Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, on what date does his Department provide councils with their Social Care Grant allocations each year.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Social Care Grant is distributed as part of the Local Government Finance Statement. Towards the end of each calendar year, the Government publishes a consultation setting out its proposals for council tax referendum principles, business rates retention and allocation of numerous grants, including the Social Care Grant, for the following financial year. After the consultation closes and any alterations are made, the final Settlement and local authority allocations are published early in the following calendar year and are subject to a debate in the House of Commons. The department also sends local authorities a copy of their allocations along with the Grant Determination for the Social Care Grant at the start of the financial year.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 potential merits of adopting the Scottish Government's approach to applying digital imprints to election content posted by unregistered third parties.
Answered by Simon Hoare
The UK-wide digital imprint regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, is one of the most comprehensive digital imprint regimes in the world, applying to a wide range of material. The regime represents a substantial increase in transparency of digital political advertising for members of the public by requiring those promoting eligible digital campaigning material targeted at the UK electorate to include an imprint with their name and address.
Our regime does require unregistered third parties promoting paid-for material and those promoting other electronic material on behalf of specific political entities listed in section 44 of the Act to include an imprint in the material.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will provide guidance to local authorities on acting as guarantors for the Homes for Ukraine scheme; and if his Department will take steps to provide additional funding to local authorities for this purpose.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
We have provided funding to councils to enable them to provide support to individuals and families. This is un-ringfenced, which allows councils to use the funding as best suits the local area, including measures to support guests to access the private rental market. We are considering what further steps we can take to support guests to find accommodation after their sponsorship ends.
The Government has updated guidance for the Homes for Ukraine guests, hosts and councils setting out all the support options available to them and it can be found here.