Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times ambulances have been required to take women prisoners to hospital in the two most recent years for which information is available; and what support is provided to women prisoners after any return from hospital.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Government publishes statistics on safety in custody quarterly, and updated detailed tables annually. The most recent tables were published on 26 April 2018 and cover the period to the end of December 2017. In 2017 there were 8,317 incidents of self-harm in the women’s prison estate. In 2016 there were 7,670 such incidents.
The total number of times ambulances have been required to take women prisoners to hospital could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the published figures reveal that there were 183 self-harm incidents that required hospital attendance in the women’s prison estate in 2017, and 138 such incidents in 2016.
The support available to prisoners when they return from hospital depends on the cause of their injury or illness. Continuing medical treatment or observation is provided where necessary. The Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) case management process is used to provide support for prisoners who have self-harmed, and where the prisoner was subject to the ACCT process prior to the incident, there is a review by the multi-disciplinary team to identify any changes that need to be made to the support that is being provided.
The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and the recent increase in the number of self-harm incidents shows that we can and must do more. We have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody, including: rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (which has already reached more than 15,500 staff); improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the ACCT case management process for those identified as being at risk; and renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many incidents of self-harm occurred in the women's prison estate in the two most recent years for which information is available.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Government publishes statistics on safety in custody quarterly, and updated detailed tables annually. The most recent tables were published on 26 April 2018 and cover the period to the end of December 2017. In 2017 there were 8,317 incidents of self-harm in the women’s prison estate. In 2016 there were 7,670 such incidents.
The total number of times ambulances have been required to take women prisoners to hospital could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the published figures reveal that there were 183 self-harm incidents that required hospital attendance in the women’s prison estate in 2017, and 138 such incidents in 2016.
The support available to prisoners when they return from hospital depends on the cause of their injury or illness. Continuing medical treatment or observation is provided where necessary. The Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) case management process is used to provide support for prisoners who have self-harmed, and where the prisoner was subject to the ACCT process prior to the incident, there is a review by the multi-disciplinary team to identify any changes that need to be made to the support that is being provided.
The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and the recent increase in the number of self-harm incidents shows that we can and must do more. We have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody, including: rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (which has already reached more than 15,500 staff); improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the ACCT case management process for those identified as being at risk; and renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) Muslim, and (2) non-Muslim women have been remanded or convicted under any terrorism legislation since 2010.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
28 women have been remanded or convicted under terrorism legislation since 2010. Of these, 27 were Muslim and 1 was non-Muslim.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 11 June (HL Deb, cols 1499–1501), how many women prisoners with dependants under 16 years old are in custody as result of their association with men imprisoned under anti-terrorism legislation; and what support, if any, is provided to their families under the Prevent strategy or by any other providers within any other government programmes.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
HMPPS do not hold information on which women prisoners are in custody as a result of their association with men imprisoned under anti-terrorism legislation, nor do we hold information regarding the ages of prisoners’ children. We are only obliged to record information about the prisoner, so prisoners are not required to divulge information relating to the age of their children.
The Prevent strategy seeks to safeguard people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Support through programmes under the strategy can be provided to address the vulnerabilities and needs of the person concerned, on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will review their policy on arms sales to Israel, given the recent violence in Gaza.
Answered by Baroness Fairhead
Sales of military items to other countries by UK companies require export licences. Export licence applications are rigorously assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all prevailing circumstances at the time of the application. The Government will not issue a licence if to do so would be inconsistent with these Criteria.
The Government is monitoring the situation in Israel and Gaza very closely and will revoke extant export licences if they are assessed to be no longer consistent with licensing criteria.
The policy framework for assessing exports of military items was announced to Parliament by the former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Rt. Hon Member for Twickenham, Sir Vince Cable, as a Written Ministerial Statement on 25 March 2014.
