Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that children with special needs are able to enjoy and access all parts of heritage sites.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Historic England, Government’s adviser on the historic environment, has published guidance on improving access to historic buildings for people with disabilities. The guidelines explain how to make a range of positive changes to historic places, while at the same time working within the wider principles of conservation.
Similarly, English Heritage is committed to enabling everyone to experience the historic places in its care. English Heritage offers free education visits at sites to a wide range of learners, including groups of children, young people or adults with special learning needs or disabilities. English Heritage operates a “carer gets in free” policy at all its properties.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve rail infrastructure to ensure that services are not cancelled during adverse weather.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We are spending a record £48 billion on the railway over Control Period 6 with a focus on making Britain’s railway more reliable and focused on passengers’ needs. The plans cover the five years from 1 April 2019. This represents a 17% increase in renewals spend from CP5 which will help cut delays caused by infrastructure failures, such as track defects.
This will allow Network Rail to be prepared for extreme weather and plan ahead to effectively minimise disruption. This will be achieved through a range of actions, including performing drainage work to reduce flood risk and working with specialist forecasters to keep Network Rail informed of severe weather risks and allow controllers to act.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to prevent job losses in the retail industry.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Retail remains a high employment sector – approximately 3 million jobs in the UK. More people are involved in retailing than in any other single industry in the country.
There were 84,000 vacancies in the retail sector as of August 2019.
In 2018, Government established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring Government and industry together to boost the sector’s productivity and economic health. The Council has agreed its six priority work areas with four already underway. These are: Costs to Business, Skills and Lifelong Learning, Industrial Strategy and Employment workstreams.
As part of wider Government efforts to support adult training, we are also investing £100m to develop The National Retraining Scheme, which will help prepare adults for future changes to the economy, including those brought about by automation, and help them retrain into better jobs. This funding has allowed us to start delivering the first part of the service, Get Help to Retrain, whilst developing and evaluating as we build-up the scheme.
We have introduced Get Help to Retrain to 6 areas of England and we will be rolling it out across England in 2020. The digital service helps adults understand their existing skills and explore alternative occupations, and training opportunities to develop new skills.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department is taking to support discussions between local governments and the retail industry to help ensure a joint approach to draw consumers to the high street.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government is committed to helping communities adapt to market processes and we are taking action to help the high street evolve. In July 2019, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a £3.6 billion Towns Fund to re-energise local economies so that everyone can share in a new era of prosperity. This included £1 billion for the Future High Streets Fund, which will support local areas in England to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future sustainability.
We are also supporting local leadership with a High Streets Task Force, giving high streets and town centres expert advice to adapt and thrive. This will provide hands-on support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts. The Task Force will also provide training and help to improve coordination between different groups working to improve their high streets which includes retailers.
The Government has also established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring Government and industry together to boost the sector's productivity and economic health. The Council has established its six priority workstreams which includes the Industrial Strategy with a focus on place. The Council has identified high streets as an important area to be considered on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to interpreter and translation services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In cases where an interpreter or translator is needed families are provided with a list of translators that are compiled by our British embassies, high commissions and consulates abroad. Although we are unable to recommend translators our aim is to provide British nationals with relevant information to make informed decisions. This list is also published on the GOV.UK website.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides funding to the Victim Support National Homicide Service who can also help families with translation of key documents where a murder or manslaughter occurred.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whats steps he is taking to improve public awareness and understanding of sepsis.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis, through initiatives like Public Health England (PHE)’s national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme, which targets parents of children under five-years-old; leaflets, posters and a content-rich social media toolkit for partners to use on their own channels are available for them to raise awareness at a community level. PHE has also worked in partnership with Mumsnet, a leading digital platform for parents, to raise awareness through editorial and social media promotion.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
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 introduce needle and syringe exchanges for drugs users.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Needle exchange and syringe services have played a vital role in harm reduction since the 1980s, reducing the number of drug-related deaths and blood-borne virus infections, particularly hepatitis C and HIV. They are commissioned by local authorities and are supported in this by Public Health England. The United Kingdom’s drug treatment clinical guidelines published in 2017 includes guidance on needle and syringe programmes and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to criminal injuries compensation.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring effective support to families bereaved by murder and manslaughter. To ensure that these families are appropriately supported, whether the homicide takes place at home or abroad, we have provided up to £3.4m per annum in funding to deliver the Homicide Service.
Families bereaved by violent crime can access the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme where the crime was committed in Great Britain, or the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme where the crime was a terrorist attack committed overseas. Further, where the crime was committed in an EU member state, it may be possible for families to access any compensation scheme that the member state has under the EU Compensation Directive or the Council of Europe Convention on Compensation for Victims of Violent Crime.
A review of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is underway, looking at its scope, and eligibility rules and requirements. The recommendations of the Victims’ Commissioner in her report on the entitlements and experiences of bereaved families following homicide abroad will be considered carefully as part of this review.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to help workers from the retail industry who have lost their jobs transition to new roles.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobcentre Plus is geared-up to offer advice to those claiming welfare benefits.
Universal Credit has replaced six working age benefits with one; to simplify the welfare system and make work pay. As a result, people claiming Universal Credit move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings. Universal Credit also provides more help with childcare costs, a dedicated Work Coach and scraps the 16, 24 and 30 hour ‘cliff edges’.
Through Jobcentre Plus, individuals can get advice on finding a job; help with retraining or skills advice, CV and job applications; and access to new vacancies we record every day. They can also access a range of tailored opportunities to improve their likelihood of entering or re-entering the labour market, including demand-led training for higher skilled jobs in specific sectors.
Jobcentre Plus also provides numerous leads and good practice ideas to help people direct their job search in the most effective manner.
DWP also supports people affected by redundancy through the Rapid Response Service (RRS). This is designed to give tailored support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with redundancy. Each Jobcentre Plus district deploys resources according to the situation and the requirements of those affected. The RRS is delivered in partnership with a range of national and local partners, including National Careers Service and local service providers.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on increasing local authority provided support for visually impaired children.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
My colleagues and I meet regularly with counterparts across government, including colleagues from the Department for Education (DfE), to discuss a range of policies and programmes. Next year’s settlement for local government recognises the critical role councils play, and responds to the pressures they face, by providing access to the largest year-on-year increase in Core Spending Power (CSP) in over a decade. Under our proposals, CSP is expected to rise from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21; an estimated increase of 4.3 per cent in real terms. These resources are largely unringfenced and therefore available for local authorities to spend in line with their local priorities.
DfE has also recently announced an increase of £780 million in 2020-21 to their high needs budget, which pays for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities. This will bring the high needs budget to over £7 billion, with every local authority seeing a minimum funding increase of 8 per cent per person aged 2-18 years old.