Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of data by the Office for National Statistics Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2022 on 22 April, which revealed that 2022 was the highest year on record for deaths from alcohol-specific causes registered in the UK, what plans they have to publish an alcohol-specific strategy.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the 2021 Drugs Strategy we are making the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding, with £780 million of additional investment. Of this, £532 million is being invested to rebuild local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England, including alcohol treatment services. The Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant is the mechanism by which local authorities receive Drug Strategy funding. This is additional to the amounts invested through the Public Health Grant. The following table shows the SSMTR Grant and the Inpatient Detox (IPD) Grant allocations for the North East, in 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25, as well as the total for those three years:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
SSMTR | £7,051,992 | £13,677,970 | £24,787,253 | £45,517,215 |
IPD | £727,295 | £727,295 | £727,295 | £2,181,885 |
The Department is also providing £1,157,212 in funding to three local authorities in the North East, specifically Middlesborough, Newcastle, and Durham, to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for people who sleep rough, or who are at risk of sleeping rough. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, between 2019/20 and 2024/25, NHS England has made over £30 million available to local healthcare systems to facilitate the delivery of specialist Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals in the areas with the highest rates of alcohol harm and socioeconomic deprivation.
The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities is developing comprehensive United Kingdom guidelines for the clinical management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence. The overarching aim of the guideline is to develop a clear consensus on good practice, and improve the quality of treatment and support.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to data released by the Office for National Statistics Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2022, published on 22 April, which showed that the North-East had the highest rate of alcohol-specific deaths of any English region in 2022, what steps they are taking to reduce alcohol-related harm in that region.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the 2021 Drugs Strategy we are making the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding, with £780 million of additional investment. Of this, £532 million is being invested to rebuild local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England, including alcohol treatment services. The Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant is the mechanism by which local authorities receive Drug Strategy funding. This is additional to the amounts invested through the Public Health Grant. The following table shows the SSMTR Grant and the Inpatient Detox (IPD) Grant allocations for the North East, in 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25, as well as the total for those three years:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
SSMTR | £7,051,992 | £13,677,970 | £24,787,253 | £45,517,215 |
IPD | £727,295 | £727,295 | £727,295 | £2,181,885 |
The Department is also providing £1,157,212 in funding to three local authorities in the North East, specifically Middlesborough, Newcastle, and Durham, to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for people who sleep rough, or who are at risk of sleeping rough. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, between 2019/20 and 2024/25, NHS England has made over £30 million available to local healthcare systems to facilitate the delivery of specialist Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals in the areas with the highest rates of alcohol harm and socioeconomic deprivation.
The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities is developing comprehensive United Kingdom guidelines for the clinical management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence. The overarching aim of the guideline is to develop a clear consensus on good practice, and improve the quality of treatment and support.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) update statutory guidance to classify homeless children as needing support from children’s social care services, and (2) disseminate updated information on rights and entitlements.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase investment in children’s services and provide updated funding formulae to (1) direct resources according to deprivation-based need, and (2) account for changing levels of deprivation.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is aware the costs of delivering children’s social care are rising, which is why the department has already taken action and announced a series of additional measures:
This additional funding illustrates our commitment to support councils in continuing to deliver high-quality services to vulnerable children and families.
But the department knows that rising costs are unsustainable and that whole system reform is needed. It is more important than ever that the department continues with the plans to improve and stabilise the children’s social care system. The department's ambitious strategy, set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ will bring about fundamental reform, rebalancing local authority spending from costly acute services to effective earlier intervention, thereby improving outcomes for children and families. More information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642460653d885d000fdade73/Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf.
When ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ was published, the department announced an additional £200 million funding for implementation. However, this is only part of the wider picture of spending on children’s social care reform. In total, across the department's programmes, almost £700 million has been committed to start delivering the reforms.
In ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department committed to work with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to update, publish and consult on a new funding distribution formula. Departmental officials are working in partnership towards implementing an updated approach to distributing available funding for children and young people’s services, based on an up-to-date assessment of relative need in local authorities.
Whilst the government is not able to implement funding reform in this spending period, the department remain committed to updating the funding formula for children’s services to better direct resources to where they are most needed, and work will continue across government to that end.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding, other than flood and coastal erosion risk management grant-in-aid, they make available to protect heritage assets and community spaces at risk from coastal erosion.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This includes the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP). As part of FCIP, Ministers have allocated £36m over six years, to develop a ‘Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme’ to trial opportunities, and innovative practical actions, in a small number of coastal areas at significant risk of coastal erosion, to transition and adapt to a changing climate. The practical adaptation actions will likely include activities that support and facilitate the managed transition of property and facilities at risk of coast erosion providing an anticipatory approach in advance of coastal change.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), arm’s length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, awarded a £500,000 grant to English Heritage's Hurst Castle Stabilisation Feasibility Project (see attached) in 2022 to survey damage from coastal erosion and develop a plan to protect the castle for the long term. Further details of accessing NHMF grants can be found on the National Heritage Memorial Fund website.
