Tag: Lord Greaves

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent the level of recorded crime in a police force’s area affects the amount of funding allocated under the proposed new formula for funding of police forces.

Lord Bates

The proposed police funding model is based on a set of objective indicators that correlate strongly with long term patterns of crime.

As we set out in our consultation on a proposed new funding model, we believe it is not appropriate to directly base force level allocations on crime statistics as these are directly influenced by police activity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last five years, how many planning appeals were made against local authority decisions on major housing schemes; what was the average time taken by the Planning Inspectorate to deal with those appeals; how many took longer than six months; how many have so far been made this year, and of those how many have taken, or are scheduled to take, longer than six months.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The table below shows the number of planning appeals made against local authority decisions on major housing schemes (10 or more houses). It shows the average time taken, how many took longer than six months, how many have been made so far this year and of those, how many have taken or will take longer than six months.

s78 planning appeals for major dwellings (10+)
Start Date	Number of decisions	Average days to decide	Number of appeal decisions that exceeded 6 months (start to decision)
2010-2011	626	163	142
2011-2012	473	146	57
2012-2013	397	166	86
2013-2014	495	162	117
2014-2015	587	166	230
2015-2016	392	185	157
Number of decisions in progress that are beyond 6 months (in age) = 62

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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), what is the procedure for children who are dependants of British citizens and persons who are living legally in the UK, and who have had asylum claims accepted by the French authorities, to apply for entry to the UK in order to be reunited with their families.

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.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Parliament will be involved in the scrutiny of any proposals for changes to systems of Islamic finance in the UK following the outcome of the Bank of England’s consultation.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Bank of England will decide whether or not to establish a Shari’ah compliant liquidity facility in light of feedback to its consultation from the market and other relevant stakeholders. None of the proposals in the consultation are expected to require a change to primary legislation. Once the Bank of England has concluded, the Government will consider whether there is a need for Parliament to review legislation in relation to Islamic Finance in the UK more widely.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest estimate of the number of people registered as parliamentary electors in more than one constituency in the United Kingdom; and what proportion of those are so registered (1) because they are students, (2) because they occupy more than one home, (3) because they work away from their main residence, and (4) for other reasons.

Lord Bridges of Headley

It is not possible to provide an estimate of the number of people registered as parliamentary electors in more than one constituency as this information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements train operating companies are required to have in place to allow passengers on feeder services to a mainline hub station who have bought advance tickets online which start from a station without a ticket machine, and where the tickets have to be acquired at the mainline hub station, to travel by using booking confirmations that have been printed out, or can be shown on mobile devices, or by other means.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The National Rail Conditions of Carriage (NRCoC) states that Train Operating Companies must make tickets and reservations available at stations, over the internet or by telephone as appropriate.

When booking Advance tickets online most train operators give passengers the choice to print their ticket at home, collect it from a ticket machine, receive it by post or, where available, download their ticket onto a mobile phone.If a passenger chooses to collect from a ticket machine the train operator will give the passenger a choice of stations with ticket collection points available. These can be collected any time in advance of travel.

Passengers do have an obligation to have a valid ticket for the whole of the journey, and to keep their ticket safe. The NRCoC states that it is the ticket, not the receipt for it, which gives the right to travel.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 24 November (HL Deb, col 566), what specific additional support they are providing to those towns and parishes wishing to exercise the community rights provided by the Localism Act 2011 for developing neighbourhood plans, listing assets of community value and running services using the right to challenge; what other such community rights are available to town and parish councils; and what financial contribution they have made to town and parish councils for each of these purposes in each year since those rights came into existence.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The financial support for use of the community rights made by the Department for Communities and Local Government since the community rights came into force amounts to £62.6 million, including spend for the current financial year (2015/16). Spending on the Community Rights programme includes funding for communities to work with public service providers to take on services, Our Place and other related projects.

Community Rights Funding (£million)
2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	TOTAL
1	10.8	19.5	17.4	13.9	62.6

The Government is currently considering options for funding this activity after the financial year 2015-16.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the total capital and current spending on (1) drainage, and (2) flood prevention, by (a) local authorities in England, and (b) the Environment Agency, in each of the past ten years and in the current year.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Local authorities decide what to spend on drainage and flood prevention depending on local priorities. The Department for Communities and Local Government publishes statistics on local authorities’ revenue expenditure and capital expenditure outturns on GOV.UK. They are currently published from 2007/08 until 2014/15 with budget and forecast figures for 2015/16. Figures in relation to defences against flooding and land drainage are included in the statistics.

The Environment Agency invests in flood and coastal erosion risk management. Whilst in some cases there may also be secondary drainage benefits of this work, the Environment Agency does not measure those benefits and so cannot report on spending on drainage.

The table below shows the Environment Agency’s expenditure on flood and coastal erosion risk management in each of the past ten years, with budget figures for the current year. All figures are in £m, with real terms figures given at 2015/16 prices.

Year	Total	Total Real Terms
2005/06	445.1	549.7
2006/07	439.7	528.7
2007/08	459.4	536.7
2008/09	565.6	644.6
2009/10	620.1	688.9
2010/11	651.6	704.4
2011/12	548.5	582.5
2012/13	537.1	561.4
2013/14	535.9	548.8
2014/15	569.3	575.0
2015/16	601.4	601.4

In addition to the above, exceptional funding of £30m; £180m; and £60m was provided to the Environment Agency in financial years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 respectively (cash terms), following the winter 2013/14 flood event.