Session 2019-21 Monday No. 138 9 November 2020 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS WRITTEN STATEMENTS AND WRITTEN ANSWERS Written Statements ................................ ................ 1 Written Answers ................................ ..................... 6 [I] indicates that the member concerned has a relevant registered interest. The full register of interests can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords-interests/ Members who want a printed copy of Written Answers and Written Statements should notify the Printed Paper Office. This printed edition is a reproduction of the original text of Answers and Statements, which can be found on the internet at http://www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/. Ministers and others who make Statements or answer Questions are referred to only by name, not their ministerial or other title. The current list of ministerial and other responsibilities is as follows. Minister Responsibilities Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal Earl Howe Deputy Leader of the House of Lords Lord Agnew of Oulton Minister of State, Cabinet Office and Treasury Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Ashton of Hyde Chief Whip Baroness Barran Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Baroness Berridge Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade Lord Bethell Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care and Whip Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Whip Waldrist Lord Callanan Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Earl of Courtown Deputy Chief Whip Lord Gardiner of Kimble Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Baroness Goldie Minister of State, Ministry of Defence Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Greenhalgh Minister of State, Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Minister of State, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for International Trade Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Whip Baroness Penn Whip Baroness Scott of Bybrook Whip Baroness Stedman-Scott Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions Baroness Sugg Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord True Minister of State, Cabinet Office Baroness Vere of Norbiton Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport Baroness Williams of Trafford Minister of State, Home Office Viscount Younger of Leckie Whip © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2020 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/ Written Statements 9 November 2020 Page 1 elections, an immediate end to the violence and release of Written Statements all those illegally detained, an independent oversight mechanism on detention conditions, and an investigation Monday, 9 November 2020 into all allegations of torture. Belarus: Violations Report The Government calls on Belarus to implement all of the recommendations included in the Report. Further, the [HLWS554] report makes 16 recommendations to OSCE Participants Baroness Sugg: My rt hon Friend the Secretary of State and the wider international community. The UK has for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs already begun to implement the majority of these (Dominic Raab) has today made the following Written recommendations. In addition, the UK supports the Ministerial Statement: recommendation that Belarus must hold new elections The Government has welcomed the publication of the and that a detailed and thorough investigation in the report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation human rights violations is required. in Europe’s (OSCE) independent rapporteur, Professor A copy of the Report is being placed in the Library of Wolfgang Benedek on Belarus. The report was initiated both Houses. under the Moscow Mechanism to consider Alleged Human Rights Violations related to the Presidential Chief Coroner: Annual Reports Elections in Belarus on 9 August 2020. [HLWS551] As I noted in my statement to the House of 24 September, alongside 16 other Participating States at the Baroness Scott of Bybrook: My honourable friend the OSCE on 17 September, the United Kingdom invoked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Moscow Mechanism of the human dimension of the Chalk) has made the following Written Statement. OSCE. This triggered an independent investigation into "I am pleased to lay and publish the Chief Coroner’s credible reports of electoral fraud and human rights combined sixth and seventh annual reports to the Lord violation before, during and after the Presidential Chancellor on the operation of coroner services under elections in Belarus. The investigation commenced on 30 section 36 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (‘the September and is now complete. The report was formally 2009 Act’). The joint report covers both 2018 to 2019 and presented to the OSCE Permanent Council on 5 2019 to 2020. November 2020 and was welcomed by all 17 invoking Publication of the sixth report was delayed last year States in a Joint Statement. The UK also made a national and, in light of the emerging Covid-19 pandemic at the statement to welcome its publication. start of 2020, it was considered preferable to postpone its Belarus refused to cooperate with the rapporteur or publication until later in the year and release it as a joint allow him access to the country. Nevertheless, the report edition with the seventh report. draws heavily on evidence and observations from In particular, the Chief Coroner’s report sets out: international organisations and mechanisms, as well as • The work that he as well as coroners, their officers more than 700 submissions from Belarusian citizens and and their staff have achieved to manage the effects of organisations. the Covid-19 pandemic; The findings of the report are clear. • The continuing work to promote consistency in the The report concludes that the allegations that the resourcing of and practices in coroner offices across elections were not transparent, as well as neither free nor England and Wales; fair, are accurate and well evidenced. The report notes that from the selection of the national electoral • The training and guidance that coroners and their commission through to vote counting, Belarus fell short officers have received and the engagement with a wide of its international commitments and of the basic range of stakeholders; and requirements of previous OSCE and Council of Europe • Recommendations to improve coroner services election monitoring reports. further. The report finds that the allegations of human rights Annexed to the report are the Chief Coroner’s revised violations have been proven beyond doubt and that the “A Model Coroner Area” blueprint, the list of cases over Belarusian authorities have carried out violations on a twelve months old reported to the Chief Coroner and massive and systematic scale. The report highlights the tables of senior and area coroners’ salaries. environment of impunity that exists in Belarus; no one I am very grateful to His Honour Judge Mark Lucraft has been held accountable for the well documented cases QC for building so effectively on his previous of torture and inhumane treatment by the security forces. achievements as well as those of his predecessor, His The report also confirms that freedom of the media and Honour Sir Peter Thornton QC. I also thank him for his the safety of journalists are under sustained attack in excellent and much-appreciated service since October Belarus. 2016 as he now moves on to become the full-time The report makes 82 recommendations to the Recorder of London. I am particularly grateful that he Belarusian authorities including new Presidential continued to serve as Chief Coroner over the last months Page 2 9 November 2020 Written Statements to guide and support coroners in facing the incredibly On 27th December 2019 my Rt Hon Friend the then difficult challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. Secretary of State (Theresa Villiers) commissioned an I am grateful too to all coroners and their officers and independent review following the severe flooding in other staff, for having supported the Chief Coroner to South Yorkshire in November 2019. The River Don improve services for bereaved people and for their valued recorded its highest ever peak flows at Rotherham and and continuing frontline work. Their work in managing Doncaster, with South Yorkshire experiencing its wettest the impact of the pandemic on their own services but also November on record - seeing over two and a half times its more widely, in support of their Local Resilience Fora, average rainfall and over 760 properties reported as has been inestimable. having flooded. The report will be available online, at: This independent review has been led by Amanda https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief- Blanc, former chair of the Association of British Insurers coroners-combined-annual-report-2018-to-2019-and- (ABI) who was appointed on 14 April 2020 and was 2019-to-2020."