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755102

registered interest
date	20/07/2017
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Public Libraries
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote the use of libraries, including libraries' online and digital content, with new library users.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL1110
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2017 answer text <p>The Libraries Taskforce, jointly established by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Local Government Association, published Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-2021 in December 2016. This strategy sets out 7 strategic Outcomes that libraries support, one of which is increasing digital access and literacy, and it highlights a range of initiatives through which libraries support digital skills, access, skills and related work. The UK Digital Strategy also underlined the importance of libraries as a ‘go to provider’ for digital skills training.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Lord Ashton of Hyde question first answered 31/07/2017 11:20:35 answering member 4247 label Biography information for Lord Ashton of Hyde
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

753265

registered interest
date	18/07/2017
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
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the lessons to be learned from the reports of the Scottish Government's Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality in the light of persistent poverty levels in the United Kingdom.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL953
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2017 answer text <p>The Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality was appointed in 2015 to offer advice to the Scottish Government on the action it could take to tackle poverty in Scotland.</p><p> </p><p>Nevertheless, the UK Government has taken note of the Advisor’s two publications: <em>Shifting the Curve</em> (and its most recent progress report) and <em>The Life Chances of Young People</em>.</p><p> </p><p>The UK Government remains committed to tackling the root causes of child poverty and disadvantage, and has set out a framework for continued action in <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, published on 4 April.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 25/07/2017 10:30:43 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

753266

registered interest
date	18/07/2017
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
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of (1) children, (2) adults, and (3) working families, living in poverty across the United Kingdom; and what long-term plan they have to prevent such poverty.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL954
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2017 answer text <p>The most commonly used measure of poverty is relative low income.</p><p> </p><p>The latest statistics from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data series show that there are: 2.7 million children, 5.7 million working-age adults, and 2.1 million pensioners in relative low income in the United Kingdom on a ‘before housing costs’ (BHC) basis.</p><p>Analysis of the HBAI data shows that there are 2.1 million families in relative low income BHC where at least one adult member works at least part-time.</p><p>This Government is committed to tackling the root causes of poverty, thereby preventing the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage.</p><p> </p><p>This is why we repealed the income-related targets set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010 and replaced them with statutory measures that drive action on parental worklessness and children’s educational attainment – the two areas that we know can make the biggest difference to disadvantaged children, now and in the future.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions published Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families in April 2017. Here we set out further non-statutory indicators on a wider set of parental disadvantage and children’s outcomes, which will drive collective action on areas that matter in tackling disadvantage.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe grouped question UIN HL955 question first answered 28/07/2017 10:40:12 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

753267

registered interest
date	18/07/2017
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
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Buscombe on 13 July (HL Deb, cols 1296–98), what emphasis they place on the prevention of poverty; and how they are working to ensure that the prevention of poverty is prioritised by every Department.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL955
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2017 answer text <p>The most commonly used measure of poverty is relative low income.</p><p> </p><p>The latest statistics from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data series show that there are: 2.7 million children, 5.7 million working-age adults, and 2.1 million pensioners in relative low income in the United Kingdom on a ‘before housing costs’ (BHC) basis.</p><p>Analysis of the HBAI data shows that there are 2.1 million families in relative low income BHC where at least one adult member works at least part-time.</p><p>This Government is committed to tackling the root causes of poverty, thereby preventing the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage.</p><p> </p><p>This is why we repealed the income-related targets set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010 and replaced them with statutory measures that drive action on parental worklessness and children’s educational attainment – the two areas that we know can make the biggest difference to disadvantaged children, now and in the future.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions published Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families in April 2017. Here we set out further non-statutory indicators on a wider set of parental disadvantage and children’s outcomes, which will drive collective action on areas that matter in tackling disadvantage.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe grouped question UIN HL954 question first answered 28/07/2017 10:40:12 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

753268

registered interest
date	18/07/2017
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that every school has an adequate library with qualified staff.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL956
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2017 answer text <p>School libraries play an important role in encouraging pupils to read for pleasure. We believe that it should be for schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils.</p><p>Head teachers do recognise the role libraries can play in improving young people’s literacy, and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided. It is also up to schools to decide how they run their library. While many head teachers, especially those in secondary schools, choose to employ a qualified librarian, this is not a statutory requirement.</p><p>We do not collect data on school library provision. However, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) indicated in 2011 that 92% of pupils in Year 5 in England were attending a school where there was a library. This was above the international average of 86%.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash grouped question UIN HL957 question first answered 28/07/2017 11:34:14 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

