Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Rapid Analytical Sprint reports leaked on 28 January, whether they plan to retain the previous Government’s policy on community engagement or disapply it.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Noble Lord to the response I gave to his question to this House on the 10 February of this year when asked which department will have responsibility for cross-Government engagement principles.
As I stated at the time, the Home Office works on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) continues to lead work on strengthening community cohesion with local councils. It is vital that the two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel.
The findings from the sprint have not yet been agreed by Ministers and we are considering a wide range of potential next steps arising from that work. MHCLG continues to work in partnership with communities and local stakeholders to rebuild, renew and address the deep-seated issues.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has a working definition of Islamism.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In the context relevant to the Home Office's responsibility for tackling Islamist extremism or terrorism the UK's counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST says that Islamist terrorism is the threat or use of violence as a means to establish a strict interpretation of an Islamic society.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which department is currently working on blasphemy-related extremism; and following the completion of their counter-extremism sprint, which department will then have the lead on countering this threat.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office leads all the work on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government lead all the work on strengthening community cohesion, alongside local councils. The two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel and the two departments work closely together on them.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the context of any handover of responsibility for counter-extremism work from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to the Home Office, which department will have responsibility for (1) cross-Government engagement principles, (2) establishing an extremism-specific due diligence tool, (3) blasphemy-related extremism, and (4) religiously motivated hate crime.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office work on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government continues to lead work on strengthening community cohesion with local councils. It is vital that the two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel.
On the definition of extremism, I refer Lord Godson to the Answer provided by the Security Minister on 22 January to Question UIN 23874, and to the Urgent Question response provided by the Security Minister on 28 January.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether a decision has been made as to whether or not the process of listing extremist organisations and groups should be continued and, if not, whether they have any plans to publicly announce its discontinuance.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office work on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government continues to lead work on strengthening community cohesion with local councils. It is vital that the two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel.
On the definition of extremism, I refer Lord Godson to the Answer provided by the Security Minister on 22 January to Question UIN 23874, and to the Urgent Question response provided by the Security Minister on 28 January.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions have taken place between the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office regarding the handover of responsibility for counter-extremism work to the Home Office.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office work on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government continues to lead work on strengthening community cohesion with local councils. It is vital that the two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel.
On the definition of extremism, I refer Lord Godson to the Answer provided by the Security Minister on 22 January to Question UIN 23874, and to the Urgent Question response provided by the Security Minister on 28 January.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential benefits of having a single definition of extremism.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office work on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government continues to lead work on strengthening community cohesion with local councils. It is vital that the two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel.
On the definition of extremism, I refer Lord Godson to the Answer provided by the Security Minister on 22 January to Question UIN 23874, and to the Urgent Question response provided by the Security Minister on 28 January.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) senior responsible officers, and (2) policy directors, there were for the Personal Independence Payment programme between 2011 and 2014.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) programme completed at the end of March 2017. In line with our information management process DWP retains programme information for 20 years from the date of the first document. However, some of the information is not easily accessible, would require time to retrieve and analyse, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
From the available evidence we do have access to, records show that Sue Moore was appointed as the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the programme in 2014 (Appointment letter: Senior Responsible Owner for the Personal Independence Payment Programme).
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the spending on support workers through Access to Work in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The annual Access to Work Official Statistics show expenditure on the Support Worker element within each financial year from 2007/08 to 2023/24. The latest publication can be found here: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK
The below table shows expenditure, in real terms (2023/24 prices), on the Support Worker element type from 2019/20 to 2023/24. These figures can be found in Table 12a of the Access to Work Official Statistics:
Financial year | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Expenditure (£m) in real terms (2023/24 prices) | 104 | 88 | 121 | 136 | 178 |
When interpreting results, particularly comparing time periods, please be aware of the potential effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic between 2020/21 and 2022/23.
Nominal expenditure for the Support Worker element type can be located in Table 12 of the Access to Work Official Statistics.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what were the most common specialist aids and equipment paid for by Access to Work in the last five financial years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work provides funding towards the cost of a range of equipment, these should be items that are beyond what would normally be required under an employer’s responsibility to provide reasonable adjustments. Information on specific items of Special Aids and Equipment (SAE) for which grants were approved is not readily available. This is stored as descriptive, free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and therefore falls outside of the costs limit. Expenditure on SAE was £21m in 2023/24, this was the third highest of all Access to Work elements and an 82% increase in real terms compared to the previous financial year.