Tag: Lord Browne of Belmont

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-10-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect members of the public from unsolicited telephone calls.

Lord Ashton of Hyde

The Government is determined to tackle the problem of nuisance calls, and is considering implementing a number of legislative measures to provide better consumer protection, from unsolicited telephone calls. These measures include; extending the Information Commissioner’s powers of compulsory audit to organisations that generate nuisance calls and holding company directors to account for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The Government introduced a new requirement for all direct marketing callers to provide caller line identification, which came into effect on 16 May. More recently we introduced a measure in the Digital Economy Bill, making it a requirement for the Information Commissioner to issue a statutory code of practice on direct marketing, which will support a reduction in the number of unwanted direct marketing calls.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2015-11-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of road safety awareness educational programmes in reducing accidents.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Road safety education includes a range of interventions including educational courses and publicity campaigns.

The Department funds the THINK! road safety publicity campaign. We evaluate the campaign to ensure it is effective, that we continually improve performance; and that we ultimately deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

Prior to each campaign we set communication objectives and key performance indicators. We measure progress against these by running surveys with our target audience before and immediately after the campaign. We have seen positive shifts in key performance indicators for the majority of our campaigns. All of our recent campaign evaluation reports are published on gov.uk^[1].

In the long run, positive changes in key performance indicators on campaigns such as speeding, drink driving and seatbelts have correlated with fewer drivers exceeding the speed limit, fewer accidents involving drink driving and higher seatbelt wearing rates; and ultimately to fewer road casualties.

Publicity campaigns are part of the solution to reduce road casualties and work best when used alongside enforcement and engineering interventions. Due to the multiple factors affecting casualties (weather, road conditions, traffic levels, the economy etc.) it is difficult to demonstrate a causal relationship with a specific intervention. However, in 2012 the department commissioned an independent agency to evaluate the impact drink drive campaigns have had on casualties. They used econometric modelling to estimate that over a 30 year period, drink drive communication campaigns have saved almost 2,000 lives and prevented over 10,000 serious injuries^[2].

In 2013, the Transport Research Laboratory published^[3] a review and synthesis of evidence on the effectiveness of pre-driver education and training for those under 17 years of age which was undertaken for the Coalition Government. The findings showed that very few interventions had been robustly evaluated and that the evidence base around pre-driver interventions was weak. The Government recently commissioned an evidence base review, to build on existing work, to help us to understand the effectiveness of a range of pre- and post-test behavioural and technological interventions for young drivers. The Government is currently also funding an evaluation of the effectiveness of speed awareness courses.

^[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/think-communication-activity

^[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drink-drive-30-years-of-communication

^[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249282/novice-driver-research-findings.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the Northern Ireland Executive on the potential impact on Northern Ireland of the UK leaving the EU.

Lord Dunlop

UK Government Ministers have regular contact with the Northern Ireland Executive to discuss a range of issues, including matters relating to the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-10-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the estimated (1) numeracy, and (2) literacy, rate among prisoners in each of the last three years.

Lord Keen of Elie

Prisons should be places of safety and reform. I am determined to make sure that we achieve better outcomes for all prisoners including in education, and I want to see much clearer accountability for prison governors for the education delivered in prison and the results prisoners achieve. Mandatory education assessments were introduced for the first time in August 2014, for all new receptions to custody in England. This shows that in the year to September 2015 fewer than half the people entering prisons had basic standards of English and maths, and around a third had identified learning difficulties or disabilities. Data prior to August 2014 is not available.

Prison education is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2015-11-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to help home owners in negative equity.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

If homeowners are in negative equity, or worried about meeting payments in the future, it is vital to make early contact with their lender.

There are a number of organisations available that provide free, impartial advice on money and debt management, including the Money Advice Service, which Government has set up to promote understanding of Financial Systems.

The Government is working to mitigate the impact of Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) activity on those in negative equity and following consultation government released a response document on the 29^th October, which is available on the gov.uk website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what fines have been levied on the UK for non-compliance with EU directives from 2010 to date.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

From 2010 to date no fines have been levied on the UK for non-compliance with EU directives.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are currently taking to improve support to children with disabilities in their early years.

Lord Nash

This Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Children with disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children to access high-quality childcare.

Local authorities are required by legislation to secure early education places offering 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year olds, including those with disabilities. The Childcare Bill is delivering extended entitlement to free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. This will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year.

Early Implementers of the extended childcare entitlement will focus on key delivery issues, including access for children with SEND, in order to provide critical learning to inform national rollout.

All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2014. The SEND Code of Practice, introduced as part of the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Children and Families Act, gives guidance on how children between the ages of 0 and 25 with SEN or disabilities are to be supported and providers are statutorily required to have regard for this Code of Practice.

The Government has invested £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations this year. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEND training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND Champions grant has proven very popular amongst the workforce.

The Department funds local authorities’ high needs provision in both the early years and schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant; local authorities have reported that they are planning to spend over £90 million from their high needs budgets on children in their early years. The Spending Review provided a generous uplift in the funding early years providers will receive from April 2017 and protection for the majority of high needs funding. We recognise the critical importance of childcare to parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities; we will consider SEN funding for early years as part of wider consultations in 2016 on how we introduce a fairer funding system.

This Government is committed to helping parents with disabled children. For example, from early 2017 working parents with children under the age of 17 who have a disability will be able to access support under Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £4,000 per child, per year. This is double that offered for children without disabilities for whom support is offered until the age of 12.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much money has been received from the sale of former military sites and bases in Northern Ireland to date.

Earl Howe

Since 2005 the Ministry of Defence has received around £117 million in disposal receipts from the sale of surplus sites in Northern Ireland.

All transactions were carried out in accordance with the Hillsborough Agreement.

Over the same period, the Department gifted four bases to the Northern Ireland Executive with an estimated total combined value of £21 million. As outlined in a Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS509) released on 4 February 2016, there is also intent to gift an additional 59 surplus Service Family Accommodation units to the Northern Ireland Executive, with a combined value of £3.5 million.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are (1) currently taking, (2) plan to take, to promote trade and investment opportunities between the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

Lord Maude of Horsham

Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) is committed to helping UK business succeed overseas, including in Commonwealth countries. HMG is represented across the Commonwealth and, UK Trade and Investment has offices in around half of all Commonwealth countries as part of its global footprint. Dependent on the scale of opportunities in each country there are a range of export services that business can benefit from. In late 2013, UKTI opened in five new Commonwealth markets, and reinforced teams in four others. There are ten dedicated Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys in Commonwealth countries, charged specifically with the promotion of trade and investment in their respective markets.

I attended the Commonwealth Business Forum in November 2015 in Malta, held in the margins of The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. My participation at this event advanced UK business interests with key decision makers and businesses from other Commonwealth countries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what joint trade missions have been undertaken by the UK and the Republic of Ireland since 2010.

Lord Maude of Horsham

Since 2010, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and Enterprise Ireland have organised a joint trade mission to the Singapore Air Show in February 2014.

Her Majesty’s Government is committed to helping UK business succeed overseas, including in the Republic of Ireland where UKTI is represented and is actively promoting trade and investment between our two countries.