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 improve community mental health services for young people in (a) Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) England.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department recognises that children and young people, including in the Beckenham and Penge constituency, often face long waits for mental health support and are not receiving the care they need. We know that if that is to change, early intervention and prevention support in the community is vital. That is why we are providing £7 million of funding to extend support for 24 Early Support Hubs that have a track record of helping thousands of young people in their community.

Building on this to go further, we are committed to providing open access mental health support for children and young people through Young Futures Hubs. Working with colleagues from across Government, we intend that the evidence and insights collected through our Early Support Hubs evaluation will support the delivery of Young Futures Hubs. This learning will inform our ambitions for community mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, and ensure that they have access to the kinds of support they need.

The Government will also recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across child and adult mental health services and provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school through expanding Mental Health Support Teams, so that every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help end discrimination against disabled people.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This Government is committed to creating a more inclusive society, and championing the rights of disabled people. We will build on the insights shared by disabled people and their representative organisations, working closely with them so that their views and voices are at the heart of everything we do.

Our new Lead Ministers for Disability network will help to ensure that we represent the interests of disabled people effectively and champion disability inclusion and accessibility across each government department, as they drive forward progress on our manifesto commitments and five missions.

Our Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will introduce disability pay gap reporting for large employers and extend equal pay rights to protect workers suffering discrimination on the basis of race or disability. Mandatory pay gap reporting will help employers to identify and address where issues might lie.

These recent steps work alongside the Equality Act 2010, which is the principal means through which disabled people are protected from discrimination in Great Britain. The Equality Act 2010 provides protection against discrimination, harassment and victimisation in the workplace and in wider society. It also requires employers and service providers to make reasonable adjustments for both job applicants and employees who meet the Act's definition of disability. Failure to make a reasonable adjustment is likely to be unlawful disability discrimination under the 2010 Act.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecution rates for (a) serious and (b) violent crime cases in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

We are taking strong action as part of our Plan for Change to tackle serious and violent crime.

Our new Crime and Policing Bill will back our police by giving them enhanced and tougher powers to keep our streets safe, to tackle anti-social behaviour, and to crack down on knife crime.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes serious and violent crime robustly, providing early investigative advice on complex and serious offending to build strong cases and deliver justice for victims.

The CPS is working with cross-government partners to support the delivery of the Safer Streets Mission and all CPS guidance and training is kept under constant review to ensure front-line prosecutors are equipped to prosecute these serious offences.