Tag: Lord Greaves

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government  what measures they are taking to help to prevent sexual predators taking advantage of refugees, including children, (1) in the UK, and (2) in the rest of Europe.

Lord Bates

Any child who arrives in the UK unaccompanied, either as a result of resettlement or via another route, would be expected to receive the same protection and support as a child who is resident in the UK, under the provisions set out in the Children Act 1989, as amended, and related statutory guidance.

In Europe, the UK, through the Department for International Development, has committed funding to humanitarian organisations which are working to assist and protect vulnerable people, including children.

This includes funding to the Red Cross, UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration, as well as humanitarian NGOs working in southern Europe and the Balkans. These programmes have specific activities which identify unaccompanied children to ensure that they are referred to appropriate services, including psychosocial support and child-friendly safe spaces.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current backlog of applications for land registration at the Land Registry, and how long is the average delay in registration.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

There are approximately 234k applications awaiting completion at Land Registry, 93k of which cannot be processed as they are awaiting replies to queries sent to the originating conveyancer or solicitor, or notices sent to the registered proprietor(s) of the land or property. This leaves 141k applications available for Land Registry to process. Registration takes place after the transaction has been completed and the priority of all of these pending applications is protected upon receipt. Last year, Land Registry received 5.9m applications for registration.

The average number of days taken to complete all applications for registration is 11 days, with applications to update an existing register taking an average of just under 7 days, and applications that result in the creation of new registered titles taking an average of 42 days to complete.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which of their funding programmes are included within the Northern Powerhouse concept; and what is the estimate of the amount that will be spent by each department, and on what projects, in the current year and next.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

Our Northern Powerhouse initiative aims to redress the imbalance between the North and the rest of the UK, and help the North in reaching its potential through investing across a wide range of areas. This includes spending £13 billion on transport, £46 billion on schools, and £150 billion on health in the North of England over the course of the next Spending Review period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of (1) the percentage of the buildings in Ramadi that are (a) unharmed by the violence in Iraq, (b) damaged, but still usable, and (c) damaged or destroyed to the extent that they are no longer usable; and (2) the proportion of the housing in Ramadi that is no longer habitable by modern standards.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UN and other agencies have not yet been able to undertake an assessment of damage to buildings and infrastructure in Ramadi as a result of the remaining threat from Daesh and improvised explosive devices inside the city. The most recent analysis by the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme, published online by the UN Institute for Training and Research, indicates that between July 2014 and 19 December 2015 some 4,696 buildings have been damaged inside the city.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-03-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what submissions they have made to the Bank of England’s consultation Establishing Shari’ah compliant central bank liquidity facilities.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government has not made any submissions to the Bank of England’s consultation: Establishing Shari’ah compliant central bank liquidity facilities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the discovery of an illness similar to Lyme Disease, caused by the tick-borne bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi, which is reported to be resistant to antibiotics.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Public Health England (PHE) regularly reviews the scientific literature and in response to reports of B. miyamotoi being present in ticks in other countries, PHE has studied relevant ticks in England, finding that three out of 954 ticks studied contained B. miyamotoi, compared to 40 that were positive for the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease. The public health significance of B. miyamotoi has been unclear, but accumulating published evidence from around 50 human cases, suggests it can cause disease in man, most commonly a febrile illness.

To date, no human infections with Borrelia miyamotoi have been reported in the United Kingdom. All cases of B. miyamotoi infection reported in the scientific literature to date made a full recovery following treatment with appropriate antibiotics.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many persons other than those working on the railway have been killed on (1) the UK railways, and (2) the London Underground, in each of the last 10 years, and in the current year so far; and how many of those were (a) suicides, (b) accidents to persons trespassing on the line, (c) accidents at level crossings, and (d) owing to other causes.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Other than those working on the railway, the number of fatalities on UK Railways over the past decade and to date this year is noted in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Fatalities on UK Railways

	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16*
Suicide	225	225	207	219	243	208	250	246	278	292	142
Trespass	44	43	52	46	42	24	40	33	22	22	15
Level Crossings	13	10	10	12	13	6	4	9	8	11	0
Other	8	11	6	6	6	9	8	4	4	4	4
Totals	290	289	275	283	304	247	302	292	312	329	161

*April – September

The Department for Transport does not hold any information in relation to fatalities on London Underground.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 2 December (HL3987), for each of the last five years and this year so far, (1) how many children who are dependants of British citizens and persons who are living legally in the UK have made asylum claims to the French authorities; (2) how many of those have been accepted; and (3) of those, how many have subsequently been reunited with their parents or other responsible family members in the UK.

Lord Bates

The UK does not hold statistical information of the number of asylum applications made in France by dependent children of British citizens or persons living legally in the UK or how many of these applications have been accepted by the French. Statistics for transfers of asylum applicants from France to the UK on the basis of family ties are not routinely recorded.

We will consider any request made to us by the French asylum authorities to take responsibility for an asylum applicant in France because they have close family in the UK in accordance with the terms of the Dublin Regulation concerning the principle of family unity and the best interests of the child. This is subject to an applicant first claiming asylum in France. If they do not wish to claim asylum, individual migrants in France as in any other country, are entitled to apply under the Family Reunion provisions to join relatives in the UK by making the appropriate application.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, a Parliamentary pass should be accepted as photo-identity evidence for the purposes of opening a bank account, becoming a signatory to a bank account, and similar actions; and if not why not.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government’s Anti-Money Laundering regime has a clear aim: to make the UK financial system a hostile environment for illicit finances, whilst minimising the burden on legitimate businesses and reducing the overall burden of regulation.

Under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, customers opening a bank account must satisfy the relevant financial institution as to their identity. Financial institutions are also required to maintain appropriate records and conduct ongoing monitoring of the business relationship. The Regulations do not prescribe that customers must produce particular documents such as a driving licence or passport, or indeed a Parliamentary pass.

Professional bodies such as the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG, a finance, trade and banking industry consortium), issue detailed operational guidance to their members about how the Regulations should be applied in practice, which is available on their website. The JMLSG guidance encourages businesses to consider a wide range of reliable documentation that customers can produce for customer due diligence purposes. Each business will however have their own policies in relation to customer due diligence checks. The Regulations require businesses to be proportionate in the checks they carry out, so that they safeguard against the potential risks but the process is not unnecessarily burdensome for the customer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the £20 million of funding for providing English tuition for speakers of other languages announced by the Prime Minister is new money, and if so, from which budget heading it will come; whether that additional provision will be available for (1) both Muslim men and women who come to the UK on spousal visas and whose English requires improvement; (2) persons of other religions, and none, who come to the UK on spousal visas; (3) persons who are living in the UK by virtue of other kinds of permissions, such as other types of visas or following applications for asylum; (4) Muslim women and other persons who have come to the UK from other countries in the EU; and (5) UK citizens, whether or not they are Muslims; and whether that additional provision will be restricted according to how long a person has lived in the UK or their age.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The £20 million community-based English language training offer is new funding which will be routed through DCLG and will form part of its Integration Programme. The detail of how the programme will be designed, targeted and delivered will be informed by the findings of Louise Casey’s Review into boosting opportunity and integration amongst isolated groups and the learning from the six community projects we have funded as part of our current Integration Programme. In particular, we will work with Louise Casey to identify the most isolated communities in England to make sure this programme is targeted at those women who need it most. We are working to deliver as early a launch date as possible for the programme in 2016/17.