Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to staff the Departmental Operations Centre in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Jake Berry
A dedicated Departmental Operations Centre (DOC) will manage and lead preparations in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The DOC has been designed to operate on a two shift system if required and we anticipate this mode of operation would be sufficient to effectively manage a no deal exit in the majority of circumstances. In the event a no-deal exit occurs and has a highly disruptive impact we would introduce three shift working to effectively manage a reasonable worst case scenario. The current estimates are that two shift working arrangement in our DOC would require 389 people and a three shift working arrangement would require 621 people. The DOC would be resourced through a combination of MHCLG staff and staff provided by other government departments.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Departmental workstreams have ceased or are planned to cease as a result of Departmental staff being allocated to work on preparations for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Jake Berry
As we stepped up work on our no deal preparations we had to pause some of our other work. In doing this we ensured that we had protected our most vital work on: promoting home ownership, levelling up opportunities across the country, putting local government finance on a sustainable footing, tackling rough sleeping, promoting integration and improving the provision of English Language and addressing the issues exposed by the Grenfell Tower tragedy, in particular on Building Safety.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the total staffing costs of (a) two and (b) three shift patterns of working by staff in his Department for a three month period.
Answered by Esther McVey
The total additional estimated staffing costs for MHCLG staff involved in a two shift pattern over three months is £402,000. If a three shift system was required over the same period the total additional staffing cost is estimated to be £696,000.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has for (a) two and (b) three shift patterns of working for staff in his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Department’s Operations Centre (DOC) which will manage and lead the preparations and response to a no deal exit was formally activated in the period 21-28 October 2019 and two shift working was in operation during that period.
We consider this shift pattern will be sufficient to effectively manage a no deal exit in the majority of circumstances. In the event a no deal exit occurs with multiple event occurring at the same time, we would introduce three shift working to effectively manage a reasonable worst case scenario.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has conducted a risk assessment for (a) Departmental staff and (b) the Department of shift working patterns.
Answered by Jake Berry
No specific or additional risk assessment has been conducted in relation to staff undertaking normal hours working in our Departmental Operations Centre (DOC). Our existing health and safety policies ensure that we will continue to exercise our duty of care and appropriately safeguard the health and well-being of our staff. We have conducted a specific risk assessment of night working and have put in place the necessary measures to advise and support staff in these circumstances. We have also provided specific advice and support on the complete range of issues associated with shift working e.g. travelling late at night and have also provided additional well-being training for staff working in our DOC.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of staff his Department will need to work on a (a) two and (b) three shift pattern to staff the Departmental Operations Centre in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Jake Berry
The current estimates are that a two shift working arrangement in our Departmental Operations Centre would require 389 people and a three shift working arrangement would require 621 people in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received from Peterborough City Council for financial support following the collapse of Thomas Cook.
Answered by Jake Berry
I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 377 on 17 October 2019.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to protect Local Welfare Assistance schemes in England.
Answered by Luke Hall
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the amount of central government funding provided to (a) Cambridgeshire County Council and (b) Peterborough City Council, in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
Due to changes in the finance and function of local government, there has been no consistent measure of central government funding since 2010. The Department’s preferred measure of local government funding is Core Spending Power. Core Spending Power is comparable over the period 2015-16 to 2019-20 and published on the Department's website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2019-to-2020.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce homelessness.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have made a manifesto commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, placing a priority on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.
Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.
Ahead of the Rough Sleeping Strategy we announced a new Rough Sleeping Initiative in order to have an immediate impact on reducing the levels of rough sleeping.
The measures within the initiative include:
a cross-government, multi-disciplinary new Rough Sleeping Team;
a £30 million fund for 2018-19 for local authorities with high number of people sleeping rough;
a further £45 million fund for 2019-20 to help tackle rough sleeping.
In its first year, our Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff. This year we have expanded the RSI with investment of £46 million for 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff.
In April 2018 the Homelessness Reduction Act, the most ambitious legislative reform on this issue in decades, came into force. The Act transforms the culture of homelessness service delivery. It placed new duties on local housing authorities to take reasonable steps to try to prevent and relieve a person’s homelessness.