Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that support provided to prison leavers to secure available housing and potential job opportunities is coordinated.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Effective resettlement of prison leavers is a core part of our efforts to reduce re-offending. This includes making sure someone has a home and access to employment.
Community Probation Practitioners coordinate the overall rehabilitation of an offender, supported by Pre-Release Teams who provide immediate resettlement and pre-release support for all people in prison, including for accommodation and employment. This coordination continues once the individual has left prison for the duration of their license period.
In prisons, we have rolled out Employment Hubs where Prison Employment Leads work alongside DWP Prison Work Coaches to provide a joined-up approach to preparing for employment. Accommodation support and assistance includes completion of accommodation and housing benefit applications, and support and guidance to ensure continuation of an existing tenancy.
To further improve coordination and the overall offering we are introducing Resettlement Passports, which will bring together key information and services that an individual needs in one place to resettle into the community, such as bank accounts, CV’s and identity documents to prove the right to work and rent.
The proportion of prison leavers who were employed six months after release has more than doubled in the two years to March 2023, from 14% to over 30%, and the proportion of prison leavers who were homeless or rough sleeping upon release decreased from 16% to 11%, between 2019-20 and 2022-23.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the final compensation recommendations made by the Infected Blood Inquiry in 2023, what plans they have to make interim payments to bereaved parents and children.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
First, and most importantly, the suffering of the victims must be recognised. The Government understands that no measures can fully compensate for the losses and hardships that they have suffered. The priority here must be to ensure that victims get the justice they deserve. We are actively looking at the recommendations of the Inquiry, including the recommendation for more interim payments. The Government will respond to the recommendations of the final report following its publication on 20 May.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total value of shortfalls claimed back by the Post Office from staff affected by issues with the Horizon software system.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We do not have an estimate. Postmasters who paid shortfalls which were recorded in Horizon to the Post Office are paid those amounts back in their compensation claims, as well as any other financial and personal damage which they have suffered as a consequence of the IT system. We have already made payments totalling £160m across all three compensation schemes.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the Household Support Fund beyond 31 March.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The current Household Support Fund runs from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, and the government continues to keep all its existing programmes under review in the usual way.
The Government has provided over £2 billion in funding for the Household Support Fund since October 2021.
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income households. Our approach to tackling poverty is based on clear evidence that employment, particularly where its full time, reduces the risk of poverty. In 2021/22, working age adults living in workless households were seven times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working age adults in households where all adults work.
The Government is putting significant additional support in place for those on the lowest incomes from April. Subject to Parliamentary approval, working age benefits will rise by 6.7% while the Basic and New State Pensions will be uprated by 8.5% in line with earnings, as part of the ‘triple lock”.
To further support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the Government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents, benefitting 1.6 million low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25. Additionally, the Government will increase the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform NHS dental contracts to ensure that they prioritise prevention.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. This included the transfer of all funding, Units of Dental Activity, and the management responsibility for National Health Service dentistry.
The current NHS dental contract already requires dental services to provide preventative care and treatment. To support dentists with this, NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities have produced a comprehensive toolkit for dentists, providing evidence-based interventions and advice on how dental health professionals can improve and maintain their patient’s oral health. This guidance is available on the GOV.UK website, in an online-only format.
As set out in Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, we are working on further reforms to the 2006 contract, in discussion with the dental profession, to properly reflect the care needed by different patients, and more fairly remunerate practices. We expect to develop options for consultation with the dental profession in advance of a further announcement later this year. Any changes would be phased in from 2025 onwards. The plan also includes a range of measures which will prevent poor oral health, particularly in the youngest children, including dental teams providing preventative advice and treatment to reception-age children in the most under-served areas, and a new Smile for Life programme which will provide education and advice for nurseries and other early years settings.