Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of ending human trafficking in Sudan's neighbouring countries; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the initiative established by Sudan's Higher Committee to Combat Human Trafficking.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have made no formal assessment, however tackling the root causes of irregular migration, combatting organised immigration crime and addressing the devastating effects of trafficking, in both the human cost for victims and the economic implications, are key UK priorities in Sudan and the region. Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for migrants, many of whom are vulnerable to human trafficking. The UK continues to work with the Government of Sudan's Higher Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, which we understand, will play the role of national coordination mechanism; who along with civil society representatives, continue to be important partners for the UK in our work to tackle human trafficking in the region.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the Khartoum Peace Agreement has provided a model for negotiating peace in other neighbouring countries in Central Africa, such as the conflict in the Central African Republic.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Khartoum Declaration of Agreement signed in June 2018 was an important step that led to the 12 September peace agreement on South Sudan. The UK, along with our Troika partners (the USA and Norway), welcomed this step and commended the role of the region and individual leaders in bringing parties of the conflict together to help secure an end to conflict. Whilst the most effective model for negotiating peace agreements will inevitably vary depending on the circumstances, in this case among many factors the region's efforts were important to progress: lessons should be considered and applied wherever possible elsewhere. It is also essential to recognise that any agreement is part of a process and a platform on which longer-term stability can be built.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to continue to economically and politically support Sudan.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK provides no direct financial support to the Government of Sudan. Instead, the UK provides humanitarian assistance and support to a range of programmes focused on political and economic reform, Sudan's peace process and UK development objectives. Our bilateral political engagement with Sudan takes place principally through the British Embassy in Khartoum and through biannual Strategic Dialogues between senior officials. We have raised, both publicly and directly with the Government of Sudan, our deep concern at the government's violent response to recent protests in Sudan. As we made clear with Troika partners (the USA and Norway) and Canada in our statement of 8 January, the Government of Sudan's actions and decisions over the coming weeks will have an impact on our approach to future. We continue to urge the Government of Sudan to undertake much needed economic and political reforms to support prosperity and the rights of the people of Sudan and continue to stand ready to assist these efforts.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic situation in Sudan since the loss of revenue following the establishment of South Sudan.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The process that led to the establishment of South Sudan in July 2011 included an agreement on the division of resources and assets with Sudan. This included an agreed 75% reduction of the Government of Sudan's pre-2011 oil revenues, which at that time accounted for the majority of Sudan's foreign exchange earnings. The current economic situation in Sudan is fragile with frequent reports of fuel and food shortages, currency deflation and price inflation creating significant pressures on the people of Sudan. This has been exacerbated by a shortage of foreign exchange. We continue to encourage Sudan to undertake macroeconomic reforms which are essential to making progress towards debt relief and to economic stability for the benefit of the Sudanese people.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the stability threshold requirements and other conditions imposed by the UN resolution (2429/2018) which led to the reduction in UN Mission in Darfur forces were satisfactorily met by the government of Sudan.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Outside of Jebel Marra the security situation in Darfur has evolved since 2016 with reductions in overall levels of conflict. This change is reflected in the decision of the United Nations Security Council in June 2017 to reconfigure the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The security situation remains relatively stable, but fragile. Our priority is to ensure that changes to UNAMID's operations match the realities on the ground, with appropriate review points, and ensure that a smaller more flexible UNAMID is able to fulfil its mandate. We are calling on the Government of Sudan to make progress on key priorities identified in the United Nations Security Council Presidential Statement S/PRST/2018/19. We have also urged fellow Security Council members to monitor closely the impact of UNAMID's reconfiguration, and consider whether the situation on the ground remains conducive to further changes.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether, and if so why, Muslim women are not progressing at the same rate as non-Muslim women in economic engagement and employment.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Race Disparity Audit, published in October 2017, revealed an unemployment gap between BME and White people. The Prime Minister committed local and national government to “explain or change” the disparities. We are committed to increasing BME employment by 20 per cent by 2020. We have made substantial progress, and we are now 71% towards this target.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of ethnic minority women, including Muslim women, occupying FTSE 100 finance chief roles.
