06/03/2017 Lords Questions

My lords, I beg leave to ask the question standing in my name on the

order paper, and in doing so I declare my interest is chair of the

Leeds University Law schools advisory board. My lords, as the

legal profession in England and Wales and the bodies that regulate

it are independent from Government, we have not made any assessment of

the solicitors' regulation authority's recent approvals. Set

out in 2007, it will be for the legal services board to determine

whether to approve changes to the legal qualification for solicitors

should the regulation authority set to proceed with its proposals. My

lords, I thank the noble lord for that reply, but is he not aware of

the widespread concern that the selectors regulation authorities

proposals will mean that universities have to teach to the

solicitors qualifying examination if they are to remain competitive,

potentially restraining the Brits of the curriculum that can be taught as

part of the degree and stifling curriculum development? We do not

believe that it would have such a stultifying effect on the University

law schools to which the noble lord refers, and I would observe that

there are currently 110 qualifying law degree providers, and 26

providers of the legal practice course, and no consistency of

examination at the point of qualification. My lords, given the

massive cuts in legal aid on the rising cost of tribunal and court

proceedings on the difficulties resulting from the consequential

growth are the number of unrepresented litigants, shouldn't

any qualification programme include a requirement to provide pro bono

advice and representation? My lords, as I have already indicated, the

question of what qualification requirements there should be is a

matter for the Solicitors' Regulation Authority, and for the

legal services board. And of course they are concerned to pursue their

statutory obligations, which includes the requirement to have

regard to the demands upon the profession. We are seeing something

of a turf war between the SRA and the law society at the moment. One

can see the case for separation with the SRA is regulator and the law

society governing the profession, but the position at the moment is

the SRA wants to control standards for entry into the profession, and

the law society's concern is not to lower those standards. Does the

Government have a view on how those issues can be resolved given the

public interest in maintaining standards of legal practice? My

lords, the Solicitors' Regulation Authority has no desire to see any

diminishing in standards. Its concern is to increase access to the

profession in order that we can have a more effective and diverse

profession. As regards the test at the end of the day of what will be

appropriate for the regulation of access to the progression, the Legal

Services Board will make a determination in light of the SRA's

determination. Does the noble lord notice that there is a distinct lack

of guidance from the Legal Services Board, for one hand the barristers

are taking this opportunity to upgrade the qualifications, while

the solicitors are going in there other direction, and given that

there are very few jobs for new solicitors, that ought to be a

moment to upgrade of qualifications as well. Does he agree with me it is

high time for a review of the legal services board which seems to have

failed in the last Venney is to produce any of the reforms and

improvements that were promised at the outset? My lords, we do not

consider that there is a need for a further review at this time. As the

noble baroness will be aware, the legal education and training review

was jointly undertaken by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority and

the bar standards board on the chartered Institute of legal

executives, and that review resulted in a report which was published in

June 2013. The review did find weaknesses in the current system of

legal education, and the SRA are seeking to address those in their

submissions to the Legal Services Board. Can I draw attention to the

register in the members register of interest. Perhaps I could tempt the

noble lord the Minister to reflect on the question that my noble friend

Lord low raised earlier, which is the narrowing of the curriculum. I

accept entirely that the SRA and the legal services board are

independent, but wouldn't it be of national concern if family law, if

disability rights, if social welfare law, were to be squeezed out in the

narrowing of that curriculum? My lords, I understand the point made

by the noble lord, and agree that we should not see a narrowing of the

curriculum, but where people undertake study at a university,

whether it be a law degree or some other form of degree, they did do so

for the sole purpose of passing a professional examination. They do so

in order to broaden their understanding in general, and in

order to extend their education and their understanding of the law. So

for example a study of jurisprudence may not regard it as absolutely

essential to passing examinations set by the solicitors regulatory

authority, but nevertheless is appropriate for anyone expecting to

pursue a career in the law. My lords, I beg leave to ask the

question standing in my name on the order paper. My lords, the

Government recognises allotments as valuable assets that lay an

important role in bringing communities together to live

healthier lifestyles. Before disposing of allotments, councils

must satisfy a range of statutory criteria set by the Government.

Moreover, there is a range of measures through which communities

can help to safeguard their allotments, including the National

planning policy framework, neighbourhood planning and the

community right to bid, all hopefully keeping the allotments

free of Japanese knot weed. The 1908 act which smallholdings and...

Sorry... They still apply, where more than six people ask for an

allotment, were they not given one? My lords, my noble friend is right

of the importance of the 1908 allotments act, and subsequently the

1925 act, and the Government has subsequently tightened the statutory

duties on local authorities in the 2014 statutory guidance, which

ensures that existing allotment holders are protected where the

local authority wishes to dispose of the allotments. That protection is

there, my lords. While allotments make available contribution, public

parks play an even larger part in encouraging health and well-being.

