Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help the hospitality sector fill job vacancies in that sector.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has launched the first-ever hospitality strategy to support the reopening, recovery and resilience of England’s pubs, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs. As part of this, we have set up the Hospitality Sector Council to oversee the delivery of the strategy, including working with the sector to make hospitality a career option of choice and looking at the labour and skills shortages.
In order to help address the immediate challenges of labour shortages in the hospitality sector, the Department for Work and Pensions is working hard to fill ongoing vacancies by using work coaches to help find local talent, and Plans for Jobs programmes, such as Kickstart and Sector-based Work Academy Programmes. The Department for Education has also added hospitality and catering qualifications to the Free Courses for Jobs, as part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee. Additionally, we are increasing employer-led apprenticeship funding to £2.7 billion by 2024-25, extending the £3,000 incentive payment for every apprentice a business hires up until 31 January 2022, and improving the apprenticeship system for employers.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the letter on behalf of the Chancellor to the Office of Tax Simplification on 30 November, what plans they have, if any (1) to increase capital gains tax rates, (2) to align capital gains tax rates with income tax, or (3) to reduce the annual capital gains tax allowance.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
As set out in the Government’s response to the Office of Tax Simplification's report on Capital Gains Tax on 30 November 2021, such reforms would involve a number of wider policy trade-offs and so careful thought must be given to the impact that they would have on taxpayers, as well as any additional administrative burden on HMRC. The Government will continue to keep the tax system under constant review to ensure it is simple and efficient.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) financial, and (2) travel, support they provide to prisoners on release.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
All eligible prison leavers are provided with a Subsistence Payment (formerly Discharge Grant) of £76. Recently uplifted in August of this year from £46, the subsistence payment will increase year on year in line with the Consumer Price Index until 2024/25. We also work closely with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure prisoners have timely access to Universal Credit on their release from prison.
All prison leavers are given a travel warrant or fares paid to their destination within the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland. An additional payment of up to £50 may also be paid directly to a genuine accommodation provider to help the prison leaver secure a release address.
The Government is reviewing the Discharge policy (Prison Service Instruction 72/2011), to continue to make sure prison leavers receive adequate financial support in the first few days after release and before they might reasonably be able to access other legal sources of income such as applying for state benefits.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the weekly cost of keeping an individual in prison.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
An average cost per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales are routinely published by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year on the gov.uk website.
The overall average annual costs for keeping an individual in a prison is £42,670, which is taken from the latest published Prison Unit Cost statistics, for 2019-20. The average cost for a week would therefore be calculated as £818.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) expect the 2020-21 Prison Unit Cost statistics to be published early in 2022.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar on 5 November (HL3354), what are the comparable figures of former prisoners employed by all government departments other than the Ministry of Justice.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
We do not centrally hold data on the total number of former prison leavers employed in each government department. Recruitment is carried out by individual departments that undertake pre-employment security checks appropriate to the level of the role.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many former prisoners they employ in each government department.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
We do not centrally hold data on the total number of prison leavers currently working within the Ministry of Justice and its Arms-Length Bodies. However, since April 2021 MoJ has run a specialised recruitment programme, Going Forward into Employment, whereby ex-prisoners can become employed by the MoJ. 21 former prisoners have become employed through this route to date.
The MoJ champions the ‘ban the box’ campaign in line with Government measures to support the rehabilitation of offenders and does not ask for details of criminal convictions at the initial stage of recruitment for roles advertised through fair and open competition. Following a provisional offer of employment, successful candidates are asked to declare criminal convictions as part of the pre-employment checking process which may identify candidates who have received a custodial sentence.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much has been reclaimed from suppliers of COVID-19 pandemic-related personal protective equipment which was judged not fit for purpose; and what plans they have to pursue further claims.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department is working through all its personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to identify instances where products have not been delivered or failed quality tests and will seek to recover the costs for undelivered or substandard PPE.
As of 27 July 2021, the Department was engaged in commercial discussions (potentially leading to litigation) in respect to 40 PPE contracts with a combined value of £1.2 billion covering 1.7 billion items of PPE.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will meet (1) representatives of the major television channels, (2) the Financial Conduct Authority, and (3) Ofcom, to encourage the development of programmes that promote investment in shares of companies quoted in the UK.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government is fully supportive of initiatives to improve financial education. While the Government regularly meets with the Financial Conduct Authority, Ofcom and representatives of major television channels, it is right that programming and editorial decisions are made independent of Government.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar on 24 June (HL1005), what proportion of (1) prisoners, and (2) prison officers, have received their COVID-19 vaccinations.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service strongly encourages all staff and prisoners to have the Covid-19 vaccine. We ask employees to let us know when they have had each dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by recording their vaccine status on our HR system. As the disclosure of their vaccine status is entirely voluntary, it means the self-declaration rates presented below will be lower than the actual number of staff who have been vaccinated.
The total number of Band 3-5 Prison Officers in Public Sector and Youth Custody Prisons who have declared that they have received their first COVID-19 vaccination, as at midday 25 June 2021, was 6,417. This is equivalent to approximately 28.5% of staff within those roles.
The total number of Band 3-5 Prison Officers in Public Sector and Youth Custody Prisons who have declared that they have received their second COVID-19 vaccination, as at midday 25 June 2021, was 3,407. This is equivalent to approximately 15.2% of staff within those roles.
Now that all adults are eligible, HMPPS will be increasing efforts to encourage staff to record their vaccination status.
For prisoners in England as of 25 June 2021 the total number who had received their first COVID-19 vaccination was 38,895. The total number of adult prisoners who had received their second COVID-19 vaccination was 19,236. These figures represent approximately 54% and 26% of the population of 72,687 prisoners.
Data for prisoner vaccinations has been provided by NHS England who are responsible for the vaccination programme. Please note that figures in relation to prisoner vaccinations change daily due to the level of activity in the vaccination programme across the estate.
Asked by: Lord Lee of Trafford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their response to the research by the Financial Conduct Authority Cryptoasset consumer research 2021, published on 17 June, which estimates that 2.3 million people in the UK own cryptocurrencies and that 14 per cent of those borrowed money to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government welcomes the FCA’s recent consumer research, which offers insights into the growth of the cryptoasset market in the UK over the past year.
The Government is closely monitoring developments in the industry through the UK’s Cryptoassets Taskforce. HM Treasury and UK authorities have taken a series of actions to mitigate risks to stability and market integrity and prevent the use of cryptoassets in illicit activity.
The Government launched a consultation on its regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins on 7 January. It also included a call for evidence on the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in financial markets. This set out the Government’s position that new innovations in the sector could deliver substantial benefits, but also present new challenges and risks.
Last year, the Government issued a consultation on a proposal to bring certain cryptoassets, including Bitcoin, into the scope of financial promotions regulation. This would ensure that relevant cryptoasset promotions are held to the same high standards for fairness, clarity, and accuracy that pertain in the financial services industry. The Government will be publishing its response in due course.
To further protect consumers, the FCA has banned the sale of cryptoasset derivatives to retail consumers, and alongside the Bank of England has issued consumer warnings stating that consumers who invest in cryptoassets should be prepared to lose their money. Alongside this, the Government launched a new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime for cryptoassets in 2020.