Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they provide to local authorities regarding the payment for travel time to carers travelling between clients; and whether local authorities are required to check if any external contractors they use to provide caring services are paying those costs.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government provides online guidance on the steps employers and others must take to comply with the National Minimum Wage, which states that the hours of work that count for minimum wage purposes include any time when a worker is travelling from one work assignment to another.
The Government is clear that local authorities should have regard to the cost of care when setting prices. This is set out in the statutory guidance to the Care Act 2014.
In 2016 the Department worked with local government, the care sector and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy to produce a guide to understanding providers’ costs and fair fees – this was published in January 2017. A copy of Working with care providers to understand costs: A guide for adult social care commissioners is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support is available to parents or adopters of children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Information on numbers of patients with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) receiving treatment on the National Health Service is not collected centrally.
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines advise women who are pregnant or think they could become pregnant that the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to reduce risks to the baby to a minimum.
As part of the Maternity Transformation Programme, Public Health England (PHE) is leading work to provide prevention-focused leadership to support a reduction in the proportion of women drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Midwives and health visitors also have a role in providing clear, consistent advice and early identification and support. Additionally PHE’s Start4Life programme also provides online information on the impact of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, including the risk of FASD.
The Department for Education through the Adoption Support Fund has made funding available to local authorities to support adopted children with a range of specialist assessments and therapy to treat a variety of conditions. This includes FASD.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what information is provided to women to try to prevent foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Information on numbers of patients with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) receiving treatment on the National Health Service is not collected centrally.
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines advise women who are pregnant or think they could become pregnant that the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to reduce risks to the baby to a minimum.
As part of the Maternity Transformation Programme, Public Health England (PHE) is leading work to provide prevention-focused leadership to support a reduction in the proportion of women drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Midwives and health visitors also have a role in providing clear, consistent advice and early identification and support. Additionally PHE’s Start4Life programme also provides online information on the impact of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, including the risk of FASD.
The Department for Education through the Adoption Support Fund has made funding available to local authorities to support adopted children with a range of specialist assessments and therapy to treat a variety of conditions. This includes FASD.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many patients with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders are receiving treatment on the NHS.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Information on numbers of patients with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) receiving treatment on the National Health Service is not collected centrally.
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines advise women who are pregnant or think they could become pregnant that the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to reduce risks to the baby to a minimum.
As part of the Maternity Transformation Programme, Public Health England (PHE) is leading work to provide prevention-focused leadership to support a reduction in the proportion of women drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Midwives and health visitors also have a role in providing clear, consistent advice and early identification and support. Additionally PHE’s Start4Life programme also provides online information on the impact of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, including the risk of FASD.
The Department for Education through the Adoption Support Fund has made funding available to local authorities to support adopted children with a range of specialist assessments and therapy to treat a variety of conditions. This includes FASD.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to require local authorities to verify that properties for short-term or holiday lets have a legal right to do so under freehold or leasehold agreements or any other legal restrictions on the use of their properties.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Individual leases and tenancy agreements are a matter for landlords and tenants. Where permission under the contract is required to sub-let but is not obtained then landlords have legal routes to enforce the contract.
Where short term lets breach planning control, responsibility for enforcement lies with local authorities, who already have numerous legislative powers to take action. We do not intend to introduce new legislation to require a short term lets register. Instead, the Government is taking a non-regulatory approach by encouraging the Short Term Accommodation Association to drive up standards and promote best practice in the industry, and to share data on booking with local authorities to aid their enforcement and monitoring functions.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities are aware which properties in their areas are being offered for short-term or holiday lets.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Individual leases and tenancy agreements are a matter for landlords and tenants. Where permission under the contract is required to sub-let but is not obtained then landlords have legal routes to enforce the contract.
Where short term lets breach planning control, responsibility for enforcement lies with local authorities, who already have numerous legislative powers to take action. We do not intend to introduce new legislation to require a short term lets register. Instead, the Government is taking a non-regulatory approach by encouraging the Short Term Accommodation Association to drive up standards and promote best practice in the industry, and to share data on booking with local authorities to aid their enforcement and monitoring functions.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following recent actions by Palma and Valencia to ban the use of apartments as short-term holiday lets, what assessment they have made of the need for similar action in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
There are no plans to ban the use of residential properties for short term letting.
The Government supports the sharing economy. Short term lettings enable households to supplement their income by renting out their under used accommodation and it promotes economic growth from tourism by increasing the amount of competitively priced accommodation available for tourists.
There is a responsibility on people who short term let out their homes, or rooms in their homes, to do so responsibly. Where short term lets breach the rules, responsibility for enforcement lies with the local authority, as it does for any breaches of planning control, and householders who breach the rules potentially face significant fines.
We are taking a non-regulatory approach by encouraging the Short Term Accommodation Association to improve standards and promote best practice in the industry, and to share data on booking with local authorities to aid their enforcement and monitoring functions.
Introducing further legislation would be overly bureaucratic, and would place unnecessary regulatory burdens on households which could act as a barrier to letting out their properties on a short term basis.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of (1) the rate of return available from short-term lets, and (2) current advertising encouraging short-term lets on the basis of increased returns of 30 per cent, on the availability of long-term residential accommodation in England.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government has not made an assessment of the impact of the rate of return for short term lets nor the impact of the current advertising campaign on the availability of long term accommodation in England. We believe that it is for local authorities to assess the impact within their area. The Government does however monitor broader trends in private rented housing through the English Housing Survey.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 20 February (HL5532), what input the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has had into their Call for Evidence on Protecting consumers in the letting and managing agent market; and whether the MoJ is conducting a review of the operation of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, in particular the possibility of giving a Right to Manage Board the power of forfeiture, when all other legal efforts to recover the monies owing have failed.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The call for evidence on 'Protecting consumers in the letting and managing agent market' closed on 29 November and the responses are currently being analysed. An announcement will be made in due course. Any considerations regarding the Commonhold and Leasehold reform Act 2002 will be dependent on the outcome of the forthcoming announcement.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to consult local authorities on the re-introduction of a licensing system similar to that operating in London until the Deregulation Act 2015 came into force, to ensure that there is a record of short-term occupants of properties.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We have no plans to do this. Local Authorities already have powers to act where there is a breach of planning control in respect of short term lettings.
Requiring hosts to register with their local authority an intention to let their property on a short term basis would be overly bureaucratic, and would place unnecessary regulatory burdens on households. However, some accommodation providers have already restricted bookings to 90 nights per calendar year in London. We have asked the industry association to encourage their other members to adopt this good practice.