Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the (a) security incident at the Indian High Commission on 19 March 2023 and (b) response of the police to that incident.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The right to gather lawfully and demonstrate a point of view is a basic democratic right. But rights to lawful protest do not extend to violent or threatening behaviour. The criminal damage and assaults on staff from the India High Commission at the incident over the weekend was unacceptable. The police have powers to deal with such acts. However, the use of these powers is an operational matter for the police, and decisions on possible criminal proceedings will be made in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service.
The UK takes its Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations security obligations seriously. Our protective security system is rigorous and proportionate. However, it is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on diplomatic security arrangements. To do so could compromise the integrity of those arrangements and affect the security of the individuals and locations concerned.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using radio wave imaging technology, including the MARIA system, to screen people for breast cancer.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has looked at the evidence for offering extra breast screening tests, including breast density, in addition to standard mammography.
So far, the committee has found that the evidence for such technologies, although promising, is not yet strong enough for it to recommend that they be introduced into the NHS Breast Screening Programme. It has not looked specifically at the MARIA system.
The UK NSC continually monitors progress and remains interested in significant evidence that will allow improvements in breast screening. Any member of the public can submit a proposal to modify a screening programme during the UK NSC’s annual call.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase opportunities for (a) exposure to and (b) engagement with the arts in secondary schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to encourage the uptake of creative subjects at GCSE level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing an arts premium to encourage state schools to increase the (a) range and (b) quality of arts provision.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to help increase skills in the creative and arts sector.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As our world-leading creative sectors continue to grow and recover from the pandemic, the Government understands the importance of ensuring that the creative industries and the arts have the skills they need, both now and in the future. The DCMS-led Creative Industries Sector Vision, due to be published soon, will set out our long-term strategic vision for the sector to 2030. Focused on promoting growth, this vision will include consideration of the opportunities and challenges regarding the skills, workforce and talent pipeline for the sector.
The Schools White Paper (2022) also set out that the Department for Education would publish a Cultural Education Plan, working with DCMS and our arms-length bodies, in 2023. The Plan aims to articulate and highlight the importance of high-quality cultural education in schools; promote the social value of cultural and creative education; outline and support career progression pathways; address skills gaps; and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcome. The crossbench peer, Baroness Bull, has been appointed to chair the independent advisory panel helping to inform the plan.
The Government continues to support initiatives to boost training and employment opportunities in the arts and creative sectors. For example, DCMS supports the industry-led Creative Careers Programme, which between 2018 and 2020 showcased creative career pathways to over 115,000 pupils at over 1,500 schools across England. The programme, relaunched in 2022 with £950,000 of Government funding, will specifically target young people from under-represented backgrounds. It will do so in 77 priority areas across England, selected using data from the Government’s education and careers opportunity areas, and Levelling Up for Culture priority places.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will take steps to stop the remote switching of smart meters to prepayment mode for vulnerable households.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Energy suppliers are obligated under licence conditions to follow strict rules when switching a smart meter from credit to prepayment mode, to safeguard consumers.
Suppliers must only provide a prepayment service when a consumer is in debt where they assess that it is safe and reasonably practicable to do so. The supplier's assessment should include identifying any vulnerability, such as a disability that prevents a consumer from being able to use appropriately a prepayment meter or customers that require a continuous energy supply for health reasons.
If energy suppliers assess it is safe and reasonably practicable, they must then give at least seven days’ notice in advance of the change from credit to prepay mode on the smart meter.
The regulator, Ofgem, is reviewing energy supplier compliance with these requirements and has made it clear it will take strong action where suppliers have failed to follow them.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will take steps to help ensure that prepayment meters are removed from vulnerable households.
Answered by Graham Stuart
My Rt. Hon Friend the Secretary of State wrote to suppliers on 4 February asking them to outline what steps they will take to identify consumers with an inappropriately installed prepayment meter. He confirmed the Government’s expectation that where such customers are identified, appropriate steps will be taken to rectify the situation.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the announcement by the Independent Office for Police Conduct in April 2022 that the officers involved in the stop and search of Bianca Williams and Ricardo de Santos in July 2020 will face disciplinary proceedings for gross misconduct, when those proceedings will begin.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold this information.
For the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), once an officer has been referred to a misconduct hearing, it is the responsibility of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to appoint an independent legally qualified chair (LQC).
Management of misconduct hearings, once established, is then the responsibility of the LQC. Hearings must commence within 100 days of the officer being referred, unless the LQC determines that it is necessary to extend this period in the interests of justice.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Metropolitan Police Officers are working whilst under investigation for (a) misconduct, (b) gross misconduct and (c) discrimination in stop and search cases as of 1 February 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold this information
The Home Office collects and publishes data on public complaints and conduct matters, including whether the allegation was referred to misconduct proceedings. Data is published on an annual basis and the latest publication covered cases finalised in the year ending 31 March 2022. These data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/user-guide-to-police-misconduct-statistics
These data includes cases which have been finalised and does not include ongoing cases. Furthermore, the Home Office does not collect information on whether officers under investigation are working or suspended.