Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with homelessness stakeholders on measures within the Criminal Justice Bill.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities lead on homelessness and rough sleeping and as such have regular meetings with stakeholders. They reviewed the Vagrancy Act and determined replacement legislation was needed. They published the response to their public consultation on replacement in 2023.
The Home Office has additionally engaged with police, local authorities, Police and Crime Commissioners and other organisations including the homelessness sector. This has highlighted that more direct tools were needed to respond to begging and rough sleeping where it causes nuisance to others.
These provisions will be supported by guidance highlighting that local authority outreach and engagement remain at the heart of our approach and that these civil tools support a staggered approach to enforcement where that is necessary.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to help encourage uptake in the use of hydrogen.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Veterans)
Our regulatory and policy framework is designed to support offtakers to switch to hydrogen, and includes innovation funding, CAPEX and ongoing revenue support.
DESNZ’s Hydrogen Production Business Model will provide ongoing revenue support to incentivise production and use of low carbon hydrogen. The first in our planned yearly allocation rounds for the Hydrogen Production Business Model represented the largest number of commercial scale green hydrogen projects announced at once anywhere in Europe, and the second round has already closed to applications. Our hydrogen transport and storage business models will link up production and demand, enabling security of supply for offtakers.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the number of rough sleepers in England.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The annual autumn snapshot statistics remain our official and most robust measure of rough sleeping on a single night given they are independently verified and are published in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The most recent snapshot showed the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2023 is 3,898.
The Government also collects monthly management information from local authorities, which is published on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure parity between (a) clinical and (b) recently insourced nonclinical staff in the one-off covid bonus payment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The non-consolidated payments, agreed as part of the Agenda for Change pay deal, covered staff directly employed by National Health Service organisations, for instance staff on permanent and fixed term contracts, as set out in Annex 1 of the handbook on Agenda for Change terms as of 31 March 2023. Those who joined the NHS after 31 March 2023 were ineligible for the award, regardless of their profession.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of introducing a separate nursing pay spine on trends in the level of pay progression within the nursing profession.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The call for evidence in relation to a separate pay spine for nursing closed on 4 April 2024. A large volume of evidence was submitted, and analysis of this evidence remains underway. The Government will publish its formal response in due course.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of access to auditory-visual therapy for deaf children; and what steps she is taking to ensure sufficient access to that therapy as part of SEND support in schools.
Answered by David Johnston
The department’s ambition is that all children and young people, no matter their needs, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is creating a new single national special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision system for how needs are identified and met across education, health and care. This new single national system will set standards on what support should be made available in mainstream settings, including for children with hearing impairments.
Early intervention of SEND can allow children to thrive and the early years sector plays an important role in ensuring that the right support is put in place for children as they prepare for school. That is why Level 2 and 3 early years educator qualifications include SEND content. Alongside this, the Early Years Education Recovery Programme includes training for up to 7,000 early years special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) and a variety of training offers with SEND content, including Child Development Training and the national professional qualification in early years leadership.
The department is committed to ensuring a steady supply of teachers of children with hearing impairments in both specialist and mainstream settings. To teach a class of pupils with hearing impairments, a teacher is required to hold the relevant Mandatory Qualification for Sensory Impairment (MQSI). There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh from September 2024. In addition, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is developing a new occupational standard for teachers of Sensory Impairment, expected to be available from September 2025. Finally, children and young people with special educational needs have more access to assistive technology (AT) following investment in remote education and accessibility features, which can reduce or remove barriers to learning.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent progress her Department has made on promoting women's representation in leadership positions within (a) Government, (b) local government and (c) business.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Prime Minister has made clear his commitment to greater representation at the highest levels of Government, having appointed many talented women to his cabinet, and in ministerial positions. When it comes to local government, political parties are responsible for their candidate selection and should be leading the way in improving the diversity of representation. I am aware that most national parties provide additional support to women looking to become candidates.
Turning to business, almost 40% of UK FTSE 100 board positions are now held by women. To continue this progress, the Government supports the FTSE Women Leaders Review - which is independent, voluntary and business-led. The review uses data transparency to support talented, diverse leadership in the UK’s top companies. Now in its third stage, it continues to set stretching targets for firms to ensure a diverse pipeline of talent.
This Government is fully committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to promote (a) innovation and (b) research and development in (i) technology, (ii) green energy, (iii) healthcare and (iv) other key sectors of the economy.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government is working to unleash the power of research & development and innovation across the economy - backed by the highest-ever levels of public spending on R&D, which will rise to £20 billion in 2024/25. As set out in our recent Science and Technology Framework update, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is removing barriers to success in technology-led sectors such as, telecoms, life sciences, and space.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to (a) tackle the gender pay gap and (b) promote equal pay for equal work.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In 2017 we introduced mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large employers, building on the robust equal pay protections we already have in the Equality Act. This has motivated employers to look at their pay data and improve workplace equality; including routing out instances of unequal pay.
The national gender pay gap has fallen by approximately a quarter in the last decade; however, we are not complacent. To accelerate progress we are ensuring that people can balance their work and home lives. To this end we have supported legislation to: enhance flexible working, extend redundancy protection for those on maternity leave, and introduce carers leave. We have also announced the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever, in order to help working families with their childcare costs.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce barriers to (a) education and (b) employment for women and girls.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government has taken wide ranging action to ensure everyone, regardless of their sex, can take advantage of the same opportunities in both education and employment, some examples are outlined here.
To prevent girls from missing school due to the cost of period products the DfE funds a period product scheme which provides free period products to pupils and students. The scheme covers all state-funded schools with female learners in year 5 or above and DfE-funded 16-19 education organisations in England. Since the scheme’s launch in January 2022, 99% of secondary schools, 94% of 16-19 education organisations and 75% of primary schools have placed an order for products.
To increase the take up of computer science qualifications the DfE have invested in the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), which supports the ‘I Belong’ programme, available to secondary schools. Focused on Key Stage 3, ‘I Belong’ aims to improve schools’ awareness of the barriers to girls’ engagement with computing so they are better able to remove them.
The Government also supports the STEM Ambassadors programme, a nationwide network of 30,000 registered volunteers from over 7,000 STEM and related employers. Approximately 48% of Ambassadors are women and 17% are from minority ethnic backgrounds, providing young people with a variety of role models, and encouraging increasing numbers of girls to take STEM subjects.
To make sure these gains are not lost as women move from education into employment, the Government has enhanced several legal protections which particularly benefit women, including; enhancing flexible working, extending redundancy protection for those on maternity leave, introducing carers leave, and strengthening the protections against harassment in the workplace.