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945601

registered interest
date	20/07/2018
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	UN Security Council
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they support calls for the introduction of a code of conduct that would restrain the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council in cases of mass atrocities such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; and what assessment they have made of the likelihood that such a code will be introduced.
tabling member printed	Lord Alton of Liverpool
uin	HL9730
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>​The UK wholeheartedly supports the principle that the Security Council must act to stop mass atrocities. That is why the UK signed up to the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency Group's Code of Conduct in 2015. The Code of Conduct calls on all Council members not to vote against a credible draft resolution on timely and decisive action to end, or prevent, the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. As of 1 June 2018 the Code of Conduct has been signed by 115 UN member states and 2 observers.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 31/07/2018 15:09:22 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	738 label Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool

945600

registered interest
date	20/07/2018
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	Nigeria: Violence
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 Ahmad of Wimbledon on 19 July (HL9364), in what ways President Buhari has "strongly condemned" the killing of Nigerian Christians by Fulani militia; and whether any people have been (1) charged with, and (2) prosecuted for, those killings.
tabling member printed	Lord Alton of Liverpool
uin	HL9729
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>​President Buhari has repeatedly condemned the violence and expressed his concern for the lives lost. This year, he has made public statements in February, when he ordered the arrest of those carrying illegal arms, announced the deployment of additional security, and offered his condolences to the victims. In April, addressing the congregation at a Catholic Church, he described as &quot;vile, evil and satanic&quot; the killing of worshippers and two priests at a Catholic church in Benue State. He called on Nigerians to refrain from reprisal attacks. In June, he spoke about the killings in Plateau State, and reiterated his Government's determination to bring those responsible to justice. We are not aware of anyone having been charged. We call on communities not to take the law into their own hands but to work with security forces and the authorities to bring those responsible to justice in accordance with the rule of law.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 31/07/2018 15:08:50 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	738 label Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool

944945

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 19 July, stating that "on underpayments, I should be clear that no one suffered a cash loss", what is their definition of a cash loss; what term a claimant should use to describe an underpayment; what is the difference between an underpayment, a payment in full and an overpayment; and whether they consider an overpayment to be a cash benefit to the recipient.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9728
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>No-one suffered a cash loss when they were converted from incapacity benefits to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) because where the amount of ESA they were entitled to was lower than the previous incapacity benefit award, it was ‘topped up’ to match their previous award by a transitional addition.</p><p> </p><p>We are unable to say whether someone has been underpaid on conversion from incapacity benefit to ESA and is due arrears of benefit until we have gathered the necessary financial information (by way of an ESA3 form) and reviewed their award.</p><p> </p><p>Overpayments are when a claimant is paid more in benefit than they are entitled to. Underpayments are when a claimant is paid less than they are entitled to. The Department seeks to recover overpayments of benefit in accordance with the appropriate legislation.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:22:19 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944944

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what improvements in payment timelines they expect to achieve for claimants of Universal Credit in 2018.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9727
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Around 80 per cent of new claims are paid in full and on time. In many cases, where full payment is not made on time by the end of the first assessment period, this is as a result of unresolved issues such as: some claimants have not signed their Claimant Commitment or passed identity checks, and the others have outstanding verification issues, such as for housing and self-employed earnings. Whilst their verification is on-going, many of these claimants receive a part payment for those elements of the claim that have been resolved. Within five weeks of the payment due date, 95 per cent of claims are paid in full.</p><p>DWP continues to monitor payment timeliness and we have made changes to improve payment timeliness. For example, we have built processes into the system to make it easier and quicker for people to verify information such as their housing costs.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:22:38 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944943

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the number of Universal Credit claimants experiencing financial difficulties from four in 10, as reported in their Universal Credit Full Source Survey, published in June.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9726
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>We have introduced a number of measures to support and reduce the number of claimants facing financial difficulties.</p><p>We are investing up to £200 million into budgeting and digital support, to help claimants with the transition to Universal Credit and our work coaches work closely with claimants, ensuring they can identify any vulnerabilities or specific needs, such as financial difficulties, at an early stage. We have also invested £1.5 billion in a package of measures to support claimants financially in the first assessment period.</p><p>From 3 January, claimants have been getting advances of up to 100 per cent of their indicative monthly entitlement within a few days. From 14 February, waiting days were removed, and from 11 April, claimants transitioning to Universal Credit from Housing Benefit have been getting an additional 2 weeks of housing cost payments.</p><p>In June, we announced additional protection for people who receive Severe Disability Premium – they will stay on legacy benefits until Transitional Protection applies and we will introduce protection for those who have already moved on to Universal Credit.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:21:49 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944942

