Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to legal advice given to the Law Commission in December 2019, whether his Department has received any recent advice on the compatability of the marriage value element of leasehold enfranchisement with Article 1 of the First Protocol (A1P1) to the ECHR.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Our reforms seek to make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill as introduced on 27 November 2023 is considered compatible with the ECHR, as the section 19 statement on compatibility with Convention rights has been signed.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to businesses of proposals to abolish the marriage value element of leasehold enfranchisement; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of those proposals on non-UK leaseholders.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Our reforms seek to make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill as introduced on 27 November 2023 is considered compatible with the ECHR, as the section 19 statement on compatibility with Convention rights has been signed.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it her policy to ensure that everyone has the choice to access public services offline by phone, letter or face-to-face.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it her policy to introduce funding for public bodies to ensure that they are able to provide offline options for all service users.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will publish the names of people who attended the AI Summit 2023 on behalf of (a) organisations and (b) governments.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The names of the organisations and governments who confirmed their attendance prior to the AI Safety Summit was previously published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-introduction/ai-safety-summit-confirmed-governments-and-organisations
A more detailed list of attendees is due to be published in due course. In the meantime, we have been following procedures to ensure GDPR compliance and a more detailed list of attendees is to be published in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to publish a revised Digital Inclusion Strategy.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to ensuring no-one is left behind in this digital age. The 2022 UK Digital Strategy outlined work that will promote digital inclusion and help people to get online, including committing to at least 85% gigabit broadband coverage by 2025 and delivering legislation that will mitigate online harms through the Online Safety Bill (now Act).
Rather than write a standalone Digital Inclusion strategy, the Government is focused on delivering work that will address this issue. This is a cross-Government effort, with work being overseen by a new ministerial group, which will meet twice a year to drive progress.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Digital Inclusion Strategy takes account of people who are unable to get online.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to ensuring no-one is left behind in this digital age. The 2022 UK Digital Strategy outlined work that will promote digital inclusion and help people to get online, including committing to at least 85% gigabit broadband coverage by 2025 and delivering legislation that will mitigate online harms through the Online Safety Bill (now Act).
Rather than write a standalone Digital Inclusion strategy, the Government is focused on delivering work that will address this issue. This is a cross-Government effort, with work being overseen by a new ministerial group, which will meet twice a year to drive progress.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of eligible people claiming Pension Credit.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We continue to maximise opportunities to raise awareness of Pension Credit which provides vital financial support to households on a low income. Our Pension Credit Communications campaign, ongoing since April 2022, has included advertising on national TV, newspapers, broadcast radio, on social media and via internet search engines as well as on screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries. We have also used sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their family, and friends are likely to visit.
Our latest campaign messaging highlighted that Pension Credit can be worth up to £3,900 on average and is a passport to a range of other help and benefits – including Cost of Living payments.
There is a strong indication that the campaign has had a positive impact and has resulted in an unprecedented number of Pension Credit applications. The number of claims received in the financial 2022-23 was more than 80% higher than over the same period the year before.
The latest available figures covering the three months to May 2023 show an increase in the Pension Credit caseload. More households were receiving Pension Credit in May 2023 than in May 2022 at the beginning of the campaign. The recent quarterly increases in the caseload in August, November 2022 and now May 2023 – the first increases since 2009 - are very welcome and significant.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of removing the Household Support Fund on low-income pensioner households.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The current Household Support Fund runs from April 2023 until the end of March 2024. The government continues to keep all its existing programmes under review in the usual way.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his planned timetable is for the publication of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme Review 2020.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
I am grateful to all who took the time to contribute views to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme Review 2020 and the other consultations we ran in 2022 and 2023 as part of our Scheme review.
We are carefully considering the responses received and plan to publish a single response to all three consultations as soon as possible in 2024.