Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Catherine West and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 23rd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

1. What steps she is taking with the Home Secretary to tackle the potential causes of recent trends in the level of reported sexual offences.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

10. What steps she is taking with the Home Secretary to tackle the potential causes of recent trends in the level of reported sexual offences.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Rachel Maclean)]

We know that rape and sexual offences are still too often hidden crimes and we want to see more victims having the confidence to report. We have seen a large increase in police-recorded sexual offences. There is some good news in that, because it is likely to reflect victims having additional confidence to come forward to report in the wake of some high-profile cases and the reopening of the night-time economy. We are committed to doing everything we can to prevent these crimes and bring perpetrators to justice. That is why we have outlined, through our rape review, a robust plan of action to drive improvement at every stage of the criminal justice system.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Catherine West and Andrew Gwynne

Monday 30th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

What steps her Department is taking to encourage employers to participate in the kickstart scheme.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What steps her Department is taking to encourage employers to participate in the Kickstart scheme.

Local Government Finance

Debate between Catherine West and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 5th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House notes that the Government’s proposed changes to local authority funding will dramatically downgrade the importance of deprivation in deciding the distribution of funding to local authorities and will have a devastating effect on local adult social care funding; further notes that proposed changes will cause even greater reductions in foundation funding and children’s social care; and calls on the Government to scrap its Review of Local Authorities’ Relative Needs and Resources and to ensure that local authorities are properly funded through a fairer system that properly takes account of deprivation, need and differing council tax bases.

The state of local government finance is desperate. Our councils are not just at breaking point; many of them are broken. The Government’s so-called fair funding review could be about to make matters worse for some of them.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent start to his speech. How many councils does he think will fall like Northamptonshire County Council, in the next five years?

[Andrew Gwynne]

Of course that is the worry, because several councils are edging ever closer to the cliff edge, and the number that will drop over that cliff edge is very much dependent on the actions of this Government. If they honour their word and put resources into the local communities that need them most, hopefully we can avoid more Northamptonshires. However, if they continue along the lines that I fear they will, removing resources from the areas with the greatest need but the least ability to raise their own finances, I fear for the future of the local government sector.