Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to home ownership schemes funded through Homes England, whether his Department collects data on the (a) number of households in shared ownership or rent to buy properties, (b) income of tenants, (c) number of tenants that have transitioned to full ownership under shared ownership and rent to buy and (d) number of years tenants rented their homes for before purchase.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Information on the number of shared owners who have staircased to full ownership is publicly available from our live tables on social housing sales.
The department collects information on the number of households living in Shared Ownership homes via the English Housing Survey.
It is not possible to distinguish between Rent to Buy – Shared Ownership and other Shared Ownership products in these datasets.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of households have transitioned to full ownership under (a) Shared Ownership and (b) Rent to Buy schemes funded by Homes England.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Information on the number of shared owners who have staircased to full ownership is publicly available from our live tables on social housing sales.
The department collects information on the number of households living in Shared Ownership homes via the English Housing Survey.
It is not possible to distinguish between Rent to Buy – Shared Ownership and other Shared Ownership products in these datasets.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains his Department's policy to increase the total sum of money eligible per person via the disabled facilities grant.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local areas already have the discretion to make grants above the current upper limit on a case-by-case basis, or in line with a locally published housing assistance policy. As with all aspects of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), the Government will continue to keep the upper limit under review.
The Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care plan announced a further £102 million for housing adaptation support, £50 million in 2023/24 and £52 million in 2024/25. This is in addition to the £573 million per year which is already available for the DFG. The increase will enable local areas to fund minor home adaptations and other supplementary services that will help people stay independent, and support hospital discharge.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of homes that were planned to be built to meet Requirement M4(2) of the Building Regulations (a) have been completed and (b) did not proceed past the viability stage of planning applications in each of the last two years.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The English Housing Survey collects data on accessibility and adaptations within the home; the most recent report is published online.
New build homes are constructed to meet Building Regulations accessibility standards in force at the time of build; the most recent data on new build home rates was published by Office for National Statistics on 30 January 2024.
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community. It is for local planning authorities to assess local needs, including needs for older people and people with disabilities, and make provision in their local plans.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data his Department holds on the number of disabled people living in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The most recent Statutory homelessness statistics (April- June 2023) is available at Homelessness statistics which includes households that are owed a homelessness duty due to their support needs, including those with a disability.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many (a) people and (b) disabled people were evicted for anti-social behaviour last year.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on the volumes of landlord repossessions which can be found here; however, it is not possible to disaggregate this by the characteristics of the individual(s) being evicted or the grounds of the eviction.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many accessible homes were rented privately last year.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to allow parents to claim funded hours for their child if they are cared for by a registered childminder who is also a member of their extended family.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Childminders are a key part of the childcare market and they will play a significant part in the government’s increased early years entitlements offer.
Funding made available in the dedicated schools grant (DSG) for the entitlements to early education for two, three and four-year-olds cannot be claimed by, or spent on, childminders providing childcare for related children. This restriction is placed on local authorities funding relatives and is set out in the Childcare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act) Section 18(4)(c). The 2006 Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative, and section 18(8)(c) of the 2006 Act states that a relative, in relation to a child, means ‘a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership’.
This approach avoids creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis.
A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing care for a related child. However, this would have to be from the local authority funds that are independent of the DSG.
In the case of a nursery or pre-school, the funding is not necessarily paid to an individual who is caring for a relative, but to the setting which provides early education to a group of children, which may include a child related to a member of staff.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including suicides as reportable incidents under the RIDDOR process.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) are made under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and apply to all sectors and workplaces in Great Britain.
Under RIDDOR, at Regulation 6, requires the responsible person to report:
A suicide would not meet the criteria for reporting under RIDDOR as it is not a death resulting from a work related accident or occupational exposure. An ‘accident’ is defined under RIDDOR as an unforeseen and unintentional incident.
Suicides will be considered in an Inquest conducted by a Coroner or Procurator Fiscal (in Scotland) who will make the decision whether the death was ‘suicide’. The Coroner/Procurator Fiscal can refer cases to the HSE, or other public body, if they consider there is an ongoing risk to others.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many serving police officers in each force took their own lives in each of the last eight quarters.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect information centrally on how many serving police officers have taken their own lives.
This information is held by individual Police Forces.