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 United Nations Human Rights Council’s resolution of 18 May that the use of force by Israel in Gaza was disproportionate and indiscriminate.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is concerned about the high number of deaths and casualties during protests in Gaza, including the volume of live fire used. The Foreign Secretary, the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa and I have all raised the use of force with Israeli authorities. The Foreign Secretary spoke to both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas on 16 May, where he encouraged them to call for calm and work to de-escalate the situation. There is an urgent need to establish the facts; the UK continues to fully support the need for an independent and transparent investigation into recent events. We call directly on Israel to carry out a transparent inquiry into the Israeli Defense Forces' conduct at the border fence and to demonstrate how this will achieve a sufficient level of independence.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government for what reasons they abstained from voting on the resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council held on 18 May, calling for an independent investigation into recent violence in Gaza.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We abstained on calls for a Commission of Inquiry into recent violence in Gaza because the substance of the resolution was not impartial and balanced. We could not support an investigation that refused to explicitly examine the action of non-state actors such as Hamas. An investigation of this kind would not provide us with a comprehensive assessment of accountability. However, the UK continues to fully support the need for an independent and transparent investigation into recent events. We call directly on Israel to carry out a transparent inquiry into the Israeli Defense Forces' conduct at the border fence and to demonstrate how this will achieve a sufficient level of independence. We believe this investigation should include international members. We urge that the findings of such an investigation be made public and if, wrongdoing is found, that those responsible are held to account. The Foreign Secretary stressed the importance of Israel conducting an independent investigation when he spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu on 16 May.
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 efforts to prevent and address sexual violence in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, and of the processes in place to ascertain and record the culpability of perpetrators.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development (DFID) colleagues are urgently assessing the UN-led sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) response on the ground, including the level of identification and outreach, clinical management and what additional support the UK may usefully provide. DFID have funded the deployment of an international expert to UNFPA in Cox's Bazar to lead the Gender-based violence Sub-Sector, part of the UNHCR-led Protection Sector of the international humanitarian response. We are in dialogue with the Coordinator to better understand the level of incidence, response and coordination and associated challenges.
There are few agencies on the ground with the capacity to clinically manage and support cases of sexual violence. In part this has been due to a lack of resources but a more significant factor is the lack of agency capacity. Médecins Sans Frontières has the single most important capability for clinical management of rape. UNFPA also remains a significant actor. The International Organization for Migration, UNHCR and partners are also providing care to survivors through its health centres across the camps and spontaneous settlements. Their focus is currently on outreach and identification of cases for clinical management and support, though population mobility is rendering this challenging. We are urgently discussing with the UN Secretary General's Special Representative and humanitarian organisations in situ capacity for evidence gathering and how the UK can support this work too, including the possible deployment of experts from the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Myanmar regarding its reported complicity in the torture, rape and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign Secretary has been clear about the need for the Burmese authorities to end the violence in Rakhine. He has made these points in telephone conversations with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on 7 and 17 September and with the Burmese National Security Advisor and Deputy Foreign Minister at a meeting of foreign ministers he convened at the UN on 18 September.
The Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific met Burma's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on 20 September at the UN and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma on 27 September, and reiterated the same messages.
The UK has led international efforts on Rakhine. The UK has raised Burma three times at the UN Security Council (UNSC) since the outbreak of violence. The UN Security Council has called for the Burmese authorities to stop the violence and allow humanitarian access. We are actively engaged with other Council members to work on further necessary action.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support, if any, is being provided by UK Aid Direct in partnership with the government of Bangladesh and non-governmental organisations, to Rohingya refugee women who are seeking abortion services as a result of being raped.
Answered by Lord Bates
Sexual and Reproductive Health Services are an essential part of the Rohingya humanitarian response, with more than 70,000 pregnant or nursing women among the new arrivals. Aid Direct funds are not being used, but our bilateral support will cover a full range of services of sexual and reproductive health services in line with good humanitarian practice. We will provide access to female bathing cubicles and sanitary items for more than 35,000 girls and women, counselling and psychological support for over 10,000 women suffering from the trauma of war and over 2,000 survivors of sexual violence; and medical help for over 50,000 pregnant women to give birth safely. We are providing the support described through a range of partners including United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, Oxfam, Save the Children and ACF (Action against hunger), and we are supporting UNFPA to set up and run 13 sexual and reproductive health clinics.