Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the origin of (a) munitions and (b) hardware used by the Israel Defence Force in the drone strikes that killed World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza on 1 April 2024.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Government is carefully reviewing Israel’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism (FFAM)’s initial findings of their investigations into the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers and welcome the suspension of two officers as a first step. The findings of the investigation must be published in full and followed up with a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency and accountability.
We continue to monitor the situation in Israel and Gaza closely but are not commenting on specific licences.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2024 to Question 24458 on Gaza: Aid Workers, whether it is his policy that there should be an independent inquiry into the killing of the British aid workers by the Israeli Defence Forces.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
As set out in the answer to Question 24458, we are carefully reviewing the initial findings of Israel's investigations into the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers and welcome the suspension of two officers as a first step. Their inquiry so far has highlighted failures in deconfliction processes and the unacceptable conduct of the IDF personnel involved. This must never happen again.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What steps his Department is taking to reduce delays in judicial processes.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We remain committed to tackling the outstanding caseloads across our courts and tribunals and have introduced a range of measures to achieve this aim.
While the listing of cases is an independent judicial function, we have consistently invested in judicial recruitment to ensure we have the capacity to deliver effective judicial processes. Since 2018, we have recruited around 1,000 judges and tribunal members annually, across all jurisdictions.
Criminal courts
Over 90% of all criminal cases are heard at the magistrates’ courts, where we heard 100,000 cases a month on average across 2023. While the outstanding caseload in the magistrates’ courts has slightly increased in recent months due to an increase in the number of cases coming to court, the caseload remains well below its pandemic peak and stood at 370,700 at the end of December 2023, and cases continue to be progressed quickly.
To aid our efforts in the magistrates’ courts, we invested £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of more magistrates. We aim to recruit 2,000 new and diverse magistrates this year, and similar numbers for each of the next couple of years.
At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload. We delivered 107,700 sitting days in the most recent financial year (FY23/24) and judges have worked tirelessly to complete more cases. The latest data shows cases progressed through the Crown Court more quickly throughout 2023, with the median time from receipt to completion reducing from 167 days in the first quarter of 2023, to 125 days in the last quarter.
We are also investing more in our criminal courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings, up to March 2025.
Family Court
In March 2024 the Family Justice Board agreed a new set of priorities for the family justice system, with a clear focus on closing the longest running cases and increasing the proportion of public law cases concluding within the 26-week statutory timeline.
We announced in the Spring Budget an additional £55 million to improve productivity, support earlier resolution of family disputes and reduce the number of cases coming to court. This includes creating a digital advice tool for separating couples, piloting early legal advice and supporting the expansion of the private law Pathfinder model. The Department for Education are investing an extra £10 million to deliver new initiatives to address the longest delays in public law.
We have provided the flexibility for judges to sit virtually across regional boundaries, so that judges can be deployed where they are needed most, to reduce the caseload and waiting times.
We are also investing up to £23.6 million in the family mediation voucher scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025. As of May 2024, over 28,600 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their private law disputes outside of court.
Civil courts
With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have a significant volume of judicial recruitment underway for District and Deputy District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation.
The requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service will start this spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.
The HMCTS Reform Program has introduced technology that delivers simplified and transformed digital ways of working for civil court users and judges such as the online money claims process and the damages claims service, offering accessible and responsive services.
Tribunals
With regards to the tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have helped the Tribunal to manage its caseload which remains below its pandemic peak.
We have rolled out the HMCTS digital reform programme in the Immigration and Asylum and Social Entitlement chambers so that anyone challenging an immigration or welfare benefits decision can lodge their appeal, track progress and receive the results all online.
HMCTS continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems and the use of remote hearing technology.
Asked by: Stephen Crabb (Conservative - Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to (a) monitor and (b) improve response times to prisoner medical emergencies.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Prison governors are responsible for ensuring that their establishments respond promptly and appropriately to medical emergencies, and all prison staff must be aware of their responsibilities for responding to a medical emergency (including resuscitation, and ligature removal) and of the local procedures in place to support a streamlined response.
Responses to medical emergencies in prisons are undertaken, and monitored, locally by both prison and healthcare staff, and vary in the degree of seriousness and the level of medical intervention that is required.
The time and type (‘Code Blue’ / ‘Code Red’) of a medical emergency is recorded by prison service staff when it is reported to them by telephone or via radio, and this will initiate a response which will include on-site NHS-commissioned healthcare staff and/or first-aid trained prison staff. Staff will assess what intervention is needed and determine whether hospital treatment is required.
Prison staff will arrange for an ambulance to attend, if needed, and escort it to the nearest, safest point of access to the patient. Arrival and departure times of ambulances are recorded locally. All such instances, including response times, are discussed between prison and healthcare staff. Depending on the seriousness of the emergency, this will be either as part of a full debrief or, on the following day, as part of the regular daily reflection on the previous day’s occurrences.
