Now on bbc news, Monday In Parliament. Hello again and welcome to Monday In Parliament, as mps call for more help for those living in flats with Inflammable Cladding. Theyre locked into an absolute nightmare, in unsafe homes, unable to sell, unable to remortgage and facing mounting bills. The Housing Minister says the government is on the case. It is vital that dangerous cladding is removed as fast as possible, and the government will not tolerate unnecessary delays. Also in this programme, a message for those unsure about the covid jab. This is a safe vaccine. Everyone who qualifies should take it and you should trust i the government and the nhs in order to supply it. But first, ministers have come under pressure from mps including many on their own side to do more to help People Living in homes with dangerous cladding. Three and a half years after the Grenfell Tower disaster, in which 72 people died, thousands of leaseholders are facing large bills to remove Inflammable Cladding and for other fire safety works. Some have been unable to sell their homes as lenders have refused to give mortgages on properties seen as valueless. Ministers created a fund to pay for repairs in england, but labour, who forced a debate on the issue, said it wasnt enough and what had been the dream of homeownership had, for many, become a nightmare. The grenfell tragedy shed light on a crisis of building safety in this country, and hundreds of buildings have the same cladding that caused the grenfell fire to be so deadly. Thousands have other equally dangerous cladding. And even more have other serious fire safety problems, such as combustible insulation, missing firebreaks, faulty fire doors. Millions of homeowners are caught up in the wider building safety crisis caused by these defects, unable to sell or remortgage or buy a flat, freezing up to 16 of the housing market, affecting possibly as many as 11 Million People. She said leaseholders shouldnt have to pay for something that wasnt their fault. If you bought a new car which turned out to be dangerous, you wouldnt expect to be told to take out a loan of Tens Of Thousands of pounds to pay for it, often more than the price of the original car, and this is peoples homes. The stalemate we have now is leaving hundreds of thousands of people stuck in flammable buildings, and the only way to make homes safe is for the government to provide upfront funding to make that happen. Labour called for the creation of a task force to assess the extent of the problem and to prioritise the work needed. The Housing Minister said the government was making progress, but he said many Building Owners had failed to provide basic information needed to get funding. Building owners, mr speaker, should be in no doubt. It is vital that dangerous cladding is removed as fast as possible, and the government will not tolerate unnecessary delays. If they can collect the service charges, then they can get the remediation on their buildings done. He said ministers were working on ways to protect leaseholders from large costs. And we have to bring forward a solution that is right and proper, that demands of owners and developers they put right the problems and defects that they caused, that is fair to leaseholders, who should not have to carry unfair costs for problems that they did not cause or envisage, and which is fair to the taxpayer, who is already shouldering a significant burden in remediating many buildings. The minister said mps could expect an announcement very shortly. It couldnt come quickly enough for many, who shared personal stories about those affected, such as sophie grayling. And with cladding remaining in place, she has seen the sale of her home fall through, is facing a Bill Worth Thousands to fix the blocks issues and, most importantly, every night, she puts her child to bed with the knowledge that her building is covered in the same material that saw 72 lives lost in that inferno at grenfell. It is clear that this is unjust, mr speaker. Homeowners like miss grayling now face a catch 22 situation. They either pay out of their own pocket to fix a problem that is not their fault or stay stuck in an unsalable flat which risks their safety. Others highlighted the plight of their constituents. Their homes are fire traps. Theyre worthless. They cannot borrow against them, they cannot sell them. They are trapped trapped by waking watch bills, trapped by rising insurance and trapped by the fear that they will be told they must pay to fix this even though they are not in any way responsible. Theyre locked into an absolute nightmare, in unsafe homes, unable to sell, unable to remortgage and facing mounting bills to fix a crisis they didnt create. The governments response today had little basis in reality. They have, in truth, shunted this into the too difficult to tackle box and abandoned leaseholders. Several conservative mps said the government should step in. Because into many cases, leaseholders have been asked to pay huge bills to rectify a problem that isnt their fault. They are facing waking watch charges and vastly increased insurance costs, worries about external Wall System Certificates and massive loss of property value. The mp whose seat includes Grenfell Tower welcomed a £1. 6 billion fund to repair the most Dangerous Buildings in england. However, i suspect that £1. 6 billion is not going to be enough, so today, i call on government to put together a substantial and comprehensive package, such that we can remove all dangerous cladding on high risk buildings. And there was a warning that one mooted suggestion wouldnt win over some tories. The government has to provide a safety net, it has to step in and it has to help leaseholders through this area. I will not accept loans to leaseholders. If the government announces that, i will not accept it, i will vote against it. We cannot have leaseholders pay mortgages of £150,000, which is 90 , and then maybe having to pay a loan on top of £75,000. Stephen mcpartland said the government had been incompetent throughout the saga. Labour later won a vote on its Motion Calling for all work to be completed by the end of next year, but with conservative mps told to abstain, the defeat for ministers by 263 0 is symbolic. Now, the governments confirmed that its on track to give the most vulnerable 15 Million People their