Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to calibrate the visa policy for Ukrainian refugees to help fill unfilled job vacancies in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office has no such plans as these routes are primarily a humanitarian response, rather than an economic migration route. Those who come to the UK under these schemes have full access to the UK Labour market if they wish to find work once they arrive.
Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce standard tests for safeguarding for organisations in order to provide evidence of nationally recognised levels of attainment.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Safeguarding relates to a wide range of activity in a variety of settings, and covers a number of potentially vulnerable groups. It is right that organisational safeguarding policies are able to reflect specific sector needs, within clear regulatory frameworks.
A number of government departments lead on setting safeguarding standards, guidance and training across the sectors for which they have policy responsibility. For example, the Home Office oversees safeguarding from a policing perspective, the Department for Education leads on safeguarding within education settings, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are responsible for safeguarding within civil society organisations, and the Department of Health and Social Care assure that the NHS is meeting its safeguarding responsibilities.
Government departments work closely together to share learning and feedback on safeguarding policy and standards across different settings. For example, there is close collaboration between the Home Office, DHSC and DfE on the implementation of local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements for children, ensuring robust join-up across local authorities, health and policing.
Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the event of the United Kingdom not opting back into the provisions of the European Arrest Warrant, which member states still have on their statute books the legislation necessary to revert to the Council of Europe Convention on Extradition 1957.
Answered by Lord Bates
All EU member states have ratified the 1957 Council of Europe Convention on Extradition (ECE). Consequently, they will all have legislation that allows them to operate the ECE with other ECE signatories who do not use the Arrest Warrant. However, a number of EU member states have subsequently passed specific legislation to implement the Arrest Warrant and would need to pass new domestic legislation in order to allow them to operate the ECE with the UK. In some cases, this could be a lengthy process. For example, we believe that it would take the Netherlands at least a year to pass the necessary legislation and during this time they would not be able to issue extradition requests to the UK, or respond to UK extradition requests. Effectively, this would make both countries a safe haven for each others’ criminals.
Under the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, 22 Member States may also refuse to extradite its own nationals which means that some people may never face justice. In non-European Arrest Warrant cases, the following EU Member States have an absolute bar on extraditing their own nationals to the UK:
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Latvia
Luxembourg
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
A further nine have made declarations to the 1957 European Convention on Extradition to the effect that they will not extradite their own nationals:
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Estonia
Hungary
Lithuania
Poland
Portugal
Romania