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Tag: Lord Hylton

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to enforce the National Minimum Wage, and in particular to protect the employees of agencies and those on zero-hours contracts from exploitation.

    Viscount Younger of Leckie

    The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

    HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage for all workers. This includes agency workers and those on zero hour contracts. HMRC investigates every complaint made to the Pay and Work Rights helpline. In addition, HMRC conducts risk-based enforcement in sectors or areas where there is a higher risk of workers not getting paid the legal minimum wage.

    The Government is taking a tougher approach on employers that break National Minimum Wage law and has already made it simpler to name and shame employers that break NMW law. The Government has also increased the financial penalty percentage that employers pay for breaking minimum wage law.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, at the latest date, how many immigration detainees were being held in HM prisons; how many foreign national offenders, whose sentences had already expired but who had not been deported were being held; and what assessment they have made of the impact of such persons on the rehabilitation of British prisoners.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    For the week commencing 31 March, there were 720 immigration detainees in prisons.

    Please note that the data includes a small number of individuals who have never served a custodial sentence, but who present specific risk factors that indicate they pose a serious risk of harm to the public or to the good order of an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) including the safety of staff and other detainees, which cannot be managed within the regime applied in IRCs.

    To extract this small number of cases would incur a disproportionate cost.

    Foreign national offenders held in prisons beyond the end of their sentence under immigration powers are normally held in unconvicted conditions. Their presence in these prisons does not affect the rehabilitation of British nationals whose access to accredited interventions and other rehabilitation services is governed by risk of offending and offender-related need.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they support the direct and indirect negotiations between the government of Turkey, elected representatives, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK); and whether they will encourage the government of Turkey to maintain the current ceasefire and to conclude the negotiations as soon as possible.

    Baroness Warsi

    We applaud the continuing efforts of the Turkish government aimed at concluding a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish issue. We encourage all sides, including members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, to maintain the current ceasefire and continue negotiations until a just and lasting agreement is achieved.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that claimants of benefits who are subject to sanctions know that they may apply for hardship payments; and what is the median time between such applications being made and cash payments being received.

    Lord Freud

    Where a benefit doubt is identified and the case is being referred to a decision maker, claimants are given information (verbally and in writing) about the doubt in question, what happens next, what they can do if a sanction is applied and the availability of hardship provision. Once a decision is made and a sanction applied, a formal notification is issued to the claimant, which includes information about how to apply for hardship.

    The Department does not record information about the length of time it takes to make a Hardship payment following receipt of an application.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the resignation of Mr Lakhdar Brahimi as United Nations mediator in Syria.

    Baroness Warsi

    Lakhdar Brahimi has played a crucial role as joint UN and Arab League Special Envoy for Syria since June 2012. He showed strong leadership and great patience in getting the parties to the conflict round the same table in Geneva and take the first steps towards potentially constructive dialogue. The responsibility for the collapse of negotiations rests wholly with the regime’s refusal to engage in discussion on an agenda for future talks put forward by Mr Brahimi. The appointment and mandate of any future UN Special Envoy is still under consideration by the UN.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to instruct the various investigative and regulatory authorities to give priority to suspect deposits, in particular laundered money and investments, originating from Russia and Ukraine.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    The Government is committed to tackling money laundering and ensuring that the UK is a hostile place for the proceeds of corruption.

    Prior to EU sanctions being agreed, the Treasury contacted anti-money laundering supervisors suggesting that they emphasise the increased risk in relation to Ukraine to their firms and remind them of the need to have appropriate systems and controls for due diligence, ongoing monitoring and reporting of suspicious transactions.

    It is not possible to comment on specific operational matters.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the offer of partial amnesties by President Assad of Syria.

    Baroness Warsi

    The limited amnesties on prisoner release offered by President Assad do not offer a genuine solution to the problems in Syria. While the British Government has been consistent in calling for the release of political prisoners it is as yet unclear who these amnesties will affect and how prisoners’ safety will be assured. The lies and brutality of the Assad regime, as set out in the UN’s Commission on Inquiry reports, mean that this amnesty will not provide reassurance to the Syrian opposition. If the Syrian regime is serious about bringing the conflict to an end, then they should release political prisoners unconditionally and negotiate seriously within the framework set out in the Geneva communiqué.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what amount of money, fraudulently, corruptly or criminally acquired and transferred to the United Kingdom from (1) Russia, and (2) Ukraine, has been frozen, confiscated or returned to its rightful owners, in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    The Serious and Organised Crime Strategy sets out our commitment to making the UK a hostile environment for money laundering. The information you have requested is not centrally held, but the UK has taken a leading role in responding to allegations of corruption in Ukraine, promptly implementing European Union sanctions against individuals identified as responsible for the misappropriation of state funds, and posting a multi-agency team, comprising of the National Crime Agency, Metropolitan Police Service, and Crown Prosecution service, to Kiev to provide technical assistance and support to the Ukrainian authorities. All appropriate criminal justice and administrative routes to support the Ukrainian authorities are being pursued.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel about its holding children detained in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in immediate solitary confinement; whether they have any plans to work within the European Union to end the practice; whether they know when the proposed system of summons will start; and whether they will take steps to ensure access by parents to their children in custody.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Mr Grayling), raised the treatment of child detainees with the Israeli Supreme Court President during his visit to Israel in May. The system of summons started in February 2014. It has already shown initial success in decreasing the number of children arrested at night. We intend to carry out further analysis on this system over the coming months. As a recent progress report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates, Israel has taken some positive steps towards addressing the recommendations in UNICEF’s Children in Israeli Military Detention report. These include: the introduction of legal obligations to inform the child’s parents of an arrest and grant them legal status to be represented in court, as well as to notify minors of their legal rights; and standard operating procedures on methods of restraint. The Government will continue to work, both through bilateral engagement and through the EU, to encourage Israel to take further positive steps.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of recent deaths in the Yarmouk section of Damascus, reported by Amnesty International in its report Squeezing the life out of Yarmouk: War crimes against besieged civilians, and, in particular, of that organisation’s attribution of the deaths to starvation and lack of medical care.

    Lord Bates

    DFID is deeply concerned by reports of Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus suffering and dying as a result of malnutrition and lack of medical care. Yarmouk has been under siege for some time and we are calling for unfettered access to all affected communities and for all sides to lift sieges to end this suffering.