Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Lipsey, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
A Bill to amend the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015 in order to provide for a five year reporting period instead of an annual reporting period.
A Bill to amend the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015 in order to provide for a five year reporting period instead of an annual reporting period
Lord Lipsey has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
We want all LGBT people to be free to be themselves and remain committed to banning conversion therapy. The ban on conversion therapy will protect everyone and will apply to attempts to change a person to or from being transgender.
Under our proposals, people who are transgender or are exploring their transgender status, including under 18s, will remain able to access the support they need from qualified health professionals without change. Parents and teachers will, of course, continue to be able to have conversations with young people or others about whether they are transgender or not. It is important that people are able to have open and explorative conversations that allow them to come to the right decision for themselves.
We will work with the relevant authorities to ensure that our legislative interventions operate effectively.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Lipsey,
As Head of the Office for Statistics Regulation and Director General for Regulation at the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what requests for assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics have been made under section 12(1) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 in respect of statistics relating to the COVID-19 pandemic (HL8482).
?To date, no requests for assessment have been made under section 12(1) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 relating to COVID-19 statistics[1]. The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) established a short series of rapid reviews to provide timely, independent reassurance and challenge on some key statistics that were developed in response to the pandemic. The outcomes of those 12 reviews are available on the OSR website[2].
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson
[1]A formal request for assessment made under section 12(1) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 is just one way for the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to exercise its statutory powers. Re-assessments of existing National Statistics are carried out proactively by OSR under section 14(1) of the Act. In addition, for example, OSR carries out larger-scale reviews of systemic issues, shorter compliance checks and responds to correspondence about official statistics. OSR received three section 12(1) requests for assessment in 2019, and has received two requests to date in 2020, none of which related to COVID-19 statistics.
Ahead of the Bill’s introduction, the Government engaged with parliamentary parties, and electoral administrator representatives, and there was general acceptance of an 8-year cycle.
The Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) scheme is run by the Welsh Government and provides grants to fund (or part-fund) the installation costs of new broadband connections for homes and businesses in Wales. New connections through this scheme must deliver a step change in speed, with at least double current download speeds. However, it does not require all connections to be gigabit-capable.
The UK Government’s focus is on the delivery of Project Gigabit across the whole of the UK. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Over 75% of UK premises now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection, which is a significant increase from 6% in January 2019.
We are delivering a series of procurements to provide subsidies to broadband suppliers to build gigabit-capable infrastructure to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans alone. We have already awarded eight Project Gigabit contracts and launched a further 18 procurements across the country, making over £1.2 billion of funding available to cover up to 850,000 premises. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme also provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband via local community broadband projects.
The Official Receiver is a statutory office holder whose role is set out in legislation, primarily the Insolvency Act 1986. The operational practice of the Official Receiver, with regard to all matters in which an Official Receiver is appointed, is kept under review to reflect developments in legislation and case law.
The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require firms in regulated sectors, including those regulated by the Gambling Commission, to obtain and verify certain information about their customers. Firms must have in place appropriate risk management systems and procedures to determine whether a customer is a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), or a family member or known close associate of a PEP. This is in line with the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.
Original measures on PEPs were put into UK law via the transposition of the European Union’s fourth money laundering directive in June 2017, as was the legal requirement at the time. There was therefore no risk assessment undertaken specifically by the UK but the impact assessment from this process can be found here. The Financial Action Task Force is the international standard-setter in anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing, and its guidance on PEPs can be found here.
HM Treasury is currently undertaking a review of the 2017 Regulations. As part of this review, the proportionality of current requirements regarding domestic PEPs is being considered and balanced alongside the risks posed to the UK’s financial system, and our international obligations to mitigate these risks. The Review will be published this summer.
On 29 December, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced that primary schools in 50 local authorities across London and the South East would remain closed to all but children of critical workers and vulnerable children for the first two weeks of term. 23 of London’s 33 boroughs were included in this initial decision. On 1 January, in light of the rapidly changing situation, we extended these restrictions to cover all 33 London Boroughs.
In considering which areas may be suitable for primary restrictions under our contingency framework, the department worked closely with Public Health England, the Joint Biosecurity Centre, NHS Test & Trace and the Department for Health and Social Care using the most recent data available. We used a balanced approach rather than simple threshold cut-offs and took all factors into account, but with particular focus on: very high rates of infection; particularly high increases in seven-day case rates; and intelligence about pressure on the NHS.
These were not easy decisions to make, but they were made according to the best clinical advice and the criteria set out in the COVID-19 Winter Plan, which are:
- Case detection rates in all age groups;
- Case detection rates in all the over 60s;
- The rate at which cases are rising or falling;
- Positivity rate; and
- Pressure on the NHS.
The national lockdown announced on 4 January replaced the restrictions that had been active in some primary schools under the contingency framework. We will be continually reviewing the restrictions on schools, colleges and universities to ensure that children can return to school when the pressures are easing on the NHS.
