The table below provides the number of people killed by offenders who were at the time on licence for an earlier homicide offence, for which they had served a prison sentence and been released. As they were on licence, when they were charged with a new offence of killing [homicide], it would have generated a formal serious further offence (SFO) notification to HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), and the number in each calendar year reflects the year in which HMPPS received the notification. The answer interprets homicide to include offences of murder, manslaughter, death by dangerous driving and death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs.

Data are not available on offenders with a previous conviction for homicide who had completed their sentence and associated statutory probation supervision by probation and then went on to commit a further homicide.

SFOs are rare. Fewer than 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision are convicted of serious further offences. Nonetheless every single serious further offence is taken extremely seriously, and in all cases a review is carried out to identify any lessons for the better management of future cases.

1. We will publish SFO conviction data for 2019/20 in October 2021, therefore data for 2019 can only be provided for January, February and March.
2. Figures are based on conviction data that was produced in September 2020.
3. Data are derived from the date of SFO notification to HMPPS
4. This figure only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
5. The data provided are provisional figures subject to change when any outstanding cases are concluded at court.
6. The data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where a Court has subsequently ruled that they were responsible.

Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) comply with the law relating to cheques. There are several circumstances in which NS&I would reject a cheque. These include the cheque being unsigned by the customer, out of date, or defaced. The Director of Savings, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of NS&I, is the authority responsible for administering this policy.

Premium Bond prize warrants are legally similar to cheques. As with cheques, they can be rejected if a duplicate has been issued. Due to an administrative error, a number of duplicate Premium Bond prize warrants were issued to customers in the October 2019 prize draw. NS&I have since updated their processes to prevent this error occurring in future prize draws.

Peaceful protest is a vital part of a democratic society. It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law.

There is, of course, a balance to be struck. Protestors’ rights need to be balanced with the rights of others to go about their business. Rights to peaceful protest do not extend to unlawful activity and the police have powers to deal with any such acts.

The Ministry of Defence is dedicated to achieving a more diverse and representative workforce. Consequently, we have undertaken a wide range of activities to increase representation across British society, including those that have historically been under-represented. As part of this drive, we are working towards a target of 15% of recruits into the Armed Forces being female by 2020. The target is stretching and reflects the importance Defence places on having diverse Armed Forces with all the benefits this brings.

I refer my noble friend to my answer of 4 December 2018 [HL 11735], since when nine ministers have resigned from the Government.

The number of ministers appointed to Her Majesty's Government, and the roles to which they are appointed, will vary from time to time. Since 4 December, nine ministers have joined the Government.

The Government takes seriously the threat from all forms of antisocial behaviour, extremism, and violence, including terrorism, whether this is motivated by left-wing, right-wing or Islamist ideology. Our response is however threat agnostic.
It is a matter for the Police to determine whether a crime has been committed and, where a crime has been committed, how it is classified. In its analysis of extremism, the Government applies the definition of extremism set out in the 2015 Counter-Extremism Strategy equally.

The EU Common External Tariff applies to all EU members.

The Tariff is the name given to the combination of the nomenclature (or classification of goods) and the duty rates which apply to each category of goods. The duty rates differ from one kind of good to another depending on what they are and where they come from. The rates also depend on the economic sensitivity of the goods.

The EU uses the World Customs Organisation’s Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) as the basis for the Tariff. The HS comprises approximately 5,300 article/product descriptions that appear as headings and subheadings, arranged in 99 chapters, grouped in 21 sections.

The EU Tariff contains the goods classification table which covers all categories of goods and the conventional import duty rates. The table is voluminous. It lists around 9500 classification codes. Food materials and products are found in Chapters 1 to 24. The type of product, the ingredients list or materials used to make it, the recipe and even the production method can affect the classification of a good.

The EU Tariff is available to view on the EU Europa website. To get the full picture, the EU’s tariff database (TARIC) is also available to view and contains all the tariff preference and trade measures.

