Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school aged childcare provision in England for Special Educational Needs children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a legal duty to report annually on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare for children aged up to 14, and up to 18 for disabled children. Local authority reports should include specific reference to how each local authority is meeting the needs of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), including how any gaps in provision will be addressed. The report should be made available to parents.
Where adequate childcare provision is not available, parents have the right to request a wraparound or holiday childcare place for their child. Local authorities also have a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act 2014 to maintain a local offer which provides clear, comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date information about support and services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
The department recognises the importance of good quality and inclusive school-aged childcare that supports working parents and carers. The government is investing £289 million in a new wraparound childcare programme to support local authorities and providers in England to introduce or expand childcare provision for primary school-aged children, as part of the largest ever investment in childcare. The programme aims to deliver provision that is child-centred, easily accessible and responds to the needs of the families, including those of children with SEND. Local authorities and childcare providers should recognise the different needs of children who will be accessing childcare and ensure that new and existing provision is accessible to all, including children with complex needs and those in specialist school settings.
The department does not hold data on the demand for staff who are qualified to provide childcare for children over the age of five with SEN. However, as part of the national wraparound programme, local authorities have the flexibility to use some of the funding provided to pay for training for wraparound staff, including specialist training for staff to ensure they feel equipped to support children with SEND.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make PrEP available (a) online, (b) in pharmacies and (c) in GP surgeries.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group (ISG) is developing a roadmap to help guide our efforts to improve equitable access, uptake and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to meet the needs of key populations at significant risk of HIV. This forms part of the group’s work to monitor and drive forward the implementation of the HIV Action Plan.
HIV PrEP is currently only prescribed at specialist sexual health services, but as we work towards our 2030 ambitions we will explore opportunities for making it available in a variety of settings. The PrEP roadmap considers actions needed to improve HIV PrEP access pathways in settings other than specialist sexual health services, including online, general practitioner services and pharmacies, to enable potential future delivery in other settings. The roadmap is expected to be made available by the ISG by the end of the year.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school aged childcare provision in England for Special Educational Needs children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the level of demand for staff who are qualified to provide childcare for children over the age of 5 with special educational needs.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department (a) provides and (b) plans to provide for people who wish to train in childcare for children with special educational needs over the age of 5.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the (a) impact of migraines on levels of economic inactivity and (b) potential impact of reducing migraine diagnosis times on levels of economic inactivity.
Answered by Will Quince
To reduce the time taken to diagnose conditions such as migraines, NHS England has published a delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. As part of this plan, the National Health Service will deliver on the commitment of 26,000 more direct patient care staff and 50 million more appointments in general practice by March 2024.
To step up our focus on tackling rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, including those living with migraine, the Government announced a further wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work. Initiatives include a work coach support for disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as introducing a new supported employment programme (Universal Support) which focuses on providing faster access to joined-up work and health support.
The Department does not hold specific information on the impact of migraines on levels of economic activity.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Official Statistics on Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2022 to 2023, published on 5 October 2023, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in hate crime against transgender people; and what steps her Department plans to take to tackle hate crime against transgender people.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime - including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime - are completely unacceptable.
We have a robust legislative framework in place and expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and make sure those who commit them feel the full force of the law.
Whilst part of the increase in transgender hate crime may be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvement in police recording and identification of a hate crime, along with increased victim willingness to come forward. This is positive and reflects the hard work that has gone in to ensuring that police can target their resources, understand the scale of the challenge and ensure that victims get the support they need.
Our absolute priority is to get more police into our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting police by providing them with the resources they need, including having recruited 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023. We also engage with relevant stakeholders when appropriate to do so.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her speech to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC on 26 September 2023, whether she plans to change the asylum application process for people applying on the basis of persecution due to a protected characteristic.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
To support decision-makers and our Courts we have clearly defined what persecution means in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. This includes providing a non-exhaustive list of examples of the types of acts which may constitute persecution.
Under Paragraph 328 of the Immigration Rules, all asylum applications continue to be decided in accordance with the Refugee Convention.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on whether (a) trans women with a gender recognition certificate will be banned from and (b) trans men will be expected to use female wards; and whether this policy will apply in all (i) healthcare settings and (ii) circumstances.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is imperative that National Health Service trusts respect the privacy and dignity of patients. The Government has been clear that patients should not have to share sleeping accommodation with others of the opposite sex and should have access to segregated bathroom and toilet facilities. NHS England’s Delivering Same-Sex Accommodation Guidance outlines the approach that should be taken to placing trans patients on single-sex wards. The guidance is being updated and a revised version will be published in due course.
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, recently announced that proposals to protect the privacy, dignity and safety of patients will be brought forward later this year as part of the routine update of the NHS Constitution and its Handbook. Any measures consulted on will be fully in line with the Equality Act 2010, respecting the rights of all patients in hospital settings.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the Government plans to amend (a) provisions on gender reassignment as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010 and (b) section 9 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government has no current plans to amend legislation on gender reassignment provisions in the Equality Act 2010 or section 9 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.