These decisions do not suggest that schools and colleges are no longer safe places. Instead, limiting attendance is about reducing the number of contacts that all of us have with people in other households.
The Government currently has no plans to introduce number plates for cyclists. The absence of a number plate does not prevent a cyclist from being liable for their actions. For those who do not adopt a responsible attitude, or if their use of the highway creates an unsafe environment, there are laws in place that can make them liable for prosecution. Enforcement of cycling offences is a matter for the police.
It is a long-standing requirement to return the previous driving licence to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) when a new licence has been issued. This helps to reduce the number of previous driving licences in circulation and to ensure that drivers only have one licence at any time. This requirement is currently under consideration.
No specific estimate has been made of the annual cost to customers to return their previous driving licence.
Entitlement to a Winter Fuel Payment is based on the circumstances of the household which the claimant has reported as their permanent address. Claimants of benefits, pensions and Winter Fuel Payments have an obligation to report relevant changes to the Department, including changes of address and (where material to entitlement) changes to their household make-up.
The information requested is not held centrally.
We have listened to the concerns of local government and have taken the difficult decision to delay the planned adult social care charging reforms from October 2023 to October 2025. The funding intended for implementation will be retained in local authority budgets to meet current pressures.
Lowering the cap from £86,000 to £35,000, while all other parameters remain unchanged, would double the estimated additional state spend for reform on older adults in 2027/28, when modelled in 2021/22 prices.
This information is not collected in the format requested. NHS Digital collects data on recipients of long-term care aged 65 years old and over who are supported by local authorities. However, its data collection does not differentiate between those who are funded in whole and those who are funded in part by their local authority.
The data is not available in the format requested. From 2015 NHS Digital collected data the number of new Deferred Payment Agreements (DPAs) agreed during the year and the total number of outstanding DPAs at the end of the year on a voluntary basis. In 2016-17 the collection became part mandatory and later fully mandatory in 2017-18. However, this data does not include the total number of DPAs concluded, therefore does not confirm how many people used a DPA on an annual basis.
Nursing services provided or funded by the National Health Service are not subject to a financial assessment and contribution by the individual. NHS-funded nursing care will not count towards the £86,000 cap on social care costs due to be introduced in October 2023.
The proposed cap will begin to take effect from October 2023. To prepare for the implementation of the new system, local government will assess those who have eligible needs.
To ensure that the new system maintains fairness between people receiving domiciliary care and those receiving residential care, individuals will still be responsible for daily living costs, including accommodation costs. For those unable to cover the costs themselves, personal care costs and daily living costs will be means tested. Additionally, people who fall within the means test are guaranteed to retain a personal expenses allowance after daily living costs have been deducted.
We committed to ensuring local authorities have access to sustainable funding for core budgets at the forthcoming Spending Review. A full impact assessment will be published in due course, including an outline of the predicted costs to public funds of the cap on social care costs.
Allocations and profiles will be confirmed as part of the forthcoming Spending Review, which will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years. We will work with care users, providers and other partners to develop a white paper for reform later this year.
The Government’s initial infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance was developed by health protection and IPC experts in collaboration with clinicians. Expert reviews and advice from the Department’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group informed this guidance.
The original IPC guidance for dental teams, which was published in the NHS England and NHS Improvement standard operating procedure (SOP) was a summary of the COVID-19 IPC guidance.
The guidance for dental teams contained within the SOP has been replaced by an appendix to current main IPC guidance and provides updated post aerosol generating procedure downtime based on recommendations from the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme.
The increase in the number of cases over the past few weeks, affecting particularly young age groups, is not accounted by an increase in testing and indicated a real increase in incidence.
A ‘support bubble’ is a close support network between a household of any size and a single adult household. Households with more than one adult can expand their close support network so that it includes an additional single adult household.
Support bubbles should be exclusive. This means people should not switch the household they are in a support bubble with or make connections with multiple households. This is to avoid creating chains of transmission.
Public Health England and the Joint Biosecurity Centre established a Joint Situational Awareness Team that produces a daily situational awareness report to provide an overview of current COVID-19 epidemiology locally, regional and nationally using a range of epidemiological, clinical and other indicators (including testing data). These reports are disseminated to Directors of Public Health and discussed each morning with frontline health protection colleagues to ensure that local knowledge is factored into the interpretation of the data.
The use of probiotics and prebiotics to treat COVID-19 are not currently our priority in trials. The Government is investing across the board in both basic genetic research and clinical studies to find a sustainable treatment or vaccine against COVID-19. More information can be found in Our plan to rebuild: the UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy which is attached.
