Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on civil servants giving evidence to House of Lords committees, and under what circumstances a request for such evidence may be declined.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government, including the Civil Service, is committed to being as accommodating as possible when requests are made by Select Committees. The Cabinet Office has dedicated guidance for Civil Servants about giving evidence to House of Lords Select Committees. Officials will always carefully consider requests to give evidence. When they do accept such invitations, they require Ministerial agreement and are there to represent the Minister's views.
In the event that a Select Committee requests a named civil servant from a department and the department feels that they are not the most appropriate person to represent the Minister, the department has the right to suggest an alternative to the Committee. There may be rare examples where the Department and Ministers feel an official is unable to attend, but the guidance is clear that if a Department considers it is unable to meet any requests from the Select Committee, they should inform the Committee as soon as practicably possible and set out the reasons why.
As Leader of the House of Lords, I have made it clear to my Ministerial Colleagues, that Ministers in both Houses should make every effort to facilitate Select Committee requests, including evidence session attendance.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to improve funding opportunities for grassroots music venues to prevent them from closing down.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.
That is why we will support them to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The department works closely with interested parties and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive.
HM Government has provided significant support to the live music sector. This includes more than £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through the Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund via Arts Council England since 2019.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they will address the uneven funding between (1) contemporary music, and (2) opera or classical music, to ensure that grassroots music venues are well supported.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.
That is why we are supporting them to develop the next generation of British talent, by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other government support provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.
Contemporary, operatic, and classical music subsectors receive funding through a wide variety of sources, including Arts Council England. Decisions made by the Arts Council about the allocation of funding are taken at arm's length from Government. Decisions are made in line with the Council’s ten-year strategy, which sets the direction for all of the artforms and sub-sectors it supports, including opera, contemporary, and classical music.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they are taking to ensure financial support is provided for grassroots music, such as a ticket levy on large arenas and stadiums.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.
That is why we will support them to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The department works closely with interested parties and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive.
HM Government has provided significant support to the live music sector. This includes more than £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through the Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund via Arts Council England since 2019.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 24 March (HL6900), how they are able to manage their functions without information on the number of Home Office staff working from home; and why they do not collect such information.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Home Office staff are working from home; and what proportion of the department this represents.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Throughout the pandemic, all Civil Service employers have followed Government guidance in setting out their internal COVID-19 related policies. This includes complying with the Working Safely during Coronavirus: Guidance which sets out the key actions organisations should take to protect employees and customers in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading in workplaces, along with carrying out health and safety risk assessments that include the ongoing risk from COVID-19.
On 21 February 2022, the Government published their 'Covid-19 Response: Living with Covid-19' This document sets out how and when the remaining restrictions will be lifted in England. Government guidance was subsequently amended, including the Working Safely guidance.
The Government’s Working Safely guidance continues to require organisations to carry out a risk assessment which includes the risk from COVID-19. It also sets out additional actions organisations can take to protect employees and customers in the workplace, such as ensuring adequate ventilation, frequent cleaning, asking people to wash their hands frequently and asking people with COVID-19 to stay away. The guidance advises that people continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed settings where they come into contact with people they do not normally meet, when rates of transmission are high. Civil Service employers will continue to follow this guidance and align their policies accordingly.
Home Office staff conducts a wide range of roles requiring varying levels of attendance at the workplace. Our hybrid working model means that all staff, whose role permits, have the ability to work from home for a proportion of their working hours.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff are working from home; and what proportion of the department this represents.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO does not collect information on the number of our staff working from home.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many GPs retired in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, and (3) 2021.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The following table shows the number of general practitioners who have retired from the NHS Pension Scheme in each year since 2019.
Scheme Year End | Number of retirements |
2019 | 1,144 |
2020 | 1,193 |
2021 | 1,331 |
Source: NHS Business Authority
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to answer the Written Questions tabled by Lord Watts on 17 November (HL4171, HL4172 and HL4173).
Answered by Lord Kamall
We responded to the noble Lord’s questions on 16 December and 29 December respectively.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Kamall on 16 November (HL Deb, cols. 158–160), how many doctors were employed by the NHS in (1) 2019, and (2) 2021.
Answered by Lord Kamall
In August 2019, there were 115,469 full time equivalent (FTE) Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) doctors working in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England and 126,625 in August 2021. There were 34,433 FTE doctors in general practice in England as at 30 September 2019 and 36,275 in September 2021.