Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a specific timeframe for Section 95 applications to be completed.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office endeavours to complete applications as fast as possible.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she had had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of extending the funding of the Suicide Prevention Grand Fund.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such discussions have taken place. The process for assessing all applications made to the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund is still ongoing.
The fund attracted a huge amount of interest from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, from small, community-led organisations at local level to large national level organisations. We received over 1800 applications overall, covering a range of activities aimed at preventing suicides. We are currently assessing bids and we aim to inform applicants on whether they have been successful by the end of the year.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 1700 on Asylum: Finance, what his Department considers to be a timely manner.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Decision times will vary by case, as each application is different; we aim to reach a decision as swiftly as possible.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has a target for the time taken to make decisions on section 95 asylum support applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Each case will be different so it is difficult to say how long the Home Office will need to decide an individual application for section 95 support, though we do endeavour to complete applications in a timely manner. Once we receive an asylum seeker’s fully completed application from Migrant Help, we prioritise those who are homeless and those who are in initial accommodation.
If an asylum seeker requires an update on their application’s progress, they are encouraged to contact Migrant Help who can request an update from the Home Office. This can be done via their webchat, the ‘raise an issue’ link on their website or by calling their freephone helpline on 0808 8010 503.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of hotels previously used to house asylum seekers have stopped being used for this purpose in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the next quarterly figures due to be released at the end of November 2023.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels his Department is using to provide accommodation for asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the next quarterly figures due to be released at the end of November 2023.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representations to his Israeli counterpart on the arrest of Mohammad Barakeh.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories remain a human rights priority for the FCDO. Human rights are a crucial element underpinning the UK's foreign policy. We regularly raise concerns with the Government of Israel, where they exist, and we will continue to do so, including in relation to the Israel/Gaza conflict.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that all teachers are trained to support children who meet the criteria for oppositional defiant disorder.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All teachers need to be equipped to teach pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). High quality teaching is the single most important factor within school in improving outcomes for all pupils, including those with oppositional defiant disorder.
Training and development to support children with SEND begins at the beginning of a teacher’s career journey, through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT), and is embedded throughout the Early Career Framework (ECF). ITT courses are designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5 that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils. Careful consideration has been given to the needs of trainee teachers in relation to supporting pupils with SEND, and the ECF builds on that learning for early career teachers once qualified. Both the ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) and ECF were designed in consultation with the education sector, including SEND specialists.
Once teachers qualify and are employed in schools, head teachers also use their professional judgement to identify any further training, including specific specialisms, for individual staff that is relevant to them, the school, and its pupils.
The Department also funds the Universal Services programme, worth £12 million, which offers online training, professional development groups, bespoke school and college improvement projects, sector led research, autism awareness training and an embedded focus on preparation for adulthood, including employer led webinars. The programme commenced in May 2022 and will run until Spring 2025.
So far, 6,600 school and college staff have accessed free online training modules, and 81 schools and over 135 colleges have identified and led their own SEND focused school improvement project. These projects focussed on SEND governance, teaching assistant deployment, early identification of SEND and the curriculum.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department plans to provide support to businesses who are unable to make repayments on their Bounce Back loans.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has always been clear that businesses are expected to make every effort to repay their Bounce Back Loans (BBLs). However, the Government also recognises that some borrowers might require greater flexibility and more time to make their repayments. That is why, for BBLs, the then Chancellor introduced ‘Pay as You Grow’ measures, allowing borrowers to tailor repayments to their individual circumstances. ‘Pay as You Grow’ provides borrowers with a range of options to manage their repayments flexibly. A business facing difficulty making BBLs repayments should contact their lender in the first instance to discuss their options.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how (a) much funding and (b) many full-time equivalent staff have been allocated to the Forced Marriage Unit in each financial year since its foundation; and how many cases have been reported to that unit in each of those years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit's operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.
The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics