Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Israel on the arrest and detention of (a) Mahmoud Muna and (b) Ahmad Muna.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are concerned by reports of the detention of Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna by the Israeli authorities. Our Ambassador in Tel Aviv, and the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, tweeted to express concern at the police raid, and to reiterate our support for freedom of expression as a fundamental right. We continue to call on Israeli authorities to exercise restraint and adhere to international law.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce average waiting times to access independent tribunals to hear appeals from parents against Child Maintenance Service decisions.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Appeals against Child Maintenance Service decisions are heard by the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, which is part of the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal.
Reducing the outstanding caseload is the key measure to bring down the waiting times for tribunal hearings. We are currently focused on reducing the outstanding caseload in the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, the deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems and the use of remote hearing technology as appropriate. If an expedited hearing is requested, a Judge or Legal Officer will make a decision on that issue, taking all the circumstances into account.
Data on Tribunals performance is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Receipts, disposals and the outstanding caseload for individual Chambers in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal, the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal can be found at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much money has been released through the Dormant Assets scheme in each year since it began.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Dormant Assets Scheme has unlocked over £1 billion of dormant assets for good causes. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes all funding between the four nations in the UK. This is done in accordance with the Distribution of Dormant Account Money Order 2011: England receives 83.9%; Scotland 8.4%; Wales 4.9%; and Northern Ireland 2.8%. DCMS is responsible for the English portion and the relevant Devolved Governments are responsible for their own portion.
As of 2023-2024, a total of £984.5 million has been allocated to the Dormant Assets Scheme in the UK:
2011/12: £47.5 million
2012/13: £49.5 million
2013/14: £83.3 million
2014/15: £49.1 million
2015/16: £36.6 million
2016/17: £94.3 million
2017/18: £152.6 million
2018/19: £71.3 million
2019/20: £68.7 million
2020/21: £90.1 million
2021/22: £53.4 million
2022/23: £92.9 million
2023/24: £95.2 million
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much money released by the Dormant Assets scheme has been allocated to Scotland in each year since the scheme began.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
To date, the Dormant Assets Scheme has unlocked over £1 billion for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes all funding between the four nations in the UK. This is done in accordance with the Distribution of Dormant Account Money Order 2011: England receives 83.9%; Scotland 8.4%; Wales 4.9%; and Northern Ireland 2.8%.
To date, £82.7 million has been allocated to Scotland:
2011/12: £4.0 million
2012/13: £4.1 million
2013/14: £7.0 million
2014/15: £4.1 million
2015/16: £3.1 million
2016/17: £7.9 million
2017/18: £12.8 million
2018/19: £6.0 million
2019/20: £5.8 million
2020/21: £7.6 million
2021/22: £4.5 million
2022/23: £7.8 million
2023/24: £8.0 million
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress his Department has made on strengthening national resilience.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As my Rt. Hon friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, set out in his statement to the House last week, we continue to make improvements to strengthen our national resilience.
In April the UK Resilience Academy will be launched and will train over 4000 people a year and;
Later this year we will undertake a full national pandemic response exercise.
The review of national resilience also continues. I will be inviting Members from across this House to attend drop-in sessions to discuss the review.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will hold discussions with the Manchester Breast Centre on the potential merits of providing additional support for their research into lobular breast cancer.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Cancer research is a critical priority for the Government. The Government does not ringfence funding for specific cancer types but is committed to supporting cancer research such as that conducted at Manchester Breast Centre. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology invests approximately £200 million into cancer research annually via UK Research and Innovation, and The Department of Health and Social Care spent £121.8 million in 2022/23 on cancer research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The Department of Health and Social Care is currently engaging with the sector to develop a new National Cancer Plan which will outline the Government’s strategy to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including lobular breast cancer.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the cost of procuring (a) audio and (b) tactile voting solutions at every polling station to guarantee blind and partially sighted people a secret and independent vote.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to ensuring eligible disabled electors are supported in being able to register and vote in elections.
The current law requires Returning Officers to take account of what electors want in terms of support and the Electoral Commission gives guidance on how to do this. The Tactile Voting Device, introduced in 2001, has proven effective for some voters with sight loss but we are aware that other options, such as magnifiers, digital reading applications and lighting aids, are also used to support individual elector’s preferences. The aim of the legislation is to support individuals and there is no one-size-fits all solution to achieve that.
To support the changes brought in by the Elections Act 2022, money was made available to local authorities through new burdens funding and to Returning Officers where polls are funded directly by central government.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help ensure that all communities have access to local radio stations.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There are a wide range of local commercial and community radio services across the UK operating on analogue (FM/AM) and on digital radio. In addition, there are increasing numbers of commercial and community radio stations which are digital-only and have been able to take advantage of DAB and small-scale DAB, allowing more local radio stations to reach their audiences.
Ofcom’s progress report on small-scale DAB published on 22 October 2024 announced that Ofcom was planning to run two additional rounds of SS-DAB licensing in the near future, enabling more communities and prospective businesses to develop new stations and get on air.
Local stations continue to make a significant contribution to local media plurality and choice, providing communities with access to news and local information. We are also considering the role that local commercial and community radio can make in helping to strengthen local media more generally as part of our comprehensive review of local media.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support community radio.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In December 2024, the Community Radio Order 2025 was laid in draft in Parliament. It enables Ofcom to extend community radio licences for a fourth time and to remove restrictions that limit the amount of income a community radio licence can receive from advertisements and sponsorship, except for community radio stations whose coverage area overlaps with small independent commercial stations. These changes are designed to secure the long-term success and financial sustainability of the UK’s community radio stations and, subject to Parliamentary approval, are due to come into force in April 2025.
The Ofcom-administered Community Radio Fund also allows community radio stations to bid for funding to meet their core costs and seeks to support the sector towards self-sustainability. The current annual budget for the Community Radio Fund was set at £400,000 in 2015. We are currently looking at whether there is scope to increase funding as part of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to tackle websites which (a) promote and (b) normalise suicide.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, websites that allow user-generated content must proactively prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide content, and children of all ages from encountering legal content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide.
Last year, the Secretary of State wrote to Ofcom to ask about its plans to tackle suicide forums which breach their obligations under the Online Safety Act. The regulator confirmed it stands ready to move to rapid enforcement action, where necessary.
The Act also provides search services with targeted duties to minimise the risk of all users encountering illegal search content either in or via search results.