Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Bellamy on 28 June (HL Deb, col 580), what plans the Attorney General has to meet the Chairman of the Bar Association to discuss delays in dealing with rape cases.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
A key part the Attorney General’s role as head of the profession is meeting regularly with the leaders of the Professional bodies to discuss matters of relevance within the criminal justice system including the Chair of the Bar Council, the Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, the President of the Law Society and the Bar Circuit Leaders. These valuable and productive meetings enable the Law Officers to understand the issues affecting front-line practitioners, so that they are able to articulate their concerns to ministerial colleagues to ensure that in the development of government policy, the views of the profession are reflected and understood.
Agendas for these meetings are prepared so as to allow flexibility, in order to allow for discussion of topical issues. Such issues include the views of practitioners on the Crown Court backlog, government initiatives such as the roll out of s.28 and how we are working together to improve the system performance in relation to rape cases.
The regular monthly meetings of the Bar Council are attended either by the Attorney or the Solicitor General, so as to allow the Law Officers a full understanding of the issues that are affecting front-line practitioners.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 public inquiry, chaired by Lady Hallett, will be published; and what are the reasons for the delay.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The final terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 inquiry were published on 28 June 2022. This followed a full and extensive public consultation process led by the inquiry’s independent chair, in addition to engagement with the devolved administrations as required by the Inquiries Act 2005.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to encourage civil servants to return to work in the office.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, civil servants have been increasingly returning to the office.
The Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency has written to departments to underline the importance of workplace attendance and request that they review their existing guidance on the minimum number of days staff work in the office to ensure we are making efficient use of the government estate.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants who are currently primarily working from home received London weighting additional allowances in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
London weighting was removed as a prescribed central allowance in the 1990s. Civil Service pay arrangements have been delegated to individual departments for all grades below the Senior Civil Service, since 1996. London pay arrangements will therefore vary significantly between departments.
There is no central source of data that links those working from home to pay conditions.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many executives in charge of government agencies receive annual bonuses; which executives receive such bonuses; and in each case, what is the value of those bonuses.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As part of the Government’s commitment to transparency, departments have published aggregated annual information on their bonus spend on their own websites since 2011. This promotes scrutiny of how taxpayers’ money is spent. The latest data, which covers the performance years 2019/20 and 2020/21, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2022. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.
Regarding the second question: executive agencies publish individualised data on payments received by their Board-level members in their Annual Accounts. This includes data on which executives receive bonuses, and the size of any payments. Since 2010, the Government has made bonuses across the Civil Service more tightly focussed on top performance; current spend on them is around 1 percent of the total Civil Service paybill.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants received bonuses in addition to their salaries in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As part of the Government’s commitment to transparency, departments have published aggregated annual information on their bonus spend on their own websites since 2011. This promotes scrutiny of how taxpayers’ money is spent. The latest data, which covers the performance years 2019/20 and 2020/21, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2022. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.
Regarding the second question: executive agencies publish individualised data on payments received by their Board-level members in their Annual Accounts. This includes data on which executives receive bonuses, and the size of any payments. Since 2010, the Government has made bonuses across the Civil Service more tightly focussed on top performance; current spend on them is around 1 percent of the total Civil Service paybill.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of civil servants at the DVLA worked from home in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information is not available in the format requested. The table below shows information on the percentage of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency staff working from home on the first Monday (or subsequent working day) of each month.
Date | Percentage of staff working from home |
7 Mar 2022 | 39.9 |
7 Feb 2022 | 40.2 |
4 Jan 2022 | 38.0 |
6 Dec 2021 | 38.3 |
1 Nov 2021 | 36.2 |
4 Oct 2021 | 35.4 |
6 Sept 2021 | 34.8 |
2 Aug 2021 | 33.4 |
5 Jul 2021 | 34.7 |
7 Jun 2021 | 34.4 |
4 May 2021 | 34.9 |
6 Apr 2021 | 33.4 |
The vast majority of staff responsible for processing the 60,000 items of mail the DVLA receives every day can only do their work effectively in the office as it involves the handling of sensitive original documentation, for example medical information, birth certificates and passports. These staff have to attend the workplace for their contracted working hours. Staff working from home are mainly in support areas, for example, policy, finance, HR and IT. These staff are doing their jobs fully effectively remotely.
The Welsh Government’s guidance, updated on 25 March, continues to ask those who can work from home to do so. The DVLA has opened up space for these staff to attend the office when they need to, such as for meetings or workshops and plans are in place to return staff to the office when restrictions lift further.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to update their guidance on the COVID-19 pandemic to reflect the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020; and in particular the guidance on (1) leaving a house and the frequency of such visits, and (2) the restrictions on the number of outside visits for exercise. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
Guidance is kept under constant review and regularly updated as legislation changes. On 11 May 2020, the Government updated its guidance, reflecting the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 as follows:
- Leaving the house and the frequency of such visits – now, people unaffected by COVID 19, can leave home for work, where they cannot work from home; go to shops permitted to be open to get food and medicine or collect goods ordered online or on the phone; for any medical need, to donate blood, avoid injury or illness, escape risk of harm or to provide care to help a vulnerable person; and
- the restrictions on the number of outside visits for exercise – now, people can exercise or spend time outdoors as often, or for as long as they wish.
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 contain a full list of reasons people can leave their homes.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what restrictions have been imposed on airport passengers arriving in UK airports as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what assessment they have made of how any such restrictions compare with the restrictions on such passengers arriving in other major capital cities in Europe. [T]
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The safety of passengers is a priority, and measures are already in place to protect people’s health and safety when travelling by air.?All airports are asked to follow Public Health England guidance on preventing the spread of COVID-19. Public Health England has also provided specific guidance on health and safety for flight crews. The advice for travellers is the same as for the rest of the UK population.
The Government’s “stay at home” posters are on display at all UK airports and many airports have the messaging on digital screens as well. Airports and airlines have also been provided with Public Health England leaflets to give to passengers outlining the symptoms of COVID-19, current guidance, and general public health advice.
Our approach is being kept under review as the pandemic develops.
This may mean that measures and procedures change as we control the spread of, and understand more about, the virus. Any changes to our approach will be led by advice from SAGE and the Chief Medical Officer. Protecting the health of the UK public will always come first.
The Department is monitoring closely the measures being put in place in many countries, including all European countries. We continue to work closely with international partners to consider what measures are appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate 2019 rape inspection, published in December 2019, in how many rape cases the defence given by the defendant was that the complainant consented to sexual activity; in how many such cases the defendant was acquitted; and in how many rape cases a defendant who gave a different defence was acquitted.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of defences relied on by defendants at trial. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Rape and serious sexual offences are horrific crimes, which can have a significant and profound impact on victims. The CPS is a partner in the ongoing cross-Government review of the criminal justice response to rape, and is committed to addressing any issues the review highlights openly and honestly. Together with the police, the CPS is already developing a joint action plan, which will address issues raised in the recently published HMCPSI Rape Inspection 2019 report and – in due course – findings of the cross-Government review.