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 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 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which medicines will be delisted following their planned changes to the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has advised that decisions on which drugs will be removed from the national Cancer Drugs Fund list are still subject to change. A revised list will be published on NHS England’s website in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what NHS pathways will be available to patients newly diagnosed as suffering from (1) multiple myeloma, and (2) rarer cancers, when changes are made to the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has advised that a draft treatment pathway for patients with multiple myeloma is currently in the process of being finalised and is likely to be published early in 2016. This has been the subject of public consultation and is being revised to take into account the comments received.

Work on the treatment pathways for patients with rarer cancers is planned for development and consultation in 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the United Kingdom life sciences industry of their planned changes to the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Neither the Department nor NHS England has made any such assessment.

The Government regularly holds discussions with life sciences companies about the United Kingdom business environment and these routinely include discussion about the impact of policies such as the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).

The independent Accelerated Access Review is considering the long term landscape for innovation adoption and how schemes like the CDF best fit within this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the global standard of care that will result from their planned changes to the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has advised that no assessment has been made of the impact on the global standard of care that will result from any changes to Cancer Drugs Fund.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will review the appraisal criteria upon which medicines for rarer cancers are approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has advised that it is not planning to specifically review the methods used for appraisal of medicines for rarer cancers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what initiatives they are planning to encourage tourists to use the new airport on St Helena.

Baroness Verma

The UK Government is providing financial support of £4.8 million between 2013 and 2016 to Enterprise St Helena, the island’s economic development agency. Enterprise St Helena is supporting the tourism sector through tourist promotion, international advertising, hospitality training, and small business development grants. It is also working with Comair, the St Helena Government’s airline partner, to encourage tourists to visit the island.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2014-06-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their stated intention of building more houses, what is their assessment of the ability of the United Kingdom building supplies industry to provide bricks, timber and other materials; and what measures they are taking to encourage growth in the building supplies industry to provide sufficient materials to ensure the success of the house building programme.

Viscount Younger of Leckie

The Government has noted advice from the Construction Products Association that there is no general lack of capacity in UK products manufacturers. The Association advises that only 19 per cent of companies producing heavy building materials are currently operating at near capacity. As the products sector adjusts to the return to growth it expects that capacity will increase further in response to demand.