Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to initiate a serious case review into the case of the vulnerable adult who was imprisoned and abused by Keith and Caroline Baker.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The decision as to whether to carry out a Safeguarding Adult Review is a matter for the relevant Safeguarding Adult Board.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the conviction of Gareth Malachy Doris for fuel laundering offences, whether the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland will revoke his licence in accordance with the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Answered by Lord Dunlop
Protecting the safety and security of the people of Northern Ireland will always be our first priority.
Prisoners released under the terms of The Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 will have been released on either a Life or a Determinate licence, depending on the sentence handed down by the courts at the time of conviction. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland may suspend the licence of an individual released under the terms of this Act if he believes that the person concerned has broken or is likely to break a condition of the licence, providing the licence handed down by the courts has not expired. Individuals released by the courts on a Determinate licence would be eligible for a licence suspension until the date their licence expires and those released on a life licence will remain eligible for a licence suspension for the remainder of their lives.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 6 December (HL3671) concerning the actions taken by police after the victim of Keith and Caroline Baker was reported missing from her home in England in 2004, why no assessment has been made; and whether they now intend to review the actions taken by police.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
This is an operational matter for the police and it would not be appropriate for the Department to undertake a review of police actions in this case.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the letter from Karen Bradley MP to Lord Morrow on 21 February 2014 (CTS Ref MS16/14), what assessment they have made of the actions taken by police after the victim of Keith and Caroline Baker was reported missing from her home in England in 2004.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Department does not hold any information on this case.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the actions taken by police after the victim of Keith and Caroline Baker was reported missing from her home in England in 2004, given that she was only found in 2012 in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Department does not hold any information on this case.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the pilot projects in five regions in England on the use of polygraph tests on sex offenders who are being managed in the community.
Answered by Lord Faulks
In April 2009 the National Offender Management Service commenced a pilot of mandatory polygraph examinations on sexual offenders in nine former Probation Trusts. Operating under legislation introduced in the Offender Management Act 2007, provision was made for all adult sexual offenders sentenced to 12 months or more for a sexual offence and released into the pilot areas to be required to comply with polygraph testing as one of their licence conditions. The pilot involved 332 offenders who were subject to the polygraph licence condition and 303 in a comparison group who were not.
The independent evaluation of the pilot concluded that sexual offenders subject to testing made more than twice the number of clinically significant disclosures than those in the comparison group who had not been subject to polygraph testing. In particular, the evaluation showed that polygraph testing increased the likelihood of preventative actions being taken by offender managers that would contribute to greater protection of the public from harm. The full report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-evaluation-of-the-mandatory-polygraph-pilot
In response to the positive outcomes of the pilot, provisions of the Offender Management Act 2007 were commenced in 2014 to impose the polygraph on all high risk sexual offenders released on licence. With effect from August 2014, all high risk sex offenders on licence are subject to polygraph tests conducted by specially trained staff in the National Probation Service.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many sex offenders are currently being managed in the community, broken down by police force in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Home Office does not collate figures on the number of sex offenders being managed in the community. However, registered sex offenders are managed through
Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and figures are contained in the annual MAPPA report, published by the Ministry of Justice on the Gov.uk website. The latest report covering the period from April 2013 to March 2014 is available at:
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, if the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are passed, any person created by the procedures provided for by that legislation will be followed-up in the way recommended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s Expert Panel on page 5 of their report,<i> Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception: update, 2013</i>.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 will not come into force until 29 October 2015. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will consider how best to apply a monitoring framework to clinics awarded a licence to carry out mitochondrial donation treatment, against which it would inspect.
The HFEA will announce its proposals for the regulation and monitoring of mitochondrial donation treatment cycles following the approval of regulations by Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what body will be responsible for overseeing clinical trials of pronuclear transfer and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The provision of treatment services involving the use of the Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer mitochondrial donation techniques will not be provided as a clinical trial.
Clinical trials are regulated by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, which implements the Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC. The Regulations do not cover treatment services.
The Regulations define a clinical trial as:
“clinical trial” means any investigation in human subjects, other than a non-interventional trial, intended—
(a) to discover or verify the clinical, pharmacological or other pharmacodynamic effects of one or more medicinal products,
(b) to identify any adverse reactions to one or more such products, or
(c) to study absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of one or more such products,
with the object of ascertaining the safety or efficacy of those products;”.
If the Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are approved by Parliament, clinics wishing to offer this service will need to seek prior approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Applications will be considered by the Authority on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether robust clinical trials are planned to take place for both pronuclear transfer and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer; and if not, why not.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The provision of treatment services involving the use of the Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer mitochondrial donation techniques will not be provided as a clinical trial.
Clinical trials are regulated by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, which implements the Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC. The Regulations do not cover treatment services.
The Regulations define a clinical trial as:
“clinical trial” means any investigation in human subjects, other than a non-interventional trial, intended—
(a) to discover or verify the clinical, pharmacological or other pharmacodynamic effects of one or more medicinal products,
(b) to identify any adverse reactions to one or more such products, or
(c) to study absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of one or more such products,
with the object of ascertaining the safety or efficacy of those products;”.
If the Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are approved by Parliament, clinics wishing to offer this service will need to seek prior approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Applications will be considered by the Authority on a case by case basis.