Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to build consensus among international partners on halting the supply of arms to all parties funding, sheltering or supporting proscribed terrorist groups, including Hamas.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty and fully implements its provisions. While the Treaty does not explicitly prohibit transfers to non-state actors, the UK considers that the requirements in Article 7 (Export and Export Assessment) and Article 11 (Diversion) require States Parties to take all appropriate steps to prevent the sale or diversion of arms to undesirable end uses or end users, including terrorist groups. Specifically, Article 7 deals with exports which would 'undermine peace and security' or could be used to breach international conventions or protocols relating to terrorism to which the exporting state is a party.
The Government will also not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, which includes Criterion 1: respect for the UK's international obligations and commitments. An export licence will also be refused if there is a risk that the items will be diverted to an undesirable end-user or for an undesirable end-use, including to terrorist organisations.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for the UK’s foreign policy of Israel’s claims to have discovered a Hamas intelligence command centre and terror tunnels beneath UNWRA’s Gaza headquarters.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK takes allegations of neutrality violations seriously including any incidents related to UN installations. This is something we monitor closely in our annual assessment of UNRWA. When violations have been identified in the past, UNRWA has taken action including raising the issue with relevant parties.
We are aware that the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and Catherine Colonna have now provided their interim reports to the UN Secretary-General. Their independent investigations include assessment of the policies and systems UNRWA has in place to ensure neutrality.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the devolved governments about the possibility of expanding the National Parking Platform to the whole of the UK, so that motorists can use a parking app of preference and are no longer faced with up to 30 separate parking apps.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
My Department recognises the importance of the National Parking Platform which is why we have provided £800,000 to fund the pilot in Manchester. We are considering the governance and funding requirements for a nationwide roll out of the platform in England. There have been no discussions to date on this topic with the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to expand the National Parking Platform, given the dismantling of many car parking payment machines and their replacement with mobile apps.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
My Department recognises the importance of the National Parking Platform which is why we have provided £800,000 to fund the pilot in Manchester. We are considering the governance and funding requirements for a nationwide roll out of the platform in England. There have been no discussions to date on this topic with the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who are severely mentally impaired received an exemption or a discount on council tax in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Local authorities are responsible for administering council tax, including exemptions such as those available to someone assessed as being severely mentally impaired. Authorities should satisfy themselves that an individual has both a certificate from a medical practitioner and is entitled to one of a range of listed benefits, including Attendance Allowance. Attendance Allowance is available to people of State Pension Age who have had care or supervision needs for at least six months. Councils should ensure that any applications for a council tax exemption are dealt with as quickly as possible.
Data are collected for England by local authorities and the latest data, for 2022-23, can be (attached) found here.
Data are not collected on the number of people who are severely mentally impaired and receive an exemption.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that severely mentally impaired persons who are entitled to attendance allowance qualify for an exception or a discount on council tax within six months of being diagnosed as severely medically impaired by a medical practitioner.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Local authorities are responsible for administering council tax, including exemptions such as those available to someone assessed as being severely mentally impaired. Authorities should satisfy themselves that an individual has both a certificate from a medical practitioner and is entitled to one of a range of listed benefits, including Attendance Allowance. Attendance Allowance is available to people of State Pension Age who have had care or supervision needs for at least six months. Councils should ensure that any applications for a council tax exemption are dealt with as quickly as possible.
Data are collected for England by local authorities and the latest data, for 2022-23, can be (attached) found here.
Data are not collected on the number of people who are severely mentally impaired and receive an exemption.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the Palestinian Authority's compliance with the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Human Rights is a crucial element underpinning the UK's foreign policy. We continue to urge the Palestinian Authority (PA) to respect human rights, to ensure complaints of mistreatment or arbitrary detention are properly investigated and to further improve the performance of the security sector. An essential aspect of our efforts to prepare the ground for a two state-solution is to support a stable PA that can deliver services to its people and act as an effective partner for peace with Israel. The UK will continue to monitor these areas closely and raise with the highest levels of the PA.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether reports of antisemitic and extremist content in Palestinian school textbooks adhere to (1) the Palestinian Authority–Department for International Development Memorandum of Understanding, and (2) the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to take action against incitement to violence.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our partnership with the Palestinian Authority (PA) includes a commitment from the Palestinian leadership to adhere to the principle of non-violence and to tackle language and actions that could incite violence or hatred. We have been clear that incitement to hatred or violence is unacceptable and has no place in education. We continue to assess the PA's commitment to peace in line with our Partnership Principles.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Answer by Lord Bellamy on 29 November on humanist marriages (HL Deb col 1668), why they have committed to legislating for outdoor religious marriages outside of wholesale reform of marriage law.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in which the circumstances were exceptional, the Government accelerated legislation to allow outdoor civil weddings and civil partnership registrations to take place within the grounds of existing approved premises. Following a recent consultation on these measures, the provisions were made permanent. In addition, respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal to permit outdoor religious ceremonies in the grounds of places of worship, as long as this is permitted by the respective religious bodies. The Government will therefore take these proposals forward in due course.
The Law Commission’s report on weddings law was published in July and the Government is currently considering its recommendations. As has been set out in Parliament, marriage will always be one of our most important institutions and we must ensure that before publishing a response, we have considered the implications of any changes to the law very carefully.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will issue a full response to the Law Commission’s weddings law report Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law, published on 19 July.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is currently considering the Law Commission’s report on weddings law and has a duty to consider the implications of any changes to the law in this area very carefully. The report proposes fundamental reform to weddings law in England and Wales and it is important that we take the time to fully consider the Law Commission’s recommendations before publishing a response. We will publish our response to the report in due course.