753269

registered interest
date	18/07/2017
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government how many, and what proportion of, schools in the UK have a library; and how they assess the quality of such libraries and their staff.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL957
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2017 answer text <p>School libraries play an important role in encouraging pupils to read for pleasure. We believe that it should be for schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils.</p><p>Head teachers do recognise the role libraries can play in improving young people’s literacy, and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided. It is also up to schools to decide how they run their library. While many head teachers, especially those in secondary schools, choose to employ a qualified librarian, this is not a statutory requirement.</p><p>We do not collect data on school library provision. However, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) indicated in 2011 that 92% of pupils in Year 5 in England were attending a school where there was a library. This was above the international average of 86%.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash grouped question UIN HL956 question first answered 28/07/2017 11:34:14 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

753270

registered interest
date	18/07/2017
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in providing local authorities with the means to alleviate rises in business rates as announced in the Budget, particularly in relation to independent bookshops.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL958
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/07/2017 answer text <p>The Government confirmed local authority allocations for the £300 million discretionary relief in April 2017 enabling councils to design and press on with implementing their own schemes. Many authorities have already issued reduced bills, and we continue to urge other councils to follow suit as quickly as possible.</p> answering member printed Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth question first answered 26/07/2017 13:45:40 answering member 4282 label Biography information for Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

747363

registered interest
date	03/07/2017
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to authorise a moratorium on fracking in England until all available evidence relating to its environmental, economic and social impacts has been independently reviewed and assessed.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL331
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2017 answer text <p>A moratorium on hydraulic fracturing was previously imposed in the UK after the detection of two small tremors related to shale gas development in Lancashire in 2011. The Government asked the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering to conduct an independent review of the scientific and engineering evidence on the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing for shale gas, which concluded that “The health, safety and environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing as a means to extract shale gas can be managed effectively in the UK as long as operational best practices are implemented and enforced through regulation”. The Government lifted the moratorium in December 2012 and supports the safe and environmentally sound exploration of shale gas to determine the potential of the UK’s resources.</p> answering member printed Lord Prior of Brampton question first answered 13/07/2017 10:47:51 answering member 127 label Biography information for Lord Prior of Brampton
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

714758

registered interest
date	28/03/2017
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	Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of Iran about the provision of appropriate medical treatment for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and about ensuring her general welfare.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL6378
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/04/2017 answer text <p>​Ministers and officials have repeatedly made representations to the Iranian Government on all consular cases involving British nationals in Iran, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's. On 17 February, the Foreign Secretary discussed Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case, including her health, with the Iranian Foreign Minister. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family confirmed that a specialist visited her on 19 February. The Iranian authorities have given us their assurances that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe will receive medical treatment if appropriate. We have repeatedly requested consular access so that we can be assured of her welfare, however the Iranian position on dual nationality makes progress difficult. We urge the Iranian authorities to ensure action is taken on the specialist's assessment and will pursue this at every opportunity.</p> answering member printed Baroness Anelay of St Johns question first answered 11/04/2017 14:48:32 answering member 3474 label Biography information for Baroness Anelay of St Johns
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

713683

registered interest
date	23/03/2017
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to assist electors without a permanent address to register to vote, including registering online; and whether any forthcoming review of electoral law will address and include measures to reduce the proportion of homeless and vulnerably housed electors who are not registered to vote.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL6280
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/04/2017 answer text <p>We are committed to a democracy that works for everyone, including homeless people. The Minister for Constitution has gathered specific evidence on the registration barriers faced by homeless people as part of his Every Voice Matters tour.</p><p> </p><p>Specifically, the Minister for the Constitution met with homelessness organisations and their clients to hear how the electoral registration system could better respond to their needs. We will continue to work with homelessness charities, such as Shelter and others, to overcome barriers and help those with no fixed address to register to vote.</p> answering member printed Lord Young of Cookham question first answered 03/04/2017 14:12:29 answering member 57 label Biography information for Lord Young of Cookham
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird