Tag: Baroness Afshar

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2015-11-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) men, and (2) women, were imprisoned for non-payment of council tax in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, and (c) 2014.

Lord Faulks

Data showing how many people were imprisoned for non-payment of council tax in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are presented in the table below:

Year	Female	Male	Not Specified
2012	41	62	4
2013	41	60	7
2014	33	45	11

It should be noted that there are a few cases where the gender of the defendant has not been specified and these have been shown separately in the table above.

These data are sourced from the Libra Management Information System (MIS). As such this data set is not subject to the same levels of quality assurance as national statistics

In extracting this data only offences of complaint for council tax committal application have been included where the court hearing date occurred within each year reported (i.e. between 1 January and 31 December).

It should also be noted that, although committals to prison are reported as occurring within a particular financial year, the non-payment of council tax itself may relate to a previous financial year or even a period covering more than one financial year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of cutting the funding at higher education level of arts subjects on (1) the choice available to students, and (2) the creative industries.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

As with other degrees, since 2012, Higher Education Institutions with an Access Agreement approved by the Office for Fair Access have been able to charge up to £9,000 a year for an arts degree. This funding comes via student loans and universities compete on quality and their offer to students. The Government also supports specialist institutions such as art and music colleges through the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Institution-specific Funding.

We value the creative industries which is why we support them through these and other policies. We are working with industry to take forward the recommendations in *CreateUK, the strategy for the sector developed by industry members of the Creative Industries Council.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2015-12-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Islamophobia on Muslim communities in the UK.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Everyone in Britain has the right to feel safe and at ease in the place where they live. There is no place for hatred against people because of their race, gender, ethnic origin, faith, sexual orientation, age or disability.

Anti-Muslim attacks rose 30-40% in the first two weeks after the Paris attacks. These attacks are unacceptable in Britain. The Government funds Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) to encourage reporting of these crimes and to support victims. We have also set up the first cross Government Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group to raise awareness of Islamaphobic attacks. In addition, the Prime Minister announced that the police will disaggregate hate crime by religion beginning in April 2016. This will help the police to build community trust, target their resources and enable the public to hold them to account.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2016-06-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the protection of the human rights of Iranian women and scholars.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

As mentioned in the 2015 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights report, women do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men in Iran and continue to face discrimination. There are continued restrictions on freedom of expression and belief. We repeatedly call on the Iranian government to guarantee the human rights of all Iranians and will continue to do so. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), most recently raised the issue of human rights with Foreign Minister Zarif when they met on the 17 May.