Tag: St Albans

Bishop of St Albans asks about modern slavery

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 27th June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesties Government what assessment they have made of the Safe Car Wash App by the Clewer Initiative; and how many instances of modern slavery have been linked to car washes in the last 10 years.

Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con): The Government is fully committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery, including when it manifests in car washes to ensure those who commit these crimes are brought to justice.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about health professions recruitment

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 27th June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government:

  • how many nurses were hired in England from countries graded as red by the World Health Organisation for each of the past 10 years.
  • what plans they have, if any, to stop hiring health care professionals from countries listed as red by the World Health Organisation.

Lord Kamall (Con): Information on the number of nurses hired in England from countries graded as red by the World Health Organization (WHO) for each of the past 10 years, is not collected in the format requested. While the National Health Service Electronic Staff Record collects self-reported data on nationality, this does not show where staff were trained or the country in which they were resident at that time.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about overseas aid funding

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 23rd June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park on 31 May (HL450 and HL451), whether the £72 million in financial aid to (1) Ethiopia, (2) Kenya, (3) Somalia, and (4) South Sudan, to combat drought, flooding and conflict was additional to the £169 million in aid allocated to those countries in 2021–22.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about Ukrainian grain exports

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 20th June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government:

  • what discussions they are having with (1) the government of the United States, and (2) the EU, to encourage the government of Russia to re-open shipping lanes in the Black Sea to allow for Ukrainian grain to be exported.
  • what support they are offering to Ukraine to increase its (1) land, or (2) river-based, exporting infrastructure to assist in getting grain out of that country.
  • what support they are offering the EU as they attempt to institute solidarity lanes and ease (1) export, and (2) import, routes for Ukraine.
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Bishop of St Albans asks about private renting

The Bishop of St Albans asked the following question during a debate on the private rented sector on 20th June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I welcome many of the reforms. However, have Her Majesty’s Government made any sort of formal economic assessment as to whether these protections will do anything to address the higher costs of private rented accommodation, which can so often drive people to social housing? If not, can they assure this House that there will be sufficient affordable social accommodation for those who really need it?

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Bishop of St Albans speaks in a debate on the Schools Bill (HL)

On 20th June 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Schools Bill in committee. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I rise to speak to six amendments standing in my name. Amendment 101 removes from the register any requirement to record the means by which a child is being educated—something that ought to be discretionary on the parents. It replaces it with a less intrusive requirement to record only those details that demonstrate that the child is receiving a suitable education in accordance with the existing duty on parents to secure compulsory education for their child or children.

Amendment 105 curbs the local authorities’ proposed power to contain within the register

“any other information that may be prescribed”—

it is very broad and open to abuse—solely to instances where the safeguarding of the child is a concern. Surely that is the point.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about sanctions on Patriach Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church

The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on 16th June 2022, during a debate on Ukraine:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, it has come to a very sad state of affairs when I feel that I have to welcome the sanctions on Patriarch Kirill, given his role in leading the Orthodox Church. Having said that, it is important to keep back channels open when these things are going on, and the Church of England has close contact with the Russian Orthodox Church. Will Her Majesty’s Government work with the Church of England, through our diplomatic and other links, so that we can at least try to keep some conversations open, at the same time as rightly imposing these strong sanctions?

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Bishop of St Albans asks about integrity in public life

The Bishop of St Albans asked the following question on 16th June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, at a time when public trust in the integrity of the Government and public life is being deeply damaged, would it not make sense for the successor of the noble Lord, Lord Geidt, to be appointed by an independent body rather than by the Prime Minister?

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Bishop of St Albans speaks in a debate on pig farming

On 16th June 2022, the House of Lords debated the state of the pig farming industry. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I declare my interest as set out in the register, as the president of the Rural Coalition, and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, for securing this important debate. I come from a farming family, so I have little time for many of the urban myths about the agricultural industry, or for the complacency behind the lack of concern about food security for us as a nation.

We have already heard allusions to grain shortages worldwide because of the war between Russia and Ukraine. It is not having a huge impact on us, as we are fairly self-sufficient, but, fortunate as our position is, the serious shortage is causing huge problems in the developing world. That illustrates how quickly matters of life and death can come about when food shortages occur. The vast majority of countries ensure that they support the production of food to give them security whenever there is a war, a pandemic or exceptional weather conditions.

When it comes to the pig industry, we are facing a crisis and the evidence has already been set out before your Lordships. Just last Sunday, I was up in far end of my diocese in north-east Hertfordshire in the little hamlet of Meesden. As we stood outside in the sun having a glass of something after the service, one of the local farmers who farmed all the land around came to talk to me about farming. When I mentioned that this debate was coming up, his comment was, “We got out of pigs years ago. There is absolutely no money in it for your average farmer.”

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Bishop of St Albans speaks in a debate on the UK Infrastructure Bank Bill

On 14th June 2022, the House of Lords debated the UK Infrastructure Bank Bill in committee. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and president of the Rural Coalition. I shall speak to Amendment 9, which stands in my name, but I also want to give my broad support to Amendments 6 and 7, which also deal with regional inequalities, and to echo the importance of getting biodiversity and nature into the Bill.

It is telling that London, as the most productive region of the UK, receives a larger per capita amount of public spending compared to other regions of the UK. Productivity relies as much on public investment as it does on private investment but, at the same time, it makes sense economically, from a private perspective, to invest in those areas that receive significant public backing, particularly in areas such as transport. The reality is that government transport spending by region remains heavily skewed towards London, at nearly double the UK average. Hence, it certainly holds that public expenditure is a significant contributory factor to productivity, even if other factors, such as economies of scale and private investment, also play their part.

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