Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the water quality of Dymchurch and St Mary’s Bay.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) takes statutory samples and ensures compliance with the requirements of the Bathing Water Regulations. They collect investigative samples and analyse the results alongside other environmental data to help identify sources of pollution.
Dymchurch and St Marys Bay are priority bathing waters for local EA teams this year. No single source of pollution has been identified at these locations. The EA will continue to work with others including the water company, the local authority and communities to improve and protect water quality by identifying and stopping polluting inputs.
Water quality improvements at St. Marys Bay last year saw a return to ‘sufficient’ classification. This bathing water no longer has advice against bathing status, however there is still work to do to ensure water quality continues to improve.
The EA has worked in partnership with Southern Water to find and eliminate possible sources of contamination from their network, including misconnections. Southern Water has completed extensive checks of their sewerage infrastructure and have rectified issues throughout the investigations.
The EA encourages local communities to report pollution incidents that could be impacting bathing, surface or groundwater to their 24/7 incident hotline so they can respond and stop any pollution.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling energy networks to access a dedicated radio spectrum for enhanced operational communications.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofcom is responsible for the management of spectrum in the UK, including allocating spectrum. My officials are working with those in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and with regulators to establish and assess the evidence base for the future telecommunications requirements of the energy, water and transport sectors.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many sponsoring employers in the care sector had their sponsorship licence revoked in each year between 2022 to 2024; and what information her Department holds on the number of overseas care workers who have become unemployed following the revocation of their employer's sponsorship licence in that time period.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office does not routinely publish data on sponsor revocations for specific sectors. However, between July 2022 and December 2024, the government revoked more than 470 sponsor licences in the care sector to clampdown on abuse and exploitation. More than 39,000 workers have been associated with these sponsors since October 2020.
From our analysis we believe that up to 10,000 of these individuals are now in alternative sponsored work within the Health and Care sector.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department of 22 January 2025, Official Report, column 414WH, how many displaced international care workers whose sponsor’s licence had not been revoked have been supported by regional partnerships since they were established.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2024/25, £16 million has been made available through the adult social care international recruitment fund for 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships to prevent and respond to exploitative practices of internationally recruited care staff. Between July 2024 and February 2025, approximately 8,800 people have contacted the regional partnerships for support. To date, approximately 550 of these individuals have been supported into new employment, according to self-reported data provided by the regional partnerships. This data has not been independently verified by the Department or UK Visas and Immigration. We do not hold data on the number of care workers supported into new employment whose sponsor has not had their licence revoked.
A primary aim of the 2024/25 fund is to facilitate in-country matching of overseas recruits who have been displaced by unethical practices or by their employer’s sponsorship licence being revoked. However, in some instances, regions are also providing support to care workers not impacted by sponsor licence revocation. To support regional partnerships, we have published guidance on implementing the aims of the fund, which is available at the following link:
We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in 2026.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department on 22 January 2025, Official Report, column 414WH, what guidance his Department has provided to regional partnerships for supporting international care workers on ensuring they offer assistance to all care workers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2024/25, £16 million has been made available through the adult social care international recruitment fund for 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships to prevent and respond to exploitative practices of internationally recruited care staff. Between July 2024 and February 2025, approximately 8,800 people have contacted the regional partnerships for support. To date, approximately 550 of these individuals have been supported into new employment, according to self-reported data provided by the regional partnerships. This data has not been independently verified by the Department or UK Visas and Immigration. We do not hold data on the number of care workers supported into new employment whose sponsor has not had their licence revoked.
A primary aim of the 2024/25 fund is to facilitate in-country matching of overseas recruits who have been displaced by unethical practices or by their employer’s sponsorship licence being revoked. However, in some instances, regions are also providing support to care workers not impacted by sponsor licence revocation. To support regional partnerships, we have published guidance on implementing the aims of the fund, which is available at the following link:
We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in 2026.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the regional partnerships financed by the international recruitment fund for the adult social care sector; whether he plans to publish an evaluation of the project.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2024/25, £16 million has been made available through the adult social care international recruitment fund for 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships to prevent and respond to exploitative practices of internationally recruited care staff. Between July 2024 and February 2025, approximately 8,800 people have contacted the regional partnerships for support. To date, approximately 550 of these individuals have been supported into new employment, according to self-reported data provided by the regional partnerships. This data has not been independently verified by the Department or UK Visas and Immigration. We do not hold data on the number of care workers supported into new employment whose sponsor has not had their licence revoked.