While arrival and departure times of ambulances are recorded by prisons, the responsibility for their response times lies with the NHS, and, therefore, any questions related to this element of emergency responses should be directed to the Department for Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 22287 on Gaza: Aid Workers and with reference to the investigation by the IDF which reported on 5 April 2024, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of that investigation into the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on 1 April 2024.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
As the Foreign Secretary has said we are carefully reviewing the initial findings of Israel's investigations into the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers and welcome the suspension of two officers as a first step. Their inquiry so far has highlighted failures in deconfliction processes and the unacceptable conduct of the IDF personnel involved. This must never happen again.
The Foreign Secretary has underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza and ensure effective systems to guarantee the safety of humanitarian operations. We continue to raise this with Israel at the highest levels.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2024 to Question 22306 on Gaza: Aid Workers, whether the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs maintains his comment of 5 April 2024 that findings of Israel’s review into the killing of aid workers must be published in full and followed up with a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency and accountability.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
As the Foreign Secretary has said, we are carefully reviewing the initial findings of Israel's investigations into the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers and welcome the suspension of two officers as a first step. Their inquiry so far has highlighted failures in deconfliction processes and the unacceptable conduct of the IDF personnel involved. This must never happen again.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the press notice entitled PM to announce largest-ever military aid package to Ukraine on visit to Poland, published on 23 April 2024, whether the package of equipment will include the Dragon Fire laser system.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The military aid package announced on 23 April 2024 includes more than 400 armoured, protected, and all-terrain vehicles, more than 1,600 munitions in the form of both strike and air defence missiles, as well as additional Storm Shadow long-range precision-guided missiles. The DragonFire system is under development for first deployment in 2027 and as such is not included in this package.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking in the (a) prison service and (b) secure hospital service to reduce harm from synthetic drugs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are actively monitoring, and responding to, the continued threat posed by the growing levels of potent synthetic opioids in the United Kingdom. NHS England is working with the Department, the Ministry of Justice, and HM Prison and Probation Service to establish an effective early warning system in prisons to share information and intelligence on the prevalence of synthetic opioids.
NHS England is also establishing a Task and Finish group for their Clinical Reference Group (CRG), working to adapt the current framework for healthcare staff management of people suspected of having internally secreted drugs. The updated framework for healthcare staff will help enhance responses to suspected or potential drug poisonings, including those related to synthetic opioids. To enhance our first aid response in prisons, feedback is also being sought from the CRG in relation to the administration of naloxone under circumstances where a drug poisoning may be related to stronger synthetic opioids.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they have issued on the administering of adrenaline auto-injectors by minors in medical emergencies.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published guidance on the use of adrenaline auto-injectors in schools, and there is provision in this guidance for the use of an adrenaline auto-injector on someone to whom it was not prescribed, in a medical emergency. However, regulation 238 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 provides an exemption from certain requirements related to the administration of medicines. Specifically, it allows for parenteral, rather than injected or absorbed, administration of specified medicines in emergency situations, where the purpose is to save a life. For instance, adrenaline prescribed for a specific person, or even to an unknown person, can be administered under this regulation, if it is necessary to save a life during an emergency. The use in emergencies is covered by schedule 19 and regulation 238, where age is not specified.
An Expert Advisory Group for Allergy was established in 2023, across the Government and clinical organisations, and chaired by the National Allergy Strategy Group and the Department, to recommend further action by the MHRA, Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Education, and the National Health Service. The Department of Health and Social Care and the MHRA are currently considering updates to the 2017 guidance, to ensure that any updated clarifications are supported by evidence, and that any open questions are answered.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they have issued regarding the use of an adrenaline auto-injector on someone to whom it was not prescribed in a medical emergency.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published guidance on the use of adrenaline auto-injectors in schools, and there is provision in this guidance for the use of an adrenaline auto-injector on someone to whom it was not prescribed, in a medical emergency. However, regulation 238 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 provides an exemption from certain requirements related to the administration of medicines. Specifically, it allows for parenteral, rather than injected or absorbed, administration of specified medicines in emergency situations, where the purpose is to save a life. For instance, adrenaline prescribed for a specific person, or even to an unknown person, can be administered under this regulation, if it is necessary to save a life during an emergency. The use in emergencies is covered by schedule 19 and regulation 238, where age is not specified.
An Expert Advisory Group for Allergy was established in 2023, across the Government and clinical organisations, and chaired by the National Allergy Strategy Group and the Department, to recommend further action by the MHRA, Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Education, and the National Health Service. The Department of Health and Social Care and the MHRA are currently considering updates to the 2017 guidance, to ensure that any updated clarifications are supported by evidence, and that any open questions are answered.