Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

172295

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Syria
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage local authorities to sign up to the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
uin	HL3878
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>When we launched the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme from January 2014, we wrote to local authorities to invite them to participate. As the scheme has progressed, we have continued to engage closely with local authorities who have expressed an interest in participation. Following the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pledging conference in Geneva on 9 December 2014, a number of additional local authorities have also expressed an interest, and we are in discussions with them. We are grateful to the local authorities who are supporting the scheme, and we remain confident that we can continue to meet the needs of arrivals in the UK under the scheme as planned. We expect the scheme to help several hundred Syrians over three years, and we welcome further offers of support from local authorities as the scheme progresses.</p><p>With millions of Syrians displaced by the conflict, the Government strongly believes that the UK can have the greatest impact and help the most people in need through humanitarian aid in the region and actively seeking an end to the crisis. We have committed £700 million in response to the humanitarian crisis, making the UK the second largest bilateral donor after the USA, and this funding is helping to support hundred of thousands of people. Compared with aid, resettlement can only ever help a minority of those in need. However, we recognise that some very vulnerable people cannot be supported effectively in the region, and we launched the VPR scheme to complement our aid by offering protection in the UK to particularly vulnerable individuals and their families, prioritising women and children at risk, those in need of medical care and survivors of violence and torture. Potential beneficiaries of the scheme are identified and referred to us by UNHCR on this basis. The VPR scheme is therefore based on need rather than fulfilling a quota. However, it was necessary for planning purposes to estimate the scale of potential arrivals under the scheme, bearing in mind the purpose of the scheme, UNHCR’s capacity and the need to have suitable care and support in place for these very vulnerable individuals as soon as they arrive in the UK.</p><p>We believe that substantial aid, actively seeking an end to the crisis and providing protection for some of the most vulnerable people are the most effective ways for the UK to help those displaced by the crisis and their host countries, rather than larger scale resettlement. We therefore have no current plans to expand the VPR scheme, and we made our position clear at the UNHCR pledging conference on 9 December. However, we continue to monitor the situation in Syria and the surrounding region and work closely with UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable people displaced by the conflict to ensure that the scheme remains appropriate.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Bates grouped question UIN HL3879 HL3880 question first answered 13/01/2015 14:37:17 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	3895 label Biography information for Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead

172296

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Syria
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government on what criteria they based their estimate that the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme would support several hundred refugees over three years.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
uin	HL3879
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>When we launched the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme from January 2014, we wrote to local authorities to invite them to participate. As the scheme has progressed, we have continued to engage closely with local authorities who have expressed an interest in participation. Following the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pledging conference in Geneva on 9 December 2014, a number of additional local authorities have also expressed an interest, and we are in discussions with them. We are grateful to the local authorities who are supporting the scheme, and we remain confident that we can continue to meet the needs of arrivals in the UK under the scheme as planned. We expect the scheme to help several hundred Syrians over three years, and we welcome further offers of support from local authorities as the scheme progresses.</p><p>With millions of Syrians displaced by the conflict, the Government strongly believes that the UK can have the greatest impact and help the most people in need through humanitarian aid in the region and actively seeking an end to the crisis. We have committed £700 million in response to the humanitarian crisis, making the UK the second largest bilateral donor after the USA, and this funding is helping to support hundred of thousands of people. Compared with aid, resettlement can only ever help a minority of those in need. However, we recognise that some very vulnerable people cannot be supported effectively in the region, and we launched the VPR scheme to complement our aid by offering protection in the UK to particularly vulnerable individuals and their families, prioritising women and children at risk, those in need of medical care and survivors of violence and torture. Potential beneficiaries of the scheme are identified and referred to us by UNHCR on this basis. The VPR scheme is therefore based on need rather than fulfilling a quota. However, it was necessary for planning purposes to estimate the scale of potential arrivals under the scheme, bearing in mind the purpose of the scheme, UNHCR’s capacity and the need to have suitable care and support in place for these very vulnerable individuals as soon as they arrive in the UK.</p><p>We believe that substantial aid, actively seeking an end to the crisis and providing protection for some of the most vulnerable people are the most effective ways for the UK to help those displaced by the crisis and their host countries, rather than larger scale resettlement. We therefore have no current plans to expand the VPR scheme, and we made our position clear at the UNHCR pledging conference on 9 December. However, we continue to monitor the situation in Syria and the surrounding region and work closely with UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable people displaced by the conflict to ensure that the scheme remains appropriate.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Bates grouped question UIN HL3878 HL3880 question first answered 13/01/2015 14:37:18 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	3895 label Biography information for Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead

