Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of offences which involved a knife or sharp instrument in (a) Coventry and (b) the West Midlands in each of the last two years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold figures below the level of Police Force Area. In the year ending September 2020, there were 4,745 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the West Midlands Police Force Area. This compares to 4,483 in the year ending September 2021. This represents a fall of 8% between September 2020 and September 2021.
The number of homicides recorded in the West Midlands Police Force Area involving a knife or sharp instrument over the last five years were as follows:
Year ending Sept 2017 - 23
Year ending Sept 2018 - 21
Year ending Sept 2019 - 22
Year ending Sept 2020 - 25
Year ending Sept 2021 - 23
The number of homicides recorded in England involving a knife or sharp instrument over the last five years were as follows:
Year ending Sept 2017 - 238
Year ending Sept 2018 - 279
Year ending Sept 2019 - 237
Year ending Sept 2020 - 252
Year ending Sept 2021 - 267
Tackling knife crime is a priority for this Government and we are supporting the police by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. As at 31 December 2021, police forces in England and Wales have recruited over 11,000 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift Programme and West Midlands police force has recruited 844 additional uplift officers against a combined year 1 and 2 allocation of 730 officers.
Police funding is also increasing and, on 2 February 2022, the Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £16.9 billion in 2022/23. West Midlands Police will receive up to £694.9 million in 2022/23, an increase of up to £39.4 million when compared to 2021/22.
Since 2019, the Home Office has invested £105.5m (£35.5m this financial year) in the 18 areas worst affected by serious violence to develop Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) of which £10.11m has been allocated to the West Midlands PCC to develop the West Midlands VRU. VRUs combine the expertise of key local partners, including the police, health, education, and local authorities, to pinpoint the drivers of violence in their areas and deliver bespoke interventions in response. This includes targeted interventions with at-risk young people, ranging from behavioural therapy, social skills training, trusted adult relationships amongst many more. Over 300,000 young people have been supported by VRUs in their first two years of funding.
Additionally, we have made up to c.£17m available this financial year for additional early intervention and prevention programmes to support young people at high risk of involvement in serious violence, delivered via VRUs on top of their core funding. This includes three investments into the West Midlands, which are:
o £1.176m in high-intensity therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which the Youth Endowment Fund’s Evidence Toolkit identifies as likely to be highly effective in reducing violent crime;
o £455k in ‘teachable moment’ style interventions for young people involved in serious violence which capitalise on important moments when they are likely to be most receptive (for example, admission to A&E or in police custody), connecting them to a package of support enabling a more positive life course; and
o £591k in trauma-informed training for frontline professionals to help them improve support for young people by developing a greater understanding of different types of trauma that may have been experienced by the children and young people they work with.
Since 2019 we have invested a further £136.5m to support the police across the 18 areas in England and Wales worst affected by serious violence to increase operational activity to tackle serious violence, including by delivering targeted patrols in serious violence hotspots.
Since 2019, £15.541m of this funding has been allocated to West Midlands Police. We have also invested £200m in early intervention and prevention support initiatives over 10 years to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The YEF will support how this government responds to serious violence by identifying what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violent crime. In total, 15 grantees in the West Midlands are in receipt of funding from all grant rounds.
We will also help the police target those who have already been convicted of knife or offensive weapon offences and who persist in unlawfully carrying a knife or a weapon with the intention to commit more violence. We have introduced Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill which will give the police powers to stop and search those already convicted of knife and offensive weapon offences. West Midlands Police will be one of the four police forces to pilot SVROs.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote the uptake of science and technology subjects to students in vocational education.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The department recognises that the demand for skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is growing, and we are proud to be encouraging more pupils into STEM at all key stages. We have put employers at the heart of the technical education system, asking them to set out the skills and knowledge that they need now and in the future. This has formed the basis of new occupational standards. So far, STEM employers, including those in construction, digital, engineering and manufacturing, and health and science sectors have developed 343 apprenticeships based on these standards.
