Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 that relate to the Prevent strategy.
Answered by Marcus Jones
My Department has not issued any guidance to local authorities on this matter. Home Office is the lead Department for the Prevent strategy.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12724, on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, if he will place in the Library a copy of all advice that group has submitted to Ministers of his Department.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Since 2012, the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has advised Ministers on issues including training for journalists to tackle the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media; encouraging increased reporting and recording of anti-Muslim incidents and online abuse; supporting social media workshops to build the capacity of community organisations to promote positive narratives; and facilitating a number of regional road shows to engage communities on integration and tackling anti-Muslim hatred. The group also worked on the issue of disaggregation of anti-Muslim hate crime, as is done with anti-semitic hate crime. Last month, my Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister announced that police forces in England and Wales would be required to disaggregate religion based hate crime data.
The Working Group meets quarterly and uses this forum to advise Ministers on issues relating to anti-Muslim hatred rather than through official submissions.
The independent members of the Working Group volunteer their own time to take part in the group and can claim basic travel expenses for the meetings. As part of a broader role, one official in the Department provides secretariat support to the group and officials from across Government Departments attend quarterly meetings.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12724, on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, what the achievements of that group have been.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Since 2012, the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has advised Ministers on issues including training for journalists to tackle the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media; encouraging increased reporting and recording of anti-Muslim incidents and online abuse; supporting social media workshops to build the capacity of community organisations to promote positive narratives; and facilitating a number of regional road shows to engage communities on integration and tackling anti-Muslim hatred. The group also worked on the issue of disaggregation of anti-Muslim hate crime, as is done with anti-semitic hate crime. Last month, my Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister announced that police forces in England and Wales would be required to disaggregate religion based hate crime data.
The Working Group meets quarterly and uses this forum to advise Ministers on issues relating to anti-Muslim hatred rather than through official submissions.
The independent members of the Working Group volunteer their own time to take part in the group and can claim basic travel expenses for the meetings. As part of a broader role, one official in the Department provides secretariat support to the group and officials from across Government Departments attend quarterly meetings.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12724, on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, how much (a) funding and (b) staffing resource is currently dedicated to that group.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Since 2012, the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has advised Ministers on issues including training for journalists to tackle the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media; encouraging increased reporting and recording of anti-Muslim incidents and online abuse; supporting social media workshops to build the capacity of community organisations to promote positive narratives; and facilitating a number of regional road shows to engage communities on integration and tackling anti-Muslim hatred. The group also worked on the issue of disaggregation of anti-Muslim hate crime, as is done with anti-semitic hate crime. Last month, my Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister announced that police forces in England and Wales would be required to disaggregate religion based hate crime data.
The Working Group meets quarterly and uses this forum to advise Ministers on issues relating to anti-Muslim hatred rather than through official submissions.
The independent members of the Working Group volunteer their own time to take part in the group and can claim basic travel expenses for the meetings. As part of a broader role, one official in the Department provides secretariat support to the group and officials from across Government Departments attend quarterly meetings.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of properties required to meet housing demand in Leeds City Region for the next (a) five years and (b) 15 years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We believe in localism and, therefore, the Government does not assess demand for housing or set housing targets. The National Planning Policy Framework and planning guidance expects local authorities to objectively identify and then meet the housing needs of their area.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has spent on marketing the Right to Buy scheme's extension to housing associations since 8 May 2015.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department recently set up a ‘register of interest’ to promote extended Right to Buy using our existing Right to Buy website and we also signposted the register across other channels, resulting in over 2,000 expressions of interest to date from existing housing association tenants. As the set up costs have been borne from existing Right to Buy website hosting services, it would not be possible to disaggregate the costs of marketing extended Right to Buy alone but it is a very small proportion of the overall costs.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government's Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government set up the first Anti-Muslim Hatred working group in 2012 and we are proud of its achievements. We are committed to tackling anti-Muslim hatred and see the group as an important role in advising Ministers.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to make homes carbon neutral.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The energy performance standards for new homes were strengthened by over 30% during the last Parliament. The latest changes to standards came into force last year and it is important for those changes to be given time to bed in. The Government therefore is keeping the energy standards for homes under review.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people are designated as homeless in (a) West Yorkshire and (b) Leeds; and what proportion of them are aged (i) under 18 and (ii) between 18 and 21.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Figures are not available for those aged under 18 or between 18 and 21 years old.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will devolve powers to local authorities on determining the type of voting system used in local elections.
Answered by Marcus Jones
There are no plans to devolve such powers.