In the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal the UK Trade Tariff, detailing the goods classification codes and duty rates for UK imports will be available, as now, on GOV.UK. Importers of goods into the UK will no longer use EU Tariff information published by the EU.

The following ministers have resigned from office since the formation of the Government on 11 June 2017:

• Lord Price CVO, former Minister of State for Trade Policy
• Lord Nash, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System
• The Rt Hon Baroness Anelay of St. Johns DBE, former Minister of State for Exiting the European Union
• The Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, former Secretary of State for Defence
• The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, former Secretary of State for International Development
• The Rt Hon Damian Green MP, former First Secretary of State and Minister for the Cabinet Office

• The Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, former Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities
• Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen, former Baroness in Waiting (Government Whip)
• The Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP, former Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equalities
• Dr Philip Lee MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Youth Justice, Victims, Female Offenders and Offender Health
• The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, former Minister for Trade Policy
• The Rt Hon David Davis MP, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Steve Baker MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• Andrew Griffiths MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Small Business Consumers and Corporate Responsibility
• Guto Bebb MP, former Minister for Defence Procurement
• Tracey Crouch MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society
• Jo Johnson MP, former Minister of State for Transport and Minister for London
• The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• The Rt Hon Esther McVey MP, former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
• Suella Braverman MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• Shailesh Vara MP, former Minister of State for Northern Ireland

The requested information is not readily available. The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Researchers at the University of York have published in a peer reviewed journal that earthworms collected at sewage treatment plants contained mean concentrations of 26.20±4.70 ng/g of the anti-depressant fluoxetine (trade name Prozac) (Bean et al. 2017). In a recent paper concerning the effects of low, environmental relevant, concentrations of Prozac on the courtship of starlings (Whitlock et al. 2018), they also refer to work by other researchers showing earthworms at sewage treatment plants to contain other contaminants including pharmaceuticals (Markman et al. 2007 & 2008). There are many other studies globally showing uptake of pharmaceuticals into a variety of invertebrate species.

The uptake of pharmaceutical residues from sewage, sewage effluent and sewage sludge has been shown to negatively impact invertebrates themselves and provides a clear route of exposure to many species of wildlife including birds and bats. The full significance of this is still being assessed.

References

Bean, T. G., Arnold, K. E., Lane, J., Bergstrom, E., Thomas-Oates, J. E., Rattner, B., & Boxall, A. B. A. (2017). Predictive framework for estimating exposure of birds to pharmaceuticals. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3771

Markman S,Guschina I,Barnsley S,Buchanan K,Pascoe D,et al. (2007) Endocrine disrupting chemicals accumulate in earthworms exposed to sewage effluent. Chemosphere 70: 119–125.

Markman S, Leitner S, Catchpole C, Barnsley S, Müller CT, Pascoe D, et al. (2008) Pollutants Increase Song Complexity and the Volume of the Brain Area HVC in a Songbird. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1674. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001674

Sophia E. Whitlock, M. Glória Pereira, Richard F. Shore, Julie Lane, Kathryn E. Arnold. Environmentally relevant exposure to an antidepressant alters courtship behaviours in a songbird. Chemosphere, 2018; 211: 17 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.074

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The Government is aware of the British Trust for Ornithology data on starlings. The Government’s wild bird statistics that measure relative abundance show decreases for starlings of 81% in the long term (1970-2015) and 5% in the short term (2010-2015).

The cause of the decline in starlings, although not fully understood, is likely to be linked to food availability and over winter survival. To support starlings and other birds there are agri-environment scheme options that aim to boost food availability. In the period 2008-2014, farms in Higher Level Stewardship agreements, specifically undertaking bird friendly management options, found a sustained 79% increase in starling abundance.

