Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of discounting children under the age of 1 when calculating overcrowding under the Housing Act 1985 on children's health.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The 2004 Housing Act places a duty on local authorities to take enforcement action if they identify an 'crowding and space' hazard at the most dangerous 'category 1' level, as assessed by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). The HHSRS operates by evaluating the potential risk of harm to any actual or potential occupier from their living environment. For crowding and space hazards, this includes children under the age of one.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to improve standards on the (a) safety and (b) quality of temporary accommodation.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We are aware of National Child Mortality Database research on housing conditions, poverty and potential correlations with Sudden and Unexpected Deaths of Infants. We cannot emphasise enough that every family and child should live in suitable, safe housing.
Local authorities must ensure temporary accommodation is suitable in relation to all members of a household.
We are pursuing a number of housing reforms which will increase quality and regulation across all housing stock, including temporary accommodation. This includes reviewing the Decent Homes Standard, The Social Housing Regulation Bill and Renters reform.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in each of the last five years; what types of treatment are provided to such people in secondary care; and how many such people received each treatment in each year.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not available due to the limitations of current diagnosis data on within the Mental Health Services Dataset. Only around 20% to 25% of cases in the dataset have a specific diagnosis recorded; any data provided on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) diagnoses would therefore represent an undercount.
Regarding treatment types, the National Health Service may offer talking therapies and medication, such as antidepressants, separately or together. Talking therapies for OCD may include, but are not limited to, cognitive behavioural therapy, exposure and response prevention, and group therapy.
Procedure data relating to different types of treatment is recorded through the use of SNOMED codes. Not all providers are submitting SNOMED codes for the years requested and as such this incomplete data is not included in the response.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with mental health issues in each of the last five years; what types of treatment are provided to such people in secondary care; and how many such people received each treatment in each year.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested on mental health diagnoses is not available due to limitations of current diagnosis data within the Mental Health Services Dataset. Only around 20% to 25% of cases in the dataset have a specific diagnosis recorded, and any data provided on diagnosis numbers overall would therefore represent an undercount.
Regarding treatment types, the National Health Service may offer a range of options, including talking and other psychological therapies, medications, arts and creative therapies, social prescribing and specialist inpatient services separately or in combination.
Data relating to different types of treatment is recorded through the use of SNOMED codes. Not all providers are submitting SNOMED codes for the years requested and as such this incomplete data is not included in the response.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to support existing leaseholders who have (a) doubling and (b) other forms of multiplying ground rent.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has legislated via the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 to protect future leaseholders from ground rents and we are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
We do not hold the information requested centrally. The department conducted an Impact Assessment for the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which included data on the number of properties in England and Wales that may charge ground rent, and may have doubling review clauses. The Impact Assessment is available on the UK Parliament website.
We understand the difficulties some existing leaseholders face with high and escalating ground rents. Unfair practices have no place in the housing market. This is why we asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector.
The CMA have secured commitments benefiting over 20,000 leaseholders, including commitments to return doubling ground rent terms to original rates. The CMA continue to engage with a number of firms and we urge other developers to follow suit.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the number of leaseholders that have (a) doubling and (b) other forms of multiplying ground rent.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has legislated via the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 to protect future leaseholders from ground rents and we are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
We do not hold the information requested centrally. The department conducted an Impact Assessment for the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which included data on the number of properties in England and Wales that may charge ground rent, and may have doubling review clauses. The Impact Assessment is available on the UK Parliament website.
We understand the difficulties some existing leaseholders face with high and escalating ground rents. Unfair practices have no place in the housing market. This is why we asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector.
The CMA have secured commitments benefiting over 20,000 leaseholders, including commitments to return doubling ground rent terms to original rates. The CMA continue to engage with a number of firms and we urge other developers to follow suit.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to support the expansion of the Manchester Metrolink to (a) other areas of Salford, (b) Eccles and (c) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Mass transit is largely devolved in England. Mass transit expansion in Greater Manchester is the responsibility of the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).
Through Greater Manchester’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) for 2022/23 to 2026/27, the Department for Transport has allocated £1.07 billion to the region for local transport schemes, which GMCA has brought forward.
