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Written Question
Women's Centres: Swansea
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on establishment of the residential women’s centre in Swansea.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Planning approval for the Residential Women’s Centre at the Trehafod site in Cockett, Swansea, was granted by the Welsh Government’s Planning Environment Decisions Wales in August 2023, following an appeal by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Due to delays and uncertainty in securing this planning approval, the MoJ has a number of ongoing steps to re-mobilise the project and continues to work closely with partners in Wales.


Written Question
Magistrates
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of single justice procedure notices.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

HMCTS assessed the Single Justice Procedure Notice (SJPN) following a pilot with two prosecutors, the Metropolitan Police Service and TV Licensing, between December 2019 and February 2020 where a redesigned SJPN was trialled.

The SJPN was redesigned to encourage engagement. The pilot assessment showed that this was successful as the online plea rates and form completion improved following the redesigned SJPN. As a result of this there was an agreement to rollout the revised notice to all prosecutors who use the Single Justice Procedure.

Details of the assessment were published on 29 July 2022 and can be found by following the link: HMCTS single justice procedure notice pilots assessment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Prisons: Razors
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of replacing wet shaving razors with electric shavers in all prisons across Wales.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and recognise the risks associated with the current wet shave razor provision. In the 2021 Prison Safety White Paper, we committed to trial alternatives to wet-shave razors in prisons to test whether a change in approach might lead to a safer environment for both prisoners and staff. Throughout 2022 and 2023 six pilots have been carried out in the male estate and one carried out in the female estate.

Testing at all sites has now concluded and the results are being evaluated. The evaluation will consider outcomes, learning and positive practice from across all pilot sites and will be measured against the impact they have had on violence and/or self-harm.

The evaluation will be completed by the end of March 2024. This evaluation will enable us to make informed recommendations on future shaving provision in prison establishments.


Written Question
Prisons: Health Services
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of not linking his Department's support for health care in public prisons in Wales with inflation on prisoner healthcare provision in Wales.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Healthcare in public sector prisons in Wales is delivered directly by NHS Wales. It is for the Welsh Government to decide how to allocate their resources in devolved areas, including NHS Wales.


Written Question
Prisons: Health Services
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding to support health care in public sector prisons in Wales.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Healthcare in public sector prisons in Wales is delivered directly by NHS Wales. It is for the Welsh Government to decide how to allocate their resources in devolved areas, including NHS Wales.


Written Question
Outdoor Recreation: Licensing
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the scope of Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations to include voluntary organisations.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004 require persons providing facilities for adventure activities in return for payment to hold a licence granted by the licensing authority in accordance with the regulations. Persons are not required to hold a licence where facilities are provided by a voluntary association to its members or members of other voluntary associations by agreement between the associations. Since 2007 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been the licensing authority for the regulations.

In 2018 HSE consulted stakeholders as part of a review of the delivery and scope of adventure activity licensing. In preparation for that consultation HSE considered and decided against extending licensing to include exempt persons such as voluntary organisations. This was on the basis that:

  1. The financial burden on schools, local authorities and voluntary organisations would have created a risk that services would be cut thereby reducing provision of adventure activities for young people which would have been contrary to the purpose of the review.
  2. The inspectorate at the time would not have been able to cope with the demand for licenses such a change would have created.

Written Question
Driving Tests
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of car driving test slots.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards.

As of 26 February 2024, there were 518,517 car practical driving tests booked, and 136,868 driving tests available within the 24-week booking window.

The DVSA has deployed all eligible managers and administrative staff back on the front line to do driving tests from the beginning of October until the end of March, which will create around 150,000 additional test slots.

To further increase the number of available test slots, it is conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners.

Since April 2021, measures put in place by the DVSA to reduce waiting times for its customers, together with the ongoing recruitment of driving examiners, is creating on average over 48,300 extra car test slots each month.


Written Question
Police: Pensions
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make (a) a comparative estimate of what the average projected pension of a police officer who retired in each year from 2015 to 2023 would have been before the introduction of the McCloud remedy and associated public service pension changes and (b) an estimate of the average discrepancy between (i) the pension being received by police officers as of 28 February 2024 and (ii) the pension police officers will be entitled to once the McCloud remedy and associated public service pension changes are fully implemented.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not held centrally. The police pension schemes are locally administered by each police force, and the Home Office does not hold record level information.

Through the McCloud remedy, each eligible pension scheme member will make a personal choice, taking into account their own circumstances. Given this individual choice and associated complexities, it is not possible to assess the average impact for a member.

The 2015 police pension scheme is one of the most valuable available in the UK: backed by the taxpayer; index-linked; and offering guaranteed benefits on retirement, comparing very favourably to the typical private sector scheme.


Written Question
Police: Wales
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2024 to Question 14908 on Police: Wales, whether his Department has provided additional funding to each police force in Wales to implement the redesigned crown logo.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Cabinet Office guidance advises organisations who want to update their branding to incorporate the redesigned Royal Crown to consider taking a low-cost approach and to avoid wastage wherever possible.

Implementation of items such as digital branding can be carried out without significant cost and there is no requirement to update physical items which should only be changed where necessary or at no or at low cost.

Based on the advice in this guidance the Home Office has not provided any additional funding to police forces.


Written Question
Energy Company Obligation
Friday 1st March 2024

Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of expanding the ECO4 scheme eligibility criteria to include households with a total annual income above £30,000.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Households may qualify for support under ECO4 where a member of the household receives a qualifying means-tested benefit, regardless of the total household income.

The Flexible Eligibility element of the scheme (ECO Flex) allows a gross combined household income of £31,000, with additional routes (not based on income) for households where a member has been diagnosed with a specific long-term health condition which could be impacted by living in a cold home.