Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of meetings held by the Casey Commission.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Given that the commission is independent, the Department will not publish a list of its meetings. It is for the commission to determine its approach, but we expect it will engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including people with lived experience and unpaid carers, as well as building cross-party consensus.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54607 on Anti-social Behaviour: North East Somerset and Hanham, what steps she is taking to help ensure that intelligence gained by the dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour is not lost if the perpetrators of anti-social behaviour move between force areas.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 10 April, the Prime Minister announced the details of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, £200 million has been allocated to forces for 2025/26 to support the Government’s commitment to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing.
This includes ensuring that every force area will have a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour who will work with communities to develop an action plan to reduce and prevent ASB. I am closely monitoring the delivery of this commitment across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Forces are expected to engage with communities to develop their action plan which should cover the entire force area. Larger forces may decide to have more than one Action Plan if they consider it appropriate for different geographical areas within the force.
We will continue to work closely with forces once the dedicated lead officers commence their roles from July 2025, setting out further detail on expectations of their ASB Action Plans, including how they will ensure they work across force boundaries where necessary.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54607 on Anti-social Behaviour: North East Somerset and Hanham, whether she has had recent discussions with police forces on initiating the recruitment of a dedicated lead officer to develop local anti-social behaviour action plans.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 10 April, the Prime Minister announced the details of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, £200 million has been allocated to forces for 2025/26 to support the Government’s commitment to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing.
This includes ensuring that every force area will have a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour who will work with communities to develop an action plan to reduce and prevent ASB. I am closely monitoring the delivery of this commitment across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Forces are expected to engage with communities to develop their action plan which should cover the entire force area. Larger forces may decide to have more than one Action Plan if they consider it appropriate for different geographical areas within the force.
We will continue to work closely with forces once the dedicated lead officers commence their roles from July 2025, setting out further detail on expectations of their ASB Action Plans, including how they will ensure they work across force boundaries where necessary.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54607 on Anti-social Behaviour: North East Somerset and Hanham, what geographical area would be covered by a local anti-social behaviour action plan.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 10 April, the Prime Minister announced the details of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, £200 million has been allocated to forces for 2025/26 to support the Government’s commitment to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing.
This includes ensuring that every force area will have a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour who will work with communities to develop an action plan to reduce and prevent ASB. I am closely monitoring the delivery of this commitment across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Forces are expected to engage with communities to develop their action plan which should cover the entire force area. Larger forces may decide to have more than one Action Plan if they consider it appropriate for different geographical areas within the force.
We will continue to work closely with forces once the dedicated lead officers commence their roles from July 2025, setting out further detail on expectations of their ASB Action Plans, including how they will ensure they work across force boundaries where necessary.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 47803 on Mental Health Services: Recruitment, what his planned timetable is for recruiting 8,500 mental health workers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we are recruiting 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services to help ease the pressure on busy services.
We continue to work with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside publishing a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade. There are a wide range of factors that will affect this future growth of the NHS mental health workforce, and we will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2025 to Question 3431 on Parking: Pedestrian Areas, what aims and objectives her Department is considering in relation to its response to the pavement parking consultation.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has not had discussions with local councils or other local government bodies on the issue of pavement parking. The Department held a consultation in 2020 and has been considering the responses to the consultation and working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them. In so doing, the Department has been seeking to find an optimal solution to this complex issue which is consistent with the Government’s wider aims and objectives. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response shortly.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) local councils and (b) other local government bodies on using existing powers to (i) restrict and (ii) enforce restrictions on pavement parking.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has not had discussions with local councils or other local government bodies on the issue of pavement parking. The Department held a consultation in 2020 and has been considering the responses to the consultation and working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them. In so doing, the Department has been seeking to find an optimal solution to this complex issue which is consistent with the Government’s wider aims and objectives. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response shortly.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has with representative bodies to ensure that plans to provide protection from assault to front-line retail workers include (a) bank and (b) building society staff.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has introduced a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.
My officials have met with UK Finance and Barclays Bank to discuss the issue of assaults on bank and building society staff, which is an issue we also take extremely seriously.
Assaults against workers in the bank and building society sectors are already an offence (common assault) under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, and are covered under other legislation such as the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which also covers more serious violence, including actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.
Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 creates a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing cases of assault against public facing workers. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public, including public-facing roles in banks and building societies.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice of 31 March 2025 in the debate on the Report Stage of the Mental Health Bill, Official Report, House of Lords, col 103, when she plans to provide an update on the work of the health and justice strategic advisory group.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The mental health and justice strategic advisory group will be chaired by NHS England’s National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, and the group’s membership is still in the process of being confirmed.
The mental health and justice strategic advisory group has not yet started its work. The National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, along with senior leads in health and justice, specialised commissioning, and community mental health are in the process of agreeing the terms of reference for the group, and its first meeting is expected to take place in early July.
The Chair will provide a quarterly report on progress and impact to ministers in both the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care, with the first report expected in the Autumn.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice of 31 March 2025 in the debate on the Report Stage of the Mental Health Bill, Official Report, House of Lords, col 103, what the remit of the health and justice strategic advisory group is.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The mental health and justice strategic advisory group will be chaired by NHS England’s National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, and the group’s membership is still in the process of being confirmed.
The mental health and justice strategic advisory group has not yet started its work. The National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, along with senior leads in health and justice, specialised commissioning, and community mental health are in the process of agreeing the terms of reference for the group, and its first meeting is expected to take place in early July.
The Chair will provide a quarterly report on progress and impact to ministers in both the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care, with the first report expected in the Autumn.