Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children with autism receive a good standard of education.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department aim is for all children and young people, including those who are autistic, to receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department wants all children to achieve well throughout their education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives and to experience choice and control.
In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, the department set out a vision to improve mainstream education by setting standards for the early and accurate identification of need and the timely provision of access to support. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support. This will give parents confidence and clarity on how their child’s needs will be met.
As part of this, the department has committed to developing practitioner standards, which were known as practice guides in the Improvement Plan, to provide advice to education professionals. The three practitioner standards will be published by the end of 2025, one of which will be focused on autism. The department will build on existing best practice and will include guidance on how an education environment may be adapted to better support the needs of autistic pupils.
The department’s Universal Services contract brings together SEND-specific continuous professional development and support for the school and further education workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people, including those who are autistic.
The contract offers autism awareness training and resources delivered by the Autism Education Trust (AET). Over 100,000 education professionals have undertaken autism awareness training as part of AET's ‘train the trainer’ model since the Universal Services programme commenced in May 2022.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce fire and rescue service response times.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to do their important work and to keep the public safe.
In 2023/24, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.6 billion. Decisions on how their resources, including staff, are best deployed to meet their core functions including crewing and meeting response times, is a matter for each fire and rescue authority, based on risks identified within local Community Risk Management Plans (CRMPs).
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to increase crewing levels for fire and rescue services.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to do their important work and to keep the public safe.
In 2023/24, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.6 billion. Decisions on how their resources, including staff, are best deployed to meet their core functions including crewing and meeting response times, is a matter for each fire and rescue authority, based on risks identified within local Community Risk Management Plans (CRMPs).
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to help protect firefighters from harmful fire contaminants.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of paramount importance and emerging research indicating that they may be exposed to contaminants is concerning. The Home Office are commissioning a literature review of such research that will involve a comprehensive review of published literature on the risk contaminants pose to firefighters along with related decontamination protocols.
Fire and rescue authorities, as the employers, must take seriously their responsibility for the health and wellbeing of firefighters, they should be mindful of the emerging research in this area and take appropriate action to protect their workforce – including appropriate decontamination processes for equipment.
We are working closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council and partners across government to understand the potential risk and whether further action is needed.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) the former Department for International Development worked on overseas development in Africa in each financial year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
It is not possible to provide a precise figure for the total number of officials working on overseas development in Africa in any given year. A range of FCDO departments in the UK, and our network of posts around the world, contribute to our work on overseas development in Africa. This includes work on policy development, research and analysis, specialist expertise and advice, and programme delivery. Over the past decade, there have been around 300 officials in roles focusing predominantly on overseas development in Africa, supported by a large network of expert country-based staff, in addition to wider efforts across our missions in Africa, our multilateral missions, and our posts in key partner countries. The FCDO's country business planning process ensures joined-up policy and delivery, in support of HMG objectives in Africa, including those set out in the White Paper.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) the former Department for International Development worked on conflict prevention in each financial year since 2010.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
It is not possible to provide a precise figure for the total number of officials working on conflict prevention in any given year. A range of FCDO departments in the UK, and our network of posts around the world, contribute to preventing conflict. This includes work on policy development, research and analysis, specialist expertise and advice, and programme delivery. The Conflict and Atrocity Prevention Department within FCDO's Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation, and our cadre of conflict advisors are supporting delivery of the commitments on conflict prevention set out in the recent International Development White Paper.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2024 to Question 8417 on Bilateral Aid: Gender Based Violence, how much bilateral aid spending (a) his Department and (b) the predecessor Department has used to tackle violence against women and girls in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Ending violence against women and girls overseas remains a top priority for FCDO. Please find a summary of bilateral spend in (a) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development and (b) Department for International Development (DFID) from 2016 - 2022. The sector code '15180', which is used to track spend on ending violence against women and girls, was first created in 2016 with governments only able to report against it since then. The figures presented are likely to be an underestimation as some humanitarian and other sectoral programmes also work to prevent and respond to violence, but are not captured.
(£) Millions | |||||||
2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
Department for International Development (DFID) | 1.9 | 11.3 | 18.3 | 29.2 | 25.0 | ||
Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) | 2.8 | 0.04 | |||||
Total for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) | 4.8 | 11.3 | 18.3 | 29.2 | 25.0 | 14.2 | 69.0 |
Source: [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statistics-on-international-development]
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Group Litigation Order Compensation Scheme: questions and answers, updated 29 November 2023, what progress her Department has made on issuing an initial offer in 90% of cases brought by sub-postmasters within 40 days of submission of a complete claim.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This information will be published in February on GOV.UK as part of the next monthly Post Office Horizon Compensation data pack.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of claimants to the group litigation order scheme for sub-postmasters affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal have received full and final compensation as of 17 January 2024.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As of 15th January 2024, 28 out of 59 claims received under the Group Litigation Order scheme had been paid in full and offers made on a further 16 claims.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) diagnosis rate and (b) management of Tumour Induced Osteomalacia.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Department is not taking steps to ensure early diagnosis of tumour induced osteomalacia specifically, the 2021 UK Rare Diseases Framework aims to improve the awareness of all rare diseases which includes this condition. England’s second Rare Diseases Action Plan, published in February 2023, reports on progress made to help patients get a final diagnosis faster and outlines new actions such as commissioning research on how best to measure the diagnostic odyssey.
The Department asked the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to carry out a single technology appraisal of burosumab for treating FGF23-related hypophosphataemia in tumour-induced osteomalacia, but the company was not in a position to apply for a marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for this indication and so assessment has been suspended.