GMCA can choose to develop mass transit proposals through CRSTS.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS workforce strategy will include provisions for NHS Trusts in England to hire the additional cancer workforce needed to meet the ambition for 75 per cent of cancer patients to be diagnosed at stage I or II by 2028 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to publishing the Long Term Workforce Plan shortly. This will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. The plan will cover the whole of the NHS workforce.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the article in the Health Service Journal entitled Deficit trusts face ‘intimidating conversations’ and orders to hold down staffing, published 25 April 2023, what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS England on reports that some NHS Trusts have been told they are not permitted to increase their total number of staff in 2023-24.
Answered by Will Quince
We are backing the National Health Service with record funding including up to £14.1 billion for health and social care over the next two years. We are also growing the workforce and there are record numbers of staff working in the NHS with over 48,700 more staff compared to a year ago including over 5,100 more doctors and over 11,800 more nurses.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of access to housing legal aid; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of expanding housing legal aid to include (a) welfare benefits advice, (b) early housing advice and (c) advice on disrepair compensation claims.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In March 2022, the Ministry of Justice consulted on several changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means tests to ensure that legal aid remains accessible to all who need it. When implemented, the changes will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.
At the Crown Court, the Government has also proposed removing the current £37,500 disposable income threshold; if implemented, this would mean that all defendants at the Crown Court would be eligible for legal aid and so would not have to pay privately, though a proportion may be required to pay a monthly income contribution towards their legal costs.
Whilst the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) introduced changes to the scope of legal aid, legal aid services continued to be delivered following LASPO. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) publishes statistics regarding new cases completed and started in each period by legal aid scheme with additional breakdowns by region and by Controlled and Licensed Work at tables 9.1-5.
The LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision of legal aid, in all categories of law, throughout England and Wales. The LAA moves quickly, where issues arise, to secure additional provision and to ensure demand for legal aid services, which may vary across different categories of law and across different geographic regions, is met. Legal advice on a range of civil matters including housing, debt, discrimination, and education is available, wherever people are, through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.
The Ministry of Justice continues to consider the long-term sustainability of the criminal and civil legal aid market. Following publication of our full response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) on 30 November 2022, we have boosted the system with immediate investment to address the most urgent concerns, including uplifts of 15% to most legal aid fee schemes.
Our plans will put criminal legal aid on a sustainable footing and ensure there is a sustainable supply of practitioners. Criminal legal aid spend is expected to increase to £1.2 billion per year, which is the highest level since 2010.
We have also recently launched a review of civil legal aid to identify evidence-based options which will help inform our longer-term strategy for improving the sustainability and effectiveness of the civil legal aid system.
Concerning legal aid for housing matters, the 2019 Post Implementation Review of Part 1 of LASPO found that individuals experiencing social welfare problems, especially related to housing matters, struggle to resolve their problems early, often leading to a clustering of problems. This in turn requires costly intervention at the courts and increases pressure on social services. In response, the MoJ is amending LASPO to expand the scope of legal aid for people facing the loss of their home to include early legal advice on housing, debt and welfare benefits from 1 August 2023 through the creation of the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS).
It is hoped that the HLPAS will enable individuals to resolve matters before court proceedings take place, reducing homelessness and pressure on the courts. HLPAS will also support housing legal aid providers, providing payment for the early legal advice and improving renumeration rates for delivering the court duty service. Up to £10m in annual funding has been made available for HLPAS.
In addition, since 31 October 2022 we have been piloting early legal advice on certain housing, debt and welfare benefits matters in Manchester and Middlesbrough to test the impact of early legal advice on resolving an individual’s problem more quickly. The pilot ended on 31 March 2023 and a final evaluation report is expected in July 2023.
Legal aid remains available for disrepair cases when there is a serious threat of illness or injury. Anyone in this position should contact the Civil Legal Advice helpline.
Whilst the MoJ continually monitors the latest data on possession proceedings, we are unable to assess the impact of LASPO on any trends in possession proceedings, evictions, homelessness levels and numbers of successful application for local Government homelessness assistance. This is because we cannot isolate any LASPO impact from changes over the same period.
Information concerning housing legal aid providers can be found here:
Legal aid statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)