Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that the ending of the Supporting People programme has had on funding for floating support services for people recovering from, or at risk of, homelessness; and whether those services will be included in their planned review of housing-related support.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Supported housing is an invaluable service for vulnerable people across the country. In August, we announced that we will undertake a review of housing related-support, to help us better understand how housing and support fit together. The review will give us a fuller picture into how housing-related support is provided for supported housing across England.
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why this summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for extending the £400 million of extra capital funding for schools, announced in this year's autumn statement, to further education colleges; and whether they have any plans to provide such funding in future.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that £400 million will be made available to schools in 2018-19. This funding is not available to further education (FE) colleges, as these receive capital funding in a different way from schools.
FE colleges are eligible for capital funding via the £12 billion Local Growth Fund, of which £130 million is for skills capital. This is administered by Local Enterprise Partnerships. The government has also recently announced £38 million capital funding for the first providers of T levels. We understand the pressure FE colleges are facing and are considering future capital funding arrangements for FE colleges through the Spending Review in 2019.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they have learned from measures to improve social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being undertaken by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
There are a number of similarities in what Wales are currently doing in relation to the Future Generations Act, and what the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) proposes to do within the Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill, which they will publish before Christmas. This includes setting out environmental principles in primary legislation and monitoring the application of the principles. However, the main focus of the Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill is to be broadly equivalent to the governance provided by Europe relating to the environment and this is wider than just considering principles.
We have learnt a great deal from the good work that Wales has done on the Well-Being of Future Generations Act and will continue to do so as we develop our policy statement on the principles as well as wider considerations on environmental governance. This includes reflecting on how the legislative framework is set out and the outcomes that they seek to achieve.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied minors (1) are permitted to resettle, and (2) have been resettled, in the United Kingdom in each month since the introduction of the Vulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme announced in April 2016.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS) resettles ’at-risk’ refugee children from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, including their families. Our aim is to resettle up to 3,000 people (children and families, where the child at risk is part of a family unit) through the scheme by 2020.
The scheme does not solely target unaccompanied children, but on UNHCR’s advice also extends to vulnerable ‘children at risk’, such as those threatened with child labour, child marriage and other forms of abuse or exploitation. It is open to all at risk groups and nationalities within the region. There is therefore no specific quota on the number of unaccompanied children who may be referred to, or resettled through, the scheme.
The numbers resettled in a particular period depend on a range of factors in-cluding the flow of referrals from UNHCR in the field and the availability of suitable accommodation and care packages in the UK
The latest quarterly Immigration Statistics show that, as of June 2018, a total of 883 people had been resettled through the VCRS. The statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2018. (see table attached for futher information).
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that where tenants share the payment of rent, their individual payment histories will be taken into account by (1) credit reference agencies, and (2) credit service providers.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government believes it is right that a history of paying rent should be recognised in credit and affordability assessments carried out by credit reference agencies and credit service providers.
That’s why, at Autumn Budget 2017, we announced the Rent Recognition Challenge: a £2million competition seeking technology solutions to enable tenants to record and share their rental data.
The credit reference agency Experian recently announced that rental payments will now be reflected in their credit score reports, and has partnered with some of the Challenge’s participants, Credit Ladder and Canopy.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people who are yet to be moved to Universal Credit as part of the natural migration process; and what support will be available for vulnerable claimants, including those who have disabilities, during this process.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
We are unable to forecast the number of people who are yet to naturally migrate to Universal Credit. This is because Natural Migration claimants are those who have had a relevant change of circumstances that would cause a new claim to be made to a different legacy benefit, but they cannot make such a claim to legacy benefits because these have been replaced by UC.
We take seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants moving to Universal Credit. Work Coaches provide continuous support for all claimants, including vulnerable claimants throughout their journey.
Additionally we have introduced a number of measures to assist claimants during the transition to Universal Credit including: the removal of waiting days; the UC Transitional Housing payment; Universal Support; 100 per cent advances and a longer repayment period.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage more (1) social enterprises, (2) charities, (3) mutuals, and (4) co-operatives to apply for and win government contracts; and what consideration they have given to strengthening the provisions of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
With the Cabinet Office, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is currently implementing a package of measures for the future of social value and procurement. This includes training for government commercial staff and will help unlock more opportunities for voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations. This work is part of government's long term ambition to grow social value commissioning and strengthen the Social Value Act as set out in the Civil Society Strategy.
Officials are working with Claire Dove, VCSE Crown Representative to ensure that VCSE’s have a powerful voice in both commissioner and supplier communities.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of public libraries on (1) inclusive economic growth, (2) learning and skills, (3) health and well-being, (4) digital literacy, (5) business support, and (6) poverty prevention.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Public libraries play an important role in giving everyone opportunities to improve their life chances and achieve their full potential. They support individuals, communities and society by providing access to books and information, bringing people together and providing them with support and guidance at every stage of their lives.
The Libraries Taskforce, jointly established by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Local Government Association, published Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-2021 in December 2016. This strategy sets out seven strategic outcomes that libraries support, along with information and evidence about the impact they have in relation to:
The Taskforce reviews progress against the Ambition aspirations and action plan annually. DCMS continues to work with the Libraries Taskforce and its member organisations to support the libraries sector. This includes developing and strengthening the evidence base on the impact of public library services on the outcomes, and to encourage good practice and innovation in achieving these aims. DCMS also advocates the value and contribution of public libraries across central and local government.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to (1) collate Safeguarding Adult Reviews in relation to the deaths of homeless people, and (2) conduct a review to identify patterns and amend policy accordingly.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
We have not provided guidance, instructions or resources to local authorities for Safeguarding Adult Reviews related to the death of homeless people.
At present we do not hold data on how many homeless people died in the last year. Our statistics on Adult Safeguarding Reviews does not include information on place of residence, however, the Office for National Statistics is preparing to publish official estimates in December as experimental statistics.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) guidance, (2) instructions, and (3) resources they provide to local authorities for Safeguarding Adult Reviews in relation to the deaths of homeless people; how many homeless people they estimate died in the last year for which figures are available; in how many of those cases Safeguarding Adult Reviews were carried out; and what steps they are taking to ensure that such reviews are carried out more often.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
We have not provided guidance, instructions or resources to local authorities for Safeguarding Adult Reviews related to the death of homeless people.
At present we do not hold data on how many homeless people died in the last year. Our statistics on Adult Safeguarding Reviews does not include information on place of residence, however, the Office for National Statistics is preparing to publish official estimates in December as experimental statistics.