Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish the Memorandum of Understanding concerning the Murder of British Nationals overseas.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, National Police Chief's Council, and Chief Coroner's Office for England and Wales are in the final stages of reviewing the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding on Murder, Manslaughter, and Infanticide Abroad. An updated MoU text will be published on Gov.UK once this process is complete.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases have been adjourned in (1) family courts, (2) civil courts, (3) magistrates courts, (4) crown courts, and (5) tribunals, in each of the last three months.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Comprehensive figures for adjournments are not held for (1) family courts (2) civil courts (3) magistrates’ courts (4) crown courts and (5) most tribunals.
MoJ publishes figures on adjournments in the First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Social Security and Child Support, Criminal Injuries Compensation, Mental Health, and Special Educational Needs and Disability as part of National Statistics, and the figures relating to the period in the request are due for publication later in 2020.
On 11 June 2020, HMCTS published new management information on the gov.uk website to provide stakeholders and the public with information to understand the very latest high-level position on the impact on workload volumes and activity across HMCTS. Annex A shows the volumes of hearings listed and hearings adjourned due to COVID-19 in the civil jurisdiction only.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the 4,066 hearings in England and Wales as of 27 April were adjourned to be determined at a future date.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Comprehensive figures for adjournments are not held for (1) family courts (2) civil courts (3) magistrates’ courts (4) crown courts and (5) most tribunals.
MoJ publishes figures on adjournments in the First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Social Security and Child Support, Criminal Injuries Compensation, Mental Health, and Special Educational Needs and Disability as part of National Statistics, and the figures relating to the period in the request are due for publication later in 2020.
On 11 June 2020, HMCTS published new management information on the gov.uk website to provide stakeholders and the public with information to understand the very latest high-level position on the impact on workload volumes and activity across HMCTS. Annex A shows the volumes of hearings listed and hearings adjourned due to COVID-19 in the civil jurisdiction only.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they made of the benefits of using a (1) centralised, and (2) decentralised, model for the COVID-19 contact tracing application; which of those benefits they plan to realise from the model in use; and what plans they have, if any, to change the model should those benefits not be realised.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Our priority has been to maximise the public health value of the app to save lives, while preserving privacy. We have gone for a centralised model because it provides the most flexibility from an epidemiological and disease management point of view.
Our centralised approach for the app gives the National Health Service a clear picture of which phones have been in close contact with each other. The model allows us more flexibility in how we decide to notify users and will help us give the most accurate advice to individuals. This flexibility will help to better spot false alarms and unnecessary alerts asking people to self-isolate.
We continue to work with Apple and Google to deliver the NHS COVID-19 app. The app will continue to evolve as our understanding of the virus increases and we will continue to revisit our design decisions as that understanding grows and we move to a national roll out.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) a data protection impact assessment, (2) a privacy impact assessment, (3) advice received from the Information Commissioner, and (4) advice received from the ethics committee chaired by Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, for the COVID-19 contact tracing application; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have prioritised security and privacy at all stages of the National Health Service COVID-19 app’s development. An initial Data Protection Impact Assessment and a privacy notice have already been published on 7 May and, to ensure ongoing transparency, these will be updated as the app develops. A member of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) staff has been working alongside the NHSX team since 23 March and the ICO’s most recent thinking on this matter is published and updated frequently on their website. The Ethics Advisory Board of the NHS COVID-19 app has published a letter to the Secretary of State summarising its advice in relation to the COVID-19 application. A copy of the letter is attached.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims on 6 June (HC38271), what mechanism they have used to increase awareness of the Business Appointment Rules within the National Offender Management Service.
Answered by Lord Faulks
As my Hon Friend, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation announced on 14 March, we take these allegations of the type raised by the Mail on Sunday on 13 March extremely seriously and we launched an immediate investigation into them, which was conducted by a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office's Proprietary and Ethics team. This investigation found no evidence of the Department’s intellectual property or confidential information being compromised as a result of staff leaving the Department to join TDPi. Neither did the investigation find any evidence of improper culture or general lack of professionalism in relation to how NOMS staff interact with suppliers or contractors.
The MoJ has clear rules and governance in place around the standards of conduct for current and former civil servants. All permanent civil servants are covered by the Cabinet Office's Business Appointment Rules. For employees below the Senior Civil Service grade, the rules expect an ex-employee to submit an application form within a year of them leaving office if their circumstances match one or more of the points set out at Section 13 of the Business Appointment Rules. Following the investigation, we have briefed all Human Resources managers and all staff at Senior Civil Service in NOMS about the procedures. The process has been strengthened so that we now circulate the procedures to senior managers annually. As my Rt. Hon Friend the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims said in his answer of 6 June (HC38271), over the last six months, we have improved our commercial capability, more than doubling the senior commercial experts monitoring work with the private sector.
We have no plans to publish the letter to TDPi.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims on 6 June (HC38271), what resources were allocated to, and who led, that review.
Answered by Lord Faulks
As my Hon Friend, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation announced on 14 March, we take these allegations of the type raised by the Mail on Sunday on 13 March extremely seriously and we launched an immediate investigation into them, which was conducted by a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office's Proprietary and Ethics team. This investigation found no evidence of the Department’s intellectual property or confidential information being compromised as a result of staff leaving the Department to join TDPi. Neither did the investigation find any evidence of improper culture or general lack of professionalism in relation to how NOMS staff interact with suppliers or contractors.
