Tag: Lord Alton of Liverpool

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-06-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Juba Teaching Hospital in South Sudan has adequate supplies of electricity; what assessment they have made of the effect of power cuts and power rationing on that hospital’s ability to provide treatment; whether they have raised the issue of the lack of electricity at the Juba Teaching Hospital with the government of South Sudan; and what steps they will take to ensure that that government takes action.

Baroness Verma

The Government of South Sudan has provided one year’s supply of fuel to the Juba Teaching Hospital. The fuel was delivered and electricity was restored to the hospital at the end of May 2016. The Government has also recently signed a contract with a private company to undertake general renovation of the hospital.

The South Sudan Government’s annual budget allocations for health and education are amongst the lowest in the region averaging 6% for education and 4% for health, compared to an average of 17% and 15% respectively in other East African countries. The UK has consistently lobbied for increased budget allocations to these sectors. The UK is pressing the Government of South Sudan to increase funding for health in the 2016-17 annual budget which will be set in July, particularly for medicines, hospital infrastructure, recurrent running costs including fuel, and personnel for hospitals and clinics. This issue was most recently raised in a meeting with the Minister of Health, Riek Gai Kok on 21 June 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-07-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to participate in the conference about the attacks on Yazidis, Christians and others by ISIS organised by the US State Department in Washington DC on 29 July; if so, who will represent them and whether whilst attending that conference they will explain why they have not supported the genocide declarations passed by the House of Commons and the US Congress.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK will attend the State Department Consultation on Threats to Religious and Ethnic Minorities under Daesh on 28 and 29 July. It will be represented by a senior official from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The consultation will be used to discuss what countries are doing to protect minorities under Daesh and what more can be done. As the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Johnson) made clear during his visit to Washington on 21 July, the Government is fully committed to working with international partners to ensure Daesh is held to account for its crimes.

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-10-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and to what extent, the expert panel convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has concluded that a potentially viable pregnancy with normal karyotype can be achieved through pronuclear transfer based on the accompanying images of the relevant karyotypes in figures or other supporting data presented in Reproductive BioMedicine Online published in October.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that the independent expert panel are currently reviewing the latest evidence of safety and efficacy for pro-nuclear transfer and maternal spindle transfer. The panel has not yet reached its conclusions. It is anticipated that the panel’s report will be published by the end of the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-10-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the priority given to the promotion of democracy and human rights within the UK–Sudanese strategic dialogue; and what assessment they have made of (1) the reliability of the Sudanese regime as a reliable partner with a shared agenda, and (2) the extent to which the strategic dialogue will embolden the regime in Sudan to continue with their current policies.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Improving human rights remains one of our policy priorities in Sudan, and therefore discussions of human rights issues are a key part of the UK-Sudan Strategic Dialogue. At the last round of talks on 10/11 October, a representative from the Sudan Advisory Council for Human Rights accompanied the Sudanese delegation.

In a number of areas we fundamentally disagree with the government of Sudan; however, in others our interests are much more closely aligned. We assess that direct engagement through the Strategic Dialogue process provides better opportunities to raise issues of bilateral concern, as well as to look at strategic questions such as the resolution of internal conflicts, regional security and migration. We keep this policy under regular review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-11-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the call by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea for the Kim regime in North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court, and whether they intend to discuss that recommendation with each of the other members of the UN Security Council.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain concerned by the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We have recently worked with the EU and Japan to co-author a UN resolution on the human rights situation in the DPRK which calls for accountability. We are now working to achieve strong support for this resolution.

We hold regular meetings with other UN Security Council member states to identify ways in which we can improve the DPRK’s human rights record. Our most recent meeting was at the UN in New York during October. We will continue to engage with key partners and allies to ensure the need for accountability remains at the heart of the international community’s work to improve the human rights situation in the DPRK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports from the Shan Human Rights Foundation that between 9 and 12 November the Burmese Army carried out shelling and aerial bombing of Mong Nawng and that those attacks constitute war crimes.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We are concerned by reports of continued fighting in Shan State, including around Mong Nawng and Wanhai, which the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates has displaced approximately 6,000 people since 6 October. Our Ambassador in Rangoon raised our concerns about the conflict in Shan with the Burmese military on 20 November. The UK has played a leading role in supporting efforts to broker ceasefire agreements, funding expert advice to both sides in support of dialogue and peacemaking.

