Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by HonestReporting Help Combat Hamas Terrorism, published on 2 February; and what assessment they have made of the warning within the report by Lloyd's of London against its members doing business with Hamas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The UK has a robust legislative framework which criminalises the financing of terrorism in all its forms. The Government regularly meets with the banking sector, regulators and non-profit organisations to identify, assess and understand the risk of terrorist financing and collaborate to respond to the risks that are identified, including producing appropriate guidance and best practice on risk mitigation measures.
The Home Secretary extended the proscription of Hamas to cover the organisation in its entirety in November 2021. The extension makes all of Hamas’ assets ‘terrorist property’, it also makes it illegal for people to be members or supporters of Hamas, with a maximum sentence of up to 14 years in prison and/or an unlimited fine. Hamas is also subject to an asset freeze under the Counter-Terrorism (International Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.
The investigation and prosecution of offences is a matter for the police and Crown Prosecution Service. It would be inappropriate for the Government to comment further on such matters
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many members of the House of Lords have a (1) laptop, (2) desktop, and (3) printer (a) in their parliamentary office, or (b) at home, paid for out of House of Lords funds.
Answered by Lord Touhig
The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf.
Since 2015, the following equipment has been paid for out of Parliamentary funds:
Members are entitled to an allowance of two devices out of a choice of either a desktop (on estate installation only), a laptop or an iPad. These allowance options are flexible depending on accessibility requirements. Printers issued for onsite use are provided in addition to this and are usually assigned to an office space rather than a specific Member. The 186 printers in Members’ offices includes larger printers in shared offices and smaller printers in offices occupied by one Member.
In June 2020 as a temporary measure the Services Committee agreed to reimburse Members buying a printer for home use, for up to the value of £200. This was reviewed in light of changes to COVID guidelines and came to an end in September 2021 except for those members eligible to participate in proceedings virtually. During the time the scheme ran, 65 members claimed back the cost of a printer at home and a total of 99 Members were reimbursed for printer consumables for home printing during this period. PDS did previously provide printers to members for home use, this offer was stopped by the Information Committee in 2015. It is likely however, that very few, if any of these devices are still functioning, as these devices have surpassed their useful lifespan and are no longer supported by the manufacturer.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Associated Retirement Community Operators on expanding housing-with-care.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The white paper commits to incentivise the supply of supported housing, including housing-with-care and integrated retirement communities through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, with £213 million available over the next three years. This is alongside a new £300 million investment to connect housing with health and care, increase the supply of supported housing and local expenditure on services for those in supported housing.
We will work with local authorities, housing providers and others to design and establish this new investment. Further detail on how this will be targeted and the impact we expect to deliver will be made available as it develops. We are engaging with stakeholders from the private and social sectors, including the Associated Retirement Community Operators, to inform future cross-Government action to stimulate a specialist housing market. This includes considering the merits of different engagement and delivery models, including proposals for a cross-Government taskforce.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal from the Associated Retirement Community Operators on setting up a cross-government task force on expanding housing-with-care.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The white paper commits to incentivise the supply of supported housing, including housing-with-care and integrated retirement communities through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, with £213 million available over the next three years. This is alongside a new £300 million investment to connect housing with health and care, increase the supply of supported housing and local expenditure on services for those in supported housing.
We will work with local authorities, housing providers and others to design and establish this new investment. Further detail on how this will be targeted and the impact we expect to deliver will be made available as it develops. We are engaging with stakeholders from the private and social sectors, including the Associated Retirement Community Operators, to inform future cross-Government action to stimulate a specialist housing market. This includes considering the merits of different engagement and delivery models, including proposals for a cross-Government taskforce.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what form of cross-government work they are undertaking on expanding housing-with-care.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The white paper commits to incentivise the supply of supported housing, including housing-with-care and integrated retirement communities through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, with £213 million available over the next three years. This is alongside a new £300 million investment to connect housing with health and care, increase the supply of supported housing and local expenditure on services for those in supported housing.
We will work with local authorities, housing providers and others to design and establish this new investment. Further detail on how this will be targeted and the impact we expect to deliver will be made available as it develops. We are engaging with stakeholders from the private and social sectors, including the Associated Retirement Community Operators, to inform future cross-Government action to stimulate a specialist housing market. This includes considering the merits of different engagement and delivery models, including proposals for a cross-Government taskforce.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the implications of the Adult Social Care Reform White Paper for (1) housing-with-care, and (2) integrated retirement communities
Answered by Lord Kamall
The white paper commits to incentivise the supply of supported housing, including housing-with-care and integrated retirement communities through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, with £213 million available over the next three years. This is alongside a new £300 million investment to connect housing with health and care, increase the supply of supported housing and local expenditure on services for those in supported housing.
We will work with local authorities, housing providers and others to design and establish this new investment. Further detail on how this will be targeted and the impact we expect to deliver will be made available as it develops. We are engaging with stakeholders from the private and social sectors, including the Associated Retirement Community Operators, to inform future cross-Government action to stimulate a specialist housing market. This includes considering the merits of different engagement and delivery models, including proposals for a cross-Government taskforce.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, further to the Written Answer by Lord Touhig on 15 November (HL3572), what financial assistance is available to backbench members to employ the three secretarial and research support staff who are entitled to passes.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Members are entitled to claim a daily allowance and certain travel expenses as detailed in the Guide to Financial Support for Members, which is available on the intranet. No financial assistance is specifically made available for those members who sponsor passes for secretarial or research staff.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what arrangements are available to help backbench Peers deal with correspondence.
Answered by Lord Touhig
The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf.
All external physical correspondence received by Parliament is security screened off site before being brought to the estate. Appropriate cyber-security measures are in place to protect the Parliamentary network from malicious e-mails and spam.
