Tag: Lord Beecham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the percentage of magistrates resigning since 1 April broken down by (1) age, (2) ethnicity, and (3) gender.

Lord Faulks

The information requested is provided in the tables below:

Resignations

1 Apr. – 1 Nov. 2015	1 Apr. – 1 Nov. 2014
584	606

Percentage breakdown of resignations since 1 April 2015

Age	Ethnicity	Gender
>30yrs	31-40yrs	41-50yrs	51-60yrs	61-70yrs	White / BAME*	Male / Female
>1%	4%	11%	21%	63%	91% / 9%	52% / 48%

* BAME = Black and Minority Ethnic

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provisions the contract with Concentrix regarding child tax credits and other benefits makes concerning the time within which decisions must be made about the eligibility for such benefits once they have been withdrawn, and what assessment they have made of how the company has performed against any such requirements in respect of the number of cases in which that period has been exceeded.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) contract with SYNNEX-Concentrix UK Limited, signed in May 2014, provides additional capacity to review and correct tax credit claims that are potentially based on incorrect information.

Full details of the contractual arrangements, including agreed performance indicators put in place in respect of the intervention service, can be found on gov.uk.

HMRC regularly monitors the performance of contractors but, due to the commercially sensitive nature of this information, it does not disclose such information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Faulks on 27 October 2015 (HL2390), what steps they have taken to satisfy themselves as to the appropriateness of the award of the contract for the management of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre to MTCNovo in the light of the failure of the Youth Justice Board, in its response to a letter from Article 39, the Howard League for Penal Reform, and INQUEST, to address issues concerning that company’s limited experience of dealing with the provision of custodial care for young offenders, and legal cases in the USA that raise questions about its suitability.

Lord Faulks

MTCnovo is a joint venture between Management Training Corporation (MTC) and Novo Community Ltd, owned by Amey. The capability of MTC and Amey, were robustly assessed at the pre-qualification stage of the competition.

There are two current legal cases brought against the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDCO) in relation to two correctional facilities in the USA where MTC is now the operator. Both these cases are brought against the commissioning authority MDOC and relate to conditions that existed when the facilities were operated by a different provider.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received an evaluation of the Troubled Families programme from the consultancy firm Ecorys; when they received that evaluation; whether they plan to publish it; and if so when.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

I can confirm we have received a draft evaluation of the original Troubled Families Programme from Ecorys. The original draft report was received last autumn. The evaluation comprises several different strands. The evaluation is not yet ready to publish as there have been methodological issues with one of the strands. We expect the contractors to complete the reports shortly and in line with protocol, the Government will publish them soon after.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the reported growth in reliance on the employment of locum doctors in GP practices and the extent, if any, to which the employment of full-time doctors in GP practices has declined.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The latest statistics, published on 27 September, as at 31 March 2016, show that the total full time equivalent general practitioners (GPs), including locums was 34,914, an increase of 323, compared to September 2015.

The same statistics showed that on 31 March 2016, there were 601 locums recorded as working in GP practices on that one day. On the day of 30 September 2015, 537 locums were recorded working in GP practices.

Locum doctors cover a variety of roles, including vacancies and absences such as maternity, training and annual leave. Not all practices completed returns or provided detailed information on the type of GP that was working in the practice, on either 30 September and/or 31 March, which means that it is not possible to compare the data of September 2015 and March 2016.

The data that NHS Digital publish on the general practice workforce is labelled provisional, experimental statistics, as they use a new methodology/data set and collection vehicles. These statistics replace the traditional GP census. The new data set, introduced in September 2015, collected information on locum doctors for the first time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what efforts they have made to promote diversity in the composition of the judiciary by reference to (1) socio-economic status, (2) ethnicity, (3) gender, and (4) age.

Lord Faulks

The Government fully supports a more diverse judiciary and has taken steps to improve representation, whilst still appointing the best people for the job.

In Courts and Tribunals the representation of women has risen to 32.3% of the judiciary, compared to 28.8% in 2012. Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation has risen to 7.4 % from 6.8% over the same period.

The Government works with its partners in the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission and the legal professions through the Judicial Diversity Forum to take action to increase the diversity of the judiciary at all levels.

Recent initiatives include:

• Supporting the judiciary in the implementation of the ‘New Route to the High Court’ scheme. This offered high quality candidates support to apply for a Deputy High Court Judge selection exercise launched in July 2015. As this programme was aimed at encouraging diversity, places on this support scheme were limited to women, BAME candidates and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.
• Holding outreach events, targeted at under-represented groups, such as ‘Women in the Judiciary: Making it happen’.

This work builds on significant legislative changes which:

• Introduced the equal merit provision into the final stage of the judicial appointments process, which allows diversity, in terms of gender and ethnicity, to be taken into account when two applicants are of equal merit. This has already been applied in seven JAC recommendations between October 2014 and March 2015;
• Extended salaried part-time working to the High Court and above to increase flexibility and make it easier to balance home and work life; and
• Introduced a statutory duty for the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice to encourage judicial diversity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that local authorities with a low council tax base are not disadvantaged in relation to authorities in more affluent areas by the new power to raise council tax by 2 per cent in order partially to offset cuts in social care following the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Government recognises that councils have varying capacity to raise money through council tax. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government set out, in the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17, proposed changes to rebalance support, including to those authorities with social care responsibilities, by taking into account the main resources available to councils. In particular, he published illustrative allocations for the extra funding we are providing to local authorities for adult social care through the improved Better Care Fund: these allocations directly take into account the council tax-raising capacity of authorities.

I refer the noble Lord to information accompanying the Oral Statement made on 17 December, Official Report, Column 2238-2239 (attached).

Further details are available on the Government website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-in-2016-to-2017 and https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-03-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what savings they estimate will derive from their courts closure programme; and how much, and over what period, they plan to invest in technology to reduce the demand for court facilities in the justice system.

Lord Faulks

The Impact Assessment published alongside the consultation document outlines estimated savings of £170m over a 10-year period.

The Government is committed to modernising the way in which justice is accessed and delivered. We are investing over £700m over the next 4 years to update the court and tribunal estate, installing modern IT systems and making the justice system more efficient and effective for modern users.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to publish the report they received in December 2015 from the Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons on the use of less-lethal weapons such as tasers; and if not, why not.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons’ report was provided on request by the Home Office and police. It is not a formal assessment and was never intended as a public report and therefore has not been published. The key conclusions were communicated to all police forces in England and Wales by DAC Neil Basu.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the research commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2013 Payment of Tribunal Awards showing that one-third of employment tribunal awards remained unpaid and only 49 per cent of successful applicants received their full awarded compensation, what steps they are taking to ensure that employment tribunal awards are paid in full.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has introduced robust Employment Tribunal enforcement processes, which can ultimately lead to a referral to a debt collection agency. A new process implemented in April 2016 allows for a penalty to be issued. The penalty is calculated as 50% of the value of the tribunal award up to a maximum of £5,000.