Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 November (HL2506), in respect of persons with a conviction for sex offences, violent conduct, and manslaughter or murder who have been permitted entry to the United Kingdom, (1) what public protection arrangements are instigated and whether they are a mandatory condition of entry, and (2) in respect of sex offences, what additional protection is in place for monitoring, sex-offender registering and prohibition from working with children and vulnerable adults, in line with arrangements for United Kingdom citizens convicted of the same offences.
Answered by Lord Bates
Foreign nationals who are convicted of such offences in the United Kingdom will be subject to the same monitoring and public protection arrangements as British nationals. Those sent to prison will also be considered for deportation. Furthermore, where a foreign national is in the United Kingdom and has been identified as having been convicted of a serious sexual or violent offence abroad, for example after a police check on foreign convictions following an arrest, the case will be referred to the Home Office to consider if deportation is appropriate.
Where previous foreign convictions for sexual offences are known, the police can apply to a magistrates’ court for a notification order which makes the individual subject to the same notification requirements as if they had been convicted in the UK (i.e. they are put on the “sex offenders’ register”). Similarly, where there exists a foreign conviction for specified violent offences, including murder and manslaughter, and where the individual poses a risk of serious violent harm to the public the police may apply for a violent offender order under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, as amended by section 119 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime & Policing Act 2014.Serious sexual and violent offences committed overseas which are known to our authorities may be included on Disclosure and Barring Service disclosures. They may also be taken into account in deciding whether to bar an individual from working with children or vulnerable adults.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 November (HL2506), in each of the last four years how many people have been found to have failed to declare a previous conviction following a conviction for a further offence after entering the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Bates
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 November (HL2506), on how many occasions persons have been refused entrance to the United Kingdom due to a previous conviction, in each of the last four years.
Answered by Lord Bates
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 November (HL2506), how many people were permitted to enter the United Kingdom after declaring previous convictions in each of the last four years; and what specific offences or penalties result in an automatic bar to entry.
Answered by Lord Bates
To obtain the number of people who were permitted to enter the UK after declaring a previous conviction, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
A non-EEA national who is sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 4 years or more in the UK or overseas will be automatically be refused entry indefinitely. Those sentenced to less than 4 years will be refused entry for a period of 5 or
10 years, depending on the length of their sentence. There are also discretionary grounds for refusal for anyone who is considered to be non-conducive to the public good based on character, conduct or associations, persistent offenders or those who have committed offences causing serious harm.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial support is available for police officers in Northern Ireland who have had to leave their homes due to security issues, including receipt of death threats, and have been forced to incur debt as a result, through the Scheme for the Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings, negative equity or any other cost or loss through no fault of their own.
Answered by Lord Bates
This is a devolved matter and is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Department of Justice and Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they plan to take to ensure that persons preparing to enter Northern Ireland from another country, and who intend to remain for any length of time, are required to declare previous criminal convictions and sentences in their native, or any other, countries, and that such declarations are cross-checked with those countries before entry to Northern Ireland is approved.
Answered by Lord Bates
Those requiring entry clearance are already required to declare any criminal convictions as a part of the application process. Where an applicant has been convicted and received a prison sentence, this may lead to a mandatory refusal of entry clearance to the UK.
Her Majesty's Government is focused on improving our access to overseas criminality information and participates in several key EU information exchange mechanisms such as the European Criminal Records System (ECRIS) which has increased this capability, enabling us to remove and prevent the re-entry of EU offenders. The UK is also scheduled to join the Schengen Information System (SIS II) at the end of this year which will further strengthen our borders. ECRIS and SIS II are included in the package of 35 EU justice and home affairs measures that the Government is seeking to remain party to after 1 December, under Protocol 36 of the Treaty of Lisbon.
We are also leading efforts within the EU to share data on serious offenders, and have signed a number of Information Sharing Agreements with international partners to increase the availability and speed of criminal records exchange.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the estimated current backlog of persons waiting to be assessed by Atos Healthcare for (1) Employment Support Allowance, and (2) Disability Living Allowance, broken down by region of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales; what action they are taking to address the backlog; and on what evidence they base their attribution of the delays to failings within Atos.
Answered by Lord Freud
The table below shows outstanding Employment and Support Allowance new claims, existing Employment and Support Allowance recipients awaiting a review and Incapacity Benefit claimants awaiting reassessment, at the end of April 2014 for England, Scotland and Wales. The figures exclude cases referred to Atos Healthcare where the claimant has yet to return their ESA50 questionnaire.
Region | ESA New claims awaiting a Work Capability Assessment | Existing ESA recipients awaiting a review Work Capability Assessment | Incapacity Benefit recipients awaiting reassessment |
England | 333,000* | 201,000* | 74,000* |
Scotland | 34,000* | 13,000* | 2,000* |
Wales | 28,000* | 20,000* | 7,000* |
* Note: figures are based on operational management information received from Atos Healthcare and are rounded to the nearest thousand.
The total Disability Living Allowance claimants' awaiting an assessment at the end of April 2014 nationally was 800. Figures are based on operational management information received from Atos Healthcare and are rounded to the nearest hundred.This information is not routinely collated to regional area.
The Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland has a separate contract with Atos Healthcare for the delivery of assessments in Northern Ireland. Therefore, questions relating to waiting times in Northern Ireland should be addressed to the Minister for Social Development in Northern Ireland.
We are working closely with our supplier to deliver the best possible service for claimants, driving up performance and quality to help reduce waiting times and process claims as quickly as possible. We are continuing to monitor and robustly manage this contract.
Identification by the Department of a reduction in Atos Healthcare's quality led to decisive action in the form of a retraining and re-accreditation exercise and an overhaul of audit arrangements when we instructed Atos Healthcare to introduce an improvement plan in July 2013. The quality of reports provided by Atos Healthcare has improved significantly but the Department continues to monitor quality closely.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many companies currently providing contracted services to government departments and agencies use zero hours contracts.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the decision by Atos Healthcare to end its contract early, whether that contract will now be made public.
Answered by Lord Freud
A redacted copy of the Medical Services Contract between the Department for Work and Pensions and Atos Healthcare was placed in the House of Lords library on 14th September 2010.
The Health Services Category Team are currently undertaking the necessary contractual action following the mutual Termination of the Medical Services Contract with Atos and an updated version of the contract will be placed in the library by 30th July 2014.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to follow the Northern Ireland initiative of "test and vaccinate or remove" in relation to badgers carrying bovine tuberculosis as opposed to any replication of the cull.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
The Northern Ireland Executive has begun a five-year ‘test and vaccinate or remove' tuberculosis research project on badgers in a 100km2 area of County Down. We currently have no plans to adopt this approach in England although we will of course be interested in the outcome of the research in Northern Ireland.