Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, of the Police and Crime Commissioners elected in May 2021, how many have appointed new chief executives of their offices since their election; of those, which have subsequently appointed further chief executives, including interim chief executives, and on how many occasions.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data regarding the senior appointments made by Police and Crime Commissioners or any severance payments made.
Senior appointments, their salaries and any payments are a matter for individual Police and Crime Commissioners. As the locally elected representative for policing, they are ultimately responsible for appointing their chief executive, balancing their budget and making decisions about the size and composition of their offices.
PCCs are required by the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) (Amendment) Order 2021 to publish information relating to the composition of their office; the salaries of their senior staff; and financial information, including planned expenditure of the office of the police and crime commissioner, and audited accounts.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost by force area of the severance payments paid to chief executives of offices of police and crime commissioners in each of the financial years 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24 to date.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data regarding the senior appointments made by Police and Crime Commissioners or any severance payments made.
Senior appointments, their salaries and any payments are a matter for individual Police and Crime Commissioners. As the locally elected representative for policing, they are ultimately responsible for appointing their chief executive, balancing their budget and making decisions about the size and composition of their offices.
PCCs are required by the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) (Amendment) Order 2021 to publish information relating to the composition of their office; the salaries of their senior staff; and financial information, including planned expenditure of the office of the police and crime commissioner, and audited accounts.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of homecare medicines delivery to the NHS in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. The National Clinical Homecare Association collates data and estimates approximately 500,000 patients are in receipt of a homecare medicines service with an estimated annual value of £3.2 billion. However, these figures have not been validated by the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the past year, what proportion of immigration legal aid providers have (1) opened no new legal aid cases, and (2) opened no more than 30 new legal aid cases.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Between April 2022 and March 2023, 7% (11) of immigration legal aid providers opened no new cases and 15% (23) opened no more than 30 new cases.
In total there are 152 legal aid providers who hold a contract to provide immigration and asylum legal aid service. The above data reflects active immigration work reported between April 2022 and March 2023, inclusive.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) delivers services for immigration legal aid by Procurement Area and Access Point geographical area. These are procured and delivered at office level. A provider could therefore have opened over 30 new cases, spread across several office locations with varied levels of active immigration casework. There are no Procurement Areas in which no new immigration legal aid cases have been opened.
The LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision of legal aid, in all categories of law, throughout England and Wales. The LAA moves quickly, where issues arise, to secure provision and to ensure demand for legal aid services is met across the country. Legal advice on a range of civil matters including housing, debt, discrimination, and education is available, wherever people are, through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they provide to NHS Community First Responders; and what steps they are taking to improve public awareness of the work done by First Responders.
Answered by Lord Kamall
National Health Service ambulance trusts are responsible for the deployment of volunteer Community First Responders and provide the appropriate training, equipment, oversight and support to volunteers. There are no specific centralised campaigns to raise awareness.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to evaluate the impact of the passing on of costs by local authorities to other local authorities when placing a young person in another local authority; and what consideration they have given to asking the National Policing Chief’s Council and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services to undertake such work.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Where local authorities are placing a young person out of area, there are clear statutory requirements in place to safeguard young people. These require the placing authority to inform the host authority before confirming the placement, and to check whether the host authority is aware of any concerns about the setting.
The statutory responsibilities for looked after children remain with the placing local authority, and Directors of Children’s Services must approve all distant placements.
As a lack of sufficient placements to meet young people’s needs can lead to children being placed out of area, we are investing part of our £200 million Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme in projects in London, where demand for placements outstrips supply. This would also help to increase councils’ capacity so that fewer children are placed far away from home.
Where there is a dispute between local authorities about who should have responsibility for a looked after child, the ordinary residence determination process provides a mechanism to resolve this.
The department has also launched the Boarding School Partnerships (BSP) to encourage boarding school placements for children in care and those on the edge of care, where it was in the best interests of the child. The BSP has been working with the boarding schools sector to provide a supply of places to local authorities supported by bursaries.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to require a placing local authority to introduce a procedure for when young people are placed in another local authority area for that local authority to be informed of the young person’s circumstances and needs and to jointly assess the suitability of the placement and the risk exposure of the young person; and whether they have any plans to introduce such a requirement.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Where local authorities are placing a young person out of area, there are clear statutory requirements in place to safeguard young people. These require the placing authority to inform the host authority before confirming the placement, and to check whether the host authority is aware of any concerns about the setting.
The statutory responsibilities for looked after children remain with the placing local authority, and Directors of Children’s Services must approve all distant placements.
As a lack of sufficient placements to meet young people’s needs can lead to children being placed out of area, we are investing part of our £200 million Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme in projects in London, where demand for placements outstrips supply. This would also help to increase councils’ capacity so that fewer children are placed far away from home.
Where there is a dispute between local authorities about who should have responsibility for a looked after child, the ordinary residence determination process provides a mechanism to resolve this.
The department has also launched the Boarding School Partnerships (BSP) to encourage boarding school placements for children in care and those on the edge of care, where it was in the best interests of the child. The BSP has been working with the boarding schools sector to provide a supply of places to local authorities supported by bursaries.
Asked by: Lord Bach (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their definition of “detainee dignity” in the context of people who are deprived of their liberty.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Ministry of Justice wants our prisons to be places where living conditions and behaviour towards others demonstrate our values of humanity, decency and respect as the basis for a culture of care and rehabilitation.