Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 13 February (HL2022), what discussions they have had with representatives of channel ports regarding the introduction of EU import controls, and (1) whether these were written or oral discussions; (2) what dates these discussions were held; (3) what points of concern were raised, if any; and (4) what their response was to those concerns.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Government officials conducted in-depth engagement to develop the Border Target Operating Model. A wide selection of stakeholders involved at the border were invited to contribute, including representatives of channel ports. There were over 10,000 registrations for workshops and seminars over the engagement period in spring and summer 2023 and over 200 stakeholders provided written feedback. This included a range of border locations and other stakeholders involved in movements of goods across the channel. The Government responded to a range of questions on the requirements for safety and security controls for EU imports, due to be introduced from 31 October 2024. The Government is continuing to engage with stakeholders across affected sectors in all parts of the United Kingdom and the EU to ensure that they understand the changes outlined in the Border Target Operating Model. Baroness Neville-Rolfe also met with members of the ports industry in November 2023 to discuss the Border Target Operating Model.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions, if any, they have held with EU countries regarding the introduction of safety and security declaration requirements for EU imports on 31 October, and what were the contents of any such discussions.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Government officials engage regularly with officials from EU Member States to discuss new customs-related requirements, including safety and security declarations. This has included official visits to Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland with further engagement planned for Italy, Spain, Poland and Germany in 2024. Baroness Neville-Rolfe visited Belgium to discuss import controls with the Belgian Government and industry in early February 2024. Partners have been extremely helpful in communicating these requirements using their own stakeholder communication channels, and providing suggestions for further guidance that could be helpful. More formal communication of these changes to EU Member States took place in the Trade Specialised Committee on Customs Cooperation and Rules of Origin, the minutes of which can be found on gov.uk.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the economic impact of safety and security declaration requirements for EU imports.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

As is standard for such changes, any necessary impact assessment of the changes will be published alongside the legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to combat overcrowding in prisons.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

In prisons where there is overcrowding, a rigorous cell certification process ensures that the use of cells is subject to a formal assessment of safety and decency.

On 16 October 2023, the Lord Chancellor announced additional, longer-term measures to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures announced include: extending the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the license period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew.

To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through new prisons HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and we have been rolling out 1,000 Rapid Deployment Cells across 18 prisons. By the end of 2025, we will have delivered over 10,000 in total.

The Government will continue to carefully monitor demand for prison places so that we can make sure we have the right approach in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to protect spending on public libraries.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Local authorities in England have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service which meets local needs. It is for each local authority to consider how best to deliver this.

His Majesty’s Government has provided an additional £600 million on top of the £64 billion Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 — an increase of 7.5% in cash terms. This uplift will help to reduce pressure on councils’ budgets, and protect services including public libraries.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to conduct a comparative assessment with other European nations on the state of rail services including on reliability, comfort and pricing.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department seeks to identify best practice from other countries’ rail networks but is not currently planning a formal comparative assessment.

The latest Common Safety Indicators from the Office of Rail and Road, which were published 15 February 2024, showed that Great Britain ranks favourably compared with other European countries in terms of employee safety, level crossing user safety and trespasser safety.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the health of children's teeth nationally in England.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In England, local authorities have the statutory function of assessing the oral health needs of their local populations. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, within the Department, co-ordinates the English National Dental Epidemiology Programme. This programme consists of annual surveys that assess the local oral health needs of specific population groups.

Year six schoolchildren were surveyed in 2023, and 16% of them had experienced tooth decay. Among the 16% of children with experience of decay, each child had on average two affected teeth. Five-year-old schoolchildren were surveyed in 2022 and 24% had experienced tooth decay. Among the 24% of children with experience of decay, each child had on average four affected teeth. Three-year-old children were surveyed in 2020 and 11% had experienced tooth decay. Among the 11% of children with experience of decay, each had on average three affected teeth.

Our plan to recover and reform NHS Dentistry sets out a new emphasis on prevention and good oral health in children. This includes supporting nurseries and early years settings to incorporate good oral hygiene into daily routines and providing advice to expectant parents on how to protect their baby’s teeth.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the availability of NHS dentistry.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

18.1 million adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the 24 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 1.7 million, or 10%, when compared to the previous year. 6.4 million children were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 800,000, or 14%, when compared to the previous year. Our plan to recover and reform NHS Dentistry will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients, and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.

Our plan sets out a number of actions which will improve access for patients, by helping the sector to recover activity more quickly, including the introduction of a New Patient Payment Premium of up to £50 for each new patient. This is on top of the funding dental practices already receive for delivering that care. We will further incentivise dentists to do more NHS work by raising the minimum Units of Dental Activity rate to £28. As an additional part of the plan, we will launch a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to those areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into NHS work. We will also deploy dental vans offering appointments to patients in targeted rural and coastal communities who have the most limited access to dentistry, starting later this year.

NHS dentists are now required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have access to up-to-date information on where they can access care. From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they anticipate having paid compensation in full to claimants of the Windrush Compensation Scheme.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Windrush Compensation Scheme is determined to ensure everyone who was affected receives every penny of the compensation to which they are entitled at the earliest point possible. The Scheme is making significant progress towards achieving this aim and has paid over £80 million in compensation as of January 2024. However, each person’s claim is deeply personal and deserves to be processed with the utmost care and sensitivity. This holistic approach necessarily takes time but is ultimately beneficial to individuals.

The Scheme does not therefore, impose time limit targets for concluding claims.

The Scheme has reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, from 18 months to under 4 months. The 4-month period includes all essential eligibility checks, together with a Preliminary Assessment to make an initial payment of £10,000 wherever possible. The Scheme has no end date so that people are not prevented from claiming compensation and there is no cap on the amount of compensation that will be paid overall.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of Windrush Compensation Scheme claims they have paid in full so far.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Information on the total number of Windrush Compensation Scheme claims that have received a compensation payment is published as part of the Transparency Data release. The latest published data, covering the period up to the end of January 2024, is available here: Windrush Compensation Scheme data: January 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

As of January 2024, over £80 million has been paid in compensation across 2,233 claims.

An individual could have more than one claim under the Windrush Compensation Scheme rules, for example as a primary claimant, close family member, or as a representative of an estate. In addition, a claim may receive a preliminary, interim and/or full and final payment.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 29 February (HL Deb col 1190) where he stated that "there are legal proceedings" concerning the decision "not to proceed with some of the recommendations" contained in the Windrush Lessons Learned Review by Wendy Williams, what is the nature of those proceedings.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The “legal proceedings” refer to a Judicial Review, brought by three claimants, to challenge the decision, made in December 2022, of the former Secretary of State for the Home Department to not implement three of the Windrush Lessons Learned recommendations. The three policy recommendations are: recommendation 3, run reconciliation events; recommendation 9, introduce a Migrants’ Commissioner; and recommendation 10, review the remit and role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to update the travel advice to Sri Lanka to reflect the security situation in that country.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The safety of British people is the main factor when determining our travel advice for all countries, including Sri Lanka. Our advice is designed to help British people make informed decisions about foreign travel and remains under constant review to ensure it reflects our latest assessment of risks when travelling abroad. Our travel advice is based on objective assessments of the risks to British nationals. These assessments are made by drawing on expert sources of information available to the government including local knowledge from our embassies and information provided by the local authorities in each country. We will continue to keep Sri Lanka travel advice under close review.