Tag: Lord Beecham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the North East Commissioning Service has not accepted an offer from Newcastle City Council’s Director of Public Health to place a contract to modify data systems to facilitate analysis at council ward level.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This is an operational matter for the Commissioning Support Unit and the local Council.

The North of England Commissioning Support Unit advises that it has held discussions with the Director of Public Health but is not aware of any offer to place a contract with the organisation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to amending the Annual Data Requirement to replace the 16+1 ethnicity code based on the 2001 census with the 2011 census ethnicity category 18+1, to include Gypsies and Irish Travellers.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The ethnicity categories used for data collections are assessed as part of the Home Office’s process of agreeing the Annual Data Requirement (ADR). This is the list of mandatory data collections required from the police.

This process includes consultation with a range of stakeholders on the requirements for each data collection, together with consideration of the burdens involved in the collection (e.g. IT costs of implementation for police forces), and the likely quality of the data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-01.

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

Lord Faulks

The government is committed to promoting the diversity of all members of the judiciary, including a diverse magistracy which reflects the society it serves. The local advisory committees who are responsible for recruiting and selecting magistrates, target recruitment activity to ensure that while we appoint on merit, local benches are representative of the communities they serve. This includes seeking applications from previously underrepresented groups.

As of April 2015, 53% of serving magistrates were female and 9% from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. Data on recent appointments has continued to show encouraging signs and suggests diversity will continue to improve in the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent their proposed new restrictions on lobbying by charities extend the existing restrictions imposed by charity legislation.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The announcement on 6 February was on a new clause for all government grant agreements. This new clause makes clear that grant recipients must not use the grant funding for political campaigning and lobbying unless it is expressly authorised in the grant agreement.

Charities remain free to lobby the government, subject to charity law restrictions. They simply cannot use government grant funding to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the fact that four million people have been added to the electoral register in recent months, whether they will publish details of the comparison between the final register for the EU referendum and that as at December 2015, and if so when.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

The Electoral Commission will publish the total electorate for the EU referendum in due course.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will implement the recommendation made by the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination to collect systemically disaggregated data on hate crimes.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

There is no current intention to disaggregate hate crime data on the grounds of race, but we will keep that under review. Since 2010, we have improved police recording of hate crime. Forces now capture data on all five of the monitored hate crime strands, and from April this year, forces have started to disaggregate hate crime data on the grounds of religion.

We have noted the findings of the Council of Europe’s European Commission on Racism and Intolerance following an inspection of the United Kingdom earlier this year. The Government’s full response to the report can be found as an annex to the publication.

We are clear that there is no excuse for hate crime against anyone of any nationality, ethnicity or religious background – it has no place whatsoever in our diverse society. This commitment is underpinned by some of the strongest legislation in the world.

We welcome that the Commission has recognised the strength of our new hate crime action plan which will help reduce hate crime, increase reporting and improve support for victims. The hate crime action plan contains specific measures to increase the rate of prosecution and ensure that enhanced sentencing powers are used where appropriate.

These measures include refreshed Crown Prosecution Service policy and legal guidance for prosecutors on racially and religiously aggravated crime and on prosecuting social media cases, and publicising convictions and information on enhanced sentencing outcomes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that residents in council areas with low levels of business rates are protected from the effects of the change to funding council tax benefit by retained business rates in 2020.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

By the end of this Parliament, when local government will keep 100% of the £26 billion of business rates they raise locally, our ambition is that local councils will meet their spending needs, including local council tax support, from local taxation and other locally raised income. At the point that we introduce 100% business rates retention, there will continue to be a measure of redistribution to ensure that no authority loses out just because it starts from a relatively weaker position.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the breakdown of the lay magistracy according to the occupational groups with which applicants are required to identify themselves.

Lord Faulks

The requested information is no longer recorded.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking, if any, to ensure that the Bede’s World museum in Jarrow will be able to re-open after its unexpected closure.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

As a local authority heritage attraction, the management of Bede’s World is a matter for South Tyneside Council to address as part of the council’s overall cultural offer. Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund are continuing to liaise closely with the council as they explore practical options for operating Bede’s World in the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-06-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to reduce the level of uncollected tax, and if so, to what extent, and within what timescale.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published its latest tax gap estimates on 22 October 2015 in Measuring tax gaps; 2015 edition. The overall long term trend is a reducing tax gap, from 8.4 per cent in 2005-06 to 6.4% in 2013-14. The UK’s percentage tax gap is one of the lowest in the world.

This overall long term trend demonstrates that our approach is delivering steady and sustained progress. As set out in their Single Departmental Plan, HMRC will raise an additional £5 billion a year by 2019-20 by tackling tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, evasion and non-compliance, and by addressing imbalances in the tax system.