Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure equity in the provision of glaucoma care (1) across the country, and (2) in different health settings.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that innovation is crucial to drive improvements in clinical care and improved outcomes for people living with sight-threatening conditions. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet local needs. In making commissioning decisions, we would expect ICBs to take into account the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the diagnosis and management of glaucoma which NICE keeps under review, to ensure that it reflects developments in medical technology and clinical practice.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, and this includes independent sector providers. CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services and publish what it finds. Where CQC finds poor care, it can use its enforcement powers to take action. This sits alongside guidance issued by NICE for the treatment of glaucoma and any professional standards issued by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, which we would expect National Health Service commissioners to have regard to when commissioning services from the independent sector.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme is also working with providers across the country to reduce unwarranted variation in care across a range of eyecare subspecialties, including glaucoma.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve glaucoma care in independent sector treatment centres.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that innovation is crucial to drive improvements in clinical care and improved outcomes for people living with sight-threatening conditions. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet local needs. In making commissioning decisions, we would expect ICBs to take into account the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the diagnosis and management of glaucoma which NICE keeps under review, to ensure that it reflects developments in medical technology and clinical practice.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, and this includes independent sector providers. CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services and publish what it finds. Where CQC finds poor care, it can use its enforcement powers to take action. This sits alongside guidance issued by NICE for the treatment of glaucoma and any professional standards issued by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, which we would expect National Health Service commissioners to have regard to when commissioning services from the independent sector.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme is also working with providers across the country to reduce unwarranted variation in care across a range of eyecare subspecialties, including glaucoma.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the use of innovative medical technology in the treatment of glaucoma.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that innovation is crucial to drive improvements in clinical care and improved outcomes for people living with sight-threatening conditions. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet local needs. In making commissioning decisions, we would expect ICBs to take into account the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the diagnosis and management of glaucoma which NICE keeps under review, to ensure that it reflects developments in medical technology and clinical practice.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, and this includes independent sector providers. CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services and publish what it finds. Where CQC finds poor care, it can use its enforcement powers to take action. This sits alongside guidance issued by NICE for the treatment of glaucoma and any professional standards issued by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, which we would expect National Health Service commissioners to have regard to when commissioning services from the independent sector.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme is also working with providers across the country to reduce unwarranted variation in care across a range of eyecare subspecialties, including glaucoma.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reinforce a fair market by ensuring that fees, and particularly increases in fees, charged by property management companies are transparent and justified to their customers.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
By law, variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. Leaseholders may make an application to the appropriate tribunal to challenge the reasonableness of their service charges.
We are committed to protecting and empowering leaseholders by giving them more information on what their costs pay for. We will legislate to ensure service charges are transparent and communicated effectively, removing barriers to challenge when things go wrong. This will help leaseholders more effectively challenge their landlord if they consider their fees are unreasonable. We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this parliament.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have set a target for the time between a local authority agreeing that noise from residential premises constitutes a statutory nuisance and the cessation of such noise.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is responsible for the domestic legislation covering statutory nuisances, although local authority environmental health departments are the main enforcers of the statutory noise regime under the Environmental Protection Act, 1990.
Sources of noise nuisance are highly individual, and while some can be dealt with swiftly and straightforwardly, others will require works to be carried out or other steps to be taken which may be more complex and time consuming. As such, the Government considers that decisions around the timeframe for complying with a noise abatement order must be a matter for local authorities to decide within individual situations.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the National Referral Mechanism data for January to March 2023, what is the breakdown of positive reasonable grounds decisions for adults and children by (1) month, (2) the number of British nationals, and (3) the number of non-British nationals.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The Q1 2023 statistics can be found here;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1154119/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-statistics-uk-quarter-1-2023-january-to-march-tables.ods
The data shows the number of duty to notify notices (DTN) received from January to March 2023 and the number of reasonable grounds decisions made per quarter.
Further disaggregated data which shows nationality and whether the potential victim was an adult or child at the time of exploitation is published via the UK Data Service.
The DTN data related to April 2023 will be part of the Q2 statistics which is due to be published in August 2023.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many duty-to-notify notices were received for potential victims of modern slavery between 7 March and 30 April this year compared to the same period in 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The Q1 2023 statistics can be found here;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1154119/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-statistics-uk-quarter-1-2023-january-to-march-tables.ods
The data shows the number of duty to notify notices (DTN) received from January to March 2023 and the number of reasonable grounds decisions made per quarter.
Further disaggregated data which shows nationality and whether the potential victim was an adult or child at the time of exploitation is published via the UK Data Service.
The DTN data related to April 2023 will be part of the Q2 statistics which is due to be published in August 2023.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have been (1) prosecuted, and (2) convicted, for offences of people smuggling under the Immigration Act 1971, for each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The Immigration Act 1971 contains offences (including those created by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022) for assisting and facilitating unlawful immigration into the United Kingdom.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants in England and Wales charged with, prosecuted and convicted for people smuggling offences created by the Immigration Act 1971.
However, management information for England and Wales is held showing the number of offences charged by way of S25 (Assisting unlawful immigration to member State or the United Kingdom), S25A (Helping an asylum-seeker to enter United Kingdom) and S25B (Assisting entry to United Kingdom in breach of deportation or exclusion order) of the Immigration Act 1971 in which a prosecution commenced in each of the last five years. The table below shows the number of these offences to the latest available year, 2022, in England and Wales.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Immigration Act 1971 {25} | 309 | 291 | 139 | 249 | 155 |
Immigration Act 1971 {25A} | 8 | 5 | 2 | 134 | 6 |
Immigration Act 1971 {25B} | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System |
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The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data is held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask His Majesty's Government, how many people have been (1) prosecuted, and (2) convicted, for offences of human trafficking in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, for each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds no data showing the number of convictions for human trafficking offences in England and Wales under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
However, data is held showing the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted where the human trafficking monitoring flag has been applied to case records. The table below shows the number of prosecutions and convictions for defendants during each of the last five years in England and Wales.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Prosecuted | 294 | 349 | 267 | 466 | 405 |
Convicted | 191 | 251 | 197 | 332 | 282 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | |||||
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Minister of State (Minister for Immigration) at the Home Office on (1) 28 March (HC Deb col 961), and (2) 29 March (HC Deb col 308WH), what evidence they are using for the abuse of the modern slavery system.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
On 7 March 2023 the Government published research and analysis on modern slavery referrals for people detained for return after arriving in the UK on small boats. That report can be found at: Modern slavery referrals for people detained for return after arriving in the UK on small boats - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Home Office reports also show that NRM referrals from detention and prison have increased. In 2020, 27% (1,005) of people detained within the UK following immigration offences were referred as potential victims of modern slavery.
Almost everyone referred from detention into the NRM was subsequently released from detention (99.5%, for detentions between Jan 2019 and Sep 2022).
The NRM referral rate for people arriving in the UK on small boats and being detained for return has risen from 6% (50) of detentions ending in 2019 to 73% (294) in 2021.
It is right that the Government has a proactive approach to addressing instances in which the system is not being used as intended.