Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their policy on resolving the crisis in Libya; and what assessment they have made of whether that policy is consistent with the EU's approach towards that country.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK remains deeply concerned about the situation in Libya. We are working closely with our international partners, including the other member states of the EU, to support UN-led efforts to secure an end to the fighting and a return to a UN-led political process. Our close work with the international community, including our EU partners, to achieve these ends was demonstrated by a UN Security Council press statement of 5 July, a P3+3 (UK, US, France, Italy, Egypt and UAE) statement of 16 July, and EU statements of 12 April and 5 July.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Egypt concerning access to medical services in prison for Dr Aboul Fotouh and other political prisoners.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We have been closely engaged on the case of Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. Officials raised his case with Egyptian authorities on 4 July in London and on 7 July in Cairo. We will continue to urge the Egyptian authorities to ensure all detainees are treated in accordance with relevant international human right standards and to highlight the importance of access to medical care.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in deciding what number of occupational health staff are needed by the NHS in England to implement their proposals to facilitate the retention or return to work of those employees with long-term health conditions.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Government launched a consultation on 15 July 2019, Health is everyone’s business: proposals to reduce ill health-related job loss, which includes proposals for actions to improve occupational health access for workers. One aspect of this proposal is for Government action to contribute to the development of a sustainable occupational health workforce.
A copy of the consultation is attached.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many radiographers are employed by the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
In the Cancer Workforce Plan for England which was published in December 2017, Health Education England (HEE) set out the need to target additional training support.
As part of the development of the NHS People Plan, HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications for further development of cancer services. This will include ensuring sustainable growth beyond 2021 in key professions (including radiography) through continued investment in training places, with a greater focus on attracting and retaining students and improving the numbers of qualified professionals who go on to work in the National Health Service. The number of radiographers required will be addressed in the final NHS People Plan and is dependent on the service model used by each NHS trust.
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care or in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.
As at February 2019, latest available data, there were over 14,000 full time equivalent diagnostic radiographers and over 2,000 therapeutic radiographers employed by the NHS trusts and CCGs, 2,990 and 726 more, respectively, since 2010.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many radiographers are required to fulfil the long-term objectives of the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
In the Cancer Workforce Plan for England which was published in December 2017, Health Education England (HEE) set out the need to target additional training support.
As part of the development of the NHS People Plan, HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications for further development of cancer services. This will include ensuring sustainable growth beyond 2021 in key professions (including radiography) through continued investment in training places, with a greater focus on attracting and retaining students and improving the numbers of qualified professionals who go on to work in the National Health Service. The number of radiographers required will be addressed in the final NHS People Plan and is dependent on the service model used by each NHS trust.
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care or in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.
As at February 2019, latest available data, there were over 14,000 full time equivalent diagnostic radiographers and over 2,000 therapeutic radiographers employed by the NHS trusts and CCGs, 2,990 and 726 more, respectively, since 2010.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made in implementing the decisions made at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting held in London in April 2018.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs wrote to the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) on 15 May 2019 enclosing an update on progress against commitments made at the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. I refer the Noble Lord to this report, which the FAC has now published on their website.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is guidance indicating the period within which ministers must answer correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers; and if so, within what period of time they advise that ministers should provide such answers.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Cabinet Office issues guidance to all Government departments on the handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, MEPs and Members of Devolved Administrations. The most recent edition was issued in March 2016 and is publicly available on Gov.uk.
All departments should set targets for replying to correspondence from MPs and Peers. These targets (which may be different to the targets set for other types of correspondence) will be published in the annual correspondence report coordinated by the Cabinet Office. Individual departments' targets for routine correspondence from MPs should be a maximum of 20 working days, and the Cabinet Office encourages departments to consider setting themselves more challenging targets. When calculating the target date for reply, the clock should start the day after the correspondence was received.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the criteria by which applications for the families of non-UK Commonwealth nationals serving in the UK armed forces to settle in the UK are decided.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Family members of any member of the UK Armed Forces, regardless of the nationality of the service person, can apply for settlement in the UK under the Immigration Rules contained in Appendix Armed Forces.
The eligibility criteria for family members of members of the Forces are set out in full online in Appendix Armed Forces:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-armed-forces
This makes clear that to be eligible for settlement in the UK requires the following criteria to be met. Partners of members of the Forces must have completed a period of 60 months limited leave under Appendix Armed Forces – sometimes called the “probationary period”. Partners and over-18 children must demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the English language and knowledge about life in the UK. Their sponsor in the Forces must meet the appropriate minimum income thresholds to sponsor a partner or children, and the applicant must not fall for refusal on suitability grounds.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many non-UK Commonwealth nationals serving in the UK armed forces have (1) applied for their families to settle with them in the UK in each of the last ten years, and (2) been refused such permission.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Home Office does not hold the information requested from centrally collated statistical databases as we do not hold data on sponsors. This information could only be obtained by a manual case by case review to collate the data which would be disproportionately expensive.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many non-UK Commonwealth nationals are serving in the UK armed forces.
Answered by Earl Howe
The table below shows the number of Commonwealth citizens serving in our Armed Forces as at 1 October 2018:
Service | Royal Navy/ Royal Marines | Army | Royal Air Force | Total |
Regulars | 510 | 3,890 | 90 | 4,500 |
FR20 Reserves | 10 | 190 | 10 | 210 |
Total | 520 | 4,080 | 100 | 4,710 |
The 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the Regular forces represent 3.3% of the Regular trained strength. The 210 Commonwealth citizens in the FR20 Reserves represent 0.65% of the FR20 Reserve trained strength.
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