invalid.
The latest figures can be found in table EUSS_04 on the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’ web page available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-december-2020
The published figures for the EUSS refer specifically to applications made to the scheme and cannot be directly compared with Office for National Statistics estimates of the resident population of EU/EEA nationals in the UK. The published EUSS figures include non-EEA national family members, Irish nationals and eligible EEA citizens not resident in the UK, none of whom are usually included in ONS estimates of the resident EU/EEA national population.
Furthermore, the population estimates do not take account of people’s migration intentions and will include people who have come to the UK for a range of purposes, including some who have no intention to settle in the UK.
On 1 April 2021, the Home Office published non-exhaustive guidance on what constitutes reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline for applications to the EUSS by those EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, and their family members, resident in the UK by the end of the transition period. This will underpin a flexible and pragmatic approach to considering late applications under the scheme, including in light of illness and disability issues.
The guidance can be found in ‘Making an application: deadline’ in ‘EU Settlement Scheme: EU, other EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members’ at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-caseworker-guidance