Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Retailers Against Crime on the rise in organised shoplifting.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting and violence towards shopworkers has on businesses, communities, and consumers, as well as the loss to the economy. The Government has been clear we expect a zero-tolerance approach to retail crime and shoplifting.
It’s difficult to produce reliable estimates of the cost of shoplifting. Many incidents do not come to the attention of the police, so data on the number of shoplifting crimes recorded by them only provide a partial picture. While official statistics from the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) provide reliable estimates of the prevalence and frequency of shoplifting, the CVS no longer collects data the number of shoplifting offences or the overall cost of these crimes. When the CVS has collected this information in the past, retailers found it difficult to recall precise numbers of crimes they experienced, and the associated costs. As a result, these estimates we judged to be insufficiently reliable.
Home Office ministers have not met Retail Against Crime. The National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG), which the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, the Rt Hon Chris Philp, co-chairs alongside the British Retail Consortium, ensures the response to retail crime is as robust as it can be. The NRCSG meets quarterly and comprises senior representatives from policing, the retail sector, retail trade associations, security providers and Government departments.
At this forum, the Retail Crime Action Plan is a standing agenda item. At the last NRCSG, policing colleagues updated me on the implementation of the plan. Statistics published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council show early signs of progress. A dip-sample of data from 31 police forces of over 1,500 crimes show police attended 60% of incidents reported by retailers where violence had been used, with 16% of forces sampled reporting 100% attendance to this type of incident.
The Government is supporting Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, which involves retailers providing data, intelligence and evidence to Opal, the national police intelligence unit on organised acquisitive crime, to develop a better strategic picture and help forces crack down on serious offenders.
The Home Office will continue to work with members of the NRCSG, including policing and retailers to tackle shoplifting, including organised, as well as other crime experienced within retail settings through our wider work.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 29 September 2023 that the UK was the fastest growing European G7 country since 2010.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The calculations underlying this statistic were based on public information available on the 29 September 2023, including quarterly GDP data published by the Office for National Statistics for the UK and OECD data for the remaining G7 European economies.
The data showed that cumulative GDP growth in the UK from the beginning of 2010 (change on 2009 Q4) through to 2023 Q2 of 24.2% was greater than that of France (16.4%), Italy (3.5%) and Germany (21.2%).
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority on the separation of functions and reporting arrangements, what steps they are taking to ensure greater transparency in the governance and enhancements of the statistical system.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The independent review of the UK Statistics Authority and the Government’s response to the recommendations were published on 12 March 2024. They can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-uk-statistics-authority-uksa-2023
The review made 19 separate recommendations to the UK Statistics Authority and Cabinet Office including amending the statistical legislation (Statistical and Registration Services Act 2007) to better reflect the governance arrangements in place and reflect the practical operation of the UKSA.
The Government agrees in principle with this recommendation but noted that - given that the report concluded the current arrangements were working in practice - this is not a current priority for legislation and will be a matter for the next Parliament to consider. However, in our response we said that the UKSA leadership in the meantime should take active steps to better communicate the current working arrangements to assure users and stakeholders that robust systems are in place to regulate the Office for National Statistics and the wider Government Statistical Service.
The Government also welcomed wider recommendations regarding transparency, such as establishing a triennial statistical assembly which will allow users and the Authority to discuss priorities in an open and constructive way.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 February (HL2184), how many of the 20 Integrated Data Service projects and 600 Secure Research Service projects referred to in that answer have a lead researcher whose primary affiliation is given as (1) academic, (2) central government, (3) commercial, (4) local government, (5) non-commercial, and (6) the Office for National Statistics.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 14 March is below and attached.
The Lord Clement-Jones CBE
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
22 March 2024
Dear Lord Clement-Jones
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 February (HL2184), how many of the 20 Integrated Data Service (IDS) projects and 600 Secure Research Service (SRS) projects referred to in that answer have a lead researcher whose primary affiliation is given as (1) academic, (2) central government, (3) commercial, (4) local government, (5) non-commercial, and (6) the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL3276).
Of the monthly average of 600 projects running in the SRS during 2023, 382 were led by those affiliated with the academic community. There were no academic lead projects within the Integrated Data Service for the same period.
For the same period, the number of projects led by central government on the SRS was 43; these include agencies, public bodies, devolved administrations, ministerial and non-ministerial and public research bodies. The number of central government lead projects on the IDS was 10.
The number of commercial lead projects on SRS projects was 81; these include private sector organisations, primarily think tanks and consultancies. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.
The number of local government affiliated lead projects in SRS was 6. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.
