Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the health issues faced by homeless people.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is working closely with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), the National Health Service and public health bodies to improve health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.
This includes DLUHC funding of up to £186.5 million for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant, providing evidence-based drug and alcohol treatment and wrap-around support, and funding over £30 million of health interventions under the Rough Sleeping Initiative.
As part of the cross-government Drug Strategy, we are also working with OHID to provide up to £53 million for the Housing Support Grant to improve the recovery outcomes for people in drug and alcohol treatment with a housing need. In addition, the NHS England Long-Term Plan establishes new specialist mental health provision for people who sleep rough in high need areas, underpinned by a £30 million investment. To date, 37 sites have been launched across the country.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to publish a national youth homelessness strategy.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is committed to tackling all forms of homelessness including youth homelessness.
The Government’s ‘Ending Rough Sleeping for Good’ Strategy, published in 2022 and backed by £2.4 billion, recognises young people face particular challenges. The strategy confirmed a £200 million investment in the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme which will deliver homes for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping, including young people. In addition, £2.5 million of Rough Sleeping Initiative funding for 2022-2025 supports youth services in local areas.
The Department will continue to work with local authorities and partners in the voluntary and community sector and private sector to tackle youth homelessness.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce ambulance response times.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to achieve our ambition of reducing average Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes, across 2024/25. Further information on the delivery plan is available at the following link:
Ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times. We will maintain the improved ambulance service capacity from this additional funding in 2024/25, alongside the additional 5,000 permanent hospital beds delivered last year to improve patient flow through accident and emergency, and reduce ambulance capacity lost due to handover delays.
There have been significant improvements in performance across the country, with average Category 2 ambulance response times in 2023/24 over 13 minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of over 27%.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps he is taking to help increase the amount of aid getting into Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We trebled our aid commitment in the last financial year and are doing everything we can to get more aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air.
Israel has committed to significant steps to increase the amount of aid getting into Gaza, including allowing the delivery of humanitarian aid through the Port of Ashdod and the Erez crossing.
The UK has long urged Israel to take these steps and welcomes these commitments, and we have urged Israel to deliver on implementation. The Foreign Secretary discussed this with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on 17 April. We are resolved that the international community will work with Israel to see these vital changes fully implemented.
We have announced £3 million of additional funding for equipment to support UN and aid agencies at new and existing land crossings to get more aid into Gaza. The UK's contribution will include trucks, forklifts, generators, fuel stores and lighting towers.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what diplomatic steps he is taking to strengthen international co-operation to tackle illegal migration.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We engage with partners worldwide, including through international fora such as the G7 and the UK-hosted European Political Community summit in July 2024, to improve returns processes, tackle organised immigration crime and address the root causes of irregular migration.
In 2023/2024, we signed new deals with Bulgaria, Belgium, and Frontex (European border and coastguard agency), and through our close partnership with France stopped over 26,000 crossing attempts in 2023.
On 17 April 2024, the UK signed an agreement with Vietnam to increase cooperation on tackling illegal migration.