172297

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Syria
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme in the light of the call by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for 100,000 further humanitarian admission places in 2015 and 2016.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
uin	HL3880
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>When we launched the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme from January 2014, we wrote to local authorities to invite them to participate. As the scheme has progressed, we have continued to engage closely with local authorities who have expressed an interest in participation. Following the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pledging conference in Geneva on 9 December 2014, a number of additional local authorities have also expressed an interest, and we are in discussions with them. We are grateful to the local authorities who are supporting the scheme, and we remain confident that we can continue to meet the needs of arrivals in the UK under the scheme as planned. We expect the scheme to help several hundred Syrians over three years, and we welcome further offers of support from local authorities as the scheme progresses.</p><p>With millions of Syrians displaced by the conflict, the Government strongly believes that the UK can have the greatest impact and help the most people in need through humanitarian aid in the region and actively seeking an end to the crisis. We have committed £700 million in response to the humanitarian crisis, making the UK the second largest bilateral donor after the USA, and this funding is helping to support hundred of thousands of people. Compared with aid, resettlement can only ever help a minority of those in need. However, we recognise that some very vulnerable people cannot be supported effectively in the region, and we launched the VPR scheme to complement our aid by offering protection in the UK to particularly vulnerable individuals and their families, prioritising women and children at risk, those in need of medical care and survivors of violence and torture. Potential beneficiaries of the scheme are identified and referred to us by UNHCR on this basis. The VPR scheme is therefore based on need rather than fulfilling a quota. However, it was necessary for planning purposes to estimate the scale of potential arrivals under the scheme, bearing in mind the purpose of the scheme, UNHCR’s capacity and the need to have suitable care and support in place for these very vulnerable individuals as soon as they arrive in the UK.</p><p>We believe that substantial aid, actively seeking an end to the crisis and providing protection for some of the most vulnerable people are the most effective ways for the UK to help those displaced by the crisis and their host countries, rather than larger scale resettlement. We therefore have no current plans to expand the VPR scheme, and we made our position clear at the UNHCR pledging conference on 9 December. However, we continue to monitor the situation in Syria and the surrounding region and work closely with UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable people displaced by the conflict to ensure that the scheme remains appropriate.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Bates grouped question UIN HL3878 HL3879 question first answered 13/01/2015 14:37:17 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	3895 label Biography information for Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead

172298

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Syria
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking regularly to review the number of people offered resettlement places in the United Kingdom under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme to ensure that the scheme is responsive to need.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
uin	HL3881
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>When we launched the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme from January 2014, we wrote to local authorities to invite them to participate. As the scheme has progressed, we have continued to engage closely with local authorities who have expressed an interest in participation. Following the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pledging conference in Geneva on 9 December 2014, a number of additional local authorities have also expressed an interest, and we are in discussions with them. We are grateful to the local authorities who are supporting the scheme, and we remain confident that we can continue to meet the needs of arrivals in the UK under the scheme as planned. We expect the scheme to help several hundred Syrians over three years, and we welcome further offers of support from local authorities as the scheme progresses.</p><p>With millions of Syrians displaced by the conflict, the Government strongly believes that the UK can have the greatest impact and help the most people in need through humanitarian aid in the region and actively seeking an end to the crisis. We have committed £700 million in response to the humanitarian crisis, making the UK the second largest bilateral donor after the USA, and this funding is helping to support hundred of thousands of people. Compared with aid, resettlement can only ever help a minority of those in need. However, we recognise that some very vulnerable people cannot be supported effectively in the region, and we launched the VPR scheme to complement our aid by offering protection in the UK to particularly vulnerable individuals and their families, prioritising women and children at risk, those in need of medical care and survivors of violence and torture. Potential beneficiaries of the scheme are identified and referred to us by UNHCR on this basis. The VPR scheme is therefore based on need rather than fulfilling a quota. However, it was necessary for planning purposes to estimate the scale of potential arrivals under the scheme, bearing in mind the purpose of the scheme, UNHCR’s capacity and the need to have suitable care and support in place for these very vulnerable individuals as soon as they arrive in the UK.</p><p>We believe that substantial aid, actively seeking an end to the crisis and providing protection for some of the most vulnerable people are the most effective ways for the UK to help those displaced by the crisis and their host countries, rather than larger scale resettlement. We therefore have no current plans to expand the VPR scheme, and we made our position clear at the UNHCR pledging conference on 9 December. However, we continue to monitor the situation in Syria and the surrounding region and work closely with UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable people displaced by the conflict to ensure that the scheme remains appropriate.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 13/01/2015 14:36:07 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	3895 label Biography information for Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead

