Tag: Lord Ouseley

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to respond to the Institute of Race Relations’ recent analysis Prevent and the Children’s Rights Convention in which the new duties placed on schools to prevent children being drawn into terrorism have been tested against the key articles in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Lord Bates

The Prevent duty is foremost about safeguarding vulnerable people – including children – from the dangers of radicalisation. We expect front line professionals, including teachers, to apply the duty in a proportionate manner.

To support schools in understanding their responsibilities in relation to the duty, we published statutory guidance in March last year which set out what is expected of them. In June last year, the Department for Education issued practical advice for schools which complemented the statutory guidance. Last month a website called ‘Educate Against Hate’ was launched specifically for schools and parents, which provides advice and support on how to identify and respond to concerns about radicalisation. We are also rolling out a training programme to equip all teachers with an awareness of radicalisation and an understanding of what they can do to ensure that children and young people are safeguarded from its risks.

It is important that when they have genuine concerns, people refer an individual to Channel, our voluntary programme to counter radicalisation, with the benefits that brings. A referral to Channel will be gauged in a way that defines an appropriate response.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are liaising with local public service providers to ensure that all incoming refugees as part of the refugee resettlement policy are appropriately assisted within local community cohesion programmes.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government and the Local Government Association continue to work closely with individual local authorities who are volunteering to take refugees.

Local authorities are required to provide refugees they resettle with a 12 month support package tailored to their individual needs which includes; accommodation, casework support and integration assistance, medical and social care needs and English language tuition. The first 12 months of a refugee’s resettlement costs will be funded by central government from the Overseas Development Aid budget.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether additional resources allocated for mental health services are ring-fenced in order to prevent any of those resources being used for alternative services in order to offset any NHS spending constraints.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England is responsible for allocating funding resources for health services including mental health. The Government has committed to an additional £1 billion by 2020/21 to support the implementation of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. This is in addition to the £1.4 billion over five years to improve children and young people’s mental health announced in 2014/15. We are holding NHS England to account through the NHS Mandate to ensure this investment delivers improvements in mental health.

We will continue to work with NHS England and other arm’s length bodies to monitor and track progress against the mental health commitments of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and Future in Mind.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action is proposed to prevent hospital beds being unavailable as a consequence of the number of elderly patients in hospital wards who cannot be sent home or moved to care homes because of the lack of necessary resources.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Since April local projects across the country have been using the Government’s £5.3 billion Better Care Fund to reduce non-elective admissions and get people out of hospital more quickly, as part of on-going work to bring health and social care services together. Local Better Care Fund plans for 2015-2016 should mean that there are 84,000 fewer days spent in hospital unnecessarily because of delayed transfers of care.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the recent study by Shelter, what steps they are taking to address the problems faced by tenants in privately rented homes infested with vermin.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Local authorities have a power under section 4 of the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 to require owners of premises infested by mice or rats to eradicate the problem and failure to do so is a criminal offence. Infestation by such pests is also a hazard under the housing, health and safety rating system in Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004. Where the infestation is a category 1 hazard the local authority must require the landlord to take action to eradicate the infestation or it may prohibit the property (or the affected part) from being occupied until the hazard has been eradicated. Through licensing schemes under Parts 2 or 3 of that Act an authority can impose licence conditions relating to privately rented homes that require landlords to take measures to prevent infestation of pests and a failure to do so would be a criminal offence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that workers in the United Kingdom currently earning below the minimum wage receive the minimum wage.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and responds to every complaint it receives. It also conducts programmes of targeted enforcement in sectors of the economy which have a high risk of non-compliance with the NMW. The Government increased HMRC’s budget for enforcing the NMW by £4m for 2015/16 to £13.2m.

The Government announced in September an increase in HMRC’s enforcement funding for 2016/17, following the introduction of the National Living Wage in April 2016. The Government also announced a package of measures to strengthen NMW enforcement: increasing penalties from 100% to 200% of the arrears that employers owe; the setting up of a dedicated team in HMRC focused on tackling the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance; and the creation of a statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Prime Minister’s party conference speech, when and how they will provide details of policies and programmes aimed at achieving the elimination of inequalities in the United Kingdom.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

This government is determined to extend opportunity to everyone. We have announced a number of new initiatives that will help achieve equality of opportunity in the UK.

On 25^th October, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities announced new measures to eradicate gender pay inequality. The government now requires larger employers to publish information about their bonuses for men and women. We are also extending our plans for gender pay gap reporting to the public sector.

On 26^th October, the Prime Minister launched a public and private sector initiative to tackle discrimination in recruitment. A number of organisations, including KPMG, HSBC and Deloitte, together with the Civil Service and local government, have committed to using name-blind applications for all graduate and apprenticeship level roles.

In addition, on 22^nd October, the Home Secretary published diversity profiles on all police forces in England and Wales. These profiles showed that no force had a black and minority ethnic (BME) contingent equivalent to that of the local demographic. She has asked chief constables to use this information to help improve their recruitment, retention, and promotion of police officers from BME backgrounds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many incidents requiring the attendance of the police occurred on mental health wards in the past 12 months; what were the ethnic, gender and age characteristics of the patients involved; and what was the ratio of staff to patients at the time of each incident.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This information is not collected centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 have been tasered in the past 12 months; what were the ethnicity, gender and age characteristics of the patients tasered; and what was the ratio of staff to patients at the time of each incident.

Lord Bates

Data is not recorded centrally on the number of individuals tasered who are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 or on the monitoring of patients. A Taser record is completed by police officers on every occasion where a Taser is used. However, this record does not show whether individuals are detained or monitored after the incidents nor information on the ratio of staff to patients.

Police guidance specifies that all individuals who have been subjected to the discharge of a Taser should be examined by a forensic medical examiner.

To improve transparency around how force such as Taser is used by the police, the Home Secretary has asked Chief Constable David Shaw to carry out an in depth review of Taser data and other use of force. This will present options for collecting, collating and publishing data on how force including Taser is being used, who it is being used on and what the outcomes are.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what monitoring takes place of the use of tasers on patients detained under the Mental Health 1983, and how that monitoring information is made accessible to the public.

Lord Bates

Data is not recorded centrally on the number of individuals tasered who are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 or on the monitoring of patients. A Taser record is completed by police officers on every occasion where a Taser is used. However, this record does not show whether individuals are detained or monitored after the incidents nor information on the ratio of staff to patients.

Police guidance specifies that all individuals who have been subjected to the discharge of a Taser should be examined by a forensic medical examiner.

To improve transparency around how force such as Taser is used by the police, the Home Secretary has asked Chief Constable David Shaw to carry out an in depth review of Taser data and other use of force. This will present options for collecting, collating and publishing data on how force including Taser is being used, who it is being used on and what the outcomes are.