Guidance on managing the impacts of coastal erosion on heritage features can be found on Historic England's website, alongside details of available grants for heritage.
The Third National Adaptation Programme (see attached) details how the Government and its agencies plan to protect cultural heritage from a changing climate, including implications for our coastal heritage due to flooding and coastal erosion.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding they have made available to protect churchyards from coastal erosion where (1) the church is of historical significance, or (2) family members of those recently buried in the churchyard reside in the local community.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This investment includes a record £5.2 billion capital investment programme, as well as the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP).
Schemes are valued and prioritised using the Government’s Partnership Funding policy, with the amount of funding a scheme can attract dependent on the damages it will avoid and the benefits it will deliver. The impact on heritage assets and churchyards are included as part of this calculation.
In areas where a heritage asset is assessed to be invaluable, only schemes protecting the asset can be shortlisted.
The Third National Adaptation Programme details how Government and its agencies plan to protect cultural heritage from a changing climate, including implications for our coastal heritage due to flooding and coastal erosion.
Guidance on managing the impacts of coastal erosion on heritage features can be found on Historic England's website, alongside details of available grants for heritage.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how heritage significance is taken into account when calculating the value of (1) a coastal erosion protection project, and (2) a grant received through grant-in-aid funding for such a project.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This investment includes a record £5.2 billion capital investment programme, as well as the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP).
Schemes are valued and prioritised using the Government’s Partnership Funding policy, with the amount of funding a scheme can attract dependent on the damages it will avoid and the benefits it will deliver. The impact on heritage assets and churchyards are included as part of this calculation.
In areas where a heritage asset is assessed to be invaluable, only schemes protecting the asset can be shortlisted.
The Third National Adaptation Programme details how Government and its agencies plan to protect cultural heritage from a changing climate, including implications for our coastal heritage due to flooding and coastal erosion.
Guidance on managing the impacts of coastal erosion on heritage features can be found on Historic England's website, alongside details of available grants for heritage.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of heritage assets and community spaces at risk of coastal erosion in the Northumberland region and what steps will they take to protect those at risk.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The coastal erosion risk, and long term policy for management of the Northumberland Coast is outlined in the Scottish Border to River Tyne Shoreline Management Plan 2009 (SMP): North East Coastal Observatory (see attached). The SMP considers risks associated with coastal processes and outlines management policies to reduce risks to people and the developed, historic, and natural environment.
As part of the Scottish Border to River Tyne SMP (2009), a comprehensive assessment was undertaken to understand the characteristics of the natural and built environment of the Northumberland Coast. This assessment included evaluating the effects of coastal erosion on heritage, cultural heritage, and the historic environment (including churches and graveyards) to help ensure all relevant considerations were made when developing policies to manage coastal erosion.
As the relevant Coastal Protection Authority (CPA) in this location, Northumberland County Council (NCC) is eligible to bid for capital FCRM Grant in Aid for projects that mitigate the effects of coastal erosion. There are around 18 coastal projects with funding on the current 6-year capital programme within the Newcastle Diocese. These schemes have been allocated over £3.7million of FCRM Grant in Aid funding. Schemes can only progress after business cases for each scheme are produced and approved.
As part of the recent Natural Flood Management Announcements (40 projects to benefit from £25 million funding for natural flood management - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) (see attached) a scheme was approved within the Northumberland Coast, at Alnmouth. NCC's project will maintain and enhance existing saltmarsh and dune systems in the Aln Estuary.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to statistics from the 2021 Census which showed that the North East has the highest proportion of disabled people in England, what steps they are taking to ensure there is an adequate provision of accessible housing in the region.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that local authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, including older people and people with disabilities, and reflect this in their local plan. As planning is a local responsibility, proportionate data about local housing needs and provision is not held centrally, although the English Housing Survey collects data on accessibility and adaptations within the home; the most recent adaptations report is published online.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of homes built in the North East of England in the past year are wheelchair accessible.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that local authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, including older people and people with disabilities, and reflect this in their local plan. As planning is a local responsibility, proportionate data about local housing needs and provision is not held centrally, although the English Housing Survey collects data on accessibility and adaptations within the home; the most recent adaptations report is published online.