Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 24 July (HL9409), whether they intend to make enquiries as to whether personal health budgets are available to all those receiving National Health Service Continuing Healthcare (CHC); and whether integrated care boards are providing information on personal health budgets to all those eligible for CHC, including offering them the option of taking them up, and supporting them to do so.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government have not made an assessment of whether personal health budgets are available to people receiving NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) that need them.

The Department is responsible for CHC policy and legislation, which includes the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care. Operational delivery of CHC is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) with oversight from NHS England. Quarterly performance data is used by regional NHS England teams to inform ICB assurance.

Legislation requires ICBs to provide people eligible for CHC with information about personal health budgets, to promote their availability and to provide advice and assistance with respect to requesting such budgets.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with government of Russia about its treatment of Alexei Navalny; what was the outcome of those discussions; whether they have protested against the treatment of Mr Navalny; if not, whether they will now do so; and if not, why.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Alexei Navalny's politically motivated detention demonstrates Russia's increasing clampdown on freedom of expression and democratic rights. The UK will continue to make clear to Russia that it should release Mr Navalny immediately, as required by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights. HMG officials are in regular contact with Mr Navalny's team, and where possible, attend his court hearings. Following Mr Navalny's latest politically motivated sentence in August, the Foreign Secretary and Minister Docherty issued statements reiterating the call for his release. We will continue to seek opportunities for further statements in support of Mr Navalny.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government who sits on the senior management board of the Teaching Regulation Agency; how are its members appointed; and on what basis do they make decisions regarding teacher misconduct.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) Senior Leadership Team (SLT) sit on the TRA Executive Board. The TRA SLT includes the Chief Executive and Senior Managers who lead the two operational units within TRA. Board members are not formally appointed as they are existing civil servants employed by the TRA. The purpose of the Board is to develop and monitor the strategic planning, risk management and leadership priorities of the Agency.

An independent Professional Conduct Panel, appointed under the Public Appointments process, hear cases of serious teacher misconduct. The independent Professional Conduct Panel determine whether the evidence proves unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, or a conviction of a relevant offence. If so, the Professional Conduct Panel will make a recommendation to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education on whether to prohibit the individual from teaching. Following recommendation, the decision to impose a prohibition order is taken by a member of the TRA SLT, on behalf of the Secretary of State. Individual cases and decisions are not discussed at the TRA Executive Board.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 1 August (HL 9704), what is the latest date by which they will publish their draft guidance on whether teachers may refer to pupils by their legal and biological gender.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much money the UK pays to the EU annually; for what purpose; and for how long such payments are expected to continue.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Details of how much money the UK has paid the EU, its purposes, forecasts of future payments and timings are set out in the annual European Union Finances Statement. The most recent version covers payments made in 2022 and is available in the library of the House and on Gov.uk.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Barran on 1 August and 26 October (HL9074 and HL10579), what is the latest date by which they will publish their draft guidance on whether teachers may refer to pupils by their legal and biological gender.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been working closely with the Minister for Women and Equalities on guidance for schools and colleges when a child is questioning their gender. It is vital that the guidance the department publishes gives clarity for schools and colleges and reassurance for parents, so the department made the decision to allow more time to ensure this guidance meets the high expectations that these groups rightly have for it. The department will publish draft guidance for public consultation shortly.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 26 October (HL10580), who sits on the senior leadership team and executive board of the Teaching Regulation Agency.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) Senior Leadership Team (SLT) sit on the TRA Executive Board. The TRA SLT includes: Chief Executive, Marc Cavey; Head of Teacher Misconduct, Sarah Buxcey; and Head of Teacher Qualifications, David Oatley. As previously stated, an independent Professional Conduct Panel will make a recommendation to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, on whether to prohibit an individual from teaching. Following the recommendation, the decision to impose a prohibition order is taken by a member of the TRA SLT, on behalf of the Secretary of State. Individual cases and decisions are not discussed at the TRA Executive Board.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the circumstances in which journalists may lawfully be prevented from attending peaceful public events by (1) the police, and (2) the event organisers.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government is clear that the role of members of the press must be respected. It is vital that journalists are able to do their job freely and without restriction.

Section 17 of the Public Order Act 2023 sets out that the police may not exercise their powers for the sole purpose of preventing a person from observing or reporting on a protest.

However, this does not prevent the police from using their powers, such as the power of arrest, for other purposes, for example to maintain public order and safety.

The use of police powers is an operational matter for the police. The Government is unable to intervene in operational decisions of this nature. To do so would undermine their operational independence.

