Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 124018 on Grenfell Tower: Fires, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the response of fire and rescue authorities to the health consequences for firefighters of attending the Grenfell Tower fire.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance and local employers must be mindful of the academic research in this area. The Home Office will also review the recently published studies to fully understand their methodology.
Fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work and it is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 124017 on Grenfell Tower: Fires, if she will have discussions with the London Fire Commissioner on establishing a compensation fund for firefighters who attended the Grenfell fire and have subsequently been diagnosed with cancer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance and local employers must be mindful of the academic research in this area. The Home Office will also review the recently published studies to fully understand their methodology.
Fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work and it is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 124016 on Fire and Rescue Services: Injuries, whether individual fire and rescue authorities are required to run compensation schemes for firefighters who suffer industrial injuries.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Firefighters’ Compensation Scheme is managed locally by each employing fire and rescue authority and provides injury cover to any firefighter where they suffer permanent disablement whilst undertaking their role and can no longer continue in their employment.
Fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work. Overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.5 billion in 2022/23. Standalone fire and rescue authorities will see an increase in core spending power of 6.2 per cent in cash terms compared to 2021/22.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding is available to fire and rescue authorities to establish industrial injury compensation schemes for employees.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Firefighters’ Compensation Scheme is managed locally by each employing fire and rescue authority and provides injury cover to any firefighter where they suffer permanent disablement whilst undertaking their role and can no longer continue in their employment.
Fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work. Overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.5 billion in 2022/23. Standalone fire and rescue authorities will see an increase in core spending power of 6.2 per cent in cash terms compared to 2021/22.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has instructed Migrant Help not to respond to enquiries from Rt hon. and hon. Members.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There is an agreement between Migrant Help and the Home Office for Migrant Help to refer correspondence to MP Account Management (MPAM) who then liaise with relevant Home Office officials to respond.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her answer of 17 January 2023 to question 119209 on Windrush Lessons Learned Review, what additional steps her Department plans to take to implement Wendy William's recommendation to run a programme of reconciliation events with members of the Windrush generation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We understand the importance and value of engaging with communities impacted by the Windrush scandal through face-to-face engagement. The Home Office has held over 200 public engagement and outreach events across the country to raise awareness of the Windrush Schemes. This includes 120 one-to-one surgeries attended by Windrush Help teams, to support people applying for documentation.
We recognise parliament has a keen interest in the progress of Wendy William’s recommendations. The Home Office keeps HASC and members of both houses updated on progress and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her answer of 17 January 2023 to question 119208on Windrush Lessons Learned Review: Public Appointments, with which external stakeholders her Department has had discussions around the function of the recommendation of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review to establish the position of Migrants Commissioner.; and what other work her Department has done on implementation of that recommendation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A substantial amount of work has been to consider options to deliver the recommendations from the Windrush Lessons Learned report.
The Home Office is taking steps to be more transparent to ensure that the department is as open to all types of scrutiny.. The Home Office keeps HASC and members of both houses updated on progress and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her answer of 17 January 2023 to question 119210 on Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration: Publications, with which external stakeholders her Department has had discussions around the function of the recommendation of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review to give the Independent Chief Inspector more powers with regard to publishing reports; and what other work her Department has done on implementation of that recommendation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A substantial amount of work has been done on considering options for delivering recommendations from the Windrush Lessons Learned report.
The Home Office is taking steps to be more transparent to ensure that the department is as open as possible to all types of scrutiny, both internal and external. The Department will update the Home Affairs Select Committee on the progress of all the Windrush Lessons Learned recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce guaranteed compensation for industrial injuries suffered by firefighters.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance. It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.
The Fire and Rescue National Framework also directs that all Fire and Rescue Authorities should have a people strategy which covers health, safety and wellbeing. In addition, the Home Office supports the National Fire Chiefs’ Council’s health and wellbeing board to drive positive change and support.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to support firefighters who have incurred (a) cancer and (b) other health problems following their attendance at the Grenfell tower fire.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance.
It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.