Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what process is used by his Department to monitor the use of algorithms by community rehabilitation companies.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Ministry of Justice assesses the quality of alternative risk assessment tools proposed by Community Rehabilitation Companies and sets a number of conditions for approval including a requirement for ongoing research and evaluation to ensure the tool is fit for purpose. Under our proposals for future probation arrangements responsibility for undertaking risk assessment processes will sit with staff in the National Probation Service.
We are still at the early stages of using algorithms in the criminal justice system, primarily as decision support tools to aid professional judgement. We have internal process in place to ensure we develop and roll-out algorithmic models appropriately and responsibly and are working with The Alan Turing Institute to make sure use of these models is ethical, safe and fair
These tools are one element of a number of measures for assessing the risk of re-offending: offender managers make robust risk assessments based on their professional expertise. The most complex cases, and those with the highest assessed risk of re-offending or causing harm, will attract the most intensive intervention. In all cases, the professional judgement of the offender manager is a key factor in deciding what measures are needed to manage an offender and prevent re-offending.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will place in the Library a copy of the contract for the Transforming Rehabilitation scheme agreed with Working Links in Wales.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Details for the contract Transforming Rehabilitation contracts with Working Links in Wales are published on Contracts Finder;
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) community rehabilitation companies and (b) the Probation Service on the use of algorithms in the probation system.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Algorithmic tools are used both by the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies to support decision making and aid professional judgement in assessing the level of risk posed by offenders. We have internal processes in place to ensure we develop and roll-out algorithmic models appropriately and responsibly and are working with The Alan Turing Institute to make sure the use of these models is ethical, safe and fair. These tools are one element of a number of measures for assessing the risk of re-offending: In all cases, the professional judgement of the offender manager is a key factor in deciding what measures are needed to manage an offender and prevent re-offending.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales on the use of algorithms in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office has regular discussions with Police and Crime Commissioners across a wide range of issues.
We recognise the potential that the use of emerging technologies present in the Criminal Justice System for improving outcomes for citizens and also the importance of ensuring that these are used in a way which is compliant with appropriate legal and ethical frameworks. We welcome the work by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) to develop a code of practice for use of algorithms in predictive policing and will be working with them to develop it.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2019 to Question 220074 on Football Pools: Excise Duties, what evidence his Department has to make an assessment of the effect of product switching if pools betting duty were to be reduced to 10 per cent.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Pool Betting Duty extends beyond the Football Pools to bets made not at fixed odds (other than horse or dog racing). This means that a range of products are currently subject to the Duty and there is potential for products to be developed in future to come within its scope in order to benefit from a lower rate.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support UK museums that are not in receipt of grant-in-aid funding; and whether he has made a recent estimate of the number of those museums that are not in receipt of such funding.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DCMS directly supports 15 museums and galleries, comprising 37 sites across the country, with grant-in-aid funding. The Ministry of Defence supports three service museums with grant-in-aid. In addition to this, there are around 2500 museums in England, 1,322 of which are accredited, which do not receive grant-in-aid but are supported by government by at least one of 16 different sources of public funding worth over £800 million per year, as outlined in the Mendoza Review: an independent review of museums in England published in November 2017. This includes the Arts Council England, an arm’s-length body of the department, which is the development agency for museums in England and supports museums in several ways including through its National Portfolio programme. Around half of the Accredited sector in England is independent museums with varied sources of income.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the appropriateness of the level of tax on the football pools industry.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Pool Betting Duty raises around £5m in revenue for the Exchequer per annum. Reducing the level of taxation is likely to have a negligible effect on the football pools.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what (a) steps he is taking and (b) funds he is allocating to ensure that the UK remains a world leader in the design sector.
Answered by Margot James
Under its creative industries sector deal, the government has recently launched the £14million Creative Careers Programme, which is designed to raise awareness of the range of careers available across the creative industries, as well as launching the £4 million Creative Scale-Up investment readiness programme aimed at increasing the profitability, scalability and productivity of creative industries businesses. Design companies will be able to access both these programmes with obvious benefits for the wider sector in creating a pipeline of future talent.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average wait is for mandatory reconsideration of (a) personal independence payment and (b) employment support allowance claims in each of the last three years in Wrexham constituency.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The requested information can be found below:
A) Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
Statistics on Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) clearance times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims by parliamentary constituency are planned to be published on 11th June 2019 in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The figures requested will be included within the PIP Official Statistics publication.
It should be noted that the Department’s decision makers are, in relation to PIP, now proactively engaging with claimants at the MR stage to ensure that they have all material evidence before they make their decision. Early indications are that this is helping decision makers.
B) Employment Support Allowance (ESA)
The available information on the average waiting time for MRs of ESA work capability assessments is published and can be found in table 16 here:
It is the intention to produce further geographical breakdowns of these statistics in the future.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions he has had with social media organisations on age verification on their platforms.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Secretary met US technology companies in November to discuss a range of issues on online child sexual exploitation and abuse, including how to ensure underage children are not given access to their platforms.
The Government have been clear that we expect tech companies to remove child sexual abuse content when they find it, stop online grooming, shut down live streaming and, where necessary, have robust age verification measures in place to keep children safe
The Home Office and Department of Culture, Media and Sport are engaging with the key industry stakeholders on the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper, which will set out a range of legislative and non-legislative measures to tackle online harms and set clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.