first dose of Coronavirus Vaccine by the middle of february. Its also reached what it says is a crucial milestone a Covid Vaccine has been offered to all older residents at eligible care homes in england. But that didnt mean peers didnt have questions for the Health Minister in the house of lords. Given that any unvaccinated area provides a potential pool for new strains of covid to develop an reinfected world, extending immunisation to the whole world is, and i quote tony blair, not only a matter of altruistic engagement but of enlightened self interest, so does the noble lord agree that countries must come together to reject vaccine nationalism, in favour of cooperation . And at what point, in terms of vaccination and priority groups, will the uk be able to make vaccinations available to other countries who are in need . Weve put £571 million into the fund at covax in order to support vaccines for the developing world. We do, though, have to start at home, and it isnt possible to make a commitment on the time schedule for when we will be able to be in a position to think about exporting vaccines until thats completed. How can the minister overcome the reported suspicion of the Covid Vaccines amongst ethnic minorities and, of course, by the anti vaxxers, no doubt fuelled by president l macrons unfounded attack on the effectiveness of the astrazeneca vaccine . What i can report from the front line is that concerns about the impact of anti vaxxers have not actually materialised in a huge impact on confidence. And i would pay enormous tribute to all those in Civic Society and religious groups in all parts of britain who have done such a tremendous job of ensuring that those groups and those communities who might once have been suspicious of a vaccine supplied by the British Government but instead have turned up in droves, and i am currently extremely confident that the message has got across. This is a safe vaccine. Everyone who qualifies should take it and you should trust the government and the nhs in order to supply it. Whilst it is important to extend vaccination programmes both home and abroad, the recent reports of emerging mutations of the virus the South African, the brazilian and now the recent Californian Mutations which significantly increase transmissibility and cause serious illness, particularly in the younger people, is extremely worrying and it may lead to virus getting around vaccine related immunity. We need to be ahead of the curve if we are to avoid serious illness and deaths in the young. Ijust wanted to ask how i the government can ensure that the second dose of the Pfizer Biontech vaccine is delivered to patients within 12 weeks. When you go to have your vaccine, as several noble lords and baronesses have done, youre given a card like this, where the date of your second dose is printed on the back of the card. That is the way that we ensure that people know where and when to go for their second dose. Could i ask my noble friend to explain because i am a bearer of very little brain if we are to maintain the current level of first vaccinations and, at the same time, start giving the second vaccinations to those who had their first, will we not have to double our capacity to give vaccinations over the next month or six weeks . And is the government confident that it can achieve that . Well, my noble friend is entirely right. When march comes by, we will have considerably more work, both in order to deploy the second dosage and in order to supply it. We have those plans absolutely in place. The supply of the vaccine has been put in place in order to ensure we have sufficient numbers of the vaccine and the workforce and locations are in place to ensure that we can deliver them. Bringing in Retired Doctors and retired nurses and non health care. Professionals to be part of the national vaccination. Effort will be vital to be able to continue to deliver. All doses of the vaccine at scale and will, of course, help relieve the pressure i on our hard working nhs workers. Can my noble friend the minister update the house on the progress ofl these applications . We have Tens Of Thousands i think 38,000 people currently employed by the nhs, delivering the vaccines. It is a remarkable army of people. Weve had a further offer by hundreds of thousands i believe it is 300,000 people who have offered to support the vaccine effort. Youre watching Monday In Parliament with me, david cornock. Still to come, a new recruit to the house of lords. The top Civil Servant at the home office has been defending his department over long delays to its multi Million Pound programme to digitise the uks borders. The Digital Services at the Border Programme was due to be completed by march 2019 but has been pushed back until 2022, with the costs rising by a further £173 million. The Public Accounts Committee was taking evidence after the financial watchdog, the National Audit office, said the scheme had not delivered value for money. In a number of false starts over almost 20 years now, what have you done different this time to make sure those mistakes arent repeated . Thats a question which we ask ourselves regularly, mr grant, and i think i would boil it down into scope, governance and deliverability, so on scope, the big issue that was brewing up between 2014 and 2019 was an Expanding Scope for reasons we can come into. And in 2019, mr lincoln quite rightly decided to reset the programme and to reduce the scope. According to National Audit office, our governance of the programme, bringing in greater local expertise and dealing with risk in a stronger way, and all of that has led to a higher level of confidence expressed by the National Audit office in our ability to deliver the programme. Doing now the delay, he said, did not mean money had been wasted. We accept there is more we need to do to ensure full delivery now. So the roll out of Border Crossing now, for instance, is because of the work that was done before 2019, and then some of the capabilities which were in the existing programme but which we took out of scope as part of that reset are being delivered through other programmes and those programmes have had a head start as a result of that work, so i refer in particular to the advanced Freight Targeting Capability and advanced border control, both of which have been built