Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average time taken for eligible applicants to receive an immigration healthcare surcharge refund was in each of the past six months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The reimbursement scheme covers those working in the health and care sector and those eligible under certain of the United Kingdom’s reciprocal healthcare arrangements. The following table shows the average mean time taken for eligible applicants to receive an Immigration Health Surcharge refund for the last six months, noting that December 2023 data is incomplete accounting for claims up to 13 December 2023:
Month | Average mean time (days) |
June 2023 | 32 |
July 2023 | 34 |
August 2023 | 39 |
September 2023 | 50 |
October 2023 | 30 |
November 2023 | 19 |
December 2023 | 13 |
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to establish an offenders' registry for the perpetrators of animal cruelty.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Police National Computer holds all relevant information for prosecutions made for animal cruelty offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and the police may be approached by anyone who has concerns about whether someone should be keeping animals. The Department currently has no plans to establish a public offenders' registry for animal cruelty offences.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effects of long waiting lists of schools that are specialised for Special Educational Needs children on such children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the importance of accessing timely and effective support to improve the experiences of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and their families.
Nationally, 17% of pupils are identified with some form of SEN, three quarters of whom receive SEN support from their mainstream school, funded from its own resources. Local authorities must ensure there are sufficient good school places for all pupils, including special schools and those with SEND. They are statutorily required to keep the services and provision for children and young people with SEND under review (including its sufficiency), working with parents, young people, and providers.
To go further in supporting local authorities to meet this duty, in the SEND and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan, the department is committed to investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND, including announcing 41 new special free schools. This funding represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision.
The department has also collected new data from local authorities on available capacity in special schools, SEND units and resourced provision, along with corresponding forecasts of demand for these places. This data will help the department to more effectively support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duty to provide sufficient specialist places.
Through these reforms, the department aim to ensure that placements for children and young people with SEND are sufficient to meet need, allowing them to access the right support, in the right setting, at the right time.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to prevent the presence of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies (for public drinking water supplies) and local authorities (for private drinking water supplies) have statutory duties to carry out assessments, identifying risks to the quality of the water. They must sample the drinking water supply for any element, organism or substance which could pose a danger to human health. This includes the detection of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Drinking Water Inspectorate has provided guidance on PFAS since 2007, which was updated in 2021. Work continues across government to assess levels of PFAS occurring in the environment, their sources and potential risks, to inform future policy and regulatory approaches to safeguard current high drinking water quality.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's planned timescale is for bringing forward legislative measures from the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are introducing the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill in this parliamentary session to deliver our manifesto commitment to end this trade. The Bill will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury caused by exporting live animals. We remain dedicated to delivering our other manifesto commitments that were in the Bill. These are: to crack down on the smuggling of puppies, and to ban the keeping of primates as pets. We have already consulted on primate keeping standards and will bring forward legislation before the end of the year. We also look forward to progressing the non-manifesto measures which will deliver a new offence of pet abduction, update legislation to tackle livestock worrying, and raise standards in zoos. We would be supportive of single issue legislation when Parliamentary time allows. We believe this to be the quickest and most effective way of achieving these aims.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase support for autistic (a) children and (b) young adults in the education system.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department set out its vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need and timely access to support to meet those with SEND. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings, who is responsible for securing the support and from which budgets. This will give children and young people confidence and clarity on how their needs will be met. The department will establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND, including autism, so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
In the immediate term, the system is being supported to deliver change and improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, including autism, by investing:
To help frontline professionals better support the needs of autistic children and young people in their settings, the department’s Universal Services contract offers autism awareness training and resources for the school and further education workforce. This aligns with the all-age autism strategy and its ambition to improve autistic children and young people’s access to education and support positive transitions into adulthood. Over 100,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training as part of a train the trainer model since the Universal Services programme launched in 2022.
Additionally, new practitioner standards are being developed to further help education staff support children and young people with SEND. The first three practitioner standards, including one on autism, will be published by the end of 2025.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of migrating households from the public switched telephone network to the Digital Voice service on (a) the elderly and (b) people with disabilities.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government recognises the importance of both fixed (landlines) and the mobile telephone network in the UK. We expect the telecoms industry to ensure that all consumers, particularly the most vulnerable including the elderly and people with disabilities, are protected and prepared for the upgrade of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). DSIT receives regular updates from telecoms providers about the progress of their migration and any emerging challenges they face.
Ofcom is responsible for ensuring telecoms providers adhere to their regulatory obligations throughout the migration process, which includes protecting vulnerable consumers. Ofcom has published guidance which states that providers must take steps to identify at-risk consumers who are dependent on their landline and provide them with additional support.
DSIT meets regularly with Communications Providers to monitor their migration process, and to ensure adequate provisions are in place to protect vulnerable consumers. This includes, but is not limited to, quarterly progress meetings with individual providers, quarterly meetings with all government departments/agencies, and monthly meetings with Ofcom.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 ensure that the procurement process for NHS England’s federated data platform (a) is transparent, (b) ensures equality of treatment for all potential suppliers and (c) does not advantage incumbents.
Answered by Will Quince
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the (a) safety of asylum seekers aged under 18 and (b) adequacy of detention facilities for asylum seekers aged under 18.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 is taking to help tackle youth homelessness.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 201488 on 23 October 2023.