Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to tackle the practices of rogue private parking operators.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
We have already taken steps to tackle unfair practices by private parking operators, including the banning of wheel clamping and towing.
My Department is also considering reforms of the private parking sector and we are keen to ensure motorists get fair treatment from private parking companies.
We welcome the Rt Hon Sir Greg Knight’s Private Member's Bill that seeks to create an independent code of practice for private parking companies. We look forward to reading Sir Greg’s recommendations.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the availability of specialist refuge provision for BAMER women who are victims of abuse.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and we are determined to ensure that victims, regardless of their circumstances, should receive the support they need when they need it.
Local areas are best placed to understand local needs and the Government has devolved power and responsibility for meeting those needs accordingly. We expect local areas to do the right thing and provide services that are responsive to the needs of victims of domestic abuse. Local areas should assess their need for domestic abuse services and make decisions on the provision of refuges and support to fit the identified needs for all domestic abuse victims, including those from BME groups, both from within and outside their local area.
To help meet this challenge, the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, published on 8 March 2016, commits us to providing funding of £40 million to support victims of domestic abuse, including specific provision for victims from BME backgrounds. The prospectus for our 2016-18 £20 million fund was clear that bids should set out how their proposals meet the needs of those victims from diverse groups, as well as protecting assets of national significance such as the very specialist refuges which provide culturally specific and sensitive services. Alongside the £20 million fund, we published our new ‘Priorities for Domestic Abuse Services’, developed with partners from the domestic abuse sector, which sets out for the first time what local areas need to do to ensure an effective response to meeting the needs of all domestic abuse victims.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of whether current refuge provision for BAMER women who are victims of abuse is sufficient to meet the specific needs of those women.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and we are determined to ensure that victims, regardless of their circumstances, should receive the support they need when they need it.
Local areas are best placed to understand local needs and the Government has devolved power and responsibility for meeting those needs accordingly. We expect local areas to do the right thing and provide services that are responsive to the needs of victims of domestic abuse. Local areas should assess their need for domestic abuse services and make decisions on the provision of refuges and support to fit the identified needs for all domestic abuse victims, including those from BME groups, both from within and outside their local area.
To help meet this challenge, the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, published on 8 March 2016, commits us to providing funding of £40 million to support victims of domestic abuse, including specific provision for victims from BME backgrounds. The prospectus for our 2016-18 £20 million fund was clear that bids should set out how their proposals meet the needs of those victims from diverse groups, as well as protecting assets of national significance such as the very specialist refuges which provide culturally specific and sensitive services. Alongside the £20 million fund, we published our new ‘Priorities for Domestic Abuse Services’, developed with partners from the domestic abuse sector, which sets out for the first time what local areas need to do to ensure an effective response to meeting the needs of all domestic abuse victims.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2017 to Question 64539, what discussions his Department held with the Department for Exiting the European Union on the drafting of the White Paper entitled The United Kingdom's exit from and new partnership with the European Union, Cm 9417, published in February 2017.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
We, and other Departments, are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union on all aspects of exiting the European Union.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Department for Exiting the European Union on the contents of the White Paper entitled The United Kingdom's exit from and new partnership with the European Union, Cm 9417, published in February 2017.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
We, and other Departments, are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union on all aspects of exiting the European Union.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33117, which programmes the reprioritisation of £100 million in capital funding to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will affect.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Department is not reducing delivery of any existing programmes. We are confident that we will be able to meet this new pressure through careful management and review of existing capital budgets. This may include use of receipts from other programmes and re-profiling underspends on capital grant programmes. The reprioritisation of the money means that the Department’s homelessness budget now has an additional £100 million to spend on programmes to help those vulnerable and at risk of homelessness.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33117, which programmes the reprioritisation of £100 million in capital funding to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will affect.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what consultation took place with patient representative groups and charities representing older people on the changes to attendance allowance proposed in the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
In December, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced that the Government will be consulting on giving councils in England “more responsibility to support older people with care needs – including people who, under the current system, would be supported through Attendance Allowance”. We want to explore if there is a better way to provide support for older people with care needs through local integration and we intend to launch a consultation on this in due course. Any change would not affect those already receiving Attendance Allowance. The consultation will be an open process that will give everybody a voice in determining the nature of any reform and will inform the decision about whether and how to proceed with any reform.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.129 of Budget 2016, HC 901, from which part of his Department's budget the £100 million allocated to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will come.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness.
We announced at Budget an additional £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living. We will reprioritise money within our existing capital budgets to deliver this accommodation. This will not affect delivery of the Government’s Starter Homes and Shared Ownership programmes.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2015 to Question 221886, how many cases of forced labour have been found by local authorities during pro-active inspection of houses of multiple occupation in the last five years; and what training his Department provides to officials in local authorities on (a) the indicators of forced labour and (b) working with victims of trauma.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department does not collect information on the number of local authority inspections of Houses in Multiple Occupation. The Department does not have policy responsibility for forced labour or victims of trauma, consequently local authority officers do not receive training from my Department on the indicators of forced labour or working with victims of trauma. To support local authorities, we have just published revised guidance on tackling rogue landlords, as well as beds in sheds. This builds on the £6.7 million the Government has given councils to tackle rogue landlords in their area. To date, nearly 40,000 properties have been inspected and over 3,000 landlords are now facing further action or prosecution for breaking the law.