Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2023 to Question 6492 on Crime: Databases, if he will provide examples of organisations who have a lawful reason to access HM Passport Office data in support of the law enforcement mission they have been tasked with performing.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to making sure the police have the tools and technology they need to solve and prevent crimes and keep the range of policy and technology changes needed to enable this under review. Not to keep pace with change will leave our communities vulnerable.
Territorial police forces and the National Crime Agency, for example, have access to a range of datasets to help them identify suspects or victims. This includes the Passport Office databases
The Home Office, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, continues to assess the national policing programmes to determine the best approach to delivery of digital capabilities. This includes discussions on the merits of combining policing databases.
There are no plans to merge the Police National Database and the Passport Office Databases and therefore no assessment of merits has been made.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2023 to Question 6492 on Crime: Databases, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of amalgamating data sets into one system.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to making sure the police have the tools and technology they need to solve and prevent crimes and keep the range of policy and technology changes needed to enable this under review. Not to keep pace with change will leave our communities vulnerable.
Territorial police forces and the National Crime Agency, for example, have access to a range of datasets to help them identify suspects or victims. This includes the Passport Office databases
The Home Office, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, continues to assess the national policing programmes to determine the best approach to delivery of digital capabilities. This includes discussions on the merits of combining policing databases.
There are no plans to merge the Police National Database and the Passport Office Databases and therefore no assessment of merits has been made.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2023 to Question 6492 on Crime: Databases, which data sets police forces have access to to help identify criminals as of 8 January 2024.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to making sure the police have the tools and technology they need to solve and prevent crimes and keep the range of policy and technology changes needed to enable this under review. Not to keep pace with change will leave our communities vulnerable.
Territorial police forces and the National Crime Agency, for example, have access to a range of datasets to help them identify suspects or victims. This includes the Passport Office databases
The Home Office, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, continues to assess the national policing programmes to determine the best approach to delivery of digital capabilities. This includes discussions on the merits of combining policing databases.
There are no plans to merge the Police National Database and the Passport Office Databases and therefore no assessment of merits has been made.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2023 to Question 6492 on Crime: Databases, whether the Government plans to increase police access to HM Passport Office data to help identify criminals.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to making sure the police have the tools and technology they need to solve and prevent crimes and keep the range of policy and technology changes needed to enable this under review. Not to keep pace with change will leave our communities vulnerable.
Territorial police forces and the National Crime Agency, for example, have access to a range of datasets to help them identify suspects or victims. This includes the Passport Office databases
The Home Office, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, continues to assess the national policing programmes to determine the best approach to delivery of digital capabilities. This includes discussions on the merits of combining policing databases.
There are no plans to merge the Police National Database and the Passport Office Databases and therefore no assessment of merits has been made.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the amount of physical learning time lost by pupils studying creative subjects in schools affected by RAAC in the last four months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC was published on 6 December, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information.
As of 27 November, there are 231 education settings with confirmed RAAC in some of their buildings. At the time of publication, three schools had hybrid arrangements in place, of which two are now in full time face-to-face education for all pupils and we expect the remaining school to be back in the near future. There were no education settings with confirmed RAAC where all pupils are in full-time remote learning.
Where the presence of RAAC is confirmed, responsible bodies and schools are expected to ensure that face-to-face learning continues as a priority. The department will support them to do this through dedicated caseworker teams.
Each school or college with confirmed RAAC is assigned dedicated support from a team of caseworkers, who work with schools and colleges to assess what support is needed and implement mitigation plans that are right for them. A bespoke plan is put in place to ensure that each school and college receives the support that suits its circumstances.
Where some short-term disruption is inevitable, all available measures will be taken to minimise disruption to teaching and return pupils to face-to-face teaching as soon as possible.
As all cases are different and the support each school or college receive is bespoke, identifying the number of pupils affected is not reflective of the reality for affected cases.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of RAAC in schools on the coursework results of those studying creative subjects at (a) GCSE, (b) A-level and (c) T-level.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The safety of staff and pupils is paramount, and the department has been working at pace with schools to identify RAAC and support them to minimise disruption to pupils’ education.
The department is working closely with affected schools to ensure the best possible education for pupils and taking every step possible to remove any obstacles to learning through mitigations including temporary accommodation where this is needed and in some instances use of specialist facilities in off-site accommodation.
Alongside Ofqual, the department has worked with awarding organisations to help facilitate discussions with affected schools. The department has asked awarding organisations to be as flexible as possible in agreeing longer extensions for coursework and non-examined assessment, including for creative subjects, so that schools have as much time as possible to complete this important part of pupils' learning and qualifications.
If schools and colleges are experiencing difficulties in delivering particular GCSE, A level or T Level assessments, due to certain facilities being out of use due to RAAC or have any concerns about exams and assessments themselves being disrupted, they should speak to the relevant awarding organisation. Only the relevant awarding organisation will be able to confirm what can be done in any specific context and the specific options available.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with Ofqual on the inclusion of the impact of RAAC in schools in mitigating circumstances guidelines.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The safety of staff and pupils is paramount, and the department has been working at pace with schools to identify RAAC and support them to minimise disruption to pupils’ education.
The department is working closely with affected schools to ensure the best possible education for pupils and taking every step possible to remove any obstacles to learning through mitigations including temporary accommodation where this is needed and in some instances use of specialist facilities in off-site accommodation.
Alongside Ofqual, the department has worked with awarding organisations to help facilitate discussions with affected schools. The department has asked awarding organisations to be as flexible as possible in agreeing longer extensions for coursework and non-examined assessment, including for creative subjects, so that schools have as much time as possible to complete this important part of pupils' learning and qualifications.
If schools and colleges are experiencing difficulties in delivering particular GCSE, A level or T Level assessments, due to certain facilities being out of use due to RAAC or have any concerns about exams and assessments themselves being disrupted, they should speak to the relevant awarding organisation. Only the relevant awarding organisation will be able to confirm what can be done in any specific context and the specific options available.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has for data-sharing between the (a) police national database, (b) data held by the Passport Office and (c) other national databases to help tackle crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is continuing its work with National Police Chiefs’ Council and law enforcement partners to facilitate access to the data sets they need to make sure the police have the tools and technology they need to solve and prevent crimes, bring offenders to justice, and keep people safe..
The use of such information is limited to organisations who have a lawful reason in support of the law enforcement mission they have been tasked with performing.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of times the HM Passport Office database has been accessed to identify suspects as part of a criminal investigation in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
His Majesty’s Passport Office receives requests for various information from the police. The volumes of requests for any range of data that is specifically due to an active criminal investigation is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to remove certain targets for (a) hospitals and (b) general practices.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Targets for hospitals and general practices (GPs) are regularly reviewed. Existing targets for the National Health Service are set out in several places, including in legislation, in the Government’s mandate to NHS England and in the ‘2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance’. Targets for hospitals and GPs are further set out within the ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, the ‘Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care’ and the ‘Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care’.