oii. The chair said the home office had a litany of failures when it came to major projects. Why are we seeing repeatedly technical problems or problems with the technical aspects of these programmes . What is the challenge in the home office that you have come in as a new Permanent Secretary just under a year ago, what is the problem and what are you doing to fix it . Mr rycroft said his department should in future look to buy proven off the shelf systems. We have got in place a project delivery Improvement Programme and we are using that across our portfolio, focused most specifically on the registered risks, which include this programme and the esn, and we are relentlessly focusing on that until we deliver because we know thats the right thing to do. | mr rycroft, i would like to get| a bit of assurance from you out of this hearing that these continual delays and overruns to cost in any future projectsj are likely to be under control because this particular project, as the chair hasjust said, its inception was in 2003, we are in 2021 and it is still not properly implemented. We are seeking to learn the best practice from across government and the private sector, we are trying to get the right balance of people coming in as consultants but also skilling up Civil Servants for the long term. Matthew rycroft. The uks failure to comply with an International Agreement aimed at preventing violence against women and girls could undermine its Leadership Role on The World Stage a warning issued during a hearing of the lords International Agreements committee, which called the delay troubling. The Istanbul Convention was signed by 45 countries eight years ago. But 12, including the uk, havent ratified it yet. Minister, the uk signed the Istanbul Convention in 2012, thats quite a long time ago, but still has not ratified it, and that is one of the issues we want to raise with you today, the reasons for that delay and whether the issues that stopped ratification have been or likely soon to be dealt with. We are committed to the convention, we are committed to ratifying the convention when we are in a position to do so, but as the committee, i suspect, knows, we must not ratify a convention until we are satisfied that we are fully meeting the obligations within that convention. We are there, we are compliant with the convention or indeed exceeding the requirements of the convention in all but three areas. Just last week on the 25th of l january, the secretary general of the council of europe was rather exasperatedj when he said that the Istanbul Convention remains the gold l standard for addressing | violence against women and Domestic Violence and calling on all Member States that have not ratified to do so in the interests of women and all of society. Can you give us some kind of timetable and some indication of the areas where steps will have to be taken in order to meet the requirements of. Can you give us some kind of timetable and some indication of the areas where steps will have to be taken in order to meet the requirements of. The convention in domestic law and can you give us your guarantee that these will be completed by the end of 2021 . I cannot, im afraid, give a precise date and i cannot give that assurance and the reason is that we have three areas, there are only three areas now that are outstanding, article 33, psychological violence in Northern Ireland, that has completed its passage through the assembly on the 18th Ofjanuary and royal assent is expected in february or march but i am told the implementation, we may wait until autumn this year to do that. Article 44 is the extraterritorialjurisdiction point, again in relation to meeting that, it is in the Domestic Abuse bill so the sooner we get that bill passed, the better. 0n the third area the treatment of Migrant Women the ministerfaced close questioning. The problem is that migrant dont have access to refuges because of their Migrant Status or non status, because they dont have access to housing benefit, they dont have access to public funds, if that is the problem, why do you need more time to study its scale and scope . Why can you notjust solve it . Victoria atkins said support was available for Migrant Victims who were likely to get settled status. We then have the second category of Migrant Victims for whom that is not the case. These victims may come in on a visitor visa of six months, they may be here on a student visa of a year, they may be here illegally, they may have been trafficked. She said the government was gathering data on those victims. That is a critical part of us building a Sustainable Programme of support for these victims. We want to do that, we are clear about that, but at the moment i dont have the evidence available for me to build that programme. There is great concern about the uks Non Ratification of the Istanbul Convention. So can i ask you what impact has Non Ratification of Thisi Convention had on the uks ability to take a Leadership Role, perhaps not only in europe but even in. The world, in combating violence against i women and girls . I think the uk is rightly viewed as a beacon of light for womens rights. The convention is not the only indicator of our commitment to expanding the rights of women and girls not just in their own country but across the world. Victoria atkins. Post brexit news now, and the Transport Minister has insisted there are very few delays for lorries arriving at dover. Under new Trading Arrangements with the eu which began on the 1st of january, goods entering the bloc from england, scotland and wales must complete large amounts of new paperwork and checks. The minister, lady vere, was upbeat in the face of tough questioning from peers. The government refuses to properly fund the essential new Border Infrastructure at our ports to minimise delays caused by the new brexit red tape. Does the minister accept the massive impact this is having on the Haulage Industry and on import and export generally, and can she explain why the government is not fully funding the border changes needed to reduce delays . Im struggling to understand the evidence behind the noble ladys question. 