On 20th February 2023, the Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave, was introduced to the House of Lords and took his seat on the Bishops Benches as a Lord Spiritual.
Hansard records that:
2.37pm
Michael Geoffrey, Lord Bishop of Lichfield, was introduced and took the oath, supported by the Bishop of Southwark and the Bishop of Gloucester, and signed an undertaking to abide by the Code of Conduct.
The Bishop of Leeds received the following written answers on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of Leeds asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the prevalence of forced marriages and conversions of women and girls from religious minorities in Pakistan; and what representations they have made to the government of Pakistan regarding this practice.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leeds asks about rights of religious minorities in Pakistan”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what is the value of UK direct imports and exports to:
Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con): The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the noble Lord Bishop’s Parliamentary Question of 30 January is attached.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about trade with Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan”The Bishop of Southwark received the following written answer on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of Southwark asked His Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 31 January (HL4816), what consideration they have given to increasing the £350,000 given in aid to the Start Fund for Nagorno-Karabakh due to the ongoing blockade of (1) food, and (2) medicine, caused by the closure of the Lachin corridor.
Continue reading “Bishop of Southwark asks about humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the total amount of backdated marriage allowance payments that have been paid in (1) 2022, (2) 2021, (3) 2020, and (4) 2019; and what estimate they have made of how much has not yet been claimed.
Baroness Penn (Con): The information requested is not readily available to HMRC and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for a funding programme for food banks to develop into alternative forms of initiative, such as food clubs or social supermarkets.
Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con): Food Banks are independent, charitable organisations where local communities come together to support one another. This is a great example of the generosity of spirit across the country. The Government has no role in their operation.
The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the cost of the software that would be required to introduce an automatic registration system for income-related free school meals.
Baroness Barran (Con): An assessment has not been made of the specific costs of any software for automatic registration because there are also complex data, systems, and legal implications to such a change. The department continues to explore the delivery feasibility of improving existing systems including the development of auto-enrolment functionality.
The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on Monday 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support financial inclusion for blind and partially-sighted people.
Baroness Penn (Con): The Government works closely with regulators, industry, and consumer groups to promote financial inclusion. The Economic Secretary recently invited the Royal Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to attend the latest Financial Inclusion Policy Forum for a discussion of accessibility issues and consideration of what further action can be taken.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about financial services for blind and partially sighted people”The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 20th February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice on 18 October 2022 (59996), what issue resulted in undercounting convictions for offences under the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018; and whether it was rectified for data published in and after November 2022.
Lord Bellamy (Con): While improving our data processing in 2022, a data mapping issue was discovered in the Courts Proceedings Database production. As detailed in the Criminal Justice System statistics December 2021 publication, an estimated 3,220 convictions for the offence under the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018 were not correctly mapped to the offence of Assault on Emergency Worker between 2019 and 2021 meaning an undercount for that offence in those years. This issue was reflected in the known issues tabs of our published data tools and tables. Convictions in 2018 were not affected.
Continue reading “Bishop of Gloucester asks about issues with statistics on violent crime”
The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers on 2oth February 2023:
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked His Majesty’s Government what is the average wait before an individual is returned following acceptance of a voluntary deportation from the UK.
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con): The average processing time of voluntary return applications is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Continue reading “Bishop of Durham asks about treatment of asylum seekers and conditions in immigration centres”
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