We are introducing T Levels, boosting access to high quality technical education for thousands of young people, which are also based on the same occupational standards. T Levels in Digital, Construction and Health and Science are now being taught and T Levels in Engineering and Manufacturing will launch this September. A new campaign, ‘Get the Jump’, has been launched to help young people aged 14 to 19 to understand their education and training choices. More information on this can be found here: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/explore-your-education-and-training-choices. T Levels are featured heavily in the campaign as an exciting new option for young people alongside apprenticeships, traineeships and Higher Technical Qualifications
Alongside this, we are investing up to £290 million to establish a comprehensive network of Institutes of Technology across England. These are unique collaborations between further education colleges, universities and employers specialising in delivering higher technical education and training in key STEM subjects such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, robotics, precision farming and health and life sciences. A key objective of the programme is to increase participation from under-represented groups to support the long-term STEM skills pipeline.
For those earlier on in their education, we are proud to have made substantial spending commitments to improve the teaching and uptake of STEM subjects in schools. We are offering a bursary worth £24,000 tax-free or a prestigious scholarship worth £26,000 tax-free to train to teach the highest priority subjects of chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics and a £15,000 tax-free bursary for design and technology. In line with the Gatsby Benchmarks for good career guidance, all schools are expected to provide at least one meaningful encounter with employers per pupil per year, with an emphasis on STEM employers.
We have improved the quality of technical awards. These non-GCSE qualifications are intended to equip 14-16 year olds with applied knowledge not usually acquired in general qualifications. They are intended to focus on a sector or occupational group and enable the development of knowledge as well as associated practical skills where appropriate.
Schools have access to the STEM Careers toolkit which provides ideas and practical suggestions on how STEM specific content might be used to meet the Gatsby Benchmarks. This includes useful resources, examples of good practice and sharing STEM careers resources, such as job profile examples, further study route information and labour market information with teachers.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy published 28 July 2021, what steps his Department has taken to progress the development of a national neurodiversity training toolkit for staff to be rolled out in 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Justice is working with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service to rollout base level training (‘Neurodiversity Training Toolkit’) on how to support neurodivergent people within our care to all frontline staff by the end of the year.
We are also currently testing a new Neurodiversity Support Manager role in some prisons, who will be responsible for liaising with education and skills teams and ensuring that departments across the prison are aware of prisoners’ individual needs.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what initiatives she is promoting to assist older people on Jobseekers Allowance who are considering changing career or retraining.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chancellor announced in the 2021 Spending Review that an enhanced offer for workers aged 50 and over will be introduced, to ensure that older workers receive the support they need to remain in or return to work.
The enhanced offer will build on the Department’s existing Plan for Jobs which provides funding to ensure that more jobseekers of all ages get tailored support, including to reskill or pivot sectors. That includes programmes such as the Job Finding Support service, Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS), Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) and the Restart scheme, to help them find work. The JETS scheme in particular helps claimants to update their digital skills, job searching tools and to identify transferrable skills which has led to over 48,780 jobseekers in England and Wales and over 1,960 in Scotland start work.
The SWAPs provides opportunities in sectors with high volumes of current local vacancies, such as hospitality, allowing people to learn the skills and behaviours that employers need. DWP is increasing the number of SWAPs opportunities to 80,000 in 2021/22.
A network of 50 Plus Champions provides dedicated support to Work Coaches across all 37 Jobcentre Plus districts to enable and encourage them to direct suitable Plan for Jobs and local support to claimants aged 50 and over. The Government’s Business Champion for Older Workers also spearheads the Government’s work to support employers to hire and re-train older workers, promoting the benefits of older workers to employers across England.
To help people plan for employment in later life, we launched a Mid-life MOT in 2019, encouraging those in their 40s, 50s and 60s to consider aspects of their wealth, work and wellbeing. This helps them to make informed decisions about future income provision and longer-term employment prospects, supporting individuals to stay in work for longer and to achieve the later life that they want.
The UK government are also investing in the National Skills Fund in England to aid The Lifetime Skills Guarantee. Since April 2021, adults of any age over 24 who are looking to achieve their first full Level 3 qualification have been able to access fully funded courses which will give them new skills and greater prospects in the labour market. Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, are giving adults the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. As announced at the Budget, a total investment of over £550m by 2024-25 will make sure adults, at any age, can upskill to reach their potential, transforming lives and delivering on the National Skills Fund commitment.
The free online Skills Toolkit also provides online learning focused on digital, numeracy and employability skills.
