Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether direct and third-party payment Personal Healthcare Budgets for Continuing Healthcare are available to all those that need them; and what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS England provide such support when appropriate.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has not made an assessment of whether personal health budgets are available to people receiving National Health Service Continuing Healthcare (CHC) that need them. Operational delivery of CHC is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) with oversight from NHS England. Quarterly performance data is used by regional NHS England teams to inform ICB assurance.
Legislation requires ICBs to provide people eligible for CHC with information about personal health budgets, to offer them the option of taking them up, and to support them to do so.
NHS England expects that, unless there are exceptional circumstances, everyone living in their own home who is in receipt of CHC funding will have a personal health budget. In 2022/23, approximately 30,000 individuals eligible for CHC were in receipt of a personal health budget.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are aware of (1) any school in England receiving bomb threats, (2) any teacher receiving death threats, from Islamist extremists in the past five years; and if so, when, at which schools, and what they are doing to encourage the arrest of those responsible.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has been made aware of a small number of incidents of this nature initiated by individuals who have Islamist and other extremist views.
The department is clear that it is never acceptable to threaten or intimidate teachers and schools. Where the department has been aware of incidents of this nature, it has engaged with the school, local authority and the police to ensure an appropriate response.
The police, who are operationally independent, are responsible for investigating criminal activity associated with these incidents and will take action where they deem appropriate.
To support the sector, the department has published School and College security guidance, which includes dealing with incidents such as bomb threats.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 22 June (HL7956), whether they will now answer the question put; namely, what assessment they have made of any implications for national security arising from the funding received by schools from Qatar Foundation International for the teaching of religious education and Arabic in schools; and if they have made no such assessment, whether they intend to do so.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government continuously assesses threats posed to the UK. As a matter of longstanding policy, the department is unable to release information regarding threat assessments on the grounds of national security.
The government is clear that any challenges to its core values, whatever their origin, will not be tolerated.
If there is a concern that a school is not fulfilling its legal duties, complaints procedure should be followed. Where the department is made aware that schools are not fulfilling their legal duties, it will investigate.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether a Batley Grammar Schoolmaster and his family are in hiding after he showed his pupils a picture of Mohammed two years ago.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government remains dedicated to our commitment to tackling those who spread views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society and must always stand up to those who seek to undermine our fundamental values and spread hate.
The Home Office does not hold information on police protection in relation to this case. This is a matter for West Yorkshire Police, which is operationally independent of Government.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether schools in England are free to decide where collective prayer should take place on their premises.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Maintained schools and academies are required to conduct a daily act of collective worship which is wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character. Most schools with a religious designation may conduct collective worship which aligns with their trust deeds or tenets of their religion.
Daily acts of collective worship, subject to the right of withdrawal, must include all pupils attending a school. As a rule, all acts of collective worship should take place on the school premises and schools are free to determine where in the school it takes place. Schools have discretion to organise collective worship elsewhere on special occasions.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision by the Teacher Regulation Agency, dated 23 May, recommending that a prohibition order should be imposed on Mr Joshua Sutcliffe.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is important that processes relating to teacher misconduct are progressed without any political involvement. Decisions on whether to progress cases are taken independently by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).
An independent Professional Conduct Panel is appointed to hear cases and determine whether the evidence proves unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, or a conviction of a relevant offence. If so, the Professional Conduct Panel will make a recommendation on whether to prohibit the individual from teaching.
Following the recommendation, the decision to impose a prohibition order is taken by a senior TRA official. Although that decision is taken on behalf of the Secretary of State, neither she or any other Ministers in the department can have any involvement in these independent investigations, related processes, and decisions.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to clarify whether freedom of speech in the UK includes the right to criticise ideas around gender identity.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Freedom of expression has been interpreted in case law, for example on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and under the common law. The concept of freedom of speech is also described for specific purposes in legislation such as the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023. The fundamental right to freedom of speech is widely understood and protected by the courts. The Government has no plans to outline the specific content of freedom of speech on an issue-by-issue basis.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what legal rights parents have to access the teaching materials used at their children's schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All schools have a duty to share information about their curriculum with parents and, whilst this does not require them to share all of the teaching materials they use with parents routinely, the department has been very clear that schools should respond positively where parents request to see specific materials. On 31 March 2023, the Secretary of State wrote to all schools to set out that, under current arrangements, schools can and should share curriculum materials with parents, and the department would expect schools to avoid entering into any agreement with an external agency that seeks to prevent them from ensuring parents are properly aware of the materials that are being used to teach their children.
The department is aware that some parents have particular concerns about materials used to teach Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). The department will consider, as part of the review of the RSHE statutory guidance, whether any further changes are needed to reinforce the need for transparency around RSHE materials.
In May 2023, the Secretary of State announced the details of the independent expert advisory panel who will advise on the review of the RSHE curriculum. They have been tasked with identifying the topics within the curriculum which would benefit from age limits.
It will remain important that schools take full responsibility for ensuring lessons and materials are age appropriate, suitable, and politically impartial, particularly when using materials produced by external organisations.
Oak National Academy, the independent provider of freely available online curriculum and lesson resources, will develop curriculum materials to make sure every school can access high quality, compliant RSHE resources.
Schools may choose to use curriculum materials developed by Oak, an Arm’s Length Body, working independently of Government and collaboratively with the education sector. Oak works with teachers across the country, giving them and their pupils access to free, optional, and adaptable high quality digital curriculum resources. Its current resources can be viewed online at: https://www.thenational.academy/. Oak is developing new resources which will begin to become available from this Autumn.
Schedule 4 Paragraph 7(a) of the School Information Regulations (England) 2008/3093 requires all maintained schools to publish their school curriculum on their website. The guidance for this is outlined online at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-maintained-schools-must-publish-online.
All academies must follow a similar process for their school curriculum. The guidance for this is outlined online at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-academies-free-schools-and-colleges-should-publish-online.
If a parent feels that a maintained school is failing to comply with its legal requirements relating to the provision of the curriculum, or that the school is acting unreasonably in the way it complies with them, they can make a formal complaint to the governing body by following the school’s statutory complaints procedures.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of, and what action they have taken in response to, the review by Sir John Jenkins into the philosophy and values of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its alleged connection with extremists and violence.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood remains as set out in the summary report published in December 2015, which concluded the movement is a secretive organisation and that parts of it – globally – have a highly ambiguous relationship with violent extremism. The UK Government continues to stand by the judgments of the review.
The Government keeps under review the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities and views when appropriate to ensure our position is based on the latest information available and we will consider action in accordance with the five commitments included in the former Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament, if and where legal thresholds are met.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people, in each of the past three years, have been prosecuted under section 127(1) or (2) of the Communications Act 2003.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of prosecutions for offences under section 127(1) or (2) of the Communications Act 2003, in England and Wales, in the Outcomes by Offence tool, available via the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Using the Offence filter, select ‘196 Communications Act 2003 S.127 - Sending grossly offensive message/matter by electronic communications network’.
The data requested is also provided in the table below.
Total number of defendants prosecuted for offences under section 127(1) or (2) of the Communications Act 2003, England and Wales, 2020 to 2022:
Year | Count |
2020 | 1,100 |
2021 | 1,343 |
2022 | 1,272 |
Source: Court Proceedings Database
Notes:
1) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
2) The figures given in the table relate to defendants for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
3) The figures given in the table relate to the following offence under section 127(1) or (2) of the Communications Act 2003: '19607 - Improper use of public electronic communications network'.