Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to involve young people with lived experience of homelessness in the development of the cross-departmental homelessness strategy.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As part of the development of the cross-Government homelessness strategy the Government has engaged representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts, including those who have lived experience.
The Government hosted a series of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the strategy. Young people with lived experience of homelessness were included in this work.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 7 May 2024 to Question 24352 on Dietetics: Prescriptions, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the findings of the report by the University of Surrey entitled Innovation in the Allied Health Professions: Evaluation of supplementary prescribing by dietitians and independent prescribing by therapeutic radiographers, published in December 2024, on the (a) safety and (b) efficacy of dietitians prescribing; and whether he plans to extend independent prescribing rights to dietitians.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to exploring the extension of medicines responsibilities for non-medical professionals. This will support the aim that patients are cared for, and treated by, the most appropriate healthcare professional to meet their needs, where it is safe and appropriate to do so. Many regulated healthcare professionals have already received extended medicines responsibilities and prescribing rights, and the Department is committed to assessing the impact that these changes have had on patient care.
Regarding the extension of prescribing rights to dietitians, there is a process in place for making changes to prescribing responsibilities to ensure proposals are safe and beneficial for patients. Officials are carefully considering proposals relating to a range of healthcare professionals, including dietitians, as part of wider work concerning non-medical prescribing. This will include consideration of literature relevant to the profession being assessed.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to reduce reliance on temporary accommodation.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 51683 on 19 May 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of homelessness since July 2024.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local housing authorities report their homelessness activities under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) by completing the quarterly Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC) statistical return. You can find a link to the latest data, commentary and technical notes on collections here Research and statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how often the inter-ministerial group on homelessness meets.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Inter-Ministerial Group on homelessness meets as often as is required to develop the Government’s long-term homelessness strategy. The most recent meeting took place on Tuesday 13 May 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
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 meet with representatives from the youth homelessness sector to discuss a dedicated chapter on youth homelessness in the proposed policy paper on homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high, and I recognise the unique challenges young people face in securing stable housing. The Government has engaged with stakeholders within the youth homelessness sector to discuss the needs of this cohort as we work to develop a long-term, cross-Government homelessness strategy to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. I will be continuing this engagement with stakeholders to discuss what is needed to address youth homelessness.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a national Supporting People programme.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are best placed to decide how their funding is spent locally. The Government has a delivered a Settlement that begins to fix the foundations of local government by providing significant investment redirecting funding towards the services and places that need it most. The Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate her Department has made of the number of houses that will be built by the end of 2025.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 36228 on 14 March 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to conduct a public consultation before finalising appointments to the Industry Expert Panel for the National Food Strategy.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The role of the Food Strategy Advisory Board is purely to advise on the development of the food strategy. There will be multiple routes for stakeholders to share ideas as part of the co-design process in 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to Personal Independence Payment on people above over state pension age.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our intention is that the new eligibility requirement in Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in which people must score a minimum of four points in one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component, will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. In keeping with existing policy, people of State Pension Age are not routinely fully reviewed and will not be affected by the proposed changes.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.