Asked by: Darren Henry (Conservative - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What support her Department provides to older jobseekers to reskill or change careers.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department’s plan for jobs provides funding to ensure that more jobseekers of all ages get tailored support, including to reskill or pivot sectors. This includes programmes such as the Job Finding Support service, Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS) and the Restart scheme, to help them find work. The JETS scheme in particular helps jobseekers update their digital skills, job searching tools and to identify transferrable skills, which has been extended to September 2022.
Additionally, as part of the £500m Plan for Jobs expansion, we are funding a new enhanced support package for workers over the age of 50 to help them to stay in and return to work. This offer has two strands – Older workers will receive better information and guidance on later life planning, helping them make informed choices and supporting them to plan their career and remain in work. For those who have lost their jobs, this funding will ensure that older job seekers on Universal Credit receive more intensive, tailored support as they look to take the next step in their career. A network of 50 Plus Champions across all 37 Jobcentre Plus districts will enable and encourage work coaches to direct suitable Plan for Jobs and local support to claimants aged 50 and over
The UK government are also investing £2.5 billion in the National Skills Fund in England to aid The Lifetime Skills Guarantee. From April 2021, adults of any age over 24 who are looking to achieve their first full Level 3 will be able to access fully funded courses which will give them new skills and greater prospects in the labour market. The free online Skills Toolkit also provides online learning focused on digital, numeracy and employability skills.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to older jobseekers in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England who are looking to (i) reskill or (ii) change careers.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department’s plan for jobs provides funding to ensure that more jobseekers of all ages get tailored support, including to reskill or pivot sectors. That includes programmes such as the Job Finding Support service, Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS) and the Restart scheme, to help them find work. The JETS scheme in particular helps jobseekers update their digital skills, job searching tools and to identify transferrable skills.
The UK government are also investing £2.5 billion in the National Skills Fund in England to aid The Lifetime Skills Guarantee. From April 2021, adults of any age over 24 who are looking to achieve their first full Level 3 will be able to access fully funded courses which will give them new skills and greater prospects in the labour market. The free online Skills Toolkit also provides online learning focused on digital, numeracy and employability skills.
For older jobseekers, a network of 50 Plus Champions provides dedicated support to Work Coaches across all 37 Jobcentre Plus districts to enable and encourage them to direct suitable Plan for Jobs and local support to claimants aged 50 and over. The Government’s Business Champion for Older Workers also spearheads the Government’s work to support employers to hire and re-train older workers, promoting the benefits of older workers to employers across England.
In addition, older jobseekers will also benefit from JCP support locally through the Flexible Support Fund (FSF) which allows jobcentres to put in place the right support for their community.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her oral contribution in response to the hon. Member for Glasgow East of 13 September 2021, what guidance her Department issues to Work Coaches to help them move people who are already in work into better paid work; and if she will place in the Library a copy of that guidance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work Coaches receive training to support all claimants and have access to guidance, a complex needs toolkit and district provision toolkit, that provide local support for claimants who require additional and specialist support.
This guidance will be published under the latest version of National Provision and placed in the House of Commons Library early October 2021.
Any work related provision which will support the claimant is identified and can be a single activity or several activities which address problems like debt, health or basic skills.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HM Inspectorate of Probation report, Traumatic Brain Injury, published on 13 August 2021, what steps he is taking to (a) implement training on the effects of traumatic brain injury for staff working in youth justice, probation and prison services, (b) promote awareness and understanding of the effects of traumatic brain injury and (c) implement further linkworker schemes for offenders with histories of traumatic brain injury.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Justice is committed to meeting and protecting the needs of all vulnerable offenders, including those with neurodivergent needs such as impairments due to traumatic brain injuries (ABIs).
In the Sentencing White Paper ‘A Smarter Approach to Sentencing’, the Department committed to a National Staff Training Toolkit on Neurodiversity. This will aim to improve our staff’s awareness and understanding of neurodivergent needs, including traumatic brain injury, and enable them to feel confident to make referrals to health services if needed. In the National Disability Strategy, published in July this year, we committed to roll out the toolkit by 2022.
It is a priority within the new Probation Disability Plan to provide staff with the relevant skills to support people on probation, including developing a model for learning about the effects of Acquired Brain Injury.
