Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement on 17 November, what proportion of the £2.8bn funding increase for the social care sector will go towards supporting carer services and workers.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is continuing to finalise the conditions of this funding and further information will be issued to local authorities in due course.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of policing football clubs in the coming season; and what comparison they have made with the previous season.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their assistance with rising energy costs will extend to football clubs.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government recognises the importance of football clubs, both professional and at grassroots level, which provide valuable opportunities for communities to come together and to take part in sport.
The Government also understands the impact rising energy prices will have on organisations of all sizes. In September we announced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, under which businesses and other non-domestic energy users will be offered support. This includes support to football clubs.
After an initial six months of the scheme, the Government will provide ongoing focused support for vulnerable industries. A review is currently underway to determine where this should be targeted to make sure those most in need get support.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the restrictions placed on football clubs wishing to upgrade their facilities.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Many clubs choose to upgrade their facilities, or do so to meet league and safety requirements. All facilities for football clubs must meet the requirements prescribed by their league organiser, the relevant football authority, the Sports Ground Safety Authority, the relevant local authority, and legislation. This ensures that facilities, particularly stadia, are appropriate and safe for all. Football clubs may be subject to the same planning restrictions as any other business or community facility.
His Majesty’s Government confirmed in July that Premier League and Championship clubs wishing to introduce licensed ‘safe standing’ areas at football stadia can apply to do so from the beginning of the current season, increasing the range of options football clubs can offer their supporters when considering their facilities.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether it is still their policy that children’s safety remains the priority of the Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are to keep children safe online. To achieve this, the Bill will require all companies that are in scope to take robust steps to protect children from illegal content and activity on their services. In addition, services which are likely to be accessed by children will be required to provide safety measures for child users to protect them from inappropriate and harmful content or activity, such as pornography and bullying. If they fail to do so, they will be subject to tough enforcement action by the regulator, Ofcom.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 17 October regarding the changes to alcohol duty (HC Deb col 396), what steps they are taking to protect the alcohol industry given the increased cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
On 17 October, the Chancellor announced a reversal of the freeze of alcohol duty rates from 1 February 2023, initially announced in the Growth Plan on 23 September.
The Government understands that many businesses are worried about the rising cost of living, including businesses within the alcohol industry. The alcohol duty uprating decision and interactions with the wider reforms to alcohol duties will be considered in due course.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve mental health (1) services, and (2) access, across England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24 and support a further two million people to access National Health Service-funded mental health services. As announced in ‘Our plan for patients’, we will continue to increase the availability of mental health support for adults, children and young people.
We are also addressing disparities in mental health and wellbeing outcomes in groups which experience worse outcomes than the general population. In response to the ‘Mental health and wellbeing plan: discussion paper and call for evidence’, we received submissions from 5,273 respondents in England. We are currently considering these responses and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they still intend to privatise Channel 4.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Channel 4 is a great UK success story and, in a rapidly changing media landscape, the government wants it to thrive in the long-term while maintaining its distinctiveness.
As set out in our recent White paper, Up Next - the Government’s vision for the broadcasting sector, Channel 4 - along with all broadcasters - is facing challenges to its future success and sustainability. This is due to the rapidly evolving media landscape, including unprecedented competition for viewers, programmes and talent from overseas as well as new, rapidly growing, streaming platforms.
The Secretary of State will set out more detail once she has carefully considered the business case for a sale of Channel 4.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mitigate the impact of the increased cost of living on the NHS ahead of this winter.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is mitigating the potential public health impacts of the increased cost of living on the National Health Service, such as the effect of cold homes. The Government has announced unprecedented support to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs until April 2023. In addition, we have allocated £15 billion for the most vulnerable households.
As announced in ‘Our plan for patients’, we are addressing the immediate priorities for the NHS in winter 2022/23, through improving ambulance services and response times; creating additional capacity in hospitals; reducing the backlog in elective services and eliminating long waiting times for treatment; improving discharge from hospitals and reforming social care; and ensuring patients can access primary care and dental services.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase Universal Credit in line with inflation.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Secretary of State has a statutory annual obligation to review state pensions and benefits including Universal Credit. His review will commence following the publication of the relevant indices by the Office for National Statistics and his decisions will be announced to Parliament shortly.