Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to agree the Church Supplemental Agreement.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department is currently considering the changes proposed by the Church of England Education Office and Catholic Education Service to the Church Supplemental Agreement and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ensure the balance of enabling free speech in universities whilst mitigating the potential risk caused by extremist speakers.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universities are legally required to take reasonable steps to ensure freedom of speech for staff, students and visiting speakers. This includes publishing a code of conduct setting out how they do this. They must balance this duty alongside their other legal responsibilities including the statutory Prevent duty which requires them to have due regard to avoid the potential risk of people being drawn into terrorism.
The Prevent guidance for Higher Education sets out that universities should have policies in place for the management of external speakers and events. This includes guidance on how universities balance their duty to promote free speech whilst mitigating the potential risk to safety or welfare that may be posed by extremist speakers.
The Department for Education’s regional Prevent coordinator network provides additional support to universities to enable them to assess the potential risks from certain speakers and how to take mitigating action to ensure that ideas and opinions can be heard, challenged and debated.
The statutory Prevent duty is monitored by the Higher Education Funding Council for England who report to us that institutions are properly balancing the need to protect their students, whilst ensuring that freedom of speech on campus is not undermined.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the barriers to accessing chaplaincy in prisons.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Prison Service is committed to enabling prisoners to practice their religion, and all prisons have multi faith chaplaincy teams to enable and facilitate this. Instructions and guidance on religious practice in prisons is set out in PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners).
Formal assurance visits (which include a focus group with prisoners) are made to each prison regularly by a member of the Chaplaincy HQ team to assure the Governor/Director and Head of Chaplaincy of compliance with the PSI. In this way, and through the use of the application system by which prisoners can request to see a Chaplain, any issues or barriers can be identified in a systematic way by local prison management and HQ. The Head of Chaplaincy meets regularly with Faith Advisers for the National Offender Management Service, as well as faith based organisations.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are working with prison chaplains and faith groups to protect prisoners’ right to practise their faith.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Prison Service is committed to enabling prisoners to practice their religion, and all prisons have multi faith chaplaincy teams to enable and facilitate this. Instructions and guidance on religious practice in prisons is set out in PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners).
Formal assurance visits (which include a focus group with prisoners) are made to each prison regularly by a member of the Chaplaincy HQ team to assure the Governor/Director and Head of Chaplaincy of compliance with the PSI. In this way, and through the use of the application system by which prisoners can request to see a Chaplain, any issues or barriers can be identified in a systematic way by local prison management and HQ. The Head of Chaplaincy meets regularly with Faith Advisers for the National Offender Management Service, as well as faith based organisations.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they define non-violent extremism.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Counter-Extremism Strategy, published last year, sets out the Government’s commitment to addressing all of the harms caused by extremists.
In addition to terrorism, these harms can include advocating the segregation of communities; discrimination against women and girls and promotion of illegal practices like forced marriage; encouraging hatred of others; and the rejection of democracy and the rule of law. Extremists provide an ideological justification for these harms, which are fundamentally at odds with the values that underpin our society.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to prevent the exclusion of particular faith communities when delivering the Counter-Extremism Strategy.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Counter-Extremism Strategy makes it clear that tackling extremism is not something that Government can do alone. The Government is engaging with a wide range of faith communities on delivery of the Strategy. Faith groups play a vital role in tackling hatred and intolerance in our communities and in promoting positive values. The Government will work in partnership with any group or individual that stands up to extremism and the harm it causes in our society.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will define structured training in relation to their review of training for faith leaders in public institutions in the Counter-Extremism Strategy.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The review is considering the training provided by public institutions to faith leaders of all faiths working in the prison service, health service, schools and higher and further education. The review is not examining the theological content of religious teaching.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to work with existing faith groups which have a strong history of providing training for faith leaders in public institutions.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government works with a range of faith groups and I regularly meet faith leaders and representatives of faith community groups as part of my role as Minister for Faith and Integration.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps have they taken to implement the recommendations of Dame Sally Coates’ review of education in prisons <i>Unlocking Potential: A review of education in prisons.</i>
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The White Paper Prison Safety and Reform described the steps the Government has already taken to strip out unnecessary rules and governance from prison education contracts to allow governors more oversight and control. The document committed to implementing a number of recommendations from Dame Sally Coates’ review, and said that further plans will be set out in a detailed education strategy to be published later this year.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve support available to children and families of prisoners.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
As set out in our recent White Paper on Prison Safety and Reform, we are committed to giving prisoners the support and help they need to maintain and strengthen family ties.
Lord Farmer, working in partnership with Clinks, has been commissioned to investigate how supporting men in prison to engage with their families can help reduce reoffending and assist in addressing intergenerational crime. He is expected to report this Spring.
From this Autumn 2017, we will devolve the family service budgets to governors so that they have flexibility over how to spend it. In advance of that, we are re-procuring contracts so that governors have maximum flexibility and discretion to put in place the services that would best meet the needs of their prisoners. We are also reviewing best practice in existing service provision, including provision of family days and other family learning activities.