Tag: Lord Jones of Cheltenham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are monitoring academies and free schools that seek to change their nominal catchment areas in order to ensure that local parents have the final say on such proposals.

Lord Nash

School admission arrangements are set and applied locally. Each school has an admission authority to set its admission arrangements. For academies and free schools, it is the academy trust. Where changes are proposed to admission arrangements, the admission authority must first publicly consult on those arrangements, including with local parents. If no changes are made to admission arrangements, they must be consulted on at least once every seven years to ensure admissions arrangements continue to meet local needs. However, we will shortly be consulting on requiring admission authorities to consult on their admission arrangements at least once every four years.

There is no requirement within the School Admissions Code (‘the Code’) for any school to adopt a catchment area. Where they do, the Code makes it clear that the catchment must be fair and not discriminate against any social or ethnic group, or those with disabilities.

If parents are concerned about changes to a school’s catchment area they can object to the Schools Adjudicator. The Adjudicator can require any state-funded school to amend its admission policy, if it breaches the Code.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria were used in selecting the members of the Guidelines Development Group who advised the Chief Medical Officer on the evidence base for the updated guidelines concerning alcohol consumption.

Lord Prior of Brampton

A group of 13 independent scientific experts were commissioned to report back to the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers and make recommendations on new low risk drinking guidelines. The members of the Guidelines Development Group were chosen according to the type of expertise they had and their individual ability.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take against landlords who fail to maintain their properties in a safe and fit state of repair.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System assesses the health and safety risks in all residential properties. Under the Housing Act 2004, following an Rating System inspection, if a local authority identifies a serious hazard they can take action, including issuing an Improvement Notice or a Hazard Awareness Notice. In extreme circumstances, the local authority may decide to make repairs themselves, or to prohibit that property from being rented out. Where a landlord fails to comply with a statutory notice, this is an offence, and they can be prosecuted by the local authority. From October 2015 we introduced protection for tenants from retaliatory eviction, where they have a legitimate complaint about the condition of the property.

The Housing and Planning Bill will strengthen local authorities’ ability and incentives to tackle rogue landlords by introducing measures including:

• A database of rogue landlords and property agents convicted of certain offences;
• Banning orders for the most serious and prolific offenders;
• Civil penalties of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution;
• Extension of Rent Repayment Orders to cover illegal eviction, breach of a banning order or failure to comply with a statutory notice;
• A more stringent fit and proper person test for landlords of licensable properties such as Houses in Multiple Occupation.

My Department also recently announced a further £5 million of funding across 48 local authorities to tackle the worst rogue landlords in their areas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to tackle the decline in the number of UK citizens moving to live overseas.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government has no legal basis to influence where UK citizens choose to live.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the regulations relating to frozen state pensions.

Baroness Altmann

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this.

Details of the numbers of people in receipt of the state pension, and whether they live in countries where the state pension is frozen or uprated, is included at Annex A. Countries where the UK state pension is up-rated are identified by an asterisk by the name of the country.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Of course there is uncertainty about how a vote to leave the EU could impact on access to pensioner benefits for UK pensioners living in other parts of Europe. These questions would need to be answered as part of the process of negotiating the UK’s exit if there is a vote to leave. We could only consider the detail of access to pensions and benefits for people in receipt of UK state pensions who are resident in Europe as part of the process for leaving the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people living in each of the Overseas Territories are in receipt of a UK state pension which is (1) frozen, or (2) uprated annually.

Baroness Altmann

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this.

Details of the numbers of people in receipt of the state pension, and whether they live in countries where the state pension is frozen or uprated, is included at Annex A. Countries where the UK state pension is up-rated are identified by an asterisk by the name of the country.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Of course there is uncertainty about how a vote to leave the EU could impact on access to pensioner benefits for UK pensioners living in other parts of Europe. These questions would need to be answered as part of the process of negotiating the UK’s exit if there is a vote to leave. We could only consider the detail of access to pensions and benefits for people in receipt of UK state pensions who are resident in Europe as part of the process for leaving the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people living in each of the countries of the Commonwealth are in receipt of a UK state pension which is (1) frozen, or (2) uprated annually.

Baroness Altmann

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this.

Details of the numbers of people in receipt of the state pension, and whether they live in countries where the state pension is frozen or uprated, is included at Annex A. Countries where the UK state pension is up-rated are identified by an asterisk by the name of the country.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Of course there is uncertainty about how a vote to leave the EU could impact on access to pensioner benefits for UK pensioners living in other parts of Europe. These questions would need to be answered as part of the process of negotiating the UK’s exit if there is a vote to leave. We could only consider the detail of access to pensions and benefits for people in receipt of UK state pensions who are resident in Europe as part of the process for leaving the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people living in each country of the EU are in receipt of the UK state pension which is currently uprated annually under EU regulations and reciprocal agreements, and what assessment they have made of what will happen to those pensions if the UK leaves the EU.

Baroness Altmann

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this.

Details of the numbers of people in receipt of the state pension, and whether they live in countries where the state pension is frozen or uprated, is included at Annex A. Countries where the UK state pension is up-rated are identified by an asterisk by the name of the country.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Of course there is uncertainty about how a vote to leave the EU could impact on access to pensioner benefits for UK pensioners living in other parts of Europe. These questions would need to be answered as part of the process of negotiating the UK’s exit if there is a vote to leave. We could only consider the detail of access to pensions and benefits for people in receipt of UK state pensions who are resident in Europe as part of the process for leaving the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government in which countries, excluding the Commonwealth, EU, or Overseas Territories, do people in receipt of the UK state pension receive annual uprating of their pension.

Baroness Altmann

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this.

Details of the numbers of people in receipt of the state pension, and whether they live in countries where the state pension is frozen or uprated, is included at Annex A. Countries where the UK state pension is up-rated are identified by an asterisk by the name of the country.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Of course there is uncertainty about how a vote to leave the EU could impact on access to pensioner benefits for UK pensioners living in other parts of Europe. These questions would need to be answered as part of the process of negotiating the UK’s exit if there is a vote to leave. We could only consider the detail of access to pensions and benefits for people in receipt of UK state pensions who are resident in Europe as part of the process for leaving the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Altmann on 2 March (HL6343), why Canada was excluded from the list of countries in Annex A, and what figure for the number of people in Canada in receipt of a frozen UK state pension should have been included.

Baroness Altmann

The information requested can be found at page 2 of Annex A, at line 5 of the table provided in the answer I gave on 3 March to (HL 6343). I attach that here at Annex A for convenience.