Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the document entitled Maritime & Coastguard Agency Safety Code for Small Commercial Motor Vessels under MG280, updated on 22 January 2025.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There have not been any updates or amendments made to either the ‘Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Motor Vessels’ (the ‘Yellow Code’), or Marine Guidance Note (MGN) 280(M) ‘Small Vessels in Commercial Use for Sport or Pleasure, Workboats and Pilot Boats – Alternative Construction Standards’ in 2025.
However, according to Maritime and Coastguard Agency records there were two amendments made to the Workboat Code Edition 3 in January 2025. The first amendment reinstated a requirement of the Code pertaining to the control of the discharge of oil which had been erroneously omitted when the Code was updated in 2023. As this change simply reinstated a previous requirement the impact was considered lesser than the impact of not reinstating the requirement and therefore negligible.
The second amendment was to Annex 3 - The Safety of Police Boats. This two-part amendment was made to allow the required ‘second person’ on board to hold a Powerboat Advanced certificate, and to introduce the addition of a new paragraph to provide an appropriate construction standard for police vessels operating in Category C or Category D waters only.
The amendments to the Safety of Police Boats Annex were undertaken in consultation with, and with the full cooperation of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (Maritime Policing Portfolio), representing all police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and were also considered negligible, especially given the short period of time since the introduction of Annex 3 and the amendment being made.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support the mental health of (a) victims and (b) survivors of crime.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many people with mental health issues, including victims and survivors of crime, are not getting the support or care they need. This is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.
We are committed to improving mental health care for people with a range of mental health conditions, and to shifting the focus from treatment to prevention as we make the National Health Service fit for the future.
This Government is recruiting 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services. More than 6,700 extra mental health workers have been recruited since July, latest data shows. The latest recruitment milestone means the government is more than halfway towards its target of hiring an extra 8,500 mental health staff by the end of this Parliament, helping get people the care they need so they can get back to work, school and doing what they love.
We are transforming mental health services into 24 hour a day, seven day a week neighbourhood mental health centres, improving assertive outreach, and increasing access to evidence based digital interventions. People will get better access to mental health support and advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week directly through the NHS App, including through self-referral for Talking Therapies.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support the recruitment of teachers in (a) Eastbourne constituency and (b) East Sussex.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest impact on children’s outcomes. This is why the government’s Plan for Change has committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary and special schools, and in our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
To support this key pledge, we recently announced a 4% pay award for 2025/26, building on the 5.5% pay award for 2024/25, resulting in a near 10% pay award for teachers since this government came to power. We also announced a teacher training financial incentives package worth nearly £233 million, including bursaries worth up to £29,000 tax-free, and scholarships up to £31,000 tax free. We also announced targeted retention payments worth up to £6000, with 10 schools in the Eastbourne constituency, and 31 schools in East Sussex qualifying for these.
The teaching workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers, between 2023/24 and 2024/25, in secondary and special schools. In Eastbourne constituency there are 30 more secondary and special school teachers, with 457 FTE teachers this year.