Laura Trott

District council representatives were invited to an online seminar held by the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government on July 27 2021. Since then a series of meetings have taken place between local representatives, officials and ministers to understand areas’ proposals for county deals; district councils were welcome at these meetings. In discussions thus far, we have been pleased to see collaboration between county and district councils on devolution proposals to deliver better outcomes for their area. Further details on county deals will be set out in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper.

I refer the hon. Member to my update to Parliament on 25 March in the form of a Written Ministerial Statement.

The Government is committed to supporting working parents.

We recognise the particular challenges faced by parents of over 100,000 babies admitted into neonatal care each year, many of whom are born prematurely.

Our Manifesto committed to give parents of babies in neonatal care a new entitlement to paid leave from work.

Following our consultation on this last year, we are analysing the responses as a priority and will set out our plans soon.

Traditional craft and building skills have an essential role in helping to adapt and sympathetically retrofit historic buildings in response to climate change.

We recognise that there is a skills shortage in this area. Historic England, Government’s Advisor on the Historic Environment is working with the Government and the heritage sector to address this issue by developing career pathways into the sector and supporting individuals at different stages in their careers, focussing particularly on apprenticeships and on the job training, such as those provided by the Hamish Ogston Heritage Building Skills programme.

The British Board of Film Classification’s (BBFC) age ratings are currently used by a number of video on demand providers and, although adoption is voluntary, we welcome their use. We were particularly pleased to see Netflix announce on 1 December 2020 that they have become the first platform to achieve complete coverage of their content under the BBFC’s ratings. We will continue to engage with industry to encourage platforms to use age ratings, and will keep the evidence for legislation in this area under review.

Regulation of video sharing platforms (VSPs), for which Ofcom is the regulator, came into force on 1 November 2020. UK-established VSPs must now take appropriate measures to protect the public, including minors, from illegal and harmful material. In order to comply with the VSP regime, age assurance measures may be adopted by VSPs along with other measures such as age ratings and parental controls. The video sharing platform regime does not, however, mandate the use of age ratings. Platforms must take into account freedom of expression and should consider what measures are most appropriate and proportionate when introducing them.

Protecting children is at the heart of our online harms agenda. Sites that host user-generated content or facilitate online user interaction, such as sites with video sharing capabilities, will be subject to the new duty of care we will introduce under online safety legislation. Under our proposals, companies likely to be accessed by children will be required to assess the risks that material on their service poses to children of different ages, and to put in place age-appropriate protective measures. The government is working at pace to prepare online safety legislation, which will be ready this year.

Protecting children is at the heart of our online harms agenda, and wider government priorities. Where sites host user-generated content or facilitate online user interaction such as video and image sharing, commenting and live streaming, then that content will be subject to the new duty of care. Under our online harms proposals, companies likely to be accessed by children will be required to assess the risks that material on their service poses to children of different ages and put in place age-appropriate protective measures. Ofcom will set out the steps companies can take to protect children so there will be a consistent approach across platforms

The video sharing platform regime, for which Ofcom is the regulator, came into force on 1 November 2020. UK-established video sharing platforms must now take appropriate measures to protect the public, including minors, from illegal and harmful material. In order to comply with the video sharing platform regime, age assurance measures may be adopted by video sharing platforms along with other measures such as age ratings and parental controls. Platforms must take into account freedom of expression and should consider what measures are most appropriate and proportionate when introducing them.

We will continue to engage with industry to encourage platforms to use age ratings, and will keep the evidence for legislation in this area under review.

I refer the honourable member to the Parliamentary Question HL10193, answered on 12 November. We are not yet able to break Kickstart data down by region.

In March 2021, we announced an additional £79 million to expand children’s mental health services in 2021/22. A portion of this funding will be used to accelerate the delivery of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to provide coverage of approximately 20 to 25% of pupils in England by 2022 and an estimated three million pupils or 35% by 2023. The funding will also accelerate the expansion of child and adolescent mental health services in the community, allowing an additional 22,500 children and young people to receive more specialist support.

Health and care settings will continue to maintain appropriate infection prevention and control measures as necessary and this will be reviewed during the summer.

Guidance in National Health Service settings, including hospitals and primary and community care are undergoing further review to ensure that it is in line with service needs and as evidence becomes available, including in neonatal settings.

When visiting a care home, all visitors should wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for the duration of their visit, regardless of whether they have been tested or not. The appropriate PPE for visitors can be determined using the guidance at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-how-to-work-safely-in-domiciliary-care

In most circumstances, visitors in tiers 1 to 3 wishing to undertake indoor visiting must have returned a negative test prior to the visit. This test must be taken at the care home and processed by a trained care worker.

Lateral flow devices are being provided for this purpose, where the results are available quickly so that and the visitor will take the test on arrival. Meaningful visits can only take place provided there is a negative test result.

We are providing training to all care homes as part of the rollout of lateral flow tests to process swabs, interpret results and support visitors through the testing process. This is important to reduce the risk of false negatives where a visitor’s test comes back negative when they are actually positive.

The Department provided grant funding for the Twins Trust Maternity Engagement Project which provided evidence that implementing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on managing twin and multiple pregnancies can significantly reduce twin stillbirths, neonatal deaths and neonatal admissions. The two year evaluation demonstrated an 18% reduction in neonatal deaths, a 7% reduction in stillbirths, a 23% reduction in neonatal admissions, and a 6% reduction in emergency caesarean sections.

Based on the evidence generated through the Engagement Project, the Saving Babies’ Lives care bundle (version two) strongly encourages providers and commissioners to implement NICE guidance and stipulates best practice for multiple pregnancies.