Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is investigating reports off mass burial sites in Mariupol.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK is fully committed to holding Russia to account for its actions in Ukraine. Established accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court's investigations and Ukrainian domestic judicial processes are investigating all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The UK continues to support these independent investigations, including by establishing the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group with the US and EU to provide practical and financial support to assist the War Crimes Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking diplomatic steps to investigate potential mass burial sites in Mariupol.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK is fully committed to holding Russia to account for its actions in Ukraine. Established accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court's investigations and Ukrainian domestic judicial processes are investigating all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The UK continues to support these independent investigations, including by establishing the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group with the US and EU to provide practical and financial support to assist the War Crimes Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to introduce an alternative student finance product for Muslim students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
I refer the hon. Member for Bradford West to the answer of 24 March 2023 to Question 167263.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has held discussions with relevant stakeholders on tackling Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred in the last 12 months.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Further to the answer given to 182937 on 9 May 2023, details of ministerial and senior official meetings are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle Islamophobia.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Further to the answer given to 182937 on 9 May 2023, details of ministerial and senior official meetings are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that teaching provided by distance and online remote learning education providers meet the required teaching standards.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 20 March 2023, the Department launched the Online Education Accreditation Scheme (OEAS). This scheme provides for the voluntary accreditation of full-time, online-only education providers. The OEAS is non-statutory, but the Department’s aim is that commissioners of full-time online education for school-age pupils in England should use accredited providers for new places wherever possible.
As a condition of accreditation under the OEAS, applicants must consistently meet the Online Education Standards. These standards are modelled on the Independent School Standards, which ensure the safety and suitability of education provided in registered independent schools.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of a ticket levy on large music events and arenas to increase funding for grassroots music.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We are working with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and the recent Energy Bills Support Scheme.
We will continue to engage with the sector on the impact of current pressures. As part of this engagement, Minister Lopez recently met the Music Venues Trust to discuss issues facing the live music sector, and how to support growth of the music sector and wider Creative Industries.
The Creative Industries have been identified by this Government as a priority growth sector. We will shortly be publishing a Creative Industries Sector Vision that will set out our ambitions, shared with industry, to support all parts of the creative sector to 2030. We look forward to working with the music industry to deliver on these objectives.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the quality of drinking water.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a very high standard of drinking water quality. In England, in 2021, public water supply compliance with the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 was 99.97% and private water supply compliance with the Private Water Supplies (England) Regulations 2016 was 96.9%.
Water companies and local authorities (who are the enforcers for private water supplies) are responsible for identifying risks to the quality of the drinking water. They have comprehensive monitoring programmes in place and are required to sample the drinking water supply for any element, organism or substance that they believe may cause the supply not to be wholesome. The Drinking Water Inspectorate and local authorities take enforcement action should any breach of the standards in the regulations occur. More information can be found in the annual reports https://www.dwi.gov.uk/what-we-do/annual-report/.
To continue to protect public health, Defra are working with the Drinking Water Inspectorate to establish an expert advisory board. The board will consider a range of international research to help us ensure our drinking water standards and regulations are based on the latest evidence.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to require (a) distance, (b) remote learning and (c) online education providers to make information on the qualifications of their teachers and tutors publicly available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 20 March 2023, the Department launched the Online Education Accreditation Scheme (OEAS). This scheme provides for the voluntary accreditation of full-time, online-only education providers. The OEAS is non-statutory, but the Department’s aim is that commissioners of full-time online education for school-age pupils in England should use accredited providers for new places wherever possible.
As a condition of accreditation under the OEAS, applicants must consistently meet the Online Education Standards. These standards are modelled on the Independent School Standards, which ensure the safety and suitability of education provided in registered independent schools.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment with the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the potential merits of introducing similar tax reliefs for grassroots music venues as exist for other cultural businesses.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We are working with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and the recent Energy Bills Support Scheme.
We will continue to engage with the sector on the impact of current pressures. As part of this engagement, I recently met the Music Venues Trust to discuss issues facing the live music sector, and how to support growth of the music sector and wider Creative Industries.
Regarding support for Bradford West specifically, across all artforms and disciplines, the Arts Council has invested £21.86 million since 2018/19 in 145 projects. This includes seven successful music specific applications, including:
Nightrain, a 400 capacity live music venue, received £11,000 in 2021 via the Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund to purchase new sound equipment, which enabled the venue to offer more opportunities to up and coming bands.
Nightrain also received two Culture Recovery Fund awards, totalling £168,500.
18 Bradford West based projects received Culture Recovery Funding totalling £3.93 million. These included producers and cultural venue The Brick Box, including The Brick Box Rooms, which are often utilised for music performances. The Brick Box received £25,000 through the Arts Council’s Emergency Response funds for organisations, £105,000 through Culture Recovery Fund and £90,000 in National Lottery Project Grants.
Another music sector organisation which received Culture Recovery Fund support was Pro Audio Systems, who received £263,000, enabling the provision of quality electronic audio equipment to venues in the region.
Lukas Hornby, Bradford-based producer, DJ, VJ, composer and musician received £2,500 from the Arts Council’s Emergency Response fund for individuals.
National Lottery Project Grant awards have also been made to grassroots community choirs the Friendship Choir (£14,000) and Millside Voices Community Choir (£15,000).
The Creative Industries have been identified by this Government as a priority growth sector. We will shortly be publishing a Creative Industries Sector Vision that will set out our ambitions, shared with industry, to support all parts of the creative sector to 2030. We look forward to working with the music industry to deliver on these objectives.