We welcomed the signing of a ceasefire agreement on 15 October and we continue to urge armed groups who did not sign the ceasefire and the Burmese government to engage in ceasefire talks to bring the conflict to an end.

The UK has made no assessment of whether these allegations amount to war crimes. Any determination as to whether specific international crimes have occurred is a matter for an international judicial decision rather than for governments or non-judicial bodies. Our approach is to seek an end to all violations and to prevent their further escalation, irrespective of whether these violations fit the definition of specific international crimes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-12-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps will be taken to ensure that individuals with learning disabilities have access to good quality healthcare, in the light of reports by Mencap that there are 1,200 avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability in the NHS annually.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government’s response to the recommendations in the report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry included a wide range of measures aimed at improving safety and quality as well as ensuring compassionate care for everyone who uses National Health Service services, including people with disabilities.

NHS organisations should comply with existing legislation, frameworks and guidance aimed at ensuring they identify and meet the needs of people with learning disabilities in commissioning and delivering safe, high quality care to all individuals, groups and communities of their populations.

From June 2016, the Department will publish independently assured, ratings of the quality of healthcare offered to people with learning disabilities in all clinical commissioning group areas, to highlight variations and to allow rapid action to be taken when improvement is needed.

NHS England continues to work to improve access to good quality healthcare for people with learning disabilities, including:

‒ improving identification of people with learning disabilities in health care records to ensure that reasonable adjustments can be made, communication needs addressed and crisis plans developed;

‒ encouraging the use of health passports when people access services so that professionals and staff are aware of their needs;

‒ improving identification on cancer screening information systems;

‒ ensuring that people with learning disabilities are identified as a priority group to receive flu vaccinations;

‒ improving access to NHS 111, Accident and Emergency and other services; and

‒ increasing the number of people who are eligible getting an annual learning disability health check from their general practitioner.

NHS England has also commissioned a learning disabilities Premature Mortality Review programme led by the University of Bristol from June 2015 to review and learn from deaths of people with a learning disability with the aim of improving services, care and support nationally.

These initiatives will help to raise awareness and to tackle the inequalities experienced by those with learning disability, including where associated with Down’s syndrome.

In addition, the Care Certificate, which was introduced in April 2015, is helping NHS service providers to ensure that their new healthcare assistants have the right fundamental skills and knowledge, including in communication and awareness of learning disability.

Health Education England will work with healthcare providers to ensure that the continuing personal and professional development of staff continues beyond the end of formal training to enable staff to deliver safe and high quality healthcare and public health services both now and in the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Home Office has received any applications from researchers at the Francis Crick Institute to study the impact on implantation or miscarriage of genetic alterations introduced by genome editing in non-human primates, and if so, when.

Lord Bates

The use of non-human primates in scientific procedures is highly regulated and non-human primates can only be used where there is no other suitable animal and where a full harm-benefit analysis has been carried out. In 2014, the last year for which we have data, there was no use of genetically altered non-human primates.

The release of information on specific licence applications is restricted in order to protect the identities of people and places and to avoid the release of valuable intellectual property.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has made of recent research suggesting that the eggs of older women can be rejuvenated through injections of mitochondria from other cells; what data collected from clinics the HFEA holds regarding the incidence of aneuploidy in oocytes over time, and what evidence it has received from (1) OvaScience, (2) Professor Simon Fishel, and (3) other sources, that mitochondrial defects are primarily responsible for age-related exponential increases in oocyte aneuploidy; what published randomised trials the HFEA has been made aware of regarding the Augment technique, and what assessment it has made of those trials; and what assessment the HFEA has made of the credibility of claims by OvaScience and those previously made by Clonaid, in the light of data available in peer-reviewed journals.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) advises that it does not hold data from clinics on the incidence of aneuploidy in oocytes over time, nor has it received evidence from OvaScience, Professor Simon Fishel or other sources that mitochondrial defects are primarily responsible for age-related increases in oocyte chromosomal aneuploidy.

The HFEA also advises that it has not been made aware of any published randomised trials regarding the Augment technique and has not made an assessment of the credibility of claims by OvaScience and those previously made by Clonaid, in the light of data available in peer-reviewed journals. It is currently considering whether techniques, which involve addition of autologous mitochondria to eggs, would be legal in the United Kingdom (under the framework of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, as amended). Part of this consideration involves considering the claims made for Augment by Ovascience.

The HFEA has not received any formal applications for clinical use of the Augment technique, and has not made an assessment of the ruling by the US Food and Drugs Administration to which the Noble Lord refers.