Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
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.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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’.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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: