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.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people claimed asylum by country of origin in each month of 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum claims, by nationality, is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2024.
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, whether he has had discussions with the Israeli government on the attack on Balata refugee camp in December 2024.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign Secretary has regularly raised issues of International Humanitarian Law compliance with the Israeli Government. Stability in the West Bank is crucial to ensure that the fragile ceasefire in Gaza can last. All sides should work to ensure a lowering of tension in the West Bank at this time. The ceasefire marks the first step in ensuring long-term peace and security for Israelis, Palestinians, and the wider region, bringing much-needed stability. Our attention must turn to how we secure a permanently better future for the Israeli and Palestinian people - grounded in a two-state solution that will guarantee security and stability for Israel, alongside a sovereign and viable Palestine state.
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, what proportion of funding from the most recent round of the Community Ownership Fund was allocated to bids from Scotland.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In Round 4 Window, this government awarded £36.2 million to 85 projects across the UK, with £5 million allocated to 11 projects in Scotland.
The full list of successful projects can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her planned timetable is for allocating the next round of Access for All funding.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Improving the accessibility is an important element of our plan to fix Britain’s broken rail system. The Department is carefully considering the best approach to station accessibility and recognises the huge social and economic benefits it brings to communities. MPs and stakeholders will be updated in due course.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for a (a) Skilled Worker and (b) Skilled Worker Dependent Visa in each of the last five years.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office does not publish the requested data.
But, the latest Transparency Data, which does provide data on applications for various routes processed within service standards, can be found at: Visas, status and immigration data: Q3 2024 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many incidents of self-harm using (a) paracetamol, (b) aspirin and (c) ibuprofen were recorded amongst (i) 16 and (ii) 17 year olds in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.