Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help improve Government relations with police forces.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government welcomes open and honest engagement with policing partners and Ministers meet regularly with senior policing leaders and staff associations on a range of matters.
We are continuing to invest in policing and are recruiting 20,000 additional officers to ensure policing has the resources it needs to fight crime. By March 2023, we will have the highest number of officers on record.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing ownership records, alongside registered keeper details on V5C documents in the context of present lack of ownership documentation allowing people to change ownership or keepership of a vehicle without requesting checks.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The vehicle register held by the DVLA, is not a register of legal title or ownership of vehicles.
Based on the latest available data, the DVLA is confident that just over 92% of the keepers on record are contactable and traceable based on the information held.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Mental Health Bill, whether he plans to include a statutory duty to provide early intervention strategies to detect and address mental health issues for children and young people within primary and secondary schools; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The draft Mental Health Bill, published in June 2022, is intended to modernise the Mental Health Act and work better for people with serious mental illness. The draft Bill has completed its pre-legislative scrutiny and the Joint Committee published its report on 19 January 2023 on the Draft Mental Health Bill. The Department will consider the Committee’s recommendations carefully and we will introduce the Bill when parliamentary time allows.
Separate to the provisions in the draft Bill, there are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression and other common mental health issue. These
teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils by April 2023 with over 500 planned to be deployed by 2024.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing ownership records, alongside registered keeper details, on V5C documents.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) maintains a register of vehicles and their keepers in the United Kingdom. The purpose of the vehicle register is to assist in revenue collection, road safety, law enforcement and to record who is responsible for the vehicle’s day-to-day use. The vehicle register held by the DVLA, is not a register of legal title or ownership of vehicles.
The registered keeper of a vehicle can be an individual or a corporate organisation, and they are legally responsible for notifying the DVLA that they have disposed of the vehicle and for notifying them who the new keeper is. Based on the latest available data, the DVLA is confident that just over 92% of the keepers on record are contactable and traceable based on the information held.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the London Capital & Finance (LCF) Compensation Scheme, who the LCF scheme operator is; and for what reason the LCF Scheme Operator deducts 20 per cent from the amount determined under Step Two.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government had established a compensation scheme for investors in the failed minibond issuer, London Capital & Finance plc (LCF). The Scheme launched on 3 November 2021 and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) administered the Scheme on behalf of the government. Almost all eligible bondholders have now received compensation and a total of £115m has been paid out by the scheme.
The Scheme paid 80% of bondholders’ principal investment in eligible bonds, up to a maximum of £68,000. Where bondholders had received interest on their bonds, distributions from the insolvency administrators, or compensation from the FSCS for LCF bonds, this reduced the amount of compensation payable under the Scheme. This appropriately balanced the interests of both bondholders and the taxpayer and ensured that all LCF bondholders receive a fair level of compensation in respect of the financial loss they have suffered.
Further detail about the scheme can be found online at: www.gov.uk/lcf-compensation-scheme
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary schools in (a) Bedford constituency and (b) England employ a play or creative arts therapist.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The 2022 Schools White Paper sets out the Government’s plan for all schools to provide safe, calm and supportive school environments, with targeted academic, pastoral and specialist support, helping children and young people to fulfil their potential.
It is for schools to decide what support or therapies they provide, considering the needs of their pupils. The information requested is not held by the Department.
The roles of staff employed by schools is collected as part of the annual School Workforce Census each November. The data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Data from the November 2022 census is currently being collected and will be published in the summer of 2023.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his planned timetable is for extending the right to buy to housing association tenants.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government is considering the next steps on the proposed extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants. We will work closely with the housing association sector on the approach to a new scheme and will announce more details in due course.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the Period product scheme for schools and colleges in England to also include higher education institutions.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Period Products Scheme launched in January 2020 and has recently been extended until July 2024. Within the first two years of the scheme, 94% of secondary schools and 90% of post-16 organisations had ordered products at least once. Higher Education providers are autonomous bodies, and it is up to them how they meet their students’ needs. This can include providing discretionary financial support where required, which can be used to cover the purchase of period products.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the number of authorised work hours for student visas.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Student route is for international students who wish to study in the UK and is not designed as a means to live and work in the UK.
Student visa holders who are studying a full-time course of study, at degree level or above, at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance are already able to work up to 20 hours per week during term-time and full-time during vacation periods.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the study by Walsh et al on Bearing the burden of austerity: how do changing mortality rates in the UK compare between men and women?, published on 5 October 2022 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, which found that there were 334,327 excess deaths beyond the expected number in England, Wales and Scotland between 2012-2019 as a result of Government policies over that period; and if he will make statement.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government is committed to supporting individuals to live healthier lives, and at the heart of this is improving access to and levelling up health and care across the country. As such, the government has reconfirmed its levelling up mission to narrow the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy by 2030 and increase Healthy Life Expectancy by 5 years by 2035.
We recognise this study raises a serious and important issue. The government's approach will focus on supporting people to live healthier lives, helping the NHS and social care to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities through national and system interventions such as the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme.
The NHS is a key priority for this government, and so is continuing to invest in health and social care which is set to reach £188bn in 2024-25.