Tag: Lord Beecham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many lay magistrates were recruited in the last year for which figures are available for each decile by age.

Lord Faulks

A total of 403 magistrates were appointed in England and Wales between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015. A breakdown of those appointments can be found in the tables below:

Gender

Male	Female
158 (39%)	245 (61%)

Ethnicity

White	Mixed	Black	Asian	Chinese	Other
333 (83%)	15 (4%)	24 (6%)	22 (5%)	3 (>1%)	6 (2%)

Age

18-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-65
24 (6%)	75 (19%)	97 (24%)	154 (38%)	53 (13%)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to divert part or all of the £160m JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to medium Enterprises) 2 fund, succeeding the Finance for Business North East fund, to other Northern areas described as part of the Northern Powerhouse; and if so, what proportion of funding will be diverted, and why they are taking such action.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government has no intention of imposing any arrangements for the next round of ERDF ‘JEREMIE’ style Access to Finance funds that do not carry local support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they instructed local authorities not to disclose the contents of their submissions for the Comprehensive Spending Review; and, if so, why.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

Her Majesty’s Government has not instructed local authorities on the matter of disclosing the contents of their submissions for the Comprehensive Spending Review. Local authorities are free to publish the contents of their submissions and many have chosen to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in relation to the decision to award MTCNovo the contract to run Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, what assessment they have made of the experience that company has in running residential establishments that care for vulnerable children; and whether MTCNovo, including its partners or significant subcontractors, has been found to have breached human rights or equality legislation in the last three years, either in the United Kingdom or abroad.

Lord Faulks

MTC and their main partner Amey were subject to robust and rigorous assessment at the pre-qualification stage of the competition. This included a thorough examination of health and safety, equalities, human rights and discrimination policies, and a requirement to demonstrate their experience of managing children and young people.

There were no findings of a breach in human rights or equality legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-09-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 15 September (HL2049) which committed to helping to protect taxpayers from the rising cost of subsidising rent, what steps they are taking to achieve this commitment.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

We have included provisions in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill currently before Parliament to reduce social rents in England by one percent a year for four years from April 2016. We estimate that by 2020/21 there will be an in-year saving to the tax payer of some £1.4 billion, so helping to protect taxpayers from the rising cost of subsidising rents through housing benefit.

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.