The Heritage Lottery Fund warned in October that council cuts were

endangering the condition and health of public parks, and last month the

committee warned of cuts of up to 97%, with some parks facing a return

to the neglect suffered in the 80s and 90s. What is the Government

doing to mitigate this threat to amenity and public health? My lords,

as always, the noble lord is absolutely right about the

importance of green spaces, which as he will know are well protected in

the housing white paper which is open for consultation until the 2nd

of May, and I have no doubt that my noble lord will be consulting that.

Myla Rose, I declare an interest as a plot holder in Saltaire. We have

talked about the benefits to the community of communal spaces and

Gardens. Does the Government give encouragement to developers

developing new housing about moving back from individual gardens and

individual houses towards a greater density of houses with communal

space and communal gardens, which is exactly what allotments are, given

the current long waiting list in so many parts of the country for

allotments? My lords, first of all on green spaces in general, as I

have indicated, they are the subject of consultation in the housing white

paper, and my noble lord is right about the importance of appropriate

density provision but with those green spaces. An allotment in

particular we give special consideration and have done since

1908, and if anything that production has been ramped up in the

2014 guidelines. With regard to the waiting list, I have spoken to the

National allotment society, and pressure has eased an allotment

waiting list, there is still waiting list but it is not as long as it was

ten years ago. Would my noble friend recognise that private landowners

are often very well placed to make land available for allotments, and

given that, would he encourage Defra to promote discussions between

councillors and the NFT and other representatives of landowners to see

if they can find ways to promote private provision? My noble friend

makes a very important point. Having spoken with the National allotment

society, they are at the moment discussing and bring to fruition a

plan with British Telecom making available a lot of land that has

previously been now disused telephone exchanges, I think 1200,

which will be used for allotments, which is very heartening. But I do

take on board what my noble friend has said and echo it. 100 years ago

last month, the Germans declared unrestricted U-boat warfare on this

nation and almost starved us to death, and allotments became very

important as they were in the Second World War. Whilst allotments are

wonderful things, does the noble lord the Minister not feel that

protecting our merchant shipping and having enough warships might be more

important? It's like a round of Mornington

Crescent with the noble Lord, he always succeed in bringing it in but

of course I agree about the importance of allotments, and

ensuring we have appropriate food supplies. Whilst there are massive

numbers of houses planned for the future, and I have seen no reference

in the literature about that about the provision of allotments for news

housing -- new housing which will be appended to many small communities

which have plenty of provision but there is nothing on the map to show

what will be added to that provision when the new houses are built. My

noble friend I'm sure will take comfort from the fact that in

neighbourhood planning, which of course those it rude to the localism

act of 2011, many areas are bringing forward plans for neighbourhood

allotments, Exeter, Norwich, Edward Heath just to give some examples. My

Lords, further to the question from his noble friend, if the noble Lord

aware that the National Trust provides some allotments and that

there are a number of charities that have communal gardens to help people

with mental health problems and that rooting around in the soil and

seeing plants grow and harvesting them is a wonderful rehabilitative

practice. My Lords, the noble countess makes a very valuable point

about all of the benefits of allotments, and that is why we

provide special protection for them and give such importance to them in

neighbourhood planning, community right to bid and the planning

framework I spoke of. My Lords, again referring back to the question

from the noble Viscount Hailsham, would the noble Minister agree that

one of the great benefit of allotment is the diversity of what

is grown on them and the effect that has the are pollinators which is

extremely important to agriculture and is he not think that is a good

region to encourage farmers to make land available? My Lords, the noble

Baroness makes important point about pollinators and the variety of

plants and vegetables in allotment and I had the opportunity to see

this with my own brother and I hope he is listening so I can benefit

from it again this year. My Lords, in the London area in the past the

obligations were less for the local authorities also is that still the

position that London is treated differently? The noble Baroness

understands London like few others and she is absolutely right that

that was the position in the 1908 act but I think since the 1925 act

London is dealt with on exactly the same basis. If I am wrong on that, I

will write to her and put a copy of the letter in the library. Does the

noble Lord agree with me that once we have left the European Union are

probably going to have to grow a lot more of our own food? And therefore

we are going to need many more allotments in which case we need to

look at the law again but can you tell me whether the Department for

exiting the EU had this on its agenda? My Lords, first of all, I

think as I have indicated in relation to an earlier response, I

think growing our own food is of importance anyway. I don't know if

we are looking at this particularly through the Department of exiting

the EU but it is of extreme importance, as are all the other

benefits we have from allotment and why they are so important as has

been indicated today. This is my noble friend aware that concerned

about public parks to which the noble Lord made reference is widely

shared across the house? Can he say anything about what the government

is doing now to safeguard their future while this consultation

exercise grinds along? My Lords, I do share the view that this is

extremely important as my noble friend as indicated as I said, this

is acknowledged in the housing White Paper, we have many challenges,

building more houses at the same time as predicting Green Belt and

