Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide a timescale for the introduction of safe access zones near abortion clinics.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Public Order Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 2 May. Implementation of the Public Order Act measures is staggered.
The Government respects the will of Parliament and is working to commence Safe Access Zones as soon as is practicably possible. We have been considering what needs to be done to ensure Safe Access Zones can be implemented as effectively as possible, with law enforcement agencies having a clear and consistent understanding around enforcement, and abortion service providers and protestors being clear as to what is expected under the new law.
The timescales for commencing the new Section 9 offence of interference with access to, or provision of, abortion services will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many (a) Notaries Public and (b) agents representing Notaries his Department consulted on ending the premium same day service for apostilles.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
FCDO Legalisation Office regularly reviews its service offer. Earlier this year, Legalisation Services undertook a customer review of its service offer contacting every registered Same Day Service customer to feed into the latest review. An initial meeting with stakeholders was held on 12 October to discuss the closure of the Same Day service. My officials will shortly be in touch with the affected parties to discuss the issue further.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to maintain the same-day premium apostille service after 2023.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Legalisation Services is subject to regular review to ensure the public offers are as efficient, sustainable, and resilient as possible. Following the most recent review it was decided that consolidating the services and withdrawing the Same Day Service was in the best interests of the wider service.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many premium same day apostille cases were processed in each of the last five years; and what funds were generated by that service in each of those years.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The number of apostilles issued and revenue generated by the Same Day Legalisation Service for the last five complete financial years is as follows:
Financial Year | Apostilles | Revenue |
2022/23 | 104,146 | £7,796,421 |
2021/22 | 96,154 | £7,220,845 |
2020/21 | 38,537 | £2,894,600 |
2019/20 | 112,145 | £8,445,448 |
2018/19 | 128,157 | £9,625,785 |
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish submissions made by the Wales Rail Board to his Department.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The aim of the Wales Rail Board is to facilitate open and honest collaboration between the Welsh and UK Governments, and routine submissions to ministers are not in the public domain.
Future formal outputs from the Board may be published by agreement between the UK and Welsh Government.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times the Wales Rail Board has met since it was established.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Wales Rail Board was inaugurated in March 2022 and has met on a total of six occasions to date.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the membership of the Wales Rail Board.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Wales Rail Board is a senior director-level meeting comprising members as shown below. Representatives of other organisations attend the Board by invitation.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Disclosure and Barring Service over the time taken to process an enhanced check; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of resources available to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Answered by Sarah Dines
As the Minister for Safeguarding, I meet with the Chairman of the Disclosure and Barring Service to discuss performance.
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has a service standard to issue 80% of Enhanced checks within 14 days. Its performance remains consistently strong against this service standard as can be seen for the 2022-23 reporting year and first quarter of 2023-24 DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
To summarise performance, the attainment over the 2022/23 reporting year was 78.4%, with over 3.5 million customers receiving their Enhanced DBS check results within 14 days. The average turnaround time over the past year was 10.7 days, and 80% of all enhanced Disclosures were issued by day 16 against the 14-day target.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on plans for a new Swansea Parkway train station.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are working with Transport for Wales, Welsh Government and local authorities to develop plans for better connectivity within South West Wales, including new station provision. The Government has established a Wales Rail Board with the Welsh Government, to develop a strategic programme and prioritisation for the future progression of rail schemes in Wales.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Welsh language translation on (a) question five and (b) part four of the cremation form one used by funeral directors; and whether he has plans to alter the translations.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is aware of an error in the translation of question 5 which sits under part 4 of the Welsh form Cremation 1. We are in the process of correcting this error, and we expect the revised form to be available shortly.