The Bishop of Chelmsford received the following written answer on 23rd January 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford asked His Majesty’s Government what risk assessments are carried out when facilitating room-sharing on the Bibby Stockholm, and at what intervals this is repeated after the outset of an asylum seeker’s relocation to the vessel.
Continue reading “Bishop of Chelmsford asks about conditions for asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge”The Bishop of Chelmsford received the following written answer on 23rd January 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for annually indexing Local Housing Allowance to rent levels.
Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con): The Secretary of State (SoS) has recently completed his review of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for 2024/25. As announced by the Chancellor in the recent Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This ensures 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit, or the Housing Element of Universal Credit will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. This is a significant investment of £7bn over five years.
Continue reading “Bishop of Chelmsford asks about local housing allowance”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 23rd January 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to manage grocery inflation in light of disruption to the Red Sea and the potential delay in shipping times.
Lord Douglas-Miller (Con): The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, which is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about plans to manage grocery inflation levels”On 22nd January 2024, the House of Lords debated a motion on whether the government should ratify the UK-Rwanda Asylum partnership. A vote was held on the motion, in which a Bishop took part:
The Bishop of Gloucester spoke in a debate on the government’s asylum agreement with Rwanda on 22nd January 2024, questioning the government’s decision to declare Rwanda a safe country would provide adequate protection to asylum seekers facing deportation:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak today and thank the International Agreements Committee for its excellent report. I will just say that as Lord Bishops we take no position on this Bench based on tribal loyalty and we are not whipped. Instead, because of what our Christian faith teaches us about care for the stranger, we have spoken with one voice on these Benches.
I am focusing on the issues before us today; friends on this Bench will speak to wider points in the coming weeks, as the Bill is discussed. As has been said, this treaty is the central plank of the Government’s case that Rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers. As others have commented, it is remarkable for the Executive to request that parliamentarians declare another nation state safe, and safe ad infinitum, on the basis that one drafted international agreement answers all the concerns of the Supreme Court. If Parliament proceeds to, in effect, substitute its judgment for that of the Supreme Court, where does that leave the constitutional principle of the separation of functions and what precedent is this setting?
Continue reading “Bishop of Gloucester questions decision to legislate over safety of Rwanda”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on whether the government would work with leaders of faith communities to increase vaccine uptake on 22nd January 2024, following a discussion on a rise in measles cases in the UK:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, on the relatively low take-up in minority communities, either the message is not getting through, sometimes for language reasons, or there is a lack of trust. There is quite a lot of evidence, not least in other parts of the world, that the way to address that is to clearly target the recognised community leaders so that they can act as brokers. What attempts are being made to work in our gurdwaras, temples and mosques in particular, to get those leaders to commend these vaccinations to the people with whom they are in direct contact?
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about methods to increase vaccine uptake”The Bishop of Gloucester asked a question on the issue of migrant women disclosing domestic violence to the police being reported to immigration enforcement on 22nd January 2024, during a discussion on the overrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic women in numbers of female domestic homicides:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, after contacting the police to report domestic violence crimes, migrant women in the UK have often been reported to Immigration Enforcement. For this reason, those women often stay silent for longer. What are the Government doing to ensure that black, Asian and minority-ethnic women who are victims of domestic violence can report abuse without fear of detention or deportation?
Continue reading “Bishop of Gloucester asks about issues faced by migrant women disclosing domestic violence to police”The Bishop of Gloucester tabled a question on the public’s confidence in non-custodial sentences on 22nd January 2024, with a view to encouraging improved evidence based awareness and understanding of the justice system:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the public’s confidence in non-custodial sentences.
Lord Bellamy: My Lords, it is important that the public have confidence in non-custodial sentences. The Government’s response to the Justice Select Committee’s report, Public Opinion and Understanding of Sentencing, was published last Thursday, 18 January. The Government are currently considering the Justice and Home Affairs Committee’s report of 28 December 2023, Cutting Crime: Better Community Sentences, and further note the Sentencing Council’s current consultation on revised guidelines for the imposition of community and custodial sentences.
Continue reading “Bishop of Gloucester asks about public confidence in non-custodial sentences”The Bishop of Durham received the following written answer on 22nd January 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked His Majesty’s Government:
The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 22nd January 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the need to invest in infrastructure and technology to support food waste valorisation to reduce (1) greenhouse gas emissions, and (2) the amount of waste sent to landfill.
Lord Douglas-Miller (Con): New provisions in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Environment Act 2021) will require all local authorities and relevant non-domestic premises in England to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling. Our preference is for food waste to be separately collected for treatment by anaerobic digestion which produces biogas and significant carbon savings over sending food waste to landfill.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about reduction of food waste”
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