Tag: Lord Beecham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to review the arrangements for providing court interpreters in the light of recent criticism by the President of the Family Division.

Lord Faulks

The arrangements for the provision of interpreters are kept under review.

There has been dramatic improvements in performance in the last two years. The Ministry continues to manage contracts to ensure this improvement is maintained.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the data published in court proceeding tables associated with their criminal justice statistics quarterly report of December 2013, whether they plan to institute an inquiry into the higher proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences than non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences.

Lord Faulks

The Government is committed to making sure that the criminal justice system is fair and just.

The Criminal Justice System Strategy & Action Plan, published last summer, set out a number of commitments to promote equality including a series of Minister-led events with stakeholders to explore what more could be done.

The Criminal Justice Board has had several recent discussions about equality and diversity and regularly reviews the statistical data.

We do not plan to hold a specific inquiry into the proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences as compared with non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences but are clear that more analysis is needed to understand the underlying causes reflected in this data.

The Government will shortly publish an update to this plan which will contain further actions designed to promote equality.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of reports in The Guardian newspaper on 11 June, they intend to make representations to the government of Thailand about the exploitation and abuse of workers in that country’s fishing industry and to United Kingdom companies which purchase the products of that industry.

Baroness Warsi

We are aware of labour rights issues and allegations of human rights abuses in the Thai fishing industry, though not until now of the specific allegations made by the Guardian. We regularly raise our concerns about labour rights in Thailand with the relevant Thai authorities, for example during the UK-Thailand Strategic Dialogue in May 2013. The Guardian’s report contains very serious allegations. We look to the Thai authorities to investigate.

Given the acute and continual political uncertainty in Thailand our ability to raise these issues with the authorities at this point is limited. However, we take the allegations very seriously and will look for opportunities to raise our concerns. At a minimum, we will continue to press for an improvement in labour rights in Thailand through ongoing negotiations towards an EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreement.

The UK remains a global leader in tackling human trafficking and slavery as shown by its recent introduction of a Modern Slavery Bill. We welcome any investigation which sheds light on these horrific allegations.

We also launched our action plan on business and human rights in 2013, becoming the first country to set out guidance to companies on integrating human rights into their operations. We engage regularly with British companies as part of our efforts to boost UK trade and inward investment, but at the same time we also clearly set our commitment to protecting human rights and its expectations of UK companies in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government in how many cases since the passage of the Justice and Security Act 2013 applications have been made for closed material procedures to be employed; and how many have been successful.

Lord Faulks

In accordance with section 12 of the Justice and Security Act 2013, the Government will lay before Parliament, in the course of 2014, a report on the use of the closed material procedure under section 6 of that Act. This will include the numbers of applications made and whether such applications have been granted.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government in how many cases since the passage of the Justice and Security Act 2013 the public interest immunity procedure has been invoked; and how much compensation has been paid as a result.

Lord Faulks

The Public Interest Immunity procedure may be used in a wide variety of court proceedings and as such no central record exists of its application.