Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to (a) revise local authority funding formulas and (b) make an assessment of the impact of those changes on household income.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon Mem to the policy statement , published 12 December 2022.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that levels of funding for hospices adequately take into account variations in (a) service provision and (b) regional need.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the National Health Service has been required to commission appropriate palliative and end of life care services to meet the reasonable needs of the population, as part of the Health and Care Act 2022, the Government added palliative care services to the list of services an integrated care board must commission, to clarify this responsibility.
NHS England has actively increased its support to local commissioners to improve the accessibility, quality and sustainability of palliative and end of life care for all. This has included the publication of statutory guidance and service specifications.
NHS England is investing £25 million in the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant this year, to provide care closer to home for those seriously ill as and when they need it. NHS England has now confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices. NHS England will confirm the funding mechanism and individual hospice allocations in due course.
The Government, alongside key partners, NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector on an ongoing basis, to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
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 support the hospice movement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the National Health Service has been required to commission appropriate palliative and end of life care services to meet the reasonable needs of the population, as part of the Health and Care Act 2022, the Government added palliative care services to the list of services an integrated care board must commission, to clarify this responsibility.
NHS England has actively increased its support to local commissioners to improve the accessibility, quality and sustainability of palliative and end of life care for all. This has included the publication of statutory guidance and service specifications.
NHS England is investing £25 million in the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant this year, to provide care closer to home for those seriously ill as and when they need it. NHS England has now confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices. NHS England will confirm the funding mechanism and individual hospice allocations in due course.
The Government, alongside key partners, NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector on an ongoing basis, to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to (a) increase the number of family liaison officers in the police force and (b) provide additional (i) training on communicating with families during policing operations and (ii) resources for family liaison officers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions about the allocation and deployment of resources to meet local need, including family liaison officers (FLOs) and their training, are operational matters for Chief Constables. They are best placed to make decisions about how best to meet those needs based on their local knowledge and expertise.
The FLO training programme is delivered by police forces. The College of Policing publishes guidance on the deployment of FLOs to inform strategy and direction, which is reflected in the FLO curriculum.
In recent years, this Government has committed substantial funding to invest in policing and reduce crime. As of December 2022, police forces have across England and Wales, recruited 16,753 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift, making up 84% of the target of 20,000 additional officers. The Government has confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £313.8 million when compared to 2022/23.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to increase the number of adoption registered therapists providing counselling to adults who were adopted as children.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department recognises the importance of the availability of counselling and therapeutic support to adults who were adopted as children. We agree that adult adoptees should be able to access the support that they need, particularly around their mental health needs.
The department has recently consulted on amendments to regulations to simplify arrangements for providers who provide support to adopted adults. One of the proposed changes in the consultation is to remove the requirement that therapists be registered with Ofsted when providing counselling services to adopted adults. One of the aims of this is to increase the availability of counselling for adult adoptees. We are currently analysing the responses.
The government is also improving NHS mental support availability. The NHS Long Term Plan and mental health expansion plans will increase funding for mental health services.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of telecoms customers who had mid-contract price increases above inflation in the last 12 months.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom has a statutory duty to monitor consumer trends in the telecoms sector, and it most recently reported on this in its Pricing Trends Report 2022. While not all providers have implemented price rises, the majority of consumers are likely to have been subject to in-contract price increases in the last 12 months. However, it is not possible to more accurately estimate this due to many households having multiple, bundled contracts across different suppliers.
This is clearly a difficult time for families up and down the country who are struggling to pay their bills as a result of the global rise in the cost of living. To support people to stay connected, leaders from broadband and mobile operators agreed on a set of commitments. These include allowing households, who may be mid-contract but struggling with their bills, to switch to cheaper packages without penalty.
On 23 January, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology met with chief executives from major broadband providers and made clear her concerns about the impact price rises may have on those who are struggling due to the rise in the cost of living. On 9 February 2023, Ofcom launched a review into the transparency of in-contract price rises. We will review Ofcom’s findings once this work has been completed.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when they expect the Kings Arms Project to publish the Alternatives To Detention report.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The first Community Engagement Pilot, Action Access, provided women who would otherwise be detained with a programme of support in the community. This pilot concluded on 31 March 2021 after operating for two years, as planned. To increase external credibility of evaluation, the UNHCR appointed the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to independently evaluate this work. The independent evaluation of Action Access was published on 24 January 2022.
The second pilot, the Refugee and Migrant Advisory Service, supported both men and women in the community and remained in operation for two years until June 2022. The independent evaluation of the Refugee and Migrant Advisory Service is expected to be published by NatCen early next year.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons entitled Report on an unannounced inspection of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre, published on 6 December 2022, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the 15 key concerns identified in that report.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government has fully considered the recommendations made by HM Chief Inspector of Prison following his recent inspection report of Derwentside immigration removal centre. The Government’s response to the recommendations made, including the actions being taken forward, will be published on the Inspectorate’s website in due course.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking with FirstGroup to address disruption to TransPennine routes from Newcastle Central Station.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department, which manages the TPE contract in partnership with Transport for the North, has been in regular dialogue with the operator to manage the provision of services in the face of prolonged national and local industrial action and a backlog of training caused by Covid-19 lockdowns. The actions that have been agreed and continue to be discussed include:
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking with Network Rail to reduce instances of overhead line issues on the East Coast Mainline.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We recognise that overhead line issues on the East Coast Main Line have a huge impact on passengers and freight operators. Network Rail has put in place a programme of work to replace overhead line components that have historically caused a high number of failures and are working with train operators to ensure their trains interact as sympathetically as possible with the infrastructure. Network Rail is also designing a series of specific upgrades for tunnels, where overhead line failures can be extremely disruptive, so that the infrastructure is as resilient as it possibly can be. Finally, Network Rail is working to improve the speed of its response when incidents do happen, making sure its teams get trains moving again as quickly as possible.