Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to rollout the Voluntary Right to Buy Scheme nationally.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This Government remains committed to the Right to Buy and to spreading the dream of home ownership to even more people. The Midlands pilot of the Voluntary Right to Buy scheme completed this year and an independent evaluation of the pilot was published in Feb 2021. The Government is looking at the evaluation's findings, which will be used to inform future policy, and we will announce further details on the Voluntary Right to Buy.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he will take to ensure the recording of biological natal sex on all records in his Department's remit.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This question is not answerable within the proscribed PQ cost limit of £850.00.
The PQ requests an answer pertaining to the steps taken to ensure biological natal sex is recorded on all records in the MOJ.
To provide a response, officials would need to ascertain the facts of the extent of the activities undertaken to ensure the recording of biological natal sex on all MOJ records, or alternatively confirm that no steps are taken to ensure the recording of biological natal sex on all MOJ records.
In addition to this, investigations would also need to identify all systems, programmes and files that may hold records concerning the recording of biological natal sex in the organisation and extract that information to form a factual answer.
It is estimated that this would cost £1500.00.
To enable the department to provide a full answer within the proscribed cost limit, a revision to the question on scope and specificity is recommended.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she will take to ensure the recording of biological natal sex on all records across Government.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is for each individual Department to decide when they collect data including data on sex.
The Office for Statistics Regulation provides draft guidance on collecting and reporting data on sex in official statistics. The Office for National Statistics also has guidance in the pipeline on harmonised standards on sex and gender data collection for public bodies.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to set targets for Homes England to process applications for the Housing Infrastructure Fund; and what steps he plans to take to speed up the processing of current applications.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
All applications for funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund were processed by 11 March 2020. 126 of the 127 projects within the programme are in contract. The remaining project is in the final stages of contracting.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 September 2021 to Question 52601 on Smoking, with reference to the delayed publication of the ONS smoking statistics bulletin entitled Adults smoking habits in the UK, whether the Tobacco Control Plan is expected to be published in 2021.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are undertaking further policy development to support the Tobacco Control Plan, which will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2021 to Question 31543, on Tobacco, whether statistics from the ONS bulletin, entitled Adults smoking habits in the UK, will be incorporated into the Tobacco Control Plan for England following the delay in publication of that bulletin until November 2021.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Tobacco Control Plan will utilise data from the Office for National Statistics’ bulletin when it is published later this year.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the selection criteria and process for the daily covid-19 contact testing workplace pilot.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Daily contact testing permits a contact of a positive case of COVID-19 to test daily for seven days with a lateral flow device, with each negative result releasing the individual to undertake essential activities for 24 hours.
Organisations participating in the workplace daily contact testing pilot were selected because they had expressed an interest in joining the pilot and already had an asymptomatic test site in the workplace. The workplaces selected were also designed to ensure a spread of different types of organisation, including additional public sector organisations, to assess the operational implications of running daily contact testing. A document setting out in more detail the process and selection criteria for the workplace daily contact testing pilot is currently under review prior to publication.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the impact assessment for the draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 as it stood at 19:19 on 13 July 2021.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has set out analysis of the number of current staff who we estimate may not be vaccinated or exempt by the end of the 16-week grace period in an impact statement. This figure provides an indication of the numbers that may need to be recruited by the sector to replace workers who may choose to leave the workforce rather than be vaccinated. The full impact assessment will be published as soon as possible.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to publish the updated Tobacco Control Plan before the publication of the Office for National Statistics data in 2021 on smoking prevalence.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s new Tobacco Control Plan will be published later this year. This is likely to take place after the Office for National Statistics publish data on smoking prevalence in early autumn 2021.
Asked by: Mark Jenkinson (Conservative - Workington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to reduce the number of separation and divorce proceedings that end up in the family court system; and what steps he is taking to increase the use of mediation services.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Divorce and dissolution are a fundamental change of legal status that may have implications for people’s rights and responsibilities, for matters such as property and inheritance, and for the families involved. Since the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, divorce has always been a court process and only the court can legally end a marriage.
However, divorcing couples can use family mediation to reach agreement about the arrangements for any children and for dividing their financial assets, rather than asking the court to decide these matters.
This government is committed to supporting more families to resolve issues such as these through mediation, where appropriate. On 26 March 2021, a £1m Family Mediation Voucher Scheme was launched by the MoJ, to encourage and better support families to use mediation and resolve disputes outside of court.
The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme is currently available in private law children cases where there are no safeguarding concerns and the case is deemed suitable for mediation. The scheme will offer over 2,000 families a financial contribution of up to £500 towards their mediation costs, giving these families the opportunity to resolve their disputes with the assistance of a trained mediator. Mediation Vouchers are offered, at the Mediation Information Assessment Meeting (MIAM) to ensure families are provided with information regarding the support they can get, before they decide to pursue their matters in the family court.
We are closely monitoring the uptake and impact of the scheme and are actively considering what more could be done to encourage parties to consider mediation as an alternative to court, including better signposting of mediation as part of the implementation of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020.
This government will continue to look at how the benefits of mediation can be better communicated, in order to encourage wider use of mediation where cases are suitable to do so.