Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of the United Arab Emirates about the (1) continued detention, and (2) treatment, of Michael Smith; and when they last made any such representations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Embassy Dubai sent a Note Verbale to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August 2019 to clarify the terms of Mr Smith's continued detention. The FCDO Director of Consular Services also raised Mr Smith's detention in August 2019. We continue to speak with the local authorities regarding Mr Smith's welfare. Consular staff most recently spoke to the prison doctor on 28 January 2021.
Consular staff work incredibly hard and do all they can to assist people who ask for our help. We offer tailored support based on an assessment of a person's specific needs and circumstances.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their announcement of 23 January of up to 500 new places for women in prisons, (1) what was the evidence base for this decision, (2) how much each cell will cost, (3) what is their estimate for the additional running costs for these places for each of the next 20 years, (4) what alternative uses these places will be put to in the event they are not needed, and (5) what evaluation they made regarding the effectiveness of this decision compared to investing in women's community groups designed to prevent crime.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Our prison population projections published in November 2020 show that the female prison population is projected to rise by around two-fifths by 2026 (1,300 women) with most of that rise coming in the next two years. Our projections took in to consideration the impact of the planned recruitment of a further 23,400 police officers – the impact of which cannot be ignored. Doing nothing is not an option. It is our responsibility to ensure that those women who need to be in custody are held in appropriate, decent and safe accommodation. The design of the new accommodation is being developed to be trauma-informed and gender-specific with improved outcomes for women. Our design principles include requirements around ensuring suitable visiting spaces are provided, greater in-cell communication options informed by what we have learned from the COVID pandemic, and in open designs the potential inclusion of rooms to support overnight visits for mothers and their children (currently already delivered in two prisons within the women’s estate).
We are currently unable to confirm how much each cell will cost or provide an estimate for additional running costs for the next 20 years. This is in large part as the cells will be a mixture of both open and closed places – and the inevitable variation in ancillaries costs which would need to be taken in to account.
In the event these additional cells are no longer needed, this new accommodation will enable us to close old, poorer quality capacity in parts of the women’s estate. This is also an established aim of the custodial element of our Female Offender Strategy.
We are not investing in these prison places at the expense of women's community services - this is not an 'either/or’ approach. As well as investing in prison places to meet projected demand we are investing approximately £80m in community drug treatment, £70m in accommodation services, and a further £2m to support 38 grassroots organisations doing incredible work steering women away from the criminal justice system. In addition to this, we are developing new Residential Centres for women in the community which is being initially piloted in Wales.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to stop granting export licences for the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
HM Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and will continue to assess all export licences in accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria, including if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
In addition, HM Government is able to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require, and this is done in line with the Consolidated Criteria.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received from (1) NGOs, and (2) others, about (a) the World Trade Organization’s proposed ‘Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19’ (IP/C/W/669), and (b) the need of developing countries for immediate access to the COVID-19 vaccines currently available; what assessment they have made of any such representations; and what assessment they have made of (i) the humanitarian needs of people in developing countries, and (ii) the need to avoid new opportunities for the development and spread of COVID-19 mutations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, and has committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to ensure COVID-19 vaccine access for low- and middle-income countries. We do not consider waiving intellectual property (IP) rights to be an appropriate course of action in boosting the manufacturing of safe, effective, and quality vaccines. The existing intellectual property framework has mobilised research and development to deliver a host of new medicines and technologies to detect, treat, and defend against COVID-19.
According to the UN Global Humanitarian Overview, 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021. Humanitarian needs are the largest on record, driven in large part by the direct and indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK is a major humanitarian donor, providing over £2 billion in assistance to humanitarian crises in the last financial year. The emergence of new COVID-19 variants serves as a powerful reminder that viruses mutate by their very nature. As a result, over 4000 SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified across the globe. The UK's world-leading genomic sequencing continues to monitor these variants as they arise and develop, and we will offer this expertise to identify new variants to countries who do not have the resources to do so.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what priority they will give to specific economic green development in West Cumbria in their post-COVID-19 reconstruction plans.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are seizing the initiative to build back better, greener, and faster from COVID-19. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution is part of the government’s mission to level up across the country, mobilising £12 billion of government investment to create and support up to 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs in the UK including in West Cumbria, helping recovery from the pandemic and spurring over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.
We have previously funded the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to produce the Cumbria Local Energy Plan helping businesses develop low carbon and renewable energy projects which will contribute to sustainable economic growth. As part of a restructuring of the North West Energy Hub, the Cumbria LEP will gain a dedicated Energy Officer to assist in the delivery of the Cumbria Local Energy Plan.
Over the coming months, we will bring forward further bold proposals to deliver on our ambitious climate commitments and further cement a green recovery from Covid-19, including a Net Zero Strategy, to cut emissions and create new jobs and industries across the whole country.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why they did not call in the plans for an inquiry into the new coal mine in Cumbria.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Secretary of State’s powers to call in a case are used very selectively, and on 6 January 2021 he decided not to call in this application. The responsibility for determining it is with Cumbria County Council. Further representations to MHCLG when received are carefully considered.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the health situation in Gaza; and how much financial assistance they intend to provide to that region to meet any health-related need.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains concerned about the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza and the impact of COVID-19 on an already fragile healthcare system. We are pleased that the OPTs will be among the first to benefit from the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) - the international initiative to support global equitable access to vaccines, with delivery of a first batch of more than 37,000 doses of the of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine anticipated in mid-February.
The UK was one of the first donors to provide funding to support the health and humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the OPTs. We have provided £1.25m funding (WHO with £630,000 and UNICEF with £620,000) to purchase and co-ordinate delivery of medical equipment, treat critical care patients, train frontline health workers and scale up laboratory testing capacity - mainly in Gaza. The FCDO is currently running a prioritisation exercise across all its programmes, to ensure that every pound we spend goes as far as possible. The Foreign Secretary will communicate the outcome shortly.