Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what childcare facilities her Department makes available for its staff; how much her Department spent (a) overall and (b) per child on those facilities in the last 12 months; and how many of her Department's staff use those facilities.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Staff in the Department can utilise the Westminster Holiday Play Scheme. This is a childcare facility that takes place during school holidays, open to children from the age of 4 years and 9 months up to 15 years’ old. It is run by a private company on behalf of a consortium of departments, through a contract led and administered by BEIS. It currently operates at 4 London locations. Parents/guardians meet more than half of the costs for children attending this scheme, but the Department pays either £14.78 or £15.68 (dependent on the age of the child) towards each day’s use of the scheme.
During FY 2016/17, Home Office has recorded spend of £4045.84 on this play scheme. The Department does not collate details on the number of individual staff members who made use of the scheme or on the amounts spent per child.
More widely, the Home Office operates a Childcare Voucher Salary Sacrifice Scheme for staff. Staff can choose to take part of their salary (up to £243 per month) in the form of childcare vouchers. As the vouchers are exempt from Tax and NI, a saving is made. The vouchers can be used to help meet the costs of a range of registered childcare.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her oral contribution of 22 June 2017, Official Report, column 211, on terror attacks, whether (a) the requirement for a hate crime to have occurred within two years before a place of worship can apply for security funding has been removed and (b) any new requirements for such applications have been put in place; and when she plans to publish updated application information.
Answered by Sarah Newton
On the 22 June, the Home Secretary announced an additional £1 million of funding for places of worship who are vulnerable to attack.
The new scheme will not require the applicant to demonstrate that they have been subject to a hate crime attack within the last two years. Full details of the criteria for the scheme and how to apply will be published on GOV.UK in the near future.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many referrals under the Prevent strategy concerned far-right motives; and how many of those referrals have been acted upon.
Answered by Ben Wallace
A small number of Prevent referrals that require more considered Intervention are referred into the Channel Programme. At present around a third of these are related to the Extreme Right Wing.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many places of worship applied for security support from the scheme for security funding for places of worship in (a) Batley and Spen, (b) each region and constituent part of the United Kingdom and (c) total.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The first year of the places of worship scheme was open from 26 July to 4 October 2016.
286 places of worship applied, which can be broken down by region as follows:
First Year – 286
Bedfordshire (10), Birmingham (14), Cambridgeshire (2), Cheshire (7), County Durham (2), Devon (4), Dorset (4), Derbyshire (2), Essex (8), Gloucestershire (15), Hampshire (1), Hertfordshire (5), Kent (7), Lancashire (15), London (68), Leicestershire (5), Lincolnshire (4), Merseyside (7), Northamptonshire (1), Oxfordshire (3), Sussex (4), Surrey (6), Staffordshire (70, Tyne and Wear (9), West Midlands (19), Wiltshire (6), Worcestershire (2), Wales (13) and Yorkshire (33).
In the second year of the scheme, 54 places of worship applied broken down as follows:
Second Year – 54
Kent (1), Devon (3), Lincolnshire (2), Hertfordshire (3), Wales (2), Shropshire (1), Staffordshire (2), London (9), Cheshire (1), Birmingham (7), Yorkshire (9), Gloucestershire (4), Worcestershire (1), Tyne & Wear (1), Hampshire (1), Bedfordshire (2), Dorset (1), West Midlands (1), County Durham (1), Norfolk (1)
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many places of worship that have applied for security support from the scheme for security funding for places of worship have had work completed in (a) Batley and Spen, (b) each region of the UK and (c) total.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The First year of the places of worship scheme was open from 26 July to 4 October 2016. Work has been completed at 54 places of worship, which can be broken down by region as follows: Kent (1), Devon (3), Lincolnshire (2), Hertfordshire (3), Wales (2), Shropshire (1), Staffordshire (2), London (9), Cheshire (1), Birmingham (7), Yorkshire (9), Gloucestershire (4), Worcestershire (1), Tyne & Wear (1), Hampshire (1), Bedfordshire (2), Dorset (1), West Midlands (1), County Durham (1), Norfolk (1)