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Written Question
Public Lavatories: Waste Disposal
Monday 25th September 2023

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to ensure that the consultation entitled Toilet provision in buildings other than dwellings, published on 13 August 2023, includes the consideration of equal provision of sanitary bins in male and female toilets.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 195483 on the 6 September 2023.


Written Question
Incontinence
Monday 25th September 2023

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the adequacy of Approved Document M for ensuring that men who experience incontinence can access sanitary bins.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 195483 on the 6 September 2023.


Written Question
Public Lavatories: Incontinence
Tuesday 25th July 2023

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to consult on the implementation of incontinence bins in publicly accessible male toilets as part of the technical consultation on the provision of toilets.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Government encourages the provision of sanitary bins in publicly accessible toilets.


Written Question
South Cambridgeshire District Council: Working Hours
Wednesday 12th July 2023

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department’s letter of 30 June 2023 to the leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, what legal power he used to require that South Cambridgeshire District Council stop its four-day working week trial.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

I refer the Hon. Member to my letter of 30 June. I will place a copy of the letter in the Library of the House.


Written Question
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Wednesday 16th March 2022

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which organisations his Department considers are local partners that should (a) be consulted and (b) help local authorities deliver UK Shared Prosperity Fund funding to the communities that need it most; and whether a list of local partners will be published in the prospectus.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

A list of local partners will be included in the prospectus (which is being published later this spring) which will be a guide for local authorities.

Currently, each lead local authority is encouraged to start identifying a diverse range of local stakeholders, appropriate groups and organisations to represent cross-sector voices.


Written Question
Tobacco: Health Services
Thursday 3rd February 2022

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department plans to take to reduce tobacco-related health inequalities in the forthcoming levelling up White Paper.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

As set out in the recently published Levelling Up the United Kingdom White Paper, this Government is committed to levelling up society and helping people quit smoking. The White Paper outlines how the Government wants to make the country smokefree by 2030 and the Department of Health and Social Care will publish a new tobacco control plan later this year setting out how the government plans to deliver this.

The UK Government will set out a strategy to tackle the core drivers of inequalities in health outcomes in a new White Paper on Health Disparities in England in 2022. The Department of Health and Social Care will work with the whole of government to consider health disparities at each stage at which they arise, from wider determinants of health, to behavioural factors that influence health, to the health services that people access and receive. It plans to look in more detail at what can be done in communities with higher rates of behaviours, including smoking.


Written Question
Horticulture
Tuesday 26th October 2021

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group’s action plan, Unlocking Green Growth: A plan for the ornamental horticulture and landscaping industry, published on 7 September 2021; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of proposals to improve urban planning and green urban areas.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) acknowledges the importance of green and open space and makes clear that where new development is proposed an appropriate amount of public space should be provided. It is sets out that existing open space should not be built on unless there is evidence to demonstrate that it is no longer required, or it will be replaced by equivalent or better provision at a suitable location.

The NPPF also sets out how both local and neighbourhood plans allow communities to identify and protect green areas which they consider to be of particular importance, by formally designating these as Local Green Space.

We amended the NPPF, in July 2021, to ensure planning policies create places which are better-designed and more beautiful. In addition, the National Model Design Code sets out proposals for how nature and green spaces should be woven into the fabric of our villages, towns and cities, providing benefits in terms of health and wellbeing, biodiversity, climate and flood mitigation.

My officials are engaging with DEFRA officials regarding the outcomes of the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group’s ‘Unlocking green growth: A plan from the ornamental horticulture & landscaping industry’.


Written Question
Homelessness: Migrants
Monday 1st March 2021

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward emergency legislative proposals to ensure people who have no recourse to public funds and who require homelessness assistance can access emergency accommodation for the next 12 months.

Answered by Eddie Hughes

The rules as to eligibility relating to immigration status, including for those with NRPF, have not changed.

Local authorities must use their judgement in assessing what support they may lawfully give to each person on an individual basis, considering that person’s specific circumstances and support needs.

Local authorities already regularly make such judgements on accommodating individuals who might otherwise be ineligible, during extreme weather for example.

We want to ensure that local areas have the tools they need to support as many people as possible off the street as possible. That is why we have established programmes such as the Next Steps Accommodation Programme and the Home Office’s Rough Sleeping Support Service.

More information on the support available to migrants during the pandemic, including those with NRPF, can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-get-support-if-youre-a-migrant-living-in-the-uk


Written Question
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Consultants
Monday 25th March 2019

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many consultants his Department has hired since 2016; and what the cost of that hiring was to the public purse.

Answered by Jake Berry

The Department does not hold information on the number of consultants hired in any one year as this work is often commissioned as part of an outcomes- based contract to ensure value for money.

The amount spent on consultants each year since 2016 is published in the Department Annual Report and Accounts on page 55 under Expenditure on Consultancy and Temporary Staff at the website below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/727588/MHCLG_ARA_2017_18_WEB_Accessible.pdf.


Written Question
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Public Consultation
Tuesday 12th March 2019

Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many consultations by his Department (a) are open, (b) are closed awaiting a Government response and (c) have been initiated since 2016.

Answered by Jake Berry

MHCLG consultations can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=&taxons%5B%5D=all&subtaxons%5B%5D=all&publication_filter_option=open-consultations&departments%5B%5D=ministry-of-housing-communities-and-local-government&official_document_status=all&world_locations%5B%5D=all&from_date=01%2F01%2F2016&to_date=.