Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response. Does he support the view that a greater focus on educating perpetrators of domestic violence is necessary to reduce the domestic violence problem? Can the Government provide additional help for setting up and supporting such initiatives?
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what provision is in place for children and adults with special educational needs who want to enter tertiary education.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle insurance fraud. To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the reported increase in cases of insurance fraud. To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans are in place to give companies support in detecting cases of insurance fraud.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they have taken to increase the number of places available in safe accommodation to victims of human trafficking.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what extra training has been given to teachers and carers involved with children with special educational needs.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional support has been given to schools that have children with special educational needs.
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I begin by saying that members of the Armed Forces have to carry out the commands of their political masters but concurrently act within the constraints that politicians put on them. The fact that they are undertaking two medium-sized conflicts on a peacetime budget of about 2.5 per cent of GDP is a testament to their abilities. In view of the time limit on speeches today, I wish to...
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, for securing this debate. The detention and treatment of asylum seekers is an area of major contention. Asylum and immigration are often treated as a single issue. It is important to distinguish between those who have a genuine motive for seeking asylum and those who simply want to enter Britain for emigration purposes. We have a duty to genuine...
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, for securing this debate. The issue of social exclusion, especially affecting those with disabilities, is close to my heart. Autistic individuals are one of the most socially excluded groups in society. This is due to the complexity and lack of understanding of autistic spectrum disorders. For far too long, people with autism have been...
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Turner of Camden, for securing the debate and for her excellent presentation. We have an ageing population in the country and this puts a huge pressure on state services as well as on the state pension. We need, therefore, to look at ways of relieving this pressure, and enabling older people to work is crucial to achieving this aim. The current...
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, for the opportunity to speak on such an important and timely issue. I am the chairman of an insurance brokering and financial services organisation and in my business life I have supported mutual insurance offices and building societies for the arrangement of insurance policies and mortgages. A number of these organisations have...
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent reports they have received concerning the human rights situation in Kenya.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the Government of Kenya concerning the treatment of internally displaced persons.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote political stability in Kenya.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progress towards judicial reform in Kenya.
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assistance they have given to the government of Kenya in forming before the end of August 2009 a special tribunal to try the perpetrators of the post-election unrest.
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, the invasion of Iraq on the side of the USA was one of our most unpopular military actions and it received condemnation not only at home but internationally. It resulted in insurgency, mayhem, criminal activities, bloodshed and human tragedies and it drove a wedge between the Sunni and Shia communities. Flawed reasoning and bad intelligence were at the heart of the decision to...
Lord Sheikh: I support all the amendments in this group. However, I want to talk specifically about Amendments 1, 3, 6 and 13. Amendment 1 seeks to define an apprenticeship to ensure that employers are compliant with the terms of an agreement. This definition is essential to the success of apprenticeships, as it clearly states what is required of employers, thus ensuring that apprentices gain broad...
Lord Sheikh: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the call for investigations to examine whether war crimes have been committed in Sri Lanka.
Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response. What has happened in Sri Lanka can only be described as a human tragedy. Over 300,000 Tamils were trapped in an area subjected to heavy bombardment, and it is expected that about 20,000 Tamils were killed and over 200,000 Tamils are now in refugee camps. There are perhaps breaches of the Geneva Convention. I am pleased to hear that we are...