Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of disability employment rates.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The disability employment rate is 53.0% for the quarter April-June 2022, up 0.6 percentage points from the same quarter in 2021. This rate has steadily risen since 2013, when comparable data collection began, with an overall increase of 9.4 percentage points since 2013.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to progress her policy to provide all households with broadband speeds which satisfy the Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In March 2021, we launched our £5 billion Project Gigabit to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Project Gigabit’s objective is to level up the UK by giving hard-to-reach areas access to gigabit-capable internet speeds and, coupled with commercial gigabit delivery, ensuring almost all of the UK has access to gigabit-capable internet as soon as possible.
We have recently signed our first local Project Gigabit contracts in North Dorset and Teesdale, prioritising delivery to rural, hard-to-reach premises and to those with the lowest broadband speeds, and we will be awarding further contracts over the coming months.
Furthermore, up to £210 million is available for Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.
Separately to Project Gigabit, the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) provides the legal right to request a decent broadband connection, helping to ensure full participation in both society and the economy.
Since its launch in 2020, the number of premises eligible for the broadband USO has fallen from 189,000 to 66,000 as of May 2022. Ofcom estimates that a further 17,000 premises are currently unable to receive a decent broadband connection, but are expected to receive an upgrade by a publicly funded rollout scheme within the next 12 months.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has reviewed the potential impact of removing vehicle and operator signage from taxis on (a) service accessibility for passengers, (b) the safety of (i) women, (ii) children and (iii) other vulnerable people and (c) consumer confidence.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I refer to the Answer given on Thursday 22 September 2022 to the Parliamentary Question 53392.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing claimants who are applying for both Personal Independence Payment and work capability assessment to re-use evidence already provided for one of those claims for the other application.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
We recognise that there is scope to improve the way we deliver our disability benefit assessment services. In ‘Shaping Future Support - The Health and Disability Green Paper’, we proposed ways that could make our services easier to access and make our processes simpler, to improve the experience of people using the health and disability benefits system, including ways of offering greater flexibility and simplicity in the way that assessments are delivered. We will respond to the Green Paper consultation with a White Paper later this year.
The Health Transformation Programme (HTP) is modernising Health and Disability benefit services. It is procuring new Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contracts, which will bring together current Health and Disability Assessment Services and Personal Independence Payment assessments under single geographic contracts and provide the foundation for a new integrated Health Assessment Service.
The new claimant-focussed service will provide the opportunity to join up the process by re-using information to improve the claimant experience and reduce the time it takes to make a claim.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department monitors or reviews the quality of entries made by work coaches in a Universal Credit claimant's journal.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Our Jobcentre teams are committed to delivering a quality service to ensure all claimants receive the best possible support to meet their individual circumstances. As part of our service delivery framework, Jobcentre Team Leaders are responsible for monitoring and assuring the quality of services provided to individual claimants through a combination of observation of interviews, feedback, coaching and appraisal. This can include a quality check of any Universal Credit journal messages written by the Work Coach undergoing the observation, as well as other channels of communication with our claimants.
Work Coaches undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality, efficient service. They receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to guidance that explains how to ensure that messages left on a claimant’s journal are clear, easy to understand and meet the right standards.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with (a) with representatives of the Football Association (FA) and (b) other football bodies on the potential merits of establishing a football-led consensus to the fan-led review.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government published its response to the recommendations made by the Independent Fan Led Review of Football Governance in April 2022. We absolutely recognise the need for football to be reformed to ensure the game’s sustainability in the long term. We are now taking the time to consider the policy, and are continuing to engage with the Football Authorities and fan groups as this policy develops. We remain committed to publishing a White Paper, setting out our detailed response to the fan led review of football governance, and will set this out in due course.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made in implementing the recommendations of the Fan-Led Review of Football Governance.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government published its response to the recommendations made by the Independent Fan Led Review of Football Governance in April 2022. We absolutely recognise the need for football to be reformed to ensure the game’s sustainability in the long term. We are now taking the time to consider the policy, and are continuing to engage with the Football Authorities and fan groups as this policy develops. We remain committed to publishing a White Paper, setting out our detailed response to the fan led review of football governance, and will set this out in due course.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to progress the government's work to protect intellectual property in relation to music and film.
Answered by Dean Russell
The Government is continuing its work with the music industry to improve music streaming for creators and Ministers will shortly be updating the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is also considering evidence about how to implement the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, which will secure additional protections for British performers abroad. A public consultation on this is planned for the new year.
Additionally, in February 2022, the IPO published its 5 year IP Counter Infringement Strategy setting out its ambition to make IP infringement socially unacceptable and which includes measures to reduce copyright infringement, including of music and film.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the provision of careers advice in educational settings.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department is investing £30 million to support the improvement of careers programmes for young people across educational settings.
In primary schools, the Department is introducing a new careers programme, targeting primary schools in disadvantaged areas. The programme will seek to inspire pupils about the world of work, and help children link what they are taught in the classroom to future jobs and careers.
In secondary schools and colleges, the Department has adopted the eight Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance, a careers framework based on rigorous national and international research. Over 4,200 schools and colleges are using the Benchmarks to develop and improve their careers programmes.
We are strengthening the underpinning legislation. On 1 September 2022, the Department commenced new legislation that extends the legal entitlement to independent careers guidance to all secondary aged pupils in all types of schools. On 1 January 2023, the Department is strengthening the law so that all pupils have the opportunity for six encounters with providers of approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships, as they progress through school years 8 to 13.
The Department is working with The Careers & Enterprise Company to complete the national rollout of careers infrastructure that is proven to accelerate performance against the Gatsby Benchmarks: Careers Hubs, digital support, Careers Leader training and an Enterprise Adviser Network. By August 2023, 90% of schools and colleges will be part of a Careers Hub. Over 2,170 Careers Leaders have been trained since training was launched in September 2018. Around 3,750 business professionals are working as Enterprise Advisers with schools and colleges to develop their careers strategies and employer engagement plans.
The Department is strengthening quality and accountability. We strongly recommend that schools and colleges achieve external national accreditation through the Quality in Careers Standard. Ofsted inspectors assess the quality of careers education in all graded inspections.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on the introduction of emergency life saving skills lessons in schools.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Schools are now required to teach first aid as part of statutory health education. In this subject, pupils are taught how to deal with common injuries, call the emergency services, administer CPR and understand the purpose of defibrillators.
To support teachers to deliver this topic the department published a first aid teacher training module, which was produced with expert input from St John Ambulance and Resuscitation Council UK. This module is freely available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-training-basic-first-aid. Many schools use organisations such as St John Ambulance, the British Heart Foundation and the British Red Cross to support delivery of the topic.
The national curriculum for physical education (PE) also sets out that schools should teach water safety skills by the end of key stage 2 alongside compulsory swimming lessons. These include a requirement for children to be able to perform safe self-rescue in a variety of water-based situations. Oak National Academy, funded by the department, have also made virtual water safety lessons available. To further support schools, the government has committed to invest £30 million over the next three financial years, which will include a specific programme to improve provision of PE, school sport and physical activity in primary schools in England, including swimming and water safety.