Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to help tackle misogyny on social media platforms.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Online Safety Act requires services to protect all users from illegal misogynistic content, and children from harmful misogynistic content including content which is violent, hateful or abusive.
The largest services (category 1) will also need to remove misogynistic content prohibited in their terms of service and have effective, accessible mechanisms to report abuse.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many employers who (a) pay and (b) do not pay the apprenticeship levy started new learners on apprenticeship programmes in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The below table shows the number of apprenticeship service employers accounts with apprenticeship starts in the 2023/24 academic year.
Employer Type | 2023/24 |
Levy | 13,157 |
Non-levy | 57,017 |
Total | 70,174 |
The figures are for the number of employer accounts instead of employers. An employer may have more than one apprenticeship service employer account.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage the public to buy British produce.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government will always back British farmers who produce some of the highest quality food in the world, contribute billions to our economy, and are the custodians of our countryside. We want more people to be able to access nutritious, and locally sourced food.
Our ambition, set out in our election manifesto, is for half of all food supplied into the public sector to be from local British producers, or certified to higher environmental standards whilst being in line with World Trade Organisation and domestic procurement obligations.
The department strongly supports retailer efforts to promote British food. Defra officials regularly engage with major supermarkets to understand their work to promote British produce.
In addition, the Government currently protects 93 British food and drink product names through its Geographical Indications schemes and welcomes further applications from British producers. Consumers can find these products with unique links to Britain’s gastronomic heritage by looking out for the black and gold ‘Protected Designation of Origin’, ‘Protected Geographical Origin,’ and ‘Traditional Specialty Guaranteed’ logos.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which integrated care boards have reimbursed dental practices for up to 110% of General Dental Services contracts.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the 2023/24 financial year, 37 integrated care boards (ICBs) reimbursed at least one dental practice for over 100%, and up to 110%, of their General Dental Services contract value. These ICBs are as follows:
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance her Department provides on the potential sanctions available to local authorities in instances when councillors are found to have breached an authority's code of conduct; and whether she plans to re-establish the Standards Board for England with sanction powers in including (a) suspension and (b) disqualification from office for serious breaches.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government considers that the current local government standards regime is broadly ineffectual, inconsistently applied, and lacking in adequate powers to effectively sanction members found in serious breach of their codes of conduct.
We are actively considering options to strengthen the standards regime for local government and provide councils with more effective means to address serious misconduct by elected members, including a proposal to allow for the suspension of members who violate codes of conduct. We will be consulting with local authorities, sector representative bodies, and other key stakeholders in due course to ensure a wide range of views are heard.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many people are in receipt of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme in each constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Every constituency in the country has at least one person in receipt of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme. The number of scheme members in each constituency is listed in the table below. This information is from the scheme trustees and correct as at 30 October 2024. Some of these scheme members will not yet be in receipt of their pension, but we do not have a breakdown of that information at constituency level.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure all schools teach financial literacy.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Basstettlaw to the answer of 14 October 2024 to question 7255.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total underspends for the non-devolved adult education budget were in England in each year since 2018-19.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The budget and the actual spending of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) element of the Adult Education Budget from 2018/19 to 2023/24 financial year is set out in the table below. Funding to providers is allocated on an academic year and underspends are based on a financial year basis; therefore, underspends in a financial year predominantly reflect provider delivery in the preceding academic year (i.e. 2018/19 academic year is reflected in 2019/20 financial year).
The ESFA allocates grant funding to providers. Providers who underdeliver on their allocations by more than 3% will have their funding recovered through a reconciliation process (allowing providers who can over deliver to grow their allocation by up to 10%).
| Budget | Underspend |
2018/2019 | £1,347,300,000 | £3,125,005 |
|
| |
2019/2020 | £904,829,000 | -£2,710,548 |
|
| |
2020/2021 | £742,706,000 | £56,090,670 |
|
| |
2021/2022 | £701,527,000 | £115,118,943 |
|
| |
2022/2023 | £633,659,000 | £80,083,526 |
|
| |
2023/2024 | £572,004,000 | £43,192,844 |
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to review payments of benefits to people serving full life terms in secure psychiatric units.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a court has decided that someone has committed a criminal offence but that they should say be sent to hospital rather than receiving a custodial sentence in prison, the length of their stay is determined by their recovery and the extent to which they are no longer a risk to themselves or others. Psychiatrist, and in some cases a Mental Health Tribunal or the Secretary of State for Justice, determine when they will be released. All patients in hospital are entitled to benefits. DWP keeps all benefits under review.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of the prisoners released under the early release scheme (a) are foreign nationals and (b) will be deported.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are unable to provide the requested prisoner release figures at this time, as they form a subset of prisoner releases data scheduled for future publication. Numbers of custodial releases for the period covering July 2024 to September 2024 will be published on 30 January 2025, here: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
All foreign national offenders in receipt of custodial sentences are referred to the Home Office to be considered for deportation. The Home Office make all final decisions relating to deportation, taking into account individual circumstances in each case, meaning it is not possible to predict future deportation numbers.