public parks and as I say, it is open for consultation to take views

from people until the 2nd of May. My Lords, I beg to ask the question

standing on the order paper in my name. My Lords we know the careers

advice still there is usually even though there is a lot of good work

underway and that is why we will publish a comrade 's career strategy

for all ages later this year. We want to build on the progress so

far. The careers and enterprise company has made an excellent start

and is boosting the level of employer input into schools and

colleges and the National careers service continues to provide free

impartial support across the country and has excellent customer

satisfaction rates. My Lords, there is a great need in this country for

skills and many 16-year-old and others are not aware of the

vocational education opportunities available. I recently met with the

aerospace industry you are combining together with what other

organisations and trade is to offer training and vocational

opportunities. Can I say to the Minister that these opportunities

are not always, people are not always aware of these opportunities

for training and vocational education and suchlike and to ensure

the government publicises the many opportunities that are available in

this country for training, education and vocational. I share the noble

Lord's concern about the lack of awareness in some cases in these

opportunities and of course we are determined to increase the status of

technical education which we are discussing in the technical and

further education bill and we have accepted an amendment from Lord

Baker in that built to require schools to allow principles of

institutions offering technical education to come into the schools

to meet the pupils. My Lords, in a recent report by the young women's

trust on apprenticeships it was found that young women received less

average pay, less on-the-job training and were more likely to be

out of work after their apprenticeships than their male

counterparts and are declared an interest as a trustee of the young

women's trust. Part of the problem is the occupational segregation that

occurs so will be noble lord say what the government is doing to make

sure that young women received the appropriate careers advice? I share

the noble lady's concern about this. Our reforms to career guidance are

based on schools connecting with pupils to understand the breadth of

opportunity available to them and particularly in relation to girls,

we welcome initiatives like the inspiring women campaign run by

inspiring the future and we also have a lot of activity underway to

stimulate more interest in the stimulating physics network and a

further mass support group which provides support to schools with a

particular focus on engaging girls. My Lords, I believe there is

something like 58% of graduates who are employed in what is described as

non-graduate jobs will I suggest part of the reason for

that is that there is not an efficient functioning of guiding

young people at university into career areas which are suitable for

them and indeed, as comment date --, dead, people are not aware there is

advice at university. I hope the government will think hard about how

it can improve that and actually make our graduates get into the sort

of jobs they are suitable for. My noble friend makes an extremely good

point and I note might colleague Minister Johnson is very focused on

this -- I know. I remember being told that we are the worst country

in Europe for aligning courses in universities with jobs available and

we believe that the plans on the higher education bill will make

students much more focused on what are worthwhile occupations. A few

months ago the noble Lord without the technical further education Bill

in which he had accepted a cross-party amendment which means

that from September all state funded school in England must provide

access to a range of education training providers and it was very

much welcome by all those in committee but in that debate he

said, our career strategy will not be effective unless schools and

colleges are held to account for the quality of their careers provision.

Stead had an important role to play in this regard. -- Ofsted. With the

noble Lord accept that when this comes into effect, Ofsted should

only give an overall good or outstanding rating to a school or

college if it concluded the careers advice providing by them is of a

good or outstanding standard? There were about 30 different categories

of ratings when we came into government and we were keen to

simplify the arrangements. They have sharpened their approach

specifically to careers and continues to remind inspectors of

the importance of effective information advice and guidance and

careers provision features within three of the four graded judgments,

if that Mr -- effectiveness of leadership and management, personal

element, behaviour and welcome and outcomes. My Lords, what advice is

provided for minority women who want to break out of the stereotypical

jobs towards which they are normally encouraged to move and actually do

careers who are not normally assumed to be their domain? What support

once they make those choices in order to enable them to continue? I

have already referred to the inspiring women and stimulative

physics network and the further mass support programme which particularly

focused on encouraging women into this. And of course schools should

be organised to particularly encourage their female pupils to see

a wide range of career opportunities for them and support them further to

make sure that they are encouraged to go on visits and trips which, as

we know, is sometimes not easy. Does the Minister agree that one of the

things... My Lords, we all wait for this

competitive strategy with great anticipation. Would the Minister

agree that part of this, Brent of strategy should ensure that there is

properly trained people who give face-to-face advice to people and

secondly, the importance of careers and jobs and enterprise at primary

school level? I agree that careers advice should start at an early age,

it depends on how you pitch it but certainly all schools should be

identifying their children's passions and interests and

attitudes. It's interesting what he says about face-to-face advice,

there is clearly evidence that if that is all one is relying on it is

a very ineffective strategy and most studies have concluded that the best

careers advice comes through activities with employers and there

is evidence that five or more employer engagement during secondary

school means that students are seven times less likely to be meat.

