Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 189778 on Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Disability, what his planned timetable is for the (a) research on statutory guidance for building regulations approved document M and (b) secondary consultation on building regulations announced by his Department in July 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer my Rt. Hon. Friend to the answer to Question UIN HL8422 on 26 June 2023 and the answer to Question UIN 191722 on 3 July 2023. The Government will consult further on those technical changes needed to mandate the higher accessibility standard in the Building Regulations, and in statutory guidance, in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many male prisoners were serving a sentence of 12 months or more had children as on 30 June 23, and if his Department holds data on the ages of those children.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This data is not currently available.
The Government is seeking to improve our data and evidence in this area through the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme. BOLD is a cross-government Shared Outcomes Fund project which will link data to enable better evidenced and more joined up cross government services.
Through BOLD, we will explore data sharing to improve our understanding of the number of parents in prison and the number of children impacted by parental imprisonment. BOLD’s findings will include breakdowns by gender and sentence length, enabling us to identify how many male prisoners serving a sentence of 12 month or more have children. Findings will be published when the analysis is complete.
Changes have been made to the Basic Custody Screening Tool to enable us to collect data on entry to prison about how many primary carers are in custody, how many children under the age of 18 are affected by their imprisonment and the ages of those children. The learning from the data collected will be incorporated into findings from the BOLD programme.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many female prisoners currently serving a sentence of 12 months or more have children; and if his Department records data on the ages of those children.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This data is not currently available.
The Government is seeking to improve our data and evidence in this area through the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme. BOLD is a cross-government Shared Outcomes Fund project which will link data to enable better evidenced and more joined up cross government services.
Through BOLD, we will explore data sharing to improve our understanding of the number of parents in prison and the number of children impacted by parental imprisonment. BOLD’s findings will include breakdowns by gender and sentence length, enabling us to identify how many female prisoners serving a sentence of 12 months or more have children. Findings will be published when the analysis is complete.
Changes have also been made to the Basic Custody Screening Tool to enable us to collect data on entry to prison about how many primary carers are in custody, how many children under the age of 18 are affected by their imprisonment and the ages of those children. The learning from the data collected will be incorporated into findings from the BOLD programme.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many Help to Buy homeowners are currently waiting for a decision on a loan redemption application in (a) Romsey and Southampton North constituency and (b) Hampshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities does not collect local level data on the number of homeowners who are currently waiting for a decision on a loan redemption application. We can confirm that between 1 April 2013 and 31 December 2022, 1,362 homes were purchased in East Hampshire, 1,086 in Southampton and 2,156 in the Test Valley area which covers Romsey using the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme. Further data on the number of households in England which have benefitted from the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme can be found in the latest Help to buy Equity Loan scheme statistics.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held as a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.
The National Disability Strategy (NDS) was published in July 2021 before the creation of the Department of Business and Trade in February 2023. The former Department for International Trade had no policies in the NDS while former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) had several commitments. The following three NDS commitments, were delivered by BEIS before the Judicial Review in January 2022:
The remaining former BEIS commitments relevant to the Department for Business and Trade’s remit in the National Disability Strategy were formally paused as a result of the Judicial Review. These were:
We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, the Department for Business and Trade will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.
Ahead of this, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 188920 on Drugs: Licensing, whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency plans to prioritise applications for new hormone replacement therapy products, in the context of hormone replacement therapy supply shortages.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no formal criteria to prioritise applications for medicines because this is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously stated the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collaborates with the Department and National Health Service where a condition that currently does not have any currently licensed medicines, or where there are supply issues with currently licensed medicines.
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and the vast majority are in good supply. MHRA regularly engages with the Department to prevent and mitigate supply issues in the short and long term and works with them to ensure decisions are aligned with the wider health sector’s priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 188918 on Drugs: Licensing, what criteria his Department uses to determine what conditions are a public health need.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no formal criteria to prioritise applications for medicines because this is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously stated the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collaborates with the Department and National Health Service where a condition that currently does not have any currently licensed medicines, or where there are supply issues with currently licensed medicines.
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and the vast majority are in good supply. MHRA regularly engages with the Department to prevent and mitigate supply issues in the short and long term and works with them to ensure decisions are aligned with the wider health sector’s priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 188918 on Drugs: Licensing, whether he considers the menopause to be a public health need.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no formal criteria to prioritise applications for medicines because this is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously stated the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collaborates with the Department and National Health Service where a condition that currently does not have any currently licensed medicines, or where there are supply issues with currently licensed medicines.
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and the vast majority are in good supply. MHRA regularly engages with the Department to prevent and mitigate supply issues in the short and long term and works with them to ensure decisions are aligned with the wider health sector’s priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs had the following commitments included in the National Disability Strategy:
Work on the King Charles III England Coast Path is progressing with over 850 miles now open to the public. At 2,700 miles, when complete it will be the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world. We are making the King Charles III England Coast Path as accessible as possible and have recently approved proposals that have included a brand-new wheelchair-friendly ramp to a popular seawall walkway in Essex, a 600m accessible boardwalk on the Wirral and significant improvements to a well-used stretch of the South West Coast Path which will improve the width, surface quality and gradient of the existing trail.
We are continuing work designating Wainwright’s existing coast to coast path across the North of England as a new National Trail by 2025.
Our Access for All programme has committed £14.5m of funding to make targeted access improvements in our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside, to help bring the benefits of spending time in nature to everyone. More than £3.5m has already been spent on making our protected landscapes more accessible, including on: resurfacing paths; replacement of stiles with accessible gates; new benches and resting stops; accessible viewing platforms and the provision of new all-terrain trampers to support disabled people to access the countryside. The Government has extended its Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to improve accessibility in our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including installing interpretation panels, replacing gates and stiles to improve access for people who use wheelchairs.
The Green Social Prescribing programme which closed in March 2023 achieved over 7,000 referrals to nature-based activities over the course of the programme, and the evidence suggests that the programme has had a very strong service take-up compared with traditional mental health support services. We are committed to supporting the scale-up of green social prescribing across England, as confirmed in our Environmental Improvement Plan.
We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.
Ahead of this, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NHS collaborate to align priorities for women's health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department works closes with its arm length bodies and its other health system partners to deliver on Government priorities including those in the Women’s Health Strategy for England.