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they measure the number of claimants of Universal Credit who are experiencing financial hardship; and if so, how many such claimants there are.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9725
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>For many people who do experience financial difficulties, these pre-date their claim to Universal Credit. For example, in their report published on 11 July 2018, the National Federation of Arms-Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) of Social Housing providers found that of those Universal Credit households in rent arrears, 76 per cent had arrears prior to moving onto Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>In the Universal Credit Claimant survey, published in June 2018, 4 in 10 claimants reported they were having difficulties keeping up with bills. In 2011/12 in the report “Work and the welfare system: a survey of benefits and tax credits recipients” from 2011/12, one in three main claimants said they run out of money before the end of the week/month always or most of the time, and a further third said this happens more often than not or sometimes. Both surveys are available on gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>Unlike in the legacy system, we are investing around £200 million over the Universal Credit implementation period into Universal Support to help claimants with budget management and digital support. Our work coaches work closely with claimants, ensuring they can identify any vulnerabilities such as financial hardship at an early stage. They can then tailor support according to claimants’ individual needs and help to address these issues.</p><p> </p><p>We also have a system of advances and budgeting support to help people with the transition to Universal Credit. From 3 January 2018, we increased the repayment period of Universal Credit advances to 12 months, with claimants able to get up to 100 per cent of their estimated monthly entitlement upfront. These advances are available to claimants interest-free, and from July 2018, can be applied for online.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:18:44 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944941

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how they (1) identify, and (2) measure the number of, people having difficulties with claiming Universal Credit.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9724
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>The Department is continually working to improve the claimant journey for Universal Credit. The Universal Credit Full Service Claimant Survey found that 98 per cent of claims are made online, and that nearly half of claimants had help from others or from their jobcentre adviser to do so, demonstrating that those who need it are accessing the support available to them.</p><p> </p><p>The survey also found that 31 per cent of claimants said they need more on-going support with using their Universal Credit digital account. To address this, we are investing up to £200 million into budgeting and digital support, to help claimants with the transition to Universal Credit. This is delivered by the Department and through partners such as local authorities and other third party organisations.</p><p> </p><p>All jobcentres across the country have free Wi-Fi, and there are more than 8,000 computers available to support customers who need help with making their claim digitally and applying for jobs online. Work coaches will also assist anyone who needs assistance. If people cannot get online we have also a freephone helpline available.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:17:53 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944940

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what success they have had in identifying and tracking claimants of Universal Credit whom they deem vulnerable.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9723
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Where notified by a Local Authority or a claimant, DWP staff currently updates the claimant profile with any temporary or long term complex needs and how that affects the claimant’s ability to use the service. This enables Universal Credit agents and work coaches to provide individuals with appropriate personalised support.</p><p>Underlying this approach is the principle that not all individuals with a disability, health condition or other set of personal circumstances will necessarily require support, while some will only need support for a period of time. Our work coaches deliver a personalised journey based on individual claimant needs.</p><p>The Department is looking to further improve our system to better identify vulnerable claimants with the use of a new ‘pinning’ function. This involves testing methods to extract data on information recorded in the claimant profile using text matching techniques. We have plans to introduce a function to ‘pin’ key profile notes so they are instantly visible to all staff helping a claimant. The Department is beginning wider work to examine how claimants tell us about their complex needs, how we record them and how we can extract data which can help us monitor and improve support.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:19:38 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944934

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Corruption
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether closed courts are being used for settlements and penalties relating to financial corruption where a trial has not taken place; and if so, why.
tabling member printed	Lord Rooker
uin	HL9717
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Where a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) is reached for an economic crime, it must include a declaration in open court that the DPA is in the interests of justice and its terms are fair, reasonable and proportionate. The SFO has entered into 4 DPA’s to date: in each case the final hearing was held in public.</p> answering member printed Lord Keen of Elie question first answered 31/07/2018 11:56:43 answering member 4538 label Biography information for Lord Keen of Elie
tabling member	302 label Biography information for Lord Rooker

944929

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Public Sector Debt
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their calculation of what the cumulative cost of debt interest would be by 2045/46 if they only balanced the current budget.
tabling member printed	Baroness Neville-Rolfe
uin	HL9712
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>The Managing Fiscal Risks document, published by the Treasury on the 17<sup>th</sup> July, projects that if the government only balanced the Current Budget every year from 2021-22, then after taking account of economic shocks, annual debt interest costs in 2045-46 would rise to 4.3% of Gross Domestic Product.</p><p> </p><p>The cumulative cost of these interest payments from the current financial year to 2045-46 is projected to be £3.7 trillion.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 31/07/2018 12:06:48 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	4284 label Biography information for Baroness Neville-Rolfe