The Government has been at the forefront of the international response to the virus, co-hosting the Coronavirus Global Response Summit on 4 May, pledging £388 million in aid funding for research into vaccines, tests and treatment including £250 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Public Health England (PHE) reports data on all deaths in people who have had a positive COVID-19 test result confirmed by a public health or National Health Service laboratory. These data include COVID-19 related deaths from all settings, in hospital or elsewhere, and geographical details of residence are assigned using the home postcode of the person who died.
The Office for National Statistics is responsible for publishing mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. The data is taken from information recorded on the death certificate. The geographical location of a death is assigned according to the address recorded as the usual residence of the deceased. The location of death (hospital, care home, etc) is assigned according to the information provided on the death certificate about the place of death.
HMRC could not have considered the 2022-23 Communications and Digital Committee Report on Digital Exclusion when removing the postal address from tax code notices, as this change occurred over 5 years ago. In keeping with the HMRC Charter principles, the Department aims to balance digital initiatives with accessibility for those facing digital exclusion.
HMRC does not report on the median or upper decile wait times for telephone calls. However, HMRC publishes data on the average speed of answer for customer calls and the percentage of calls where the customer waited more than 10 minutes.
This information can be found at the following link:
HMRC removed postal address from notices to encourage customers to use their digital services and interact with them online through their Personal Tax Account. Customers can submit queries electronically via HMRC’s iForm, which is handled by a dedicated team similar post correspondence.
For those unable to engage online, HMRC continues to provide support through telephone, including the Extra Support Service. This service is for customers who cannot contact HMRC due to health or personal issues. They can request phone, video, or in-person appointments when calling the helplines, and HMRC’s advisers will assess their circumstances to offer the best option for them.
More information can be found on the Extra Support Service at:
Get help from HMRC if you need extra support: Help you can get - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
A simple Government Gateway account can be created with only an email address. The customer is provided with a unique username (Government Gateway ID) and is asked to create a password. This account will not have identity checks associated to it, so can only be used to access Government services which do not require identity checking. Where a customer needs to access services requiring identity checking, additional Identity Verification steps are provided by Government Gateway, based on the identity information the customer has available to them. It is recognised that this can be difficult for some customers, particularly those with limited digital skills or limited documented identity sources.
All Government Gateway Services follow accessibility rules and guidelines, when building, improving, or changing our systems. As well as completing user research and user testing to understand the impact to our customers. This testing is completed with a wide range of different users to understand the impact on our customers.
A Disability Impact Assessment is always completed, working with our accessibility partners to ensure that all accessibility needs are considered in anything we do.
From Spring 2024 onwards, HMRC will begin to migrate new and some existing Government Gateway customers to GOV.UK One Login. This is the Governments new strategic authentication and identity checking system, operated by the Government Digital Service in Cabinet Office, which is making it easier and faster for users to prove and reuse their identity to access the government services they need. Improving accessibility is at the heart of GOV.UK One Login; it offers multiple ways for people to prove who they are, including an in-person option, and a customer support centre to help users with lower digital skills
Initially, only a small number of users will be able to access HMRC services through GOV.UK One Login, with volumes building over time. This measured approach is designed to ensure a high quality experience for users as we expand its roll out.
The government does not collect data on the types of payments that are accepted by businesses. Nonetheless, the government recognises that many people continue to transact in cash across the UK and has legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash.
The government considers that this legislation will support organisations, including local businesses, to continue accepting cash by ensuring that they have reasonable access to cash deposit facilities.
The HMRC Technical help desk received 508 complaints for the period March 2022 to March 2023.
HM Treasury published the review of the UK’s AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism) regulatory and supervisory regime on 24 June 2022, which included a review assessing the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.[1]
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-uks-amlcft-regulatory-and-supervisory-regime
HMRC does not hold information on the breakdown of General Betting Duty revenue by forms of betting such as greyhound racing, horseracing and football.
Revenue from General Betting Duty largely paid by bookmakers on all forms of betting was £586 million in 2019 to 2020, £595 million in 2020 to 2021 and £649 million in 2021 to 2022.
No assessment has been made on the impact on receipts of the Gambling Commission’s proposals, which are currently subject to consultation.
As is the case with all taxes, the revenue from gambling taxation is subject to constant evaluation.
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to PQ HL4981 on 6 February 2023.
The Code was laid in Parliament in February 2022, after being written in conjunction with key industry and consumer stakeholders and subject to public consultation.
In June the DLUHC received two legal challenges from some members of the private parking industry against the decisions in the Code to introduce new levels of parking charges and to ban additional fees that are often added when those charges are not paid. In response, we temporarily withdrew the Code to undertake an impact assessment and further consultation, ahead of taking new decisions on these elements of the Code, on which my department is to consult further. I will confirm consultation timelines in due course.
I appreciate that this delay is frustrating, but I can assure you that I am keen to raise standards while following robust process to ensure that we create a new system that works for all.
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to PQ 54476 on 12 October 2022.