Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase (a) awareness and (b) uptake of the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund for eligible families.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities, Adoption England and Regional Adoption Agencies promote the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) to families throughout their adoption journey as a source of support should they need it.
In December 2023, the department changed the name of the Fund from the Adoption Support Fund to the ASGSF, to reflect the eligibility of special guardianship order (SGO) families and encourage increased numbers of applications for therapy where these families might need support.
The department does not hold definitive data on the number of families eligible for the ASGSF at any one time. During the period from 7 February to 31 December 2024, 18,030 individual children have accessed support through the ASGSF.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many families are eligible for the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund; and how many of these have accessed the fund since 7 February 2024.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities, Adoption England and Regional Adoption Agencies promote the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) to families throughout their adoption journey as a source of support should they need it.
In December 2023, the department changed the name of the Fund from the Adoption Support Fund to the ASGSF, to reflect the eligibility of special guardianship order (SGO) families and encourage increased numbers of applications for therapy where these families might need support.
The department does not hold definitive data on the number of families eligible for the ASGSF at any one time. During the period from 7 February to 31 December 2024, 18,030 individual children have accessed support through the ASGSF.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a suicide prevention strategy aimed at (a) school and (b) university students.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to reducing the numbers of lives lost to suicide, including through prevention in educational institutions.
The Department of Health and Social Care published a Prevention Strategy for England on 11 September 2023 with over 130 actions aimed at reducing the suicide rate. The strategy also sets ambitions to improve support for people who self-harm and people who have been bereaved by suicide. As part of the strategy, a number of groups have been identified for consideration for tailored or targeted action at a national level, including children and young people.
Guidance to schools is reviewed regularly, including the statutory ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance that all schools must have regard to. Amongst other things, the guidance sets out the role all staff must play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including identifying where mental health concerns are also safeguarding concerns and making appropriate referrals into early help support services and statutory support services as appropriate.
The statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which came into force in September 2020, advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The department is currently reviewing the RSHE guidance and as part of this process the department will explore whether additional content is required on suicide prevention.
The National Review of Higher Education Student Suicides will report with important lessons for better supporting students and preventing tragedies in higher education (HE) settings in the spring. This will be published alongside updated data on HE student suicides from the Office for National Statistics.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will update the Green Book to allow for the valuation of the reduced carbon footprint of UK produced materials as opposed to imported ones.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Green Book has supplementary guidance on the valuation of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. This is found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65aadd020ff90c000f955f17/valuation-of-energy-use-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-appraisal.pdf
That supplementary guidance notes that appraisals should consider the greenhouse gas emissions content of all of the materials that are used to implement a proposal. This applies both to materials produced in the UK, as well as those imported from abroad.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission a survey of the mental health of children and young people in 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Although there are no plans at present to commission further follow up waves to the 2017 Mental Health of Children and Young People in England survey, the Department recognises its importance. We will publish any such plans in due course.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will include podcasts in the broadcasting code.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has no plans to widen the scope of the Broadcasting Code to include all online podcasts.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of recycling lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK currently has an emerging capacity to recycle lithium-ion batteries, with most EV batteries being dismantled and shipped to Europe.
Recyclus Group, based in Wolverhampton, is the country's first and only industrial-scale recycling facility. It is licenced to turn 22,000 tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries, taken from a range of sources including electric cars, each year into black mass without using water, and has a low carbon footprint.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Institute of the Motor Industry's survey entitled EV TechSafe Technician Forecasts - Jan 2024.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to working with the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) to ensure mechanics across the UK are equipped with the skills needed to safely repair electric vehicles (EVs). Currently over 58,000 technicians, 24% of the workforce, are qualified to work on EVs. This aligns with the 2.8% of licensed vehicles on UK roads that are zero emission.
By endorsing the IMI TechSafe Standards, the Government aims to strengthen trust within the industry and among consumers, supporting the transition to electric vehicles and fostering the development of a highly skilled workforce.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Government Office for Science's research entitled What are the technical and policy barriers to increasing EV battery recycling capacity in the UK?, updated on 21 November 2023, what progress he has made in researching (a) water miscible binders, (b) binderless electrodes and (c) methods of recycling polyvinylidene difluoride.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The £610m Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, supports mission-led academic research on battery recycling technologies through the Faraday Institution’s (FI’s) ReLiB project. ReLiB researchers at the University of Leicester have recently demonstrated algae-derived water miscible anode blinders that can be fully recovered at the end of the batteries life, and are looking to demonstrate an “all” water-soluble binder system that will simplifying battery recycling by the Summer 2025.
ReLiB researchers at the University of Birmingham have also been collaborating with a leading supplier of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) binder on the use of “green” solvents for binder recovery from used batteries. They have also recently demonstrated a new process to recover and reuse PVDF binders in new cells.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the use of hydrometallurgical separation in the recycling of electric vehicle batteries to help facilitate the recovery of lithium.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government seeks to encourage sustainable critical mineral production and pro-cessing. As electric vehicle batteries reach the end of their economic life, there will be an opportunity and necessity to repair, repurpose, reuse, and recycle them. The chemicals sector will play an important role in recovering valuable materials like lithium, enhancing environmental sustainability, and alleviating pressure on primary supply
To this end, the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) aims to support the creation of an internationally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the UK. It provides support to late-stage R&D and capital investments in strategically important technologies. This in-cludes unlocking strategic investments in battery recycling.