Asked by: Lord Turnbull (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current area of the Victoria Tower Gardens; what area will be taken up by the Holocaust Memorial and associated works; and what area will remain for recreational use.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The current area of Victoria Tower Gardens is 18,848m2 . The Memorial will take up 1387m2 which is approximately 7 per cent of the park; the remaining area will be publicly accessible.
Asked by: Lord Turnbull (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to help those purchasers of houses with leasehold agreements with excessive uprating provisions to replace such provisions with fairer ones.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is clear that unfair leasehold practices have no place in the housing sector. We are committed to improving the leasehold system by making it fairer and more transparent. We will be introducing legislation to ban new leasehold houses.
It is right that developers who sold leaseholds with onerous terms should support their customers to amend such lease terms. Some developers have introduced assistance schemes which is welcome. The Government is engaging with industry to ensure they are taking action to provide assistance to existing leaseholders with onerous terms.
Asked by: Lord Turnbull (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have given to departments on the advice they should give to EU nationals they have recruited and who serve initially in an office located in the UK and are then posted to an overseas office of the department.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
EU citizens and their family members resident in the UK by 31 December 2020 will be able to apply for UK immigration status under the EU Settlement Scheme, in line with the draft Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union published on 19 March 2018.
As set out in paragraph 3.4 of the Statement of Intent on the scheme published on 21 June 2018, ‘resident in the UK’ will include those who are outside the UK on 31 December 2020 but who have maintained continuity of residence here, generally as set out in current free movement rules for those who have not already acquired EU permanent residence rights, and up to five years’ absence for those who have. Once granted, settled status under the scheme will not lapse unless the holder is then absent from the UK for more than five consecutive years.
We are considering carefully how we can ensure that EU citizen Crown servants and their family members, the EU citizen family members of British citizen Crown servants and EU citizen family members of HM Forces personnel, are not unfairly disadvantaged under the scheme by absences from the UK as a result of overseas postings. We are working closely with other departments on this issue and will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Turnbull (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the immigration status of EU nationals who are recruited by a Government department, serve for a time in the UK, and are then posted to serve in an overseas office of that department.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
EU citizens and their family members resident in the UK by 31 December 2020 will be able to apply for UK immigration status under the EU Settlement Scheme, in line with the draft Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union published on 19 March 2018.
As set out in paragraph 3.4 of the Statement of Intent on the scheme published on 21 June 2018, ‘resident in the UK’ will include those who are outside the UK on 31 December 2020 but who have maintained continuity of residence here, generally as set out in current free movement rules for those who have not already acquired EU permanent residence rights, and up to five years’ absence for those who have. Once granted, settled status under the scheme will not lapse unless the holder is then absent from the UK for more than five consecutive years.
We are considering carefully how we can ensure that EU citizen Crown servants and their family members, the EU citizen family members of British citizen Crown servants and EU citizen family members of HM Forces personnel, are not unfairly disadvantaged under the scheme by absences from the UK as a result of overseas postings. We are working closely with other departments on this issue and will set out further details in due course.