Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the prevalence of long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of collecting data on the prevalence of long COVID. On 25 April 2024, the Office for National Statistics will be publishing additional analysis from the fortnightly Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, including data on trends in ongoing symptoms of COVID-19. This article will expand on the existing analysis published in the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study’s data tables, to look more in depth at trends in self-reported symptoms of COVID-19, including ongoing symptoms and associated risk factors. No assessment has been made of the impact that long COVID has had on the National Health Service workforce.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the regulation of landfill sites.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The vast majority of landfill sites do not cause problems and the regulatory framework serves them and their local communities well. Where poor performance does occur the Environment Agency has a range of powers to bring sites back into compliance and, where necessary, to take enforcement action against operators.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for people with long covid to access (a) Universal Credit and (b) Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
No assessment has been made.
People living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus can access the financial support that is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA or Pension Credit depending on individual circumstances.
Disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. Therefore people living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus are also able to access these benefits in the same way as other people with long-term conditions or disabilities.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Disability Action Plan, published in February 2024, what steps his Department is taking to help with the extra financial costs associated with disability when standing for elected office.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ15196 on 29 February.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Environment Agency has made a recent assessment of the safety of historic landfill sites that are in close proximity to urban areas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local Authorities have the statutory duty to inspect their Areas to identify contaminated land (including historic landfills and non-permitted sites) in accordance with a written inspection strategy which they must publish and maintain.
The Environment Agency has responsibility to require those responsible to remediate historic landfills and non-permitted sites if they have been determined as contaminated land and designated as a ‘special site’ by the local authority under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Since 2000, 54 sites have been designated as special sites including 13 historic landfills Contaminated Land Special Sites - data.gov.uk
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department provided Lewisham Council with an impact assessment on the discontinuation of funding for the Household Support Fund from March 2024.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The government is providing an additional £500m to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund, including funding for the Devolved Administrations through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion. This means that Local Authorities in England will receive an additional £421m to support those in need locally through the Household Support Fund.
The funding will be available to Local Authorities in England from 1 April 2024 and will run until 30 September 2024.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of opening an independent public inquiry into the death of Zane Gbangbola during flooding in 2014.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Surrey Senior Coroner has already carried out a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding Zane Gbangbola’s death, taking into account a considerable amount of evidence. The Coroner, as an independent judicial office holder, drew his own conclusions based on this evidence.
If there is a belief that the evidence was not considered properly during the original inquest, or that there is new evidence available, the correct process is for an application to be made to the Attorney General asking her to apply to the High Court to quash the inquest and order a fresh investigation. The High Court would take this course of action if it believed that it would be in the interests of justice.
I believe that this remains the proper process to follow. An assessment of the merits of an inquiry should be made at the appropriate time if, and when, the legal processes have been exhausted.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the provision of school-aged childcare.
Answered by David Johnston
The government is investing £289 million in a new wraparound childcare programme to support local authorities to work with primary schools and private providers to set up and deliver more wraparound childcare before and after school in the term time.
This is the first step in the government’s ambition for all parents of primary school children who need it to access childcare in their local area from 8am to 6pm. Successfully meeting this objective will go some way to ensuring that parents have enough childcare to work full time, more hours and more flexible hours.
The department is also providing over £200 million of funding a year for the continuation of the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, with all local authorities in England to deliver in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. The HAF programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. In summer 2022, the programme reached around 600,000 children across England, including over 475,000 children eligible for free school meals across England. The department is working to ensure that the creation of new or expanded wraparound childcare provision can also help to support the delivery of sustainable holiday childcare provision, wherever possible.
The investment in wraparound childcare for primary school pupils announced by the Chancellor at the Spring Budget is part of wider transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children, and the economy. By 2027/28, this government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of trends in the level of accessible school-aged childcare on the number of parents returning to the workforce.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
No assessment has been made by this department.
The Government recognises that childcare can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours. That is why, as announced at the Spring Budget, we are investing billions in additional childcare support for parents of toddlers, investing in wraparound childcare in schools, and increasing financial support for, and expectations of, parents claiming Universal Credit.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who were convicted of murder were released at the end of their original tariff in each of the last five years; how many people who were convicted of murder were recalled to prison after they were released in each of the past 5 years; and how many people who were convicted of domestic homicide were recalled to prison after they were released in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures for question 1 are in Table 1. These are the number of first-time releases at the end of the original tariff following a mandatory life sentence.
Table 1. The number of people convicted of murder who were released at the end of their original tariff in each of the last five years:
| Release Year | ||||
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Count | 264 | 230 | 236 | 193 | 197 |
Figures for question 2 are in Table 2. These are the number of recalls in the last five years for offenders who at the time of recall had a conviction for murder. The power to recall is a vital public protection measure and all individuals supervised under licence in the community are liable to recall to prison if they fail to comply with their licence conditions.
Table 2. The number of people convicted of murder who were recalled to prison after they were released in each of the last five years:
| Licence Revocation Year | ||||
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Count | 168 | 195 | 188 | 196 | 219 |
For question three, which relates specifically to those offenders convicted of domestic homicide, the data is not routinely available and the work to identify such cases would exceed the appropriate cost limit under the request for the provision of data.
Notes:
2. Lifer Migration; These are prisoners who were sentenced prior to the introduction of the Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD), there records were migrated from paper files when the database was introduced in 2009.