Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider the restoration of an apprenticeship-based route to qualification as a state registered nurse.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
As part of the Government agenda to develop aspirational apprenticeships, the Department of Health and Health Education England have actively supported the development of an apprentice standard for a registered nurse. This has recently been approved by the Department for Education. The employer-led Trailblazer Group will need to complete the assessment plan and end point assessment before the standard is ready for delivery and can be used by employers.
We expect to see the first nursing degree apprenticeship programmes begin in September 2017.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of nurses who qualified in 2010 left the NHS within five years of qualification.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS Digital provides data on the number of nurses working in the National Health Service in England, but information on the percentage of nurses who qualified in 2010 and left the NHS within five years of qualification, is not collected.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Ragwort Control Act 2003 in preventing the spread of ragwort.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The effectiveness of this Act is assessed annually by recording details of complaints and enforcement cases. Research undertaken for Defra in 2013 concluded that ragwort is not becoming more widespread.
The Ragwort Control Act 2003 contains provision for a Code of Practice for the management and control of ragwort.
Common ragwort is one of the five, so called ‘injurious weeds’ and is toxic to grazing livestock including horses, so the priority is to protect them where there is a risk of them ingesting dead, dying or green ragwort. The Government recognises the impact that ragwort ingestion can have and we ask that landowners take all reasonable steps to ensure that ragwort does not spread from their land onto adjoining land, where it poses a risk to grazing livestock, land used for grazing or to produce hay/forage. Where complaints are received and there is a genuine risk to grazing livestock then action to ensure compliance is taken with private individuals or public bodies.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is their position that leaving the EU is in the British national interest.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
We will make a success out of leaving the European Union. We will protect and strengthen the national interest.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the heir to the throne is subject to EU law.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
In general, under UK law the Heir Apparent occupies the same legal status as a private citizen. The European Court of Justice has held that EU law must be interpreted in the light of the relevant rules of international law. As such, when abroad, the Heir Apparent may enjoy a specific status accorded to Heads of State and to the members of their family and household.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 27 June (HL657), whether the "special status" enjoyed by the Sovereign is granted by EU law.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The European Court of Justice has held that EU law must be interpreted in the light of the relevant rules of international law and that, as such, under EU law Heads of State enjoy a special status (different from that of all other Union citizens).
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Sovereign is subject to legislation originating in the EU.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
In relation to UK law civil and criminal proceedings cannot be taken against the Sovereign as a person under UK law.
Under EU law, EU Heads of State enjoy a special status, in accordance with generally accepted principles of international law.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 8 June (HL380), when they expect immigration to fall below 100,000 a year; and how they define "sustainable levels" of immigration.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We consider net migration of tens of thousands per year to be sustainable.
We will continue to work towards achieving the ambition to reduce net migration to sustainable levels over the course of this Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 12 May (HL8175), whether they are able to legislate for the labelling of British milk and dairy products for the UK market without approval of the EU authorities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
As set out in my response to my Noble Friend’s previous question on 17 March 2016, we have consistently pushed within Europe for improved origin labelling on all food and these efforts have resulted in strong requirements for meat and meat products in the Food Information Regulations EU 1169/2011. We will continue to seek even stronger origin requirements for dairy products, to ensure that where the dairy ingredient of cheese, butter and cream is different from the place of manufacture this is clearly declared on the label. The UK is able to legislate nationally with the approval of the Commission but this legislation would only apply to produce made and sold in the UK.
Where there are harmonised measures, domestic legislation normally takes into account the principles of mutual recognition to prevent deliberate trade barriers between Member States.
The UK food industry recognises that country of origin information is important to UK consumers and in 2011 industry developed and committed to a set of voluntary principles for clearer country of origin labelling. The proposed EU implementing act will strengthen the voluntary principles and improve the quality and consistency of origin information.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 12 May (HL8157) that "net migration remains too high and there is still more work to do", whether they will set out the details of the work to be done, and the date by which they expect it to have been completed; and when they now expect immigration to fall below 100,000 a year.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government remains committed to bringing migration down to sustainable levels. We have cut abuse and raised standards in non-EU visa routes and we have recently announced a series of reforms to Tier 2 (the non-EU skilled worker route) which will be implemented from this Autumn. We have taken steps to tackle abuse of EU free movement rights.
The new Immigration Act 2016, which we began implementing last month, will tackle illegal working and make it harder than ever for illegal migrants to stay under the radar, putting an end to the permissive environment of the past. Continuing this vital work will remain a priority over this Parliament.