Tag: Lord Ouseley

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to put mental health on the national curriculum for primary school children, as advocated by the Young People’s Mental Health Advisory Group.

Lord Nash

The new national curriculum, introduced in September 2014, does not attempt to represent the sum total of everything that should be taught in schools. It only prescribes the essential knowledge that should be taught, leaving schools greater flexibility to teach over and above what the national curriculum requires and to decide how to teach the essential content that is prescribed. It is also places greater trust in teachers to cover topics important for their community, including mental health.

Mental health and wellbeing is part of the non-statutory programme of study for Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, produced by the PSHE Association. To help schools deliver this, we funded the PSHE Association to produce guidance and lesson plans to support age-appropriate teaching about mental health. Further support for teachers and other professionals who work with children and young people is available through the Government funded MindEd site[1].

[1] MindEd can be accessed at the following link: https://www.minded.org.uk/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-03-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take to improve the arrest and prosecution rates for racist attacks, abuse and graffiti on London’s rail network, in the light of the 650 incidents reported since 2013, resulting in only 13 arrests.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government considers the safety of people using the rail network to be of paramount importance. The British Transport Police (BTP) treats racially motivated hate crimes very seriously and a daily review takes place of every hate crime from the previous 24 hours. In line with the College of Policing’s National Hate Crime Strategy, BTP is working with partners to reduce hate crime and every crime is investigated in accordance with the College of Policing Guidance for the investigation of hate crime.

In addition, the London Transport Community Safety Partnership (LTCSP), which brings together Transport for London (TfL), the police and other key stakeholders, is looking at this important issue at a strategic level to ensure a coordinated response. Both the BTP and the Metropolitan Police have stepped up operational activity to provide a visible, engaging, reassuring presence across the TfL network. TfL is also working with community organisations to engage with them on this issue and encourage reporting. TfL provides full support to the police for their investigations, through staff reporting and access to CCTV and oyster card data, to help bring any offenders to justice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 18 July (HL948 and HL949), what assessment they have made of the factors contributing to the low number of black, Asian and ethnic minority candidates being recommended for judicial appointments; how those factors are being addressed; and whether they plan to support the development and introduction of pre-appointment training for those from under-represented groups seeking judicial appointments.

Lord Keen of Elie

The Government recognises that judges from a Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) background are under-represented in the judiciary in England and Wales when compared with the general population. We are committed to continue working with the judiciary and all others concerned to make sure that, while appointments will always be made on merit, the pool of candidates is as diverse as possible.

On average over the last 5 years, 11 per cent of candidates recommended for judicial appointment were from BAME groups. Meanwhile, 10 per cent of appointed judges aged over 50 were from BAME backgrounds on 1 April 2015.

The Government is committed to working with other members of the Judicial Diversity Forum, including the Judicial Appointments Commission, the judiciary and the legal professions, to explore ways of increasing the percentage of judges from under-represented groups, including individuals from a BAME background, whilst continuing to safeguard the fundamental principle of appointment on merit. The Forum is considering the feasibility of proposals around pre-application training. The Government fully supports such work and is strongly committed to the judicial diversity agenda.

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.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients are detained in medium and high security psychiatric hospitals; and how many such patients there are broken down by (1) ethnicity, (2) gender, (3) age, and (4) the length of time detained under the different segregated regimes.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The information is not collected in the format requested.

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.