Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many (a) deaths, (b) serious injuries and (c) near misses have been recorded as a result of people taking shelter in refuse bins which are then emptied into refuse vehicles; and what steps he plans to take to help prevent such incidents.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Every premature death of someone homeless is one too many and we take this matter extremely seriously.?It should not happen that people die prematurely?and on the street?because they are homeless.
We are absolutely committed to ending rough sleeping by the end of this parliament. To achieve this, we are providing £437 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in 2020/2021.This marks a £69 million increase in funding from the previous year.
This year we have expanded the Rough Sleeping Initiative with investment of £46 million for 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff. Next year, we are allocating a further £112 million to around 270 areas, funding up to 6,000 bed spaces and 2,500 staff. And this is having an impact.?The RSI?impact evaluation?shows that the Initiative has reduced the number of people sleeping rough by 32 per cent in the areas funded, compared to the number it would have been had the RSI not been in place.
We do not hold data on the?number of deaths as a result of people taking shelter in refuse bins.?However, we understand some local councils and businesses have conducted research and supplied advice on this issue in recent years.
This Government is aware that a skilled frontline workforce is essential to delivering good services and ultimately reducing homelessness.?Delivery of the?Key Groups?Training programme launched in Summer 2019. ?The training programme is expected to cater for 3,450 members of the frontline homelessness workforce by the end of June 2020.
Local authorities and outreach teams work tirelessly to ensure that appropriate support is given to all rough sleepers regardless of where they are found, be that in tents, doorways, bins or on the street.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Final local government finance settlement 2016-17, published on 8 February 2016, from what budget the planned transitional grant for 2016-17 will be drawn.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
It is funding which comes from within the departmental DEL budgets.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the methodology and models to be used by his Department to calculate the transitional grant funding distribution for 2017-18 are the same as those used to calculate the 2016-17 transitional grant funding distribution.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
My department has published an explanatory note on the method of allocation of the Transition Grant for 2016/17. A copy has been placed in the library of both Houses and is available to view at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf.
Transition Grant allocations for 2017/18 have been calculated using the same methodology and are part of the four year funding settlement offer that has been accepted by 97% of councils.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the final local government finance settlement 2016-17, published on 8 February 2016, if he will release the spreadsheet used as a calculation model and the assumptions used to determine the allocation to each individual authority of the 2016-17 transitional grant.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. A copy has been placed in the library of both Houses and it available to view at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf
Individual authority allocations were published on 8 February as part of the Core Spending Power: Supporting Information tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2016-to-2017