Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle mobile phone theft (a) in Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) nationally.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Set against soaring levels of snatch thefts and pickpocketing, crimes which commonly involve the theft of mobile phones, a series of meetings have already been held, and we will shortly be holding a Home Office Mobile Phone Theft Summit, drawing together representatives from the mobile phone industry, including tech companies, the Metropolitan Police and other law enforcement agencies to see what more can collectively be done to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.
As part of our Safer Streets Mission, this government is determined to crack down on theft and other crimes that make people feel unsafe in our communities, including tackling anti-social behaviour and restoring public confidence. We are committed to strengthening neighbourhood policing and through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, there will be thousands of additional police officers, police community support officers and Special Constables.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of job centres on economic growth.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers advice. This new service will transform our ability to support people into work, help those on low pay to increase their earnings, and create a more flexible workforce for a fast changing, higher skilled jobs market. This transformation is expected to contribute significantly to economic growth by addressing local skills gaps and providing tailored support to meet the needs of local labour markets.
We are currently considering our evaluation strategy to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the new service. This includes funding in 2025/26 to take forward the first steps of building the new service through a pathfinder, as set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support people with (a) disabilities and (b) long-term health conditions into work.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate.
Employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, to thrive as part of the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme.
Appropriate work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live.
Disabled people and people with health conditions, are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.
Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to help support parents into work.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our recently published Get Britain Working White Paper sets out our aspirations to overhaul the Jobcentre system and establish a new Job and Career Service, which will focus on people’s skills and careers instead of just monitoring and managing benefit claims. This will be kickstarted by £55million of investment, to help people – including parents - get into work, stay in work, build skills and progress in their career.
We are also considering how we can improve our support to help parents into work as part of our Child Poverty Strategy which will be published later this year.
Work Coaches provide individual, tailored support to all customers, this includes advice to parents on childcare support or help to address their skills gaps to aid career progression.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
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 increase access to GP appointments (a) in Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) nationally.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving access and capacity in general practice (GP). That’s why, in October 2024, we provided an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, enabling the recruitment of 1,000 newly qualified GPs across England. This will increase the number of appointments delivered in GPs, which will benefit thousands of patients and will also secure the future supply of GPs, and take pressure off those currently working in the system.
Additionally, we have announced a proposed £889 million uplift to the GP Contract in 2025/26, the largest uplift in years, with a rising share of total National Health Service resources going to GPs. We are also currently consulting on key proposals to improve access, continuity of care, and GP recruitment.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce bureaucracy in (a) GP and (b) other primary care services (i) in Beckenham and Penge constituency and (ii) nationally.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To reduce bureaucracy in the National Health Service, on 4 October 2024, the Government and NHS England launched a Red Tape Challenge to address bureaucracy between primary and secondary care and give our health professionals back time to do what they do best. As part of the Red Tape Challenge there has been close engagement with professionals across primary care to learn more about what works and what needs to change.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help leaseholders with (a) service charges and (b) managing agents in Beckenham and Penge constituency.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle benefit fraud by organised criminal gangs.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP collaborates across Government to enhance operations, share data across government, and represent DWP at cross-government Digital and Data forum to deliver outcomes.
DWP works jointly across Government Departments and Law Enforcement Agencies on investigations into benefit fraud carried out by organised crime gangs.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help (a) promote and (b) support participation in physical activity for people with long-term health conditions.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and the National Health Service recognise the importance of physical activity for the prevention and management of long-term health conditions. The NHS Better Health Campaign promotes ways for adults, families, and children to move more, and signposts people, including those living with long term conditions who are ready to build movement back into their routines, to digital support like the NHS Active 10 walking app.
Local authorities and the NHS also promote and provide services for people living with long term conditions, such as exercise on referral and social prescribing, including access to physical activity interventions, fall prevention, and walking groups.
The Department, with Sport England, has delivered support and training to equip healthcare professionals to enable patients to move more, to improve their physical and mental health. Sport England continues to support work in this area through the Physical Activity Clinical Champions programme, which is currently being piloted in local areas.
NHS England is working closely with partners nationally and locally to explore how the NHS might galvanise support to make physical activity a core part of NHS care, in order to benefit patients, NHS staff, and the wider public. By empowering clinicians and healthcare professionals with the skills and confidence to discuss and promote physical activity, and by integrating it into key clinical pathways and aligning it with Core20PLUS5 for adults, children, and young people, the NHS could help to transform patient outcomes and reduce health inequalities.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the use of artificial intelligence complies with existing copyright law.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is clear that making copies of protected material will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.
However, the application of existing copyright law to generative AI models is untested in the courts, and there is a lack of legal certainty.
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024, seeking views on how to create clarity in this area through a package of measures.
The Government recognises that this is a complex area and welcomes all views and evidence to help shape its thinking.
The consultation closes on 25 February.