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  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to engage in increased consultation with civil society and UK-based and international human rights NGOs around the UK–China Human Rights Dialogue, including increasing transparency and accountability.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Ministers and officials meet civil society representatives on a regular basis to hear their views and benefit from their expertise on the human rights situation in China. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Mr Sharma) met Chinese NGOs during his recent visit to China. He plans to host a round table with UK-based NGOs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the near future.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of the UK–China Human Rights Dialogue and the EU–China Human Rights Dialogue, and whether they will establish specific benchmarks for progress in those dialogues.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK-China Human Rights Dialogue provides a platform to highlight a wide range of the Government’s human rights concerns to relevant Chinese officials. It also provides an opportunity for frank, expert exchanges on policies as they are applied in the UK and China. In recent years workshop themes have included: judicial procedures; disability rights; and minority languages.

    The Dialogue is an addition to, rather than a replacement for discussions in other bilateral and multilateral fora. It is one part of our strategy to promote British values in China, and we do not have benchmarks to measure the Dialogue in isolation. We do measure progress against our overall strategy and we report on it in the FCO Annual Human Rights report.

    The EU-China Human Rights dialogue functions in a similar way, and we engage closely with the organisers to share views and objectives. We are confident that the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue is coherent with UK objectives.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of the People’s Republic of China about releasing all human rights lawyers detained since July 2015, ceasing the harassment of lawyers and activists, and upholding the rule of law.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have repeatedly raised our concerns with the Chinese authorities about the detention, arrest and disappearance of Chinese lawyers and human rights defenders. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Mr Sharma), raised their cases most recently with the Chinese Ambassador on 1 August. We urge the Chinese authorities to release the detained lawyers and ensure all detainees have access to legal counsel of their choice.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the evidence of the practice of forced organ harvesting in China set out in the report published in June by David Kilgour, David Matas and Ethan Gutmann, and in the film The Bleeding Edge.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    As the former Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire) stated to the House of Commons on the 12 July 2016, we have raised concerns about reports of organ harvesting, as well as about the torture and mistreatment of detainees, during the annual UK-China human rights dialogue. We will do so again at the next round which is scheduled to take place in October. My officials most recently raised the issue with the Chinese authorities on 1 September 2016.

    The Kilgour/Matas/Gutmann report is an important source of information about China’s organ transplant system, which we take seriously, but we are unable to substantiate all the evidence presented in the report. We have not assessed any evidence from ‘the Bleeding Edge’, as we understand it to be a semi-fictional feature film.We encourage the Chinese authorities to provide more information about the sources of organs for transplant, and about the implementation of existing Chinese regulations in this area.

  • Lord Crisp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Crisp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they are taking to increase access to information about health and health care for both members of the public and health workers globally.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK government is working with many global partners to increase access to information about health and about health care. A number of our partners are service providers who work directly with patients, providing information as well as services; others are engaged in social marketing and improve understanding about health prevention, protection and care seeking. We also invest in global partnerships, such as the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and the STOP TB Partnership whose members include patient organisations that seek to increase access to information.

  • Lord Crisp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Crisp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the work of Health Information for All.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    DFID research and evidence programmes, in particular, invest in outputs that increase knowledge about health and health care provision and one of the programmes (TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) is a member of Health Information for All.

  • Baroness Drake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Drake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Drake on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with HM Revenue and Customs about the annual publication, in standard format, of data on the drawing of pension savings that have to be reported as taxable income by (1) age, (2) gender, (3) characteristics of income draw down products, (4) cash lump sums, and (5) annuities.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes the number and value of flexible payments made from pensions since April 2015. The quarterly publication does not include breakdowns of pension payments by characteristic, nor are there any plans to.

    In accordance with the National Statistics Code of Practice, Official Statistics are shared with a minimal number of named officials 24 hours prior to publication. HMRC maintains and publishes a record, which can be found on gov.uk, of all of those who have pre-release access to National Statistics and Official Statistics.

  • Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the analysis by HM Revenue and Customs Further Tax Credit Statistics on EEA Nationals, published on 25 August, how many individuals who were recorded as being (1) Bulgarian, and (2) Romanian, nationals at the time of issue of their National Insurance numbers claimed (a) tax credits, and (b) child benefit, in 2014–15; and what was the amount of those claims.

    Lord Young of Cookham

    The ‘Further Tax Credit Statistics on EEA Nationals, 2013/14’ publication released in August of this year covered HMRC benefits alongside National Insurance Contributions and Income Tax paid by EEA nationals for 2013/14. HMRC information on EEA nationals is complex and the data should be considered in its totality, as set out in that August publication, in order to get as comprehensive and complete a picture as possible. The data on the amount of National Insurance and Income Tax paid for 2014/15 will not be available until spring 2017, and will be published alongside tax credits and Child Benefit data in due course.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what stance they plan to take at the UN General Assembly’s High Level Meeting on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants on 19 September; and whether they will consult in advance with UK allies.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK fully supported the UN General Assembly’s High Level Meeting on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants on 19 September, and the New York Declaration on refugees and migrants which was adopted at the meeting.

    We will work with others following the High Level Meeting to achieve specific outcomes that will be better for migrants, for refugees, and for all countries in the migration chain – source, transit and destination.

    In New York, the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) argued that alongside stepping up our efforts on humanitarian assistance and development, the international community needs to build a more effective policy approach: addressing the root causes of forced displacement, providing proper protection for refugees, and reducing today’s unmanaged population movement.

    At the High Level Meeting, the Prime Minister highlighted the importance of the principle of providing asylum in the first safe country, thereby discouraging dangerous secondary movements; ensuring clarity in the different protections afforded to refugees and economic migrants; and maintaining the rights of all states to control their own borders.

  • The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many xenophobic and racist hate crimes were reported in England and Wales each month in the past year; what percentage rise, if any, there has been in the number of such crimes reported since 24 June; and what is their assessment of the causes of any rise.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Home Office publishes information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales annually. The most recently published data are for 2014/15 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2014-to-2015

    Data for 2015/16 will be published in October 2016. It is planned that this publication will include some information on hate crime following the EU Referendum on the 23 June.

    Following increases in the reporting of hate crime and raised community tensions in late June, the National Police Chiefs’ Council requested weekly returns from forces across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. These show the number of all monitored hate crime recorded by forces, not just those that were racist or xenophobic.

    At its peak, these returns showed a 58 per cent increase in the reporting of hate crime in comparison to 2015. This has since subsided and we have now observed four consecutive weeks of reductions in reporting. The latest returns from 5 to 18 August show 2778 hate crimes and incidents. This is a decrease of 479 offences on the previous fortnight but it is a 14 per cent increase on the equivalent period in 2015. Full information on these statistics can be found here: http://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/tackling-hate-crime-remains-a-priority

    There is no single factor to which the rise in reporting can be attributed, and there is no current evidence to indicate the rise is due entirely to an increase in occurrence of hate crime. However, multiple factors, including the increased profile of hate crime in the media, greater awareness of hate crime and increased confidence in the police may have had an impact on levels of reporting.