Members are able to specify how they wish to receive internal and external correspondence including delivery to pigeon holes, member desks or Prince’s Chamber and the option of forwarding to external addresses. Member preferences can be treated as temporary or permanent arrangements and can be varied between sitting and non-sitting days.
Internal and External mailboxes are located across the estate for members sending correspondence, with stationery available from Peers’ Lobby or Millbank House Reception on request.
There are also a number of arrangements available to help members with parliamentary business more widely, including responding to correspondence:
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what was the cost of the administrative team supporting (1) the office of the Lord Speaker, and (2) the office of the Senior Deputy Speaker, for each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Lord Speaker’s Office is a team which is part of the wider Clerk of the Parliaments’ Office. The cost of the staff within the Lord Speaker’s Office over the last 10 financial years is as follows:
2011/12: £145,933
2012/13: £142,839
2013/14: £136,500
2014/15: £147,770
2015/16: £166,852
2016/17: £192,297
2017/18: £197,142
2018/19: £200,654
2019/20: £182,904
2020/21: £205,692
These figures include on-costs such as pension and National Insurance contributions.
As explained in my answer to HL3097, a number of other staff are also co-located with the Lord Speaker’s Office and provide support to the Lord Speaker alongside other duties, but their costs are not included within these figures as they are not formally part of the Lord Speaker’s Office.
The post of Senior Deputy Speaker was created in 2016. Since then the Senior Deputy Speaker has been supported by a Private Secretary (grade HL8). Since 2018, they have also been supported by an Assistant Private Secretary (grade HL6). Given the limited number of people who have held these posts it would not be appropriate to give a detailed breakdown of salary figures, but the mid-range average annual rates for posts across the Administration at the same grade, at current rates, are as follows:
Grade HL8 post (including on costs such as pension and NI contributions): £77,368
Grade HL6 post (including on costs such as pension and NI contributions): £46,748
In 2017 an apprentice also provided support to the Senior Deputy Speaker. Their costs included time spent supporting the Senior Deputy Speaker as well as training as part of the apprenticeship programme.
Additional support, such as diary management, has also been provided to the Senior Deputy Speaker by other staff, but this has been done alongside other duties so it is not possible to split out what proportion of staff time would have been spent supporting the Senior Deputy Speaker specifically.
For both the Lord Speaker and Senior Deputy Speaker, the figures outlined above are for the staffing costs only. There will be other costs associated with the running of these teams, such as stationery, computers and other costs, but as these have been accounted for as part of the costs of running the wider departments within which these teams sit, it is not possible to quantify what proportion of those costs would have been incurred in specific support of the Lord Speaker or Senior Deputy Speaker.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many members of the House attended proceedings of the House each sitting day in (1) September, and (2) October; and how many voted in each division in (a) September, and (b) October.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The table below shows the number of members of the House who attended the Chamber and/or Grand Committee for each sitting day in September and October 2021. All attendance figures are provisional for up to three months and may be corrected in that time.
Date of Sitting | Total members attending |
06/09/2021 | 425 (of whom 1 virtual) |
07/09/2021 | 355 (of whom 1 virtual) |
08/09/2021 | 407 (of whom 1 virtual) |
09/09/2021 | 353 (of whom 2 virtual) |
10/09/2021 | 187 (of whom 1 virtual) |
13/09/2021 | 427 (of whom 1 virtual) |
14/09/2021 | 383 (of whom 3 virtual) |
15/09/2021 | 418 (of whom 2 virtual) |
16/09/2021 | 333 (of whom 2 virtual) |
11/10/2021 | 375 (of whom 1 virtual) |
12/10/2021 | 448 (of whom 1 virtual) |
13/10/2021 | 418 (of whom 2 virtual) |
14/10/2021 | 410 (of whom 3 virtual) |
18/10/2021 | 355 (of whom 3 virtual) |
19/10/2021 | 442 (of whom 1 virtual) |
20/10/2021 | 405 (of whom 4 virtual) |
21/10/2021 | 426 (of whom 2 virtual) |
22/10/2021 | 359 (of whom 6 virtual) |
25/10/2021 | 395 (of whom 3 virtual) |
26/10/2021 | 457 (of whom 1 virtual) |
27/10/2021 | 395 (of whom 3 virtual) |
28/10/2021 | 344 (of whom 2 virtual) |
The table below shows the number of members who voted in each division in September and October 2021.
Date of Sitting | Division Subject | Division No. | Votes Cast |
06/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 1 | 388 |
06/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 2 | 375 |
06/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 3 | 340 |
06/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 4 | 188 |
08/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 1 | 384 |
08/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 2 | 366 |
08/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 3 | 331 |
08/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 4 | 296 |
13/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 1 | 370 |
13/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 2 | 226 |
13/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 3 | 366 |
13/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 4 | 331 |
15/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 1 | 387 |
15/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 2 | 382 |
15/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 3 | 360 |
15/09/2021 | Environment Bill | 4 | 306 |
12/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 1 | 379 |
12/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 2 | 305 |
12/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 3 | 277 |
12/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 4 | 270 |
19/10/2021 | Telecommunications (Security) Bill | 1 | 372 |
19/10/2021 | Telecommunications (Security) Bill | 2 | 356 |
19/10/2021 | Telecommunications (Security) Bill | 3 | 328 |
21/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 1 | 310 |
21/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 2 | 316 |
21/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 3 | 310 |
21/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 4 | 316 |
21/10/2021 | Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL] | 5 | 242 |
26/10/2021 | Environment Bill | 1 | 321 |
26/10/2021 | Environment Bill | 2 | 412 |
26/10/2021 | Environment Bill | 3 | 395 |
26/10/2021 | Environment Bill | 4 | 379 |
26/10/2021 | Environment Bill | 5 | 273 |