I beg leave to ask the question standing in my name on the order

paper. My Lords, the OTS's current VAT simplification review will not

consider these issues. The review is focused on identifying opportunities

for simple negation of the VAT system and establishing whether the

system is working to minimise tax compliance burdens. The government

has gone to great lengths to promote healthy eating, drinking and

lifestyles, announcing a new soft drinks industry levy and a sugar

reduction programme to help address childhood obesity. My Lords, I'm

grateful to the noble lady for a reply but disappointed and I'm

wondering whether in fact she might not be persuaded to reflect on the

need for a further examination of this subject. Wilshere agree that in

fact Brexit provides the opportunity for us to look at the 18th, customs

and excise duty and whole range of taxes and a much more flexible way

than we have been able to do before when linked to Europe -- will she

agreed. Though she agree that we have a major problem with the cost

alcohol is causing to the NHS and one of the ways we might change that

is by the ways we might change that is by endeavouring to persuade

people to move from the high-strength drinks down to lower

strength drinks and that now we have this flexibility coming, there is a

strong case to effect such a change? My Lords, I have some sympathy with

the point the noble Lord makes. The government believes that alcohol

duties should be related to the alcohol strength of drinks but as he

says, EU law currently restricts changes to the rates and indeed the

structure of alcohol duties. We have already said that we would like any

future changes to allow duty on wine to rise in line with alcoholic

strength. We are constrained until we leave the EU but we will

certainly consider this issue carefully in the light of EU exit.

My Lords, the noble lady, my noble friend will be aware that the health

Minister made reference to the ad hoc scrutiny committee on the

licensing act 2003 to the effect that customs and excise duty would

be reviewed precisely in this regard. Given the hard work that the

noble Lord Brooke has been doing over many years in this regard, what

plans does the government have to look at pricing, taxation and

potentially minimum unit pricing is at staple controlling alcohol,

predicted a harmful effect on all age groups of alcohol and excessive

alcohol abuse? The Government obviously looks

forward to the work being done by the committee looking into the

licensing act, learning from what has worked well and what has worked

less well, and I think it's fair to say that the Government has done a

whole range of things to try and tackle the problem of cheap alcohol,

the lower strength drinks have lower rates, there are higher duties on

higher strength beers and ciders, we took action to ban sales in England

and Wales below duty and vat, we amended the definition of ciders

that only products with a minimum 35% apple or pear juice can be

called cider for tax purposes. And we have worked with the Home Office

and the police to take a whole load of measures which I think are very

important. Noble Lords will know that I used to be in the retail

industry, and this was an area that exercised me a lot, and indeed we

supported the minimum unit from pricing which came in in Scotland

and is now the subject of court action. I share the disappointment

of my noble friend and the Ministers' reply. I understand what

the Minister says when it is about signification, but it is also an

opportunity. If the Education Minister can devote a levy to

schools, a levy upon soft links to school sports in order to tackle the

problem of obesity, why on earth can we not look at VAT to see ways in

which we can ensure that the issues of heavy drinking and alcoholic

drinks is tackled as being quite an acute health problem, and it needs

the resources. Alcohol is a problem, and I think I gave a positive answer

in relation to the direction of travel. Outlining the issues that

there are in relation to the EU rates and structures of alcohol

duties. The truth is that alcohol, obesity, our problems right across

the board, and that is one of the reasons why local authorities have

?16 billion for public health over the spending review period, and that

is in addition to the Ph.D. Funding, and what the NHS itself spends on

invention. Our GPs do a marvellous job, and I have been very struck by

the way they support the measures that we need an alcohol. But I take

the point that the licensing and tax regime are also important. My lords,

could the noble baroness inform us if the Government is content with

the way white cider is currently being marketed and taxed? Whiteside

is in fact not cider at all, and many bottles have the equivalent of

11 units of vodka in them. In some shops, it is cheaper per litre than

milk. I understand that there is potential to increase tax on this

within the EU guidelines to reduce its destructive effect, particularly

on young people. We have made the changes in the rules that I

mentioned. We have had a number of representations including Whiteside

in the context of the budget. And I would only add of course that the UK

cider industry is an important part of the Rock economy. It uses almost

half of the apples produced in this country. -- the rural economy. The

Sheffield research group has suggested that a 50p minimum unit

pricing for alcohol together with a duty escalator could save around 700

lives a year from alcohol-related causes. Wouldn't it therefore be in

the interests of the country, the NHS and the Treasury to introduce

such policies? We have of course already banned sales in England and

Wales are low duty and VAT, but the minimum unit pricing introduced in

Scotland is actually subject to an appeal in the Scottish courts, and

whilst that is continuing, the introduction of unit pricing in

England and Wales has to remain under review.