Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the temporary at-home abortion policy will end with the expiration of Coronavirus Act 2020 in March 2022.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are considering all evidence submitted to the Government’s public consultation on whether to make permanent the temporary measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion. We will publish our response as soon as possible. The approval was put in place on a temporary basis and is time limited for two years or until the end of the pandemic.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make it her policy to make her Department's humanitarian programmes in Pakistan conditional on the Government of Pakistan's steps to protect freedom of religion or belief minority groups from forced conversions and marriages in that country.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Home Secretary
We frequently raise the issues of freedom of religion or belief and human rights with the Government of Pakistan, including with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Qureshi. We press the Pakistan Government to honour its international commitments and obligations. UK aid in Pakistan targets the most marginalised and vulnerable communities, and we fund programmes that work to address discrimination against minorities and gender-based violence.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what consultations his Department has had with prison officers before raising their retirement age to 68.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Prior to 2007, the pension age within the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme was 60. In July 2007 Cabinet Office introduced a career average scheme for new entrants, which increased the normal pension age from 60 to 65. In designing the 2007 scheme, Cabinet Office did give consideration to the fact that the prison officer role was a physically demanding one, but they concluded that, as there were a number of other Civil Servants whose jobs were similarly demanding, that a lower pension age could not be justified compared to other scheme members. From 2015 the pension age in the Civil Service Pension Scheme was increased to reflect the State Penson Age of the member, after the recommendations made in the 2011 Hutton Report on the sustainability of public sector pensions.
We highly value our hardworking prison staff and offer access to medical professionals and an employee assistance programme to ensure continued physical and mental wellbeing. The pension age for Prison Officers is set under the Civil Service Pension Scheme, which is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office and consultation was undertaken by them.
I have met the Prison Officer’s Association for our introductory meeting at which a range of issues were raised, including pension age. I am meeting them in the new year to discuss this issue again.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether police forces receive training on methods of removing those who obstruct public highways and thoroughfares.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The actions being taken by the Insulate Britain (IB) group to block the M25 have caused major upheaval and disruption to the public. That is why we intend to use the PCSC Bill to increase the maximum penalty for obstruction of a highway from the current £1,000 fine to an unlimited fine, six months’ imprisonment, or both.
The police have extensive training programmes for dealing with public order, this includes tactics for removing those who are obstructing public highways and thoroughfares.
Each public order trained officer receives a concentrated training refresher at least once a year. Police forces have specialist “protester removal teams” who are trained to quickly and effectively remove those who are obstructing public highways and thoroughfares, and who will receive even more regular training.
Individual training packages are determined by police forces with guidance provided by the college of policing.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, published in February 2021 and the Answer of 29 June 2021 to Question 19486, what legal advice was used to inform the information and guidance provided in Chapter 12 on Transgender People.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
No assessment of the effect of the Equal Treatment Bench Book is made by the Ministry of Justice. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College, which also produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Fair treatment is a fundamental principle embedded in the judicial oath and the Equal Treatment Bench Book is compiled by the judiciary to provide general guidelines for judicial office holders to apply as appropriate in any particular case. It is reviewed by a judicial editorial panel, with content from judicial experts and information from subject experts. The identities of the principal contributors appear in the Acknowledgments. The external documentary sources relied upon by the editors of the Bench Book are set out in full in the footnotes.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 330 in Chapter 12 of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, what evidence exists to support the claim that It is important to be alive to the fact that the gender history of a person may be something an opponent litigant may seek to use in order to place pressure on them.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
No assessment of the effect of the Equal Treatment Bench Book is made by the Ministry of Justice. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College, which also produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Fair treatment is a fundamental principle embedded in the judicial oath and the Equal Treatment Bench Book is compiled by the judiciary to provide general guidelines for judicial office holders to apply as appropriate in any particular case. It is reviewed by a judicial editorial panel, with content from judicial experts and information from subject experts. The identities of the principal contributors appear in the Acknowledgments. The external documentary sources relied upon by the editors of the Bench Book are set out in full in the footnotes.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference t to Chapter 12 of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, what assessment he has made of the effect on victims of violent and sexual assault of instances where those victims are instructed to use preferred pronouns instead of referring to their alleged attacker as a member of the sex that they experienced them to be.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
No assessment of the effect of the Equal Treatment Bench Book is made by the Ministry of Justice. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College, which also produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Fair treatment is a fundamental principle embedded in the judicial oath and the Equal Treatment Bench Book is compiled by the judiciary to provide general guidelines for judicial office holders to apply as appropriate in any particular case. It is reviewed by a judicial editorial panel, with content from judicial experts and information from subject experts. The identities of the principal contributors appear in the Acknowledgments. The external documentary sources relied upon by the editors of the Bench Book are set out in full in the footnotes.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What assessment his Department has made of the future of the provision allowing both sets of abortion pills to be taken at home.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Government has undertaken a public consultation on whether to make permanent the current temporary measure for home use of both pills for early medical abortion. We are considering all evidence submitted and plan to publish our response later this year. The temporary measure will be kept in place until a decision has been made.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, published in 2019, that neonatal stabilisation may be considered from 22 weeks gestation.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department has considered the ‘Framework on Perinatal Management of Extreme Preterm Birth before 27 Weeks of Gestation’ published by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine.
MBRRACE-UK published guidance in November 2020 to support health care professionals in the assessment and documentation of signs of life in extremely preterm births to support consistent decision making about birth classification.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the research by Hakansson et alia, published in the journal Pediatrics in July 2004, on increases in the number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation that can survive outside the womb and the increase in that number with proactive perinatal care, what plans his Department has to review the time limits on abortion in the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
It is for Parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion. As with other matters of conscience, abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance and allows hon. Members to vote according to their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.