Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that home-schooled children are able to receive grades for (a) GCSE, (b) iGCSE and (c) A-Level examinations in the same way as children in the main school system.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Government considers that exams cannot be held in a way which is fair. The Department have therefore announced that GCSE, AS and A level exams will not go ahead this summer as planned.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has asked the Chief Regulator at Ofqual to find a clear and accessible route for private candidates and those not in school this year to be assessed and receive a grade. The Department and Ofqual have launched a two-week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives, including consulting specifically on four different approaches for private candidates to receive a grade.
The consultation can be accessed via this link and will be open until 23:45 on 29 January 2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-how-gcse-as-and-a-level-grades-should-be-awarded-in-summer-2021. The Department and Ofqual strongly encourage all our stakeholders, including private candidates and their parents, to respond. We will continue to engage with a range of relevant stakeholders when developing plans for our policy on GCSE, AS and A level assessments in 2021, as will the exams regulator Ofqual.
International GCSEs are not regulated by Ofqual and are not part of the arrangements for summer 2021 that apply to GCSEs and A/AS levels. The Department is in contact with the exam boards that provide these qualifications to understand their current position and make clear our views before they take a final decision.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living in Hartlepool had a Pension Wise guidance appointment by telephone or in person from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Money and Pensions Service publishes data on pension wise appointments across 2019-2020 here: https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living in the North East of England had a Pension Wise guidance appointment by telephone or in person from April 2019 to March 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Money and Pensions Service publishes data on pension wise appointments across 2019-2020 here: https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
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 financial effect on students in receipt of a student loan who normally top-up their income through work but who can neither work as a result of the covid-19 outbreak nor claim universal credit due to regulations restricting claims for those in receipt of student loans.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
Students access fees and living costs support for their higher education courses through various loans and grants funded through the student support system. It is important that Universal Credit does not duplicate this support which is designed for their needs, unlike the social security system. Students cannot normally satisfy the entitlement conditions for Universal Credit. Exceptions are made where students have additional needs that are not met through the student support system, such as being responsible for a child.
Students can continue to look for work where it is safe to do so. There are jobs available in key sectors such as agriculture, distribution and health and social care. Students are encouraged to explore these opportunities and others, where able to do so. The online service Find a Job (www.gov.uk/find-a-job) can be used to search and apply for jobs.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to encourage network providers to zero rate (a) educational websites and (b) video conferencing systems used by schools, colleges and universities to allow people who use mobile data to access them without charge.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government is working with industry to identify measures that can help vulnerable families during this difficult time. The majority of the UK’s leading mobile network operators have agreed to provide free data uplifts to disadvantaged families with school-age children. This will support access to education resources including remote education activities direct from their schools.
We are pleased that all four of the main mobile network operators have committed to working with Oak Academy to zero rate the website, and EE is also zero-rating BBC Bitesize.
In addition, last year the government agreed a set of commitments with the UK’s major broadband and mobile operators to support disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers during the Covid-19 period. This included lifting data caps on all fixed broadband packages, and provision of new and generous landline and mobile offers, such as free or low cost mobile data boosts.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help homeless people and rough sleepers into suitable accommodation during the January 2021 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
This Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and we have taken huge steps working with local authorities and their partners to protect rough sleepers during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.
Given the new variant of COVID-19 and the new national lockdown, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure that people who sleep rough are kept as safe as possible and that we do everything we can to protect the NHS. This is backed by £10 million to protect rough sleepers and ensure their wider health needs are addressed.
We have asked all local authorities to ensure that even more rough sleepers are safely accommodated, and will be asking that this opportunity is actively used to make sure that all rough sleepers are registered with a GP where they are not already and are factored into local area vaccination plans, in line with JCVI prioritisation for Covid vaccinations. This will help ensure that the wider health needs of people who sleep rough are addressed, supporting them now and for the future.
This additional support builds on the package of winter support announced last year. This includes a £10 million Cold Weather Fund for all local authorities to bring forward COVID-secure accommodation this winter and to keep vulnerable people safe from the cold. This is accompanied by a £2 million Transformation Fund for the voluntary sector, as well as comprehensive guidance on reopening night shelters more safely, where not doing so would endanger lives.
We have also been in close contact with councils to develop plans for the coming months, supported by the £266 million Next Steps Accommodation Programme which aims to ensure that as few people as possible return to the streets. This includes bringing forward 3,300 new homes this year for rough sleepers, leaving a national legacy of this Government’s support for these individuals.
In total, we are spending over £700 million this year and will be spending over £750 million next year to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, further demonstrating the Government’s commitment to end rough sleeping.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for urgent mental health service provision.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Clinical Review of Access Standards committed to testing new standards during 2020/21 for urgent mental health crisis care, including access to a liaison psychiatry team in accident and emergency departments within an hour of referral.
The NHS Long Term Plan set out measures to achieve 24 hours a day, seven days a week crisis care services, including a new national single point of access via NHS 111, and increased investment in alternative crisis services.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Home Office:
What additional funding her Department plans to provide to ensure that police forces have the capacity to enforce localised covid-19 lockdowns in addition to carrying out their other duties.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Secretary promised to stand behind the men and women of our Police to give them the resources, powers and funding they need to keep the British public safe and we are working with all police forces to capture the additional financial pressures they are experiencing as a result of COVID-19.
We will issue further detail of the support package we are providing as soon as possible.
The police funding settlement for 2020/21 set out that £168m of the additional funding for recruitment this year would be ringfenced and paid to forces. It has been agreed that half of this funding (£84m) will be flexed to allow for expenditure on both COVID-19 related pressures and continued Police Uplift Programme recruitment activity in light of the current circumstances.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress his Department has made on ending rough sleeping.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government is clear that no one should be without a roof over their head. That is why we have committed to ending rough sleeping within this parliament. The most recent national figures, from the Official 2019 Rough Sleeping Snapshot, showed that the number of people sleeping on our streets on a single night fell for the second year in a row and a reduction on previous year.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he is having with his counterpart in Cyprus on allowing British citizens to travel there to deal with family emergencies and bereavements.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Since 1 August, visitors from the UK have been able to travel to Cyprus. Visitors must provide a negative COVID-19 test result on arrival, obtained within 72 hours before travel. Requirements for entry into Cyprus are of course a matter for the Cypriot authorities. Further information on the current entry requirements for Cyprus is available from FCO travel advice via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/cyprus/entry-requirements.