Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure equity of access to IVF treatment across (a) clinical commissioning group areas and (b) post codes.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure Parkinson's disease patients receive medication on time while in hospital.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the minimum income requirement threshold after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The minimum income requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We have kept the family Immigration Rules under review and made adjustments in light of feedback, including from the courts, on their operation and impact.
The overall assessment is that the minimum income requirement strikes a fair balance between an individual’s right to family life, the economic wellbeing of the UK and the community in general.
In last year’s immigration white paper, ‘The UK’s future skills-based immigration system’, the Government agreed to the principle that minimum salary thresholds should be retained for the new skilled worker route. These thresholds should help control migration, ensuring that it is reduced to sustainable levels, whilst ensuring that the UK can attract the talented people needed for the country to continue to prosper. Salary thresholds should also see skilled migrants continue to make a positive contribution to public finances.
In June 2019, the Migration Advisory Committee were commissioned to advise on a number of issues concerning potential future thresholds and the range at which they could be set. These include the mechanism for calculating future salary thresholds, salary threshold levels, whether there should be regional salary thresholds and the impact of exemptions from minimum salary thresholds. The MAC has been asked to report by January 2020. Further details of the commission can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/829234/Home_Secretary_Professor_Manning_-_Points-based_system.pdf
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect vulnerable children from human trafficking.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The trafficking of children is an appalling crime. Where children are found to be victims of modern slavery or trafficking the Government is committed to protecting their safety and welfare.
Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area including child victims of modern slavery. Local children's services will work in close co-operation with the police and other statutory agencies to offer potentially trafficked children the support they require.
Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs), recently renamed from Independent Child Trafficking Advocates, are additional to this statutory support and are an independent source of advice for trafficked children and somebody who can speak up on their behalf.
This year, the Government has successfully rolled out ICTGs to one third of all local authorities in England and Wales. Where the service is available, all children that are potential victims of trafficking are eligible for support.
Government has welcomed the findings of the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which included a specific set of recommendations relating the wider roll out of ICTGs. In-line with the Government’s response, published in July 2019, we are currently considering the Review’s recommendations on ICTGs and will provide a further update to Parliament ahead of national roll out.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support areas at high risk of tuberculosis.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate she has made of the number of the Thomas Cook employees who have been made redundant in each region of the UK.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 July 2019 to Question 280408 on Schools: Uniforms, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing guidance on school uniforms under (a) section 88 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and (b) section 175 of the Education Act 2002.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This Government has announced its plan to put the school uniform guidance on a statutory footing.
Asked by: Lisa Forbes (Labour - Peterborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
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.