Answered by Lord Henley
Diversity and inclusion in the boardroom and the workplace is a hugely important element of building an economy that works for all. The Government is committed to a cohesive society, where everyone – no matter what their background – has the opportunity to enter into and progress at work and achieve on merit.
Sir John Parker’s business-led review into ethnic minorities on FTSE boards published in November 2017, showed that only about 8% of FTSE 100 Directors were from an ethnic minority background, and just over 2% were British citizens from an ethnic minority background, compared to the 14% of the UK population. That is why Government supports and has been promoting the recommendation made by Sir John that all FTSE 100 companies should have at least one director of colour by 2021.
We are supporting the Hampton-Alexander Review to meet their targets of women holding 33% of senior leadership positions and 33% of board positions in the FTSE 350, by 2020. We are also supporting the Women in Finance Review Charter, which commits firms to support the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services by focusing on the executive pipeline and publicly reporting on progress against internal targets.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the establishment of women’s buildings, particularly following the closure of HMP Holloway.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We are committed to addressing the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation. That is why we have published a female offenders’ strategy, setting out a new programme of work, with investment of £5m over two years in community provisions for women. The strategy also gives a commitment to work with local and national partners to develop pilots for ‘residential women’s centres’ in at least five sites across England and Wales. This supports our vision to see fewer women in custody by developing more options for supporting women in the community. We are not proceeding with plans to build five Community Prisons for Women.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average length of sentence for (1) Muslim, and (2) non-Muslim women convicted under any terrorism legislation since 2010.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
It is not possible to determine the average sentence length of a cohort that includes indeterminate sentences. The Home Office releases statistics quarterly on The Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation. The most recent publication was released on 14 June 2018 and includes public statistics relating to sentence length of all offenders convicted under this Act since 2009-10 until 2017-18. These can be found using the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/716000/police-powers-terrorism-mar2018-hosb0918.pdf.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they assess the providers of mental health contracts commissioned by NHS England; and what criteria they use to evaluate the standard of services provided.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
All providers of National Health Service funded care (NHS and independent sector providers) for specialised mental health services are contracted using the same standard NHS national contract. These contracts set out the standard terms of business relating to the provider and commissioner relationship.
The monitoring of performance is undertaken by NHS England centrally and through the contracting hubs. Performance management includes:
- Performance against operational standards within the NHS Contract;
- Reporting against Key Performance Indicators undertaken quarterly and reviewed as part of contract management meetings between commissioner and provider;
- Regular performance review meetings with the provider;
- Measurement against local quality standards developed by individual hubs;
- Measurement of service specification compliance;
- NHS England Hub ward visits;
- The patient satisfaction survey and implementation of service improvements informed by patient feedback; and
- Triangulation with Care Quality Commission inspections.
The Quality Assurance and Improvement Framework sets out the quality assurance and improvement activity undertaken in relation to all specialised commissioned services.
The outcome of the annual assessment has two features:
- Identification of levels of surveillance for the following year; and
- Assessment of compliance and non-compliance and if non-compliant, whether provider action or commissioner action is required.
A framework has been introduced which requires those reviewing and assessing the information on quality, to categorise services into one of three categories to determine levels of surveillance for the following year:
- Routine surveillance – services that have been scored at 100% with no risks identified and those services that have not scored 100% but regional teams have determined that the issue is not material;
- Enhanced surveillance – services in this category will require further discussions between provider organisations and relevant commissioning teams to determine whether formal provider action or commissioner action is required, or whether after further discussion the service is deemed to be compliant; and
- Peer review visit – services considered for peer review should be discussed with the provider and commissioner to confirm that the factors leading to this proposed option are relevant and proportionate for the action. Based on the level of risk agreed at hub or regional meetings, the service may also be subject to a provider or commissioner action.