Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was their original target number of apprenticeships supported by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund Round 1, and how many apprenticeships were completed.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) was an £80 million fund over two rounds to support nature recovery and conservation across England between 2020 and 2023. It was developed by the last government in response to COVID-19 and administered on behalf of Defra by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Comprehensive independent evaluation reports for both rounds are available on the NLHF website.
The GRCF was an open grant programme that sought to meet a range of objectives. While green jobs and skills was a key objective of the Fund, no target was set for the number of apprenticeships supported.
Monitoring data from grantees show that 252 apprenticeship roles were created across Round 1, accounting for 201 Full-Time Equivalents.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Green Recovery Challenge Fund Round 1 and 2 projects underwent independent auditing or verification of reported environmental outcomes, and how many of those audits identified discrepancies or inflated reporting by grant recipients.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) was an £80 million fund over two rounds to support nature recovery and conservation across England between 2020 and 2023. It was developed by the last government in response to COVID-19 and administered on behalf of Defra by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Comprehensive independent evaluation reports for both rounds are available on the NLHF website.
NLHF does not monitor the survival of trees planted under the GRCF post project completion.
Round 1 of the GRCF was heavily over-subscribed. There was a rigorous selection process, to ensure the projects selected for grant funding represented value for money. This included having robust project plans including planting and maintenance, and possessing the necessary skills, capabilities and track record to deliver projects effectively. Projects were required to follow all relevant regulatory requirements as a condition of funding.
From data provided by grantees, we have estimated a cost per tree planted in Round 1 of approximately £5.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 11 October (HC5739) and 17 October (HC6994), whether it remains their policy not to engage with the organisations cited in the Written Statement by the former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on 14 March (HCWS342).
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government takes the threat of extremism very seriously. As a society we must not permit those that radicalise others into violence and terrorism to act with impunity. The Government is committed to tackling those who spread views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society, and that radicalise others into terrorism, and we keep all policies and programmes designed to achieve those goals under regular review.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 5 September (HC2635) and 11 October (HC5739), what specific Government activity has ceased or changed to facilitate the £5 million of departmental savings on extremism.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government takes the threat of extremism very seriously. As a society we must not permit those that radicalise others into violence and terrorism to act with impunity. The Government is committed to tackling those who spread views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society, and that radicalise others into terrorism, and we keep all policies and programmes designed to achieve those goals under regular review.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 9 September (HC2987), and further to the Written Statement by Baroness Swinburne on 14 March (HLWS336) , whether the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is continuing to fund and support the new counter-extremism centre of excellence.
Answered by Lord Khan of Burnley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This government takes the threat of extremism very seriously and we will continue to work with partners to tackle extremism in all its forms. The rapid review ordered by the Home Secretary will consider the current understanding of extremism, including Islamist and far-right extremism. Following the conclusion of the rapid review, we will be setting out our strategic approach, which will ensure that we have the strongest possible response.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 9 September (HC2987), and further to the Written Statement by Baroness Swinburne on 14 March (HLWS336), what steps they are taking to counter Islamist extremism and ideologies.
Answered by Lord Khan of Burnley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This government takes the threat of extremism very seriously and we will continue to work with partners to tackle extremism in all its forms. The rapid review ordered by the Home Secretary will consider the current understanding of extremism, including Islamist and far-right extremism. Following the conclusion of the rapid review, we will be setting out our strategic approach, which will ensure that we have the strongest possible response.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 5 September (HC2635), and further to the Written Statement by Baroness Swinburne on 14 March (HLWS336), whether they continue to maintain (1) the definition of extremism, and (2) the engagement principles, set out in that Statement; and what changes have been made to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (a) work in this area, and (b) funding of that work, since the general election.
Answered by Lord Khan of Burnley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This government takes the threat of extremism very seriously and we will continue to work with partners to tackle extremism in all its forms. The rapid review ordered by the Home Secretary will consider the current understanding of extremism, including Islamist and far-right extremism. Following the conclusion of the rapid review, we will be setting out our strategic approach, which will ensure that we have the strongest possible response.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average length of proceedings in cases of unfair dismissal being heard by employment tribunals in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
The quarterly average length of proceedings for unfair dismissal claims can be found in the published statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2021.
These are only available until April 2021. Publication of Employment Tribunal timeliness information ceased from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of timeliness information at the end of this calendar year.
Several measures have been taken to reduce the average waiting time for a first hearing in Employment Tribunals including the recruitment of additional judges. To address growing demand, the government invested £2.85 million in December 2022 to allow up to 1,700 more cases to come before judges by the end of March 2023. We also created a virtual region of fee-paid judges to hear remote cases from any region.
Additionally, the Judicial Review and Courts Act transfers Employment Tribunal rule-making powers to the Tribunal Procedures Committee. This independent, judge-led committee will allow the Tribunal to respond more swiftly and flexibly to the challenges it faces through operational changes and rulemaking. This measure will also allow the judiciary to manage their workloads more flexibly, maximising the capacity of the Employment Tribunal
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average length of proceedings in cases of wrongful dismissal being heard by employment tribunals in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
The quarterly average length of proceedings for unfair dismissal claims can be found in the published statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2021.
These are only available until April 2021. Publication of Employment Tribunal timeliness information ceased from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of timeliness information at the end of this calendar year.
Several measures have been taken to reduce the average waiting time for a first hearing in Employment Tribunals including the recruitment of additional judges. To address growing demand, the government invested £2.85 million in December 2022 to allow up to 1,700 more cases to come before judges by the end of March 2023. We also created a virtual region of fee-paid judges to hear remote cases from any region.
Additionally, the Judicial Review and Courts Act transfers Employment Tribunal rule-making powers to the Tribunal Procedures Committee. This independent, judge-led committee will allow the Tribunal to respond more swiftly and flexibly to the challenges it faces through operational changes and rulemaking. This measure will also allow the judiciary to manage their workloads more flexibly, maximising the capacity of the Employment Tribunal
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to give employment tribunals jurisdiction to apply set-off principles in an unauthorised deduction from wages claim under Part II of the Employment Rights Act 1996, limited to established liabilities for quantified amounts and to extinguishing the Part II claim, as recommended by the Law Commission
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.