A primary aim of the 2024/25 fund is to facilitate in-country matching of overseas recruits who have been displaced by unethical practices or by their employer’s sponsorship licence being revoked. However, in some instances, regions are also providing support to care workers not impacted by sponsor licence revocation. To support regional partnerships, we have published guidance on implementing the aims of the fund, which is available at the following link:
We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in 2026.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many international social care workers have (a) had contact with the regional partnerships financed by the international recruitment fund for the adult social care sector and (b) been assisted into new employment by those partnerships.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2024/25, £16 million has been made available through the adult social care international recruitment fund for 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships to prevent and respond to exploitative practices of internationally recruited care staff. Between July 2024 and February 2025, approximately 8,800 people have contacted the regional partnerships for support. To date, approximately 550 of these individuals have been supported into new employment, according to self-reported data provided by the regional partnerships. This data has not been independently verified by the Department or UK Visas and Immigration. We do not hold data on the number of care workers supported into new employment whose sponsor has not had their licence revoked.
A primary aim of the 2024/25 fund is to facilitate in-country matching of overseas recruits who have been displaced by unethical practices or by their employer’s sponsorship licence being revoked. However, in some instances, regions are also providing support to care workers not impacted by sponsor licence revocation. To support regional partnerships, we have published guidance on implementing the aims of the fund, which is available at the following link:
We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in 2026.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to support victims of stalking through the criminal justice system.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade. To do so, the Government is committed to better supporting and protecting victims and survivors of VAWG, including stalking.
The Ministry of Justice provides funding for victim and witness support services. This includes community-based domestic abuse and sexual violence services, in addition to the core funding the Ministry of Justice provides to Police and Crime Commissioners to allocate at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need. This can include services specifically for victims of stalking.
On 3 December, the Government announced a raft of new measures to tackle stalking by putting victims first and making sure they can be protected at the earliest opportunity. Through the Crime and Policing Bill, the Government is introducing provisions which, once implemented, would provide for the courts to impose Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) on conviction and acquittal of their own volition. SPOs are an essential tool that are designed to protect victims of stalking at the earliest possible opportunity and address the perpetrator’s behaviours before they become entrenched or escalate in severity.
The Government is also introducing provisions to issue: multi-agency statutory guidance on stalking to set out for the first time a robust framework for how agencies such as the police, local authorities and healthcare should define stalking and work together to pursue perpetrators and support victims; and statutory guidance to set out the process by which the police should release identifying information about online stalking perpetrators to victims so appropriate safeguards can be put in place. In addition, the Government is conducting a review of the stalking legislation to determine whether the law could be changed to support a better understanding and better identification of stalking.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to work with Local Authorities to improve the teaching quality of Education otherwise than in a school packages.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or who are in alternative provision, including those receiving education otherwise than in a school (EOTAS), receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Last year, the department published a consultation titled ‘Strengthening protections in unregistered alternative provision’, which sought views on proposals intended to improve practice and raise standards for children in non-school settings, including those with education, health and care plans that gave them support through EOTAS. We are committed to improving the outcomes for vulnerable children being educated in this way and will set out the government’s response to the consultation and next steps in due course.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
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 disability related expenditure assessments are being undertaken by local authorities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Where local authorities decide to charge for the provision of care and support, they must follow the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, which is available at the following link:
This guidance sets out that, where disability-related benefits are taken into account during a financial assessment, the local authority should make an assessment and allow the person to keep enough of their benefit payments to pay for necessary disability-related expenditure, to meet any needs which are not being met by the local authority.