Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in local authority care were placed in supported accommodation while under the age of 16 in (1) 2015–16, (2) 2016–17, (3) 2017–18, and (4) 2018–19.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information on the number of care leavers aged 17 living in supported or semi-supported accommodation[1][2][3] for years ending 31 March 2016 to 2018 is shown in the table below.
Coverage: England | |
2015-16 | 180 |
2016-17 | 90 |
2017-18 | 80 |
Information on the number of looked after children by age living in supported or semi-supported accommodation since 2016 is shown in the table attached.
Information for the reporting year 2018-19 will not be available until December.
The department does not collect information on the number of children who leave care aged 16.
[1] Includes semi-independent transitional accommodation, supported and unsupported lodgings, and foyers and similar supported accommodation for care leavers.
[2] Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
[3] Information on 17-year-olds care leavers has been collected as experimental statistics since 2015-16.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what funds they have set aside for community projects supporting low income families with food staples, following a no-deal Brexit.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government has been clear that leaving the EU with a deal is its preferred option.
The Government has put in place contingency plans for a range of exit scenarios. These contingencies ensure that the Department can continue to provide our vital services and that individuals will continue to be able to access benefits and services on the same basis as they do now.
The Government is committed to providing a strong safety-net through the welfare system. We continue to spend over £95 billion a year on benefits for people of working age. The Department continues to monitor the effects of EU exit on the economy. Rates of benefits continue to be reviewed in line with the relevant legislation for uprating.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to mitigate the impact of any rise in the cost of food staples as a result a no-deal Brexit on low income families.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government has been clear that leaving the EU with a deal is its preferred option.
The Government has put in place contingency plans for a range of exit scenarios. These contingencies ensure that the Department can continue to provide our vital services and that individuals will continue to be able to access benefits and services on the same basis as they do now.
The Government is committed to providing a strong safety-net through the welfare system. We continue to spend over £95 billion a year on benefits for people of working age. The Department continues to monitor the effects of EU exit on the economy. Rates of benefits continue to be reviewed in line with the relevant legislation for uprating.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether (1) the suitability requirements, and (2) the threshold of criminality, for the EU Settlement Scheme apply to children; and if so, (a) how, and (b) what type of offences will be taken into account.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme under the age of 18 are not required to answer questions relating to suitability. Applicants under the age of 10 are not subject to the automated criminal record check.
The suitability requirements for the scheme apply to all applicants under the age of 18. However, under the relevant provisions of the Immigration (European Economic Area Regulations) 2016, children under the age of 18 benefit from a higher level of protection and can only be deported on imperative grounds of public security.
There is no single definition of the type of offences likely to satisfy this higher threshold, but offences with a cross-border dimension which disclose particularly serious characteristics are more likely to do so.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether children applying for settled status are subject to automatic criminal records checks; and whether such children are required to declare (1) if they have been convicted of an offence, and (2) that they are subject to criminal proceedings.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme under the age of 18 are not required to answer questions relating to suitability. Applicants under the age of 10 are not subject to the automated criminal record check.
The suitability requirements for the scheme apply to all applicants under the age of 18. However, under the relevant provisions of the Immigration (European Economic Area Regulations) 2016, children under the age of 18 benefit from a higher level of protection and can only be deported on imperative grounds of public security.
There is no single definition of the type of offences likely to satisfy this higher threshold, but offences with a cross-border dimension which disclose particularly serious characteristics are more likely to do so.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of air pollution on public health; whether they intend to introduce legislation to implement World Health Organisation standards for fine particulate matter; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government’s Clean Air Strategy recognised the impacts that air pollution has on health, and proposed a range of actions to meet our existing emissions reduction commitments to 2020 and 2030 in order to reduce these impacts. The Clean Air Strategy also committed to the setting of an ambitious long term air quality target to reduce the population’s exposure to PM2.5, and committed to publishing evidence on the feasibility of meeting World Health Organisation air quality guideline levels for PM2.5. This work is ongoing and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that teachers, nurses and social workers can afford to live in areas of high cost housing.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We have strengthened the revised National Planning Policy Framework so that local authorities are expected to have planning policies which identify homes needed for different groups in the community. The Framework acknowledges that essential local workers, including teachers, nurses and social workers, are a group that may require access to affordable housing. Local authorities should consider this when setting local policies. Where there is identified need, local authorities may seek to introduce policies that support the delivery of affordable housing for essential local workers.
The Department for Health and Social Care have taken specific steps to support essential staff in accessing affordable housing in high cost areas. This includes the introduction of a national expectation that, when local NHS estate owners are disposing of surplus land, NHS staff will be offered first refusal on all affordable housing built on the land.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking, if any, to address the (1) short-term, and (2) long-term, risks of air pollution to children's health.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
All of the measures set out in the Clean Air Strategy will reduce emissions of pollution, improving public health for children.
In the short term, the Government has a plan to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions with funding of £3.5 billion, which includes £495 million for local councils to improve air quality. Part of this funding is specifically for local authorities with very high NO2 emissions to bid for.
Local authorities are best placed to target action to improve local air quality. The Government’s air quality grant programme provides funding to local authorities for projects in local communities to tackle air pollution and reduce emissions, which may include action targeting schools. Defra has awarded over £57 million in funding since the air quality grant started in 1997. A further £3 million has been allocated for 2018/19.
In the long term, some of the measures the Government are taking include ending the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040. The Road to Zero strategy sets out new measures to help us achieve our 2040 mission. The Department for Transport has also announced that diesel-fuelled trains will no longer be used by 2040.
Other measures are included in the Clean Air Strategy.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) short-term, and (2) long-term, risks of air pollution to children's health.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Exposure to air pollution has various health effects on children. Short term effects of air pollution include worsening of asthma symptoms, cough, wheezing and shortness of breath. Long-term exposure can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer, leading to reduced life expectancy. Children are more susceptible to the effects of air pollution than adults.
The effects of air pollution on children’s health are being studied in a number of research projects. For example, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants has started reviewing the evidence on adverse birth outcomes from air pollution. In addition, the Exploration of Health and Lungs in the Environment (EXHALE) programme, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, focuses on air pollution and children’s lung health in London.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to enhance opportunities for development and career progression for those employed in the early years education sector.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In March 2017, we published the attached early years workforce strategy which outlined the government's plans to support employers to attract, retain and develop early years staff to deliver high quality provision: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy.
As a result of the strategy we have worked with sector stakeholders to develop criteria for new, more robust level 2 qualifications (to be delivered from September 2019), as well as developing new career pathways information to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development. The career progression map is attached and can be found at: https://www.cache.org.uk/media/1417/dfe-career-pathway-map-v17.pdf.
Supported by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, a trailblazer group of employers has just completed a new level 3 apprenticeship standard and another is developing apprenticeships at levels 5 and 6 to provide progression. We remain committed to ensuring there are routes to graduate level qualifications for the early years sector and we support graduates into the sector through our funding of the early years initial teacher training programme, including bursaries and employer incentives.
We are also supporting the workforce through an early years professional development programme, which is a £20 million investment in training for the pre-reception early years workforce, to raise quality in settings, targeted to benefit disadvantaged children.