Tag: Lord Beecham

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.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have refused to answer freedom of information requests from The Guardian in relation to non-UK migrant families.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Guardian has received responses to their requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Faulks on 14 December (HL4095), why the occupations of those appointed as lay magistrates are no longer recorded.

Lord Faulks

The information is no longer recorded because it does not form part of published statistics on the magistracy. Additionally, the enduring accuracy of the recorded information could not be guaranteed subsequent to appointment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the extent and impact of the number of defendants in criminal cases appearing without representation as revealed in the report by Transform Justice Justice Denied? The experience of unrepresented defendants in the criminal courts.

Lord Faulks

Data on litigants in person in Magistrates’ Courts is not centrally recorded. There has been no change in the scope or eligibility for legal aid in the magistrates’ courts since means testing was introduced in 2006.

Legal aid is available, where necessary, for both magistrates’ and Crown Court cases, subject to defendants being means tested.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much tax has accrued to the Exchequer from the reported removal of £6.1 billion from pension funds since the new pensions flexibility rules were introduced, and how much they estimate will accrue by 2020.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The latest estimate of the tax revenue consequences of the introduction of pensions flexibility was set out in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook in March 2016. This stated, in paragraph 4.40, that: “tax from pension withdrawals relating to the pension flexibility measure is expected to be around £0.9 billion for the whole of 2015-16, around £0.2 billion higher than assumed in the original costing”.

The estimated longer term tax impacts of the pensions flexibility measures announced at Budget 2014 were set out in Chart 1.11 (page 45) of the Budget 2014 document.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of increasing reliance on district judges, what role they envisage for lay magistrates.

Lord Keen of Elie

We are committed to giving magistrates the strongest possible role in a more proportionate courts system, now and in the future.

Magistrates and District Judges bring different but valuable skills to our justice system. We are working with magistrates to review their role to make sure that the justice system is making full use of their skills, and that they are dealing with more of the crimes that affect and matter most to their communities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) local authority, and (2) housing association, supported housing schemes there are in England, and how many residents participate in each type of scheme.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

We do not hold this information. More information on the scale, shape and cost of the supported accommodation sector should be available through the evidence review jointly commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions. The review is due to report by April 2016.