The experiments conducted by University of York in collaboration with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) demonstrated that exposing starlings to a maximal environmentally relevant concentration of an anti-depressant (fluoxetine) altered courtship behaviour in wild-caught starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). The males sang less and were more aggressive towards females that had been dosed with an anti-depressant than to the untreated females and in addition the treated females were also initially more aggressive towards males than the untreated females. However there were no effects on female courtship behaviour or on circulating female hormones in treated females. These findings suggest that exposure to this dose of anti-depressant reduced female attractiveness to the male but the reasons why are not clear. Whether these levels of anti-depressants in the environment would have a significant effect on an individual’s fitness or the population as a whole requires further investigation.

The following ministers have resigned from Government after the Chequers Summit:

• Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

• Rt Hon David Davis MP, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

• Guto Bebb MP, former Minister for Defence Procurement

• Steve Baker MP, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

• Andrew Griffiths MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The White Paper on the Future Relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union was published on the GOV.UK website and shared in a letter to the Chairs of the European Union Committee and the Commons Exiting the European Union and European Scrutiny Committees at the moment the Secretary of State stood up to make his statement.

Copies of the White Paper were put in the libraries of both Houses at 0930 on 12 July but due to an administrative error, the White Paper was not distributed to Members of the House of Commons ahead of the debate. There was no intent on the Government’s part to withhold information from the House and the Secretary of State has apologised for this oversight.

The Government does not hold figures on prosecutorial decisions as this is a matter for the prosecuting authorities (in this case the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland) who act independently of Government.

We are aware, however, that since 2011 the following decisions have been taken in relation to offences connected to the security situation in Northern Ireland that took place prior to the signing of the Belfast Agreement on 10 April 1998.

• There have been seven prosecutions of republican paramilitaries. Of the five concluded cases there have been two convictions, one acquittal and two cases in which proceedings were discontinued (one following the death of the defendant);

• There have been four prosecutions related to alleged loyalist paramilitary activity. Convictions have been secured in two cases and two cases are currently active;

• There have been three prosecutions of soldiers with one ‘no prosecution’ decision currently under review. All of these cases are currently active.

Information on charges for terrorist offences with a connection to Northern Ireland is held by a number of agencies. Northern Ireland Office officials are currently undertaking a consolidation exercise to confirm the answer to this question and I will write to the Noble Lord once this exercise has been completed.

The Government has not had any discussions with the Metropolitan Police Service in respect of this protest.

We are clear that the public have the right to peaceful protest, and that police forces should make reasonable contingencies within their budgets to cover the cost of these and other unexpected events in their area. Police and Crime Commissioners have the option to apply for funding through the Police Special Grant to assist with the cost of any significant events which might otherwise threaten the financial stability of the police force.

However, we also acknowledge that there are additional demands in policing the national capital and centre of Government, and provide the Metropolitan Police with additional funding called the National and International Capital City (NICC) Grant to help cover those costs. For 2018/19, the NICC Grant was £174m.

The Home Office Homicide Index holds data on the number of people in England and Wales who have been killed by persons who have been previously convicted of homicide. The information is given in the table.

The figure excludes persons who have been killed by those who may have been convicted outside England and Wales (for whom there is incomplete information), and persons who have been killed by those not previously convicted of homicide by reason of their mental state.

The table below provides the number of offenders who were convicted of a further offence of homicide* between 2014 and 2017 and who were subject to probation supervision for a previous homicide conviction at the time.

Serious further offences by supervised offenders are rare, but each one is taken extremely seriously and investigated fully to identify any necessary actions when managing other cases.

Data is not available on offenders with a previous conviction for homicide who have completed their sentence and associated supervision by probation and then go on to commit a further homicide.

*Answer interprets homicide to include offences of murder, manslaughter, death by dangerous driving and death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea committed that all households who were living in Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk as their main home immediately before the fire will be offered a lifetime tenancy in social housing, and the Council has made clear this includes:

• Council introductory or secure tenants;

• Resident leaseholders;

• Subtenants or lodgers of the above; and

• Tenants of non-resident leaseholders.

The Government continues to support the Council to deliver this commitment.