0n the funding side of things, the government has made available up to £200 million from the Port Infrastructure fund which was given to ports specifically for the things she outlined, on the customs side the government has made available up to £80 million for it training and recruitment and when she talks about delays to hauliers, there are very few delays to hauliers at the moment, as the empty car parks in kent will attest. The road hauliers associationj says that before brexit around 18 of lorries delivering from the eu to the uk returned empty. They say that figure has now risen to around 50 . Apart from the difficulties this implies for uk exporters, this is clearly at odds with ambitions to mitigate climate change. It is the case that some lorries return empty. The noble lady quoted a figure of 50 , the government figures are actually 30 , so a bit higher than it has been in the past but i think what will happen over the coming weeks and months is that the Haulage System in general will readjust. There are repeated reports of uk companies switching and looking to switch at least part of their operations to Companies Inside the eu to overcome additional regulations, customs checks and costs of transporting goods to the eu following our departure from the european union. Is this a development the government is encouraging and supporting . I think the noble lord is referring to some individual anecdotes. We are not aware that this is part of a systematic picture of a substantial shift. It is the case that the vast majority of traders within Great Britain and Northern Ireland are ready to meet the new requirements at the border and are trading successfully. The British Ports association are reporting that their members are telling them that the current rules are now constantly changing. And are highly complex and they are also saying the guidance is not forthcoming for exporters and that they are unable to get answers from government officials, so when might they expect this situation to improve . All information related to trading with the eu is published on the gov. Uk website. In the first three weeks ofjanuary there were 3. 35 million visits to transition content and 470,000 visits to business pages specifically and it is the case that for hauliers, the government has published the Haulier Handbook in 14 languages and noble lords will, im sure, have seen that a Haulier Handbook which focuses specifically on Northern Ireland was published today. Lady vere. The house of lords, which already has more than 800 members, has a new member the conservative former mep daniel hannan. Lord Hannan Of Kingsclere represented South East England in the European Parliament from 1999 to 2020. He was a Senior Member of vote leave, Playing A Prominent Role in the referendum campaign. I, daniel, lord Hannan Of Kingsclere, swear by almighty god that i will be faithful and bear true allegiance to her majesty queen elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law, so help me god. Lord hannan, the newest recruit to the red benches. That was Monday In Parliament. Thank you for watching. I do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for tuesday in parliament. Until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now. Hello there. Heavy snow is on the way for tuesday. The met office have issued an Amber Weather Warning for this one across parts of Northern England, where were looking at around 10 15cm of snow over the higher ground. Its more than enough to cause Transport Disruption. Some roads will be shut, and we could see some power cuts as well. This area of low pressure, then, these Weather Fronts are pushing into cold air thats with us across scotland and Northern England and will be slow to budge through the course of tuesday. So its one of these situations where the rain is starting to turn to snow, and that will continue over the next few hours. Now, the initial concerns will be across parts of Northern England, where we could be looking at around 3 8cm building in. But across some of the hillier areas, you dont have to go too high up for this, were looking at around 10 15cm. I think sheffield could be one of the places that gets hit pretty hard with this. Notice the snow isntjust limited to the pennines. Across into cumbria, Into Southern Areas of scotland, well also see snowfall developing through the day, so were more likely see some disruption in some of these areas, as well. Now, funnily enough, away from this band of snow, weve got some sunshine and cold air in scotland. Cold and frosty here. To the south, weve got some thundery ran pushing into the south west but look how mild this is across these southern areas. Temperature 12 14 degrees in cardiff and london. You arent going to get any snow with that, but further northwards, thats where the cold airjust continues to loiter. As i say, Transport Disruption is more than likely. I suspect the A57 Snake Pass will be shut. The m62 could be affected, maybe parts of the m16 in cumbria and the A74m In Southern Scotland all areas that could see some issues. Now, we are not done with the snow just there because as we go through the night time, tuesday night and into the early part of wednesday, the snow pushes northwards into scotland. Heavy rain across Southern England could bring a risk of some localised flooding. Could see some localised flooding from the rain in north west england, as well. Wednesday, weve got more snow to come in scotland, perhaps the heaviest migrating north of the central belt, causing some Transport Disruption here. But its turning milder across Northern England, temperatures about 9 degrees in liverpool and hull. Still around double figures, 10 degrees or so in london and cardiff. So quite a mild spell of weather, really, across Southern Parts of england, and that means that whats coming next week may well come as something of a rude shock. Thats the latest. Welcome to bbc news, my names mike embley. Our top stories the us condemns the Military Coup in myanmar as a direct assault on democracy, and threatens to re impose sanctions. The uk government promises to come down hard on the South African variant of coronavirus after the discovery of cases with no links to foreign travel. President biden meets republicans senators to try and agree a bi partisan compromise on his stimulus package. The price of silver reaches its highest level in almost 11 years, as an army of small investors take a shine to the precious metal. And storm 0rlena hits americas east coast with heavy snowfall