Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women seeking asylum are accommodated in hotels as of 30 November 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
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. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of statistics which disaggregates the number of females in contingency accommodation by local authority.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has published guidance on the treatment of women seeking asylum who are accommodated in hotels.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has published the Asylum Support Contracts Safeguarding Framework at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-support-contracts-safeguarding-framework.
This framework sets out a joint, overarching approach, as well as the key controls and reporting mechanisms in place, across the AASC contracts, for safeguarding arrangements.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to take steps to provide women-only accommodation for women seeking asylum.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has published the Asylum Support Contracts Safeguarding Framework at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-support-contracts-safeguarding-framework.
This framework sets out a joint, overarching approach, as well as the key controls and reporting mechanisms in place, across the AASC contracts, for safeguarding arrangements.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 1324 on Asylum: Advisory Services and with reference to paragraph 2.3 of the Terms and Conditions for the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility contract, whether a decision has been taken to extend the contract beyond the initial four-year period.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
More information is available at: AIRE - Advice Issue Reporting and Elligibility - Contracts Finder
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken steps to extend the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility contract beyond August 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Information on this contract is available at:
AIRE - Advice Issue Reporting and Elligibility - Contracts Finder
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many full-time staff worked in Defra Group Communications in each year since 2019.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of staff who worked in the communications directorate since 2019 as of 31 March each year is shown below
Financial year as of 31 March each year | Headcount |
2018/19 | 228 |
2019/20 | 228 |
2020/21 | 234 |
2021/22 | 245 |
2022/23 | 222 |
2023/24 (to 31 Oct) | 238 |
Alongside the core department, the Communications team provides communications support for five of the department’s largest arm’s length bodies including the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the Forestry Commission and the Rural Payments Agency. The teams work across all communications disciplines in support of the policy and operational priorities within each of these organisations. This includes media, planning, stakeholder engagement, digital communications and internal communications across the six parts of the Defra group.
As Defra Group Communications staff work in an agile way in multiple organisations, it is not possible to provide granular full-time equivalent figures for each part of the group, including the core department.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 123903 on Flood Control: Finance, how many properties have been protected by the Government's flood defence scheme since April 2021.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government announced in March 2020 that the amount invested in flood and coastal erosion schemes would be doubled in England to £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England. Over 67,000 properties have already been better protected from flooding as part of this programme.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 123903 on Flood Control: Finance, what assessment her Department has made with the Environment Agency of the potential impact of inflation on the delivery of flood defence infrastructure programmes; and if she will publish that assessment.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £5.2 billion in the 2021-2027 flood and coastal defence investment programme to better protect properties and communities across England. In April 2020, amendments were made to the Partnership Funding rules including updating payment rates to account for inflation.
We regularly review the impact of inflation over the six-year programme. Higher than expected inflation has caused challenges to delivery of all infrastructure programmes, including the floods capital programme; for instance, costs for materials and contractor fees have increased. Many projects have a contingency in their budgets that can help, and some costs can be managed across the programme.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department last revised permit conditions for storm overflows.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All discharges to the water environment, including storm overflows, require a permit to discharge issued by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. The permits contain the necessary conditions to regulate the discharge and limit the impact on the environment. These permit conditions are reviewed periodically to determine if they are still fit for purpose. The last change to the set of permit conditions used for storm overflows was the introduction in 2016 of a new condition for Event Duration Monitoring to be required on Storm Overflows.
In August 2022, the Government published the Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan which introduces new requirements and targets for storm overflows. The Environment Agency is now reviewing the permit conditions used for storm overflows to ensure the requirements and targets in the plan are accounted for in the permit conditions. These new conditions will be introduced from 2025 as the plan is implemented by the water companies.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to the public purse was of her Department's total spend on communications for (a) 2023, (b) 2022, (c) 2021, (d) 2020 and (e) 2019.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department publishes its expenditure on publicity, marketing and promotion in the annual report and accounts. The expenditure is summarised in the table below.
Financial Year | Core Department and Agencies (£000) | Defra Group (£000) |
2022-23 | 1,073 | 18,047 |
2021-22 | 675 | 14,813 |
2020-21 | 1,157 | 16,701 |
2019-20 | 1,740 | 19,830 |
2018-19 | 1,758 | 20,828 |