The MoJ has clear rules and governance in place around the standards of conduct for current and former civil servants. All permanent civil servants are covered by the Cabinet Office's Business Appointment Rules. For employees below the Senior Civil Service grade, the rules expect an ex-employee to submit an application form within a year of them leaving office if their circumstances match one or more of the points set out at Section 13 of the Business Appointment Rules. Following the investigation, we have briefed all Human Resources managers and all staff at Senior Civil Service in NOMS about the procedures. The process has been strengthened so that we now circulate the procedures to senior managers annually. As my Rt. Hon Friend the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims said in his answer of 6 June (HC38271), over the last six months, we have improved our commercial capability, more than doubling the senior commercial experts monitoring work with the private sector.
We have no plans to publish the letter to TDPi.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims on 6 June (HC38271), whether they will publish the letter to TDPi.
Answered by Lord Faulks
As my Hon Friend, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation announced on 14 March, we take these allegations of the type raised by the Mail on Sunday on 13 March extremely seriously and we launched an immediate investigation into them, which was conducted by a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office's Proprietary and Ethics team. This investigation found no evidence of the Department’s intellectual property or confidential information being compromised as a result of staff leaving the Department to join TDPi. Neither did the investigation find any evidence of improper culture or general lack of professionalism in relation to how NOMS staff interact with suppliers or contractors.
The MoJ has clear rules and governance in place around the standards of conduct for current and former civil servants. All permanent civil servants are covered by the Cabinet Office's Business Appointment Rules. For employees below the Senior Civil Service grade, the rules expect an ex-employee to submit an application form within a year of them leaving office if their circumstances match one or more of the points set out at Section 13 of the Business Appointment Rules. Following the investigation, we have briefed all Human Resources managers and all staff at Senior Civil Service in NOMS about the procedures. The process has been strengthened so that we now circulate the procedures to senior managers annually. As my Rt. Hon Friend the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims said in his answer of 6 June (HC38271), over the last six months, we have improved our commercial capability, more than doubling the senior commercial experts monitoring work with the private sector.
We have no plans to publish the letter to TDPi.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims on 6 June (HC38271), how they have strengthened procedures as a result of this investigation.
Answered by Lord Faulks
As my Hon Friend, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation announced on 14 March, we take these allegations of the type raised by the Mail on Sunday on 13 March extremely seriously and we launched an immediate investigation into them, which was conducted by a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office's Proprietary and Ethics team. This investigation found no evidence of the Department’s intellectual property or confidential information being compromised as a result of staff leaving the Department to join TDPi. Neither did the investigation find any evidence of improper culture or general lack of professionalism in relation to how NOMS staff interact with suppliers or contractors.
The MoJ has clear rules and governance in place around the standards of conduct for current and former civil servants. All permanent civil servants are covered by the Cabinet Office's Business Appointment Rules. For employees below the Senior Civil Service grade, the rules expect an ex-employee to submit an application form within a year of them leaving office if their circumstances match one or more of the points set out at Section 13 of the Business Appointment Rules. Following the investigation, we have briefed all Human Resources managers and all staff at Senior Civil Service in NOMS about the procedures. The process has been strengthened so that we now circulate the procedures to senior managers annually. As my Rt. Hon Friend the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims said in his answer of 6 June (HC38271), over the last six months, we have improved our commercial capability, more than doubling the senior commercial experts monitoring work with the private sector.
We have no plans to publish the letter to TDPi.
Asked by: Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims on 6 June (HC38271), what they mean by "unlikely" and what chance there is that any intellectual property belonging to, or confidential information relating to, the Ministry of Justice or the National Offender Management Service was compromised as a result of former staff gaining employment with TDPi.
Answered by Lord Faulks
As my Hon Friend, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation announced on 14 March, we take these allegations of the type raised by the Mail on Sunday on 13 March extremely seriously and we launched an immediate investigation into them, which was conducted by a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office's Proprietary and Ethics team. This investigation found no evidence of the Department’s intellectual property or confidential information being compromised as a result of staff leaving the Department to join TDPi. Neither did the investigation find any evidence of improper culture or general lack of professionalism in relation to how NOMS staff interact with suppliers or contractors.
The MoJ has clear rules and governance in place around the standards of conduct for current and former civil servants. All permanent civil servants are covered by the Cabinet Office's Business Appointment Rules. For employees below the Senior Civil Service grade, the rules expect an ex-employee to submit an application form within a year of them leaving office if their circumstances match one or more of the points set out at Section 13 of the Business Appointment Rules. Following the investigation, we have briefed all Human Resources managers and all staff at Senior Civil Service in NOMS about the procedures. The process has been strengthened so that we now circulate the procedures to senior managers annually. As my Rt. Hon Friend the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims said in his answer of 6 June (HC38271), over the last six months, we have improved our commercial capability, more than doubling the senior commercial experts monitoring work with the private sector.
We have no plans to publish the letter to TDPi.