Asked by: Lord Skidelsky (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to bring into force all the provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act of 2023, including the statutory tort contained in section 4, that have not yet come into effect.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The remaining provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will come into force in two phases. The main provisions of the Act, including the statutory tort contained in section 4, free speech duties on higher education providers, constituent institutions and students' unions, and the new complaints scheme will come into force on 1 August 2024.
The second phase involves provisions relating to new conditions of registration on providers and monitoring of overseas funding. These will come into force on 1 September 2025. This information was published by the Office for Students on 13 September 2023, see: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/quality-and-standards/freedom-of-speech/changes-to-regulation/.
The department will lay the necessary secondary legislation to bring the Act’s provisions into force by those dates.
Asked by: Lord Skidelsky (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in relation to Schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, how many UK citizens have (1) been questioned under the power in paragraph 1, (2) been detained under the power in paragraph 4, and (3) had articles retained under the power in paragraph 11.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Schedule 3 helps protect public safety by allowing counter-terrorism police to conduct a Schedule 3 stop and examination of a person at the border for the purpose of determining whether they appear to be someone who is involved in hostile activity. Hostile State Actors may be highly sophisticated and have significant operational capability.
It is because of this that the Government has decided to take a more cautious approach to the publication of statistics relating to the use of Schedule 3 powers and will not comment on operational matters.
Information and statistics related to the use of Schedule 3 powers are made available to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner in support of his statutory oversight function and to inform his annual report.
Asked by: Lord Skidelsky (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the health benefits of wearing protective masks in public; what different types of protective masks they have considered; and for each of those types of masks, what assessment they have made of the change to their health benefits when social contact is at (1) two metres, (2) one metre, and (3) zero metres.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies considered the very limited evidence available on the use of face coverings and advised that there was some positive benefit for reducing the transmission of COVID-19. However, the main ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are social distancing and washing hands regularly.
The Government is now advising wearing a face covering in situations where it is difficult to manage social distancing and there may be close contact with people the wearer would not usually meet, such as on public transport. Guidance on how to wear and make a cloth face covering was published on 11 May in an online only format on GOV.UK. This guidance provides instruction on two methods of making a face covering.
A face covering is not the same as a face mask, such as the surgical masks or respirators used as part of personal protective equipment by healthcare and other workers. In the context of use for COVID-19, a face covering simply means something which safely covers the nose and mouth area and may be as simple as a scarf or a bandana that is easily washed.
No assessment has been made of the change to a face covering’s health benefit when social contact is at two, one and zero metres.