172311

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Fraud
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the quality of service and value-for-money provided by Capita in operating the National Benefit Fraud Hotline.
tabling member printed	Lord Ashcroft
uin	HL3894
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2015 answer text <p>The National Benefit Fraud Hotline is one of 10 service lines delivered by Capita on behalf of DWP as part of the Network Services Directorate Call Off. There are multiple performance requirements within the contract to assure DWP that Capita are delivering a quality value for money service, the key ones being that Capita answer 90% of customer calls offered to them, and that they maintain a quality score of 89% for these calls against key quality criteria. These requirements are consistent with those in in-house DWP contact centres.</p><p> </p><p>Capita are consistently achieving both of the above metrics with calls answered scores as high as 98% and quality scores as high as 97% in recent weeks.</p><p> </p><p>DWP regularly audit the Capita quality team and undertake activities to ensure that scoring is in alignment with that of DWP.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 12/01/2015 15:15:05 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	2568 label Biography information for Lord Ashcroft

172312

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Diego Garcia
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Warsi on 17 June 2014 (HL126), with regard to the use of Diego Garcia for rendition flights, what is the latest situation in relation to such flights.
tabling member printed	Lord Ashcroft
uin	HL3895
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>I can confirm that the answer given by the former Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my noble Friend, the right hon. Baroness Warsi on 17 June 2014 still stands.</p> answering member printed Baroness Anelay of St Johns question first answered 13/01/2015 14:04:11 answering member 3474 label Biography information for Baroness Anelay of St Johns
tabling member	2568 label Biography information for Lord Ashcroft

172317

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Entry Clearances: Israel
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 16 December 2014 (HL3641), whether they have discussed the risk factors relating to the entry into the country of foreign citizens with the government of the United States; and if so, why their assessment of the risks posed by Israeli citizens entering the United Kingdom differs from the assessment made by the government of the United States about entry into that country.
tabling member printed	Lord Warner
uin	HL3900
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>The Government regularly discusses a range of immigration issues with the Government of the United States, including on migration. We do not disclose the details of such discussions.</p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 13/01/2015 14:32:15 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	1732 label Biography information for Lord Warner

172318

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Counter-terrorism
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the counter-terrorism work carried out as part of the Prevent strategy and the Channel process.
tabling member printed	Lord Sharkey
uin	HL3901
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>The Home Office continues to monitor and evaluate the Channel programme and locally delivered Prevent projects in order to ensure that they are as effective as they can be and that good practice is shared across the country. In the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, we are proposing a new statutory duty on specified authorities (including local authorities, universities, Further Education providers, schools, parts of the NHS, prisons, young offender institutions, probation providers and the police) to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. We are also putting the Channel programme on a statutory footing. These measures will enshrine this good practice and secure local cooperation and delivery in all areas.</p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 13/01/2015 14:31:40 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	4196 label Biography information for Lord Sharkey

172330

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Access to Work Programme
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to publish (1) their current guidance on the Access to Work scheme, and (2) the forthcoming revision of that guidance.
tabling member printed	Baroness Thomas of Winchester
uin	HL3913
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The staff guidance on the Access to Work scheme is published on gov.uk</p><p> </p><p>It can be found at the following link<strong> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/387398/access-to-work-guide.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/387398/access-to-work-guide.pdf</a> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Minister for Disabled People set out in a written statement on the 18<sup>th</sup> December 2014 that we will work with stakeholders to develop further, user-friendly guidance, with the aim of beginning to publish this by the end of March 2015<strong>.</strong></p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 12/01/2015 15:15:38 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	3785 label Biography information for Baroness Thomas of Winchester

172348

registered interest
date	06/01/2015
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Middle East
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel concerning the death of Palestinian Cabinet Minister Ziad Abu Ein.
tabling member printed	Baroness Tonge
uin	HL3931
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p>Our Embassy in Tel Aviv, including our Ambassador, lobbied a range of contacts including senior Israeli National Security Council officials in the Prime Minister’s Office to encourage a swift and transparent investigation into the death of Palestinian Minister Ziad Abu Ein.</p><p>On 12 December 2014, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), issued a Press release saying he was shocked by the death of Palestinian Minister Ziad Abu Ein and calling for a swift and transparent investigation.</p> answering member printed Baroness Anelay of St Johns question first answered 13/01/2015 14:05:15 answering member 3474 label Biography information for Baroness Anelay of St Johns
tabling member	200 label Biography information for Baroness Tonge