More widely, the Lord Chancellor commissioned the justice inspectorates to carry out a Call for Evidence (CfE) on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system (CJS) which was published on 15 July 2021. The CfE report provides an overview of the current national provision to support adult offenders with neurodivergent conditions in the CJS, including traumatic brain injury.
The CfE report provides six recommendations as to how current provision might be improved. MoJ officials are drafting an action plan in response to the recommendations of the report which is due to be published in October. This will include considering increased opportunities for neurodivergent individuals, including through link worker schemes.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to improve the quality of digital education for elderly people in the UK during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
For adults (19+) with low-level or no digital skills, we have introduced a legal entitlement to study new Essential Digital Skills qualifications (EDSQs) at entry level and level 1 for free. EDSQs are a new qualification type, based on new national standards for essential digital skills, which will provide adults with the digital skills needed for life and work. The new digital entitlement mirrors the existing legal entitlements for English and maths and sets digital skills on an equal footing in the adult education system to English and maths, as a third basic skill.
The government is committed to making essential digital skills provision more accessible and flexible by building on the innovation in online learning implemented during the COVID-19 outbreak, ensuring that all adults can gain essential digital skills at a time and place that suits them.
We also continue to support the provision of basic digital skills training in community learning settings through the Adult Education Budget. This provision has strong participation from older learners.
The Skills Toolkit was created in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, primarily to help give workers who had been furloughed or were at risk of redundancy an opportunity to retrain. However, the courses are accessible to all and include free, high quality digital and numeracy courses.
Courses on offer cover a range of levels, from everyday maths and tools for using email and social media more effectively at work, to basic digital skills offered by Lloyds Bank, the Open University and Microsoft.
As of 30 May 2021, there have been an estimated 219,000 course registrations via The Skills Toolkit.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of digital marketing skills to businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
Through the 3-year Help to Grow: Digital scheme, a learning platform to help SMEs understand their technology needs and successfully adopt them into their business will be created, alongside support for eligible SMEs to receive a voucher worth up to £5000 and providing a 50% discount on e-commerce software, as well as CRM and accounting technology.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport continues to support Digital Boost which is providing much-needed digital support for small businesses and charities in the UK that have been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. The platform is building a community of skilled digital expert volunteers, who are providing free one-to-one mentoring to small businesses and charities to help them improve their digital capability, build sustainable incomes through digital channels, and stay competitive during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Digital Boost is also providing free workshops, courses and content on all topics of digitisation to help small businesses and charities understand digital better. Digital Boost has conducted more than 2800 mentoring sessions on digital marketing related topics. They have also held many workshops on these topics, attracting more than 500 participants.
Digital skills are as important to employability and participation in society as English and maths, yet an estimated one in five adults lack basic digital skills.
In order to address this, from August 2020, alongside the existing legal entitlements to English and maths, the Department for Education introduced a new digital entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills to undertake specified digital qualifications, up to Level 1, free of charge. We also support the provision of basic digital skills training for adults in community settings through the Adult Education Budget.
The Government is also investing £138 million to fund in-demand technical courses for adults, and to expand the employer-led bootcamp training model, in high value areas such as digital and technical skills. The £138 million investment will come from the £2.5 billion National Skills Fund, and will include £95 million funding for a new Level 3 adult offer and £43 million for Skills Bootcamps.
The Level 3 adult offer, available from April 2021, will support any adult aged 24 and over, who wants to achieve their first full level 3 qualification to access around 400 fully funded courses. The offer includes a range of qualifications that are valuable across the economy in multiple sectors. The qualifications list currently includes 33 digital qualifications in areas such as cyber security, coding, network architecture, systems support, and aspects of digital design for the creative industries. We will keep this list under review to ensure it adapts to the changing needs of the economy.
Complementing the Level 3 adult offer, Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. Skills Bootcamps offer digital skills training in areas such as software development, digital marketing and data analytics, and also technical skills training. We have introduced the Skills Bootcamps in six local areas so far, and we are investing a further £43 million from the National Skills Fund to extend them across England.
We have also introduced the Skills Toolkit, an online platform providing free courses to help individuals build the skills that are most sought after by employers. People can now choose from over 70 courses, covering digital and coding, adult numeracy, employability and work readiness skills, which have been identified as the skills employers need the most. These courses will help people stay in work, or take up new jobs and opportunities.