In most cases, event organisers cannot exclude individuals from freely accessing public spaces.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the cost of sending the UK delegation to the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, how many UK representatives this covers, and how many of them travelled by (1) private, and (2) public, jet aircraft.

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Although the COP28 climate conference concluded on the 13th December, it is not yet possible to put an accurate figure on the cost of attendance by the UK delegation, as final costs will need to be gathered and reviewed. A total cost will be available for audit in January 2024 at the earliest.

The UK Delegation included 11 Ministers from multiple departments.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the World Climate Declaration.

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government has not made a specific assessment of the World Climate Declaration but uses a range of scientific evidence to inform government policy, in particular the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which is the global authority on climate science.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 12 December (HL880), whether they will now answer the question put; namely, how much money the UK pays to the EU annually; for what purpose; and for how long such payments are expected to continue.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The financial settlement under the European Union Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020 (WA) represents the negotiated agreement over the UK’s historical financial commitments to the EU and those of the European Union (EU) to the UK. This financial arrangement is related to the UK’s past obligations as a departing Member State and does not relate to any continuing arrangements.

Details of how much money the UK has paid the EU, its purposes, forecasts of future payments and timings are set out in the annual European Union Finances Statement. The most recent version covers payments made in 2022 and is available in the library of the House and on Gov.uk.

Additionally, departments make payments in areas of continuing cooperation with the EU. These include the Peace+ programme and, from 2024, the Horizon Europe and Copernicus programmes. Details of payments are set out in the relevant departments’ annual accounts.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report by Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgeway Independent assurance review into historic child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rochdale, published on 15 January, what percentage of those involved in the grooming gangs were Muslim.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The independent review into historic child sexual exploitation in Rochdale identifies widespread organised sexual exploitation of children involving multiple ‘grooming gangs’. It also highlighted that many potential perpetrators were never investigated or identified.

The report does not disaggregate known offending by individual ‘grooming gang’ nor by ethnicity or religion. However, there are references throughout the report to perpetrators in these particular cases being predominantly ‘Asian’ or British-Pakistani men.

The 2020 Home Office report on Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation sets out the best evidence on ethnicity, age, offender networks, the context in which these crimes are committed and implications for national and local policy. As noted within the report, beyond specific high-profile cases such as in Rochdale or Rotherham, the academic literature highlights significant limitations to what can be said about links between ethnicity and group-based child sexual exploitation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of their Draft non-statutory guidance for schools and colleges in England on Gender Questioning Children, published in December 2023, whether they will ask the Teaching Regulation Authority to reconsider their findings and sanction in the report of 2023 concerning Mr Joshua Sutcliffe.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

It is important that processes relating to teacher misconduct are progressed without any political involvement. Decisions on whether to progress cases are taken independently by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

An independent professional conduct panel is appointed to hear cases and determine whether the evidence proves unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, or a conviction of a relevant offence. If so, the professional conduct panel will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Education about whether to prohibit the individual from teaching.

In the case of Mr Joshua Sutcliffe, after hearing all live evidence and mitigations, the independent appointed panel made a recommendation to the Secretary of State decision maker to prohibit him from the teaching profession, with a two-year review period.

Following recommendation, the decision to impose a prohibition order is taken by a senior TRA official.

Although that decision is taken on behalf of the Secretary of State, neither she nor any other Minister in the department can have any involvement in these independent investigations, related processes, and decisions.

Mr Sutcliffe has appealed this decision to the High Court, as is his right. It is now for the High Court to carefully consider Mr Sutcliffe’s grounds of appeal. It would not be appropriate to comment on or discuss ongoing litigation further.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the recent conviction of Stephen Green, whether they intend to introduce legislation to amend the Public Order Act 2023 to ensure that it is not a criminal offence to display publicly Psalm 139 anywhere.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government respects people’s rights provided under Article 9 (freedom of thought, religion and belief), Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (freedom of association and assembly) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Government has recently consulted publicly on non-statutory guidance for section 9. We are currently analysing all responses to the consultation, which closed on 22 January, and we will publish the final guidance in due course.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton on 12 March (HL Deb col 1905), how much money the United Kingdom pays to the European Union annually; on what that money is spent; and what plans they have, and to what timescale, for its reduction.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Details of how much money the UK has paid the EU under the Withdrawal Agreement, its purposes, forecasts of future payments and timings are set out in the annual European Union Finances Statement. The most recent version covers payments made in 2023 and is available in the library of the House and on Gov.uk.