Tag: Lord Kennedy of Southwark

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Mali.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK remains concerned about the human rights situation in Mali. In recent years civilians have suffered from widespread human rights abuses, particularly during the occupation of northern Mali by terrorist groups. Women and girls have been victims of sexual violence and children have been recruited into armed groups. Those who commit human rights violations continue to act with impunity. Negotiations in Algiers are taking place between the government and armed groups aimed at reaching a sustainable peace agreement, which would lead to an improvement in human rights in Mali.

The UK is actively working to improve human rights in Mali including with partners. For example, we are providing a curriculum of training in international humanitarian law as part of the EU’s training mission to the Malian Armed Forces. So far some 3,000 Malian soldiers have received this training. We also support the work of the UN to monitor human rights abuses in Mali.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Guinea-Bissau.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK welcomes the return to constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau following the democratic Presidential and Legislative elections in 2014. We also welcome the subsequent improvement in the human rights situation, particularly in respect of civil and political rights, but further progress needs to be made, especially in strengthening the justice sector. We have encouraged Guinea-Bissau to take practical steps to accelerate the eradication of Female Genital Mutilation and to reduce the number of child, early and forced marriages, including at the UN in January during the Universal Periodic Review of Guinea-Bissau’s human rights record.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Burma.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Burma remains a human rights Country of Concern for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and features in the FCO’s annual Human Rights and Democracy report. A copy of the latest quarterly update to that report on Burma is attached, which highlights the humanitarian situation in Rakhine, continuing conflict and sexual violence in Kachin, political prisoners and restrictions on freedom of expression.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Eritrea.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain concerned about the human rights situation in Eritrea, including shortcomings in the rule of law, reports of arbitrary detention, and limits on the freedom of speech. We have made clear we want the Eritrean government to take concrete steps to implement the international commitments it has made. We welcome recent progress made by the Government of Eritrea, including ratifying the Convention Against Torture in 2014 and hosting a visit by international human rights experts in January 2015. We continue to urge Eritrea to work constructively with the international community and implement the recommendations of the 2014 Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Eritrea is a human rights Country of Concern for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and features in the FCO’s annual Human Rights and Democracy report. A copy of the FCO’s latest quarterly update on the human rights situation in Eritrea is attached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Sudan.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK remains seriously concerned by the human rights situation in Sudan. Sudan is a human rights Country of Concern for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and features in the FCO’s annual Human Rights and Democracy report. A copy of the FCO’s latest quarterly assessment of the human rights situation in Sudan is attached, which highlights the ongoing conflicts, restrictions on freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression remain of particular concern.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-01-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Office of Rail Regulation.

Baroness Kramer

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is independent of Government and is accountable to Parliament. The Secretary of State appoints the Chair and other board members and Ministers and Department for Transport officials meet regularly with ORR to discuss a wide range of issues including regulatory matters and railway performance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-01-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the responsiveness of the Train Operating Companies to the needs of passengers.

Baroness Kramer

The National Rail Passenger Survey consults more than 50,000 passengers a year to produce the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) – a network-wide picture of passengers’ satisfaction with rail travel. This survey measures Passengers’ overall satisfaction and satisfaction with 30 specific aspects of service can, therefore, be compared over time.

The new approach to rail franchising – as launched by the Secretary of State in March 2013 – is designed to see the interests of passengers strengthened. Since the new programme was launched, passenger satisfaction requirements (based upon the NRPS) have been included in franchises. And when evaluating bids for franchises, credit is given for non-financial factors, which includes initiatives to improve the quality of service to passengers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-01-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are proposing in relation to banks that have missold business loans to customers.

Lord Deighton

Business lending is not, and never has been, within the scope of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) conduct rules. The position that has traditionally been taken in the UK is that the terms and conditions of contracts between businesses (e.g. loans) are not generally prescribed by government. The government is committed to regulating only where there is a clear case for doing so, in order to avoid putting additional costs on lenders that would ultimately lead to higher costs for businesses customer.

However, the smaller end of the business community does receive regulatory protection. In the UK, loans to the smallest businesses (sole traders, partnerships consisting of 2 or 3 partners and unincorporated businesses) of less than £25,000 are treated as regulated consumer credit agreements (CCAs).

This protects consumers, typically in their dealings with banks where there is the potential for consumer detriment. Around three quarters of the 4.8 million UK SMEs are sole traders, partnerships consisting of 2 or 3 partners and unincorporated businesses.

For those loans which are not treated as CCA loans, there is also a clear route of recourse for businesses that feel they have been mis-sold a business loan to pursue. A business’ first recourse should be to its bank’s customer complaints department. This is a route that has been taken by a number of customers. The FCA’s rules require the banks to properly investigate all complaints and, through ongoing supervision, it continues to monitor the banks’ complaint handling process.

Furthermore, micro businesses with a turnover of less than 2 million Euros and fewer than 10 employees have recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS is an independent, non-governmental body, established under statute to provide for the proportionate, prompt and informal resolution of complaints against financial services firms. It provides a free, independent dispute resolution service for bank customers and has a special team looking at this issue. Its decisions are binding on the firm concerned.

Beyond this, businesses are expected to be responsible for ensuring that contracts they make with other businesses are in their interest. However, if a business believes a bank has acted unlawfully, they can seek to take action through the courts

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-01-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent assessment they have made of the situation of human rights in Turkey.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We and our EU partners monitor closely the human rights situation in Turkey. The UK supports the EU Commission’s assessment of human rights in Turkey, given in its 2014 Annual Progress Report on Turkey’s EU accession. In 2014, Turkey made progress on its human rights reform agenda and adopted an Action Plan for the Prevention of Human Rights Violations. Turkey also continued to build the capacity of its human rights institutions. We welcome this progress and the continuing efforts of the Turkish government aimed at resolving the Kurdish issue.

However, as the EU’s report has underlined, there is still much to do to implement action plans, strengthen further the human rights institutional framework, and bring Turkish human rights legislation in line with European and international standards, including on rights for minority religious and ethnic groups.

The report also highlighted areas of concern over the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the rule of law, and restrictions on the freedom of expression, including temporary bans on social media imposed by the Turkish government. We will continue to work with our EU partners and international institutions, such as the EU and Council of Europe, to support Turkey in its continuing reform agenda.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2014-06-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the logbook loans industry.

Lord Deighton

The Government has fundamentally reformed regulation of the consumer credit market, including logbook lenders, by transferring responsibility from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 1 April 2014.

The Government is very concerned about evidence of consumer detriment in the logbook loan sector, as highlighted in the FCA’s recent research paper.

The FCA has identified logbook lenders as a higher risk industry, and as such they will be in the first phase of firms to require full authorisation. Logbook loan providers are also required to meet the FCA’s binding rules, and the FCA has said that it “won’t hesitate to take action” if they do not put their customers first.

In addition, the Government has asked the Law Commission to look at how to bring the highly complex legislation underpinning logbook loans up to date.