The number of non-commercial affiliated lead projects in SRS was 69; these include those categorised as third sector/voluntary. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.
The number of Office for National Statistics lead researchers on SRS projects was 19. The subsequent number for the 20 IDS projects was 10.
We have recently communicated the timetable for the transition to IDS to our SRS users and over the next year, the IDS will scale its data at pace and onboard a range of users from across all the aforementioned user groups in SRS, leading to a more varied distribution of user types accessing projects on the IDS. The IDS has an ever-growing list of prospective use cases that it will onboard throughout 2024 as the service scales its data catalogue and analytical tooling capabilities.
In light of your interest in the IDS and to provide additional context around the SRS and IDS figures in this and our previous responses, I would like to personally offer our team to come and showcase the service, discuss future prospects around the SRS and IDS and answer any further questions you have. We would be delighted to attend a location at your convenience, if this is an attractive proposition.
Yours sincerely,
Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has undertaken an impact assessment on the impact that long covid has had on the NHS workforce.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of collecting data on the prevalence of long COVID. On 25 April 2024, the Office for National Statistics will be publishing additional analysis from the fortnightly Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, including data on trends in ongoing symptoms of COVID-19. This article will expand on the existing analysis published in the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study’s data tables, to look more in depth at trends in self-reported symptoms of COVID-19, including ongoing symptoms and associated risk factors. No assessment has been made of the impact that long COVID has had on the National Health Service workforce.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the prevalence of long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of collecting data on the prevalence of long COVID. On 25 April 2024, the Office for National Statistics will be publishing additional analysis from the fortnightly Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, including data on trends in ongoing symptoms of COVID-19. This article will expand on the existing analysis published in the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study’s data tables, to look more in depth at trends in self-reported symptoms of COVID-19, including ongoing symptoms and associated risk factors. No assessment has been made of the impact that long COVID has had on the National Health Service workforce.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many premature babies were born at between 22 and 24 weeks of gestation in the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the number of all live births and those with gestational age of 22 weeks, 23 weeks and 24 weeks in England and Wales between 2017 and 2021, the most recent five-year period for which data is available:
Year | All live births | Live births with gestational age between 22 and 24 weeks, inclusive |
2017 | 678,728 | 972 |
2018 | 656,723 | 894 |
2019 | 639, 987 | 890 |
2020 | 613,231 | 784 |
2021 | 624,162 | 796 |
Source: Office for National Statistics Birth Characteristics
Note: Still births are not included as they are only measured from gestational age of 24 weeks onwards.
Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2024 to Question 16860,on Housing: Valuation, whether the Valuation Office Agency plans to collect additional (a) dwelling house codes and (b) value significant codes in addition to those used in England for the model.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Welsh Government has commissioned the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to carry out a revaluation of all domestic property in Wales. To facilitate this, the VOA has built an Automated Valuation Model which has produced values for 1.46 million properties.
The following external datasets were used:
Additionally, as part of model development, sales verification was undertaken. VOA staff used a range of available data, such as aerial and street view photography, sales particulars, EPC certificates and Local Authority Planning websites to verify the usefulness of the sale.
The VOA has not collected additional codes over and above those already used within England and Wales.
I would observe that this is a policy proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, and does not represent the policy position of the UK Government in England.
Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2024 to Question 16860 on Housing: Valuation, how many value estimates have been produced using the Valuation Office Agency's automated valuation model.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Welsh Government has commissioned the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to carry out a revaluation of all domestic property in Wales. To facilitate this, the VOA has built an Automated Valuation Model which has produced values for 1.46 million properties.
The following external datasets were used:
Additionally, as part of model development, sales verification was undertaken. VOA staff used a range of available data, such as aerial and street view photography, sales particulars, EPC certificates and Local Authority Planning websites to verify the usefulness of the sale.
The VOA has not collected additional codes over and above those already used within England and Wales.
I would observe that this is a policy proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, and does not represent the policy position of the UK Government in England.
Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2024 to Question 16860 on Housing: Valuation, which already available data from third parties was used for the model development.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Welsh Government has commissioned the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to carry out a revaluation of all domestic property in Wales. To facilitate this, the VOA has built an Automated Valuation Model which has produced values for 1.46 million properties.
The following external datasets were used:
Additionally, as part of model development, sales verification was undertaken. VOA staff used a range of available data, such as aerial and street view photography, sales particulars, EPC certificates and Local Authority Planning websites to verify the usefulness of the sale.
The VOA has not collected additional codes over and above those already used within England and Wales.
I would observe that this is a policy proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, and does not represent the policy position of the UK Government in England.