Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been prosecuted for possession of cannabis since 1 January 2020.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions for possession of cannabis, covering the period requested and this can be viewed in the following data tool:
Navigate to ‘Prosecutions and Convictions’ tab, and use the ‘Offence’ filter to select ‘92E.01 Possession of a controlled drug - Class B (cannabis)’ and ‘92E.02 Possession of a controlled drug - Class C (cannabis)’.
Within the pivot tool, you can select specific quarters and years to show the period of interest.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the future sustainability of Rugby League.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Government has set out its ambitions for supporting the long-term sustainable growth of the sport sector in the new sport strategy, Get Active.
This includes supporting sports like Rugby League to access additional, alternative forms of investment to help the sector to continue to grow and thrive, and by highlighting best practice, good governance mechanisms, and opportunities offered by technology and innovation. This will allow sport to thrive for future generations, and support the continuation of our sporting institutions.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has appointed independent advisors to help the Department's work on the future sustainability of Rugby League.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
To support the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby Limited on their plans for the future of professional Rugby Union, Government appointed Rugby Football League’s former CEO Ralph Rimmer and Chris Pilling of UK Sport to work with the sport’s authorities.
The independent advisers’ remit only extended to cover issues facing Rugby Union.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department has spent on support for (a) Rugby Union and (b) Rugby League clubs in each year since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Government provides the majority of its support for Rugby Union and Rugby League through its arms-length body Sport England. A breakdown of funding for each year for both sports is outlined below:
Rugby Union
2020/21- £26,305,065 (includes £21,565,000 of COVID-19 Sport Winter Survival Package provided to the RFU)
2021/22 - £1,484,441
2022/23 - £15,185,674 (This includes £12,505,000 of System partner funding provided to the RFU to grow and develop the sport between the years 2022 and 2027)
2023/24 - £5,737,648
Rugby Union also received £160 million through the Sport Survival Package, helping professional and community sport clubs survive the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and ensure the continuation of sport competitions and events.
Rugby League
2020/21 - £7,044,354
2021/22 - £10,860,922
2022/23 - £10,849,990
2023/24 - £886,207 (The Sport England funding register is only updated to December 2023 at this point, so funding awarded since December has not been captured in this sum)
Rugby League also received £17.1 million through the Sport Survival Package, which included grant funding to support the delivery of the Rugby League World Cup in 2022.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on establishing an independent regulator for football.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is on the side of football fans and the local communities that football clubs serve. We have a clear plan to deliver a sustainable future for football, with fans at its heart, and our legislation will deliver this through a new independent regulator as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will make an assessment of the impact of trends in the level of car insurance premiums on young people.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Department for Transport officials regularly liaise with representatives of the motor insurance industry on a variety of issues such as the cost of insurance.
It is the responsibility of individual motor insurers to set their premiums and the terms and conditions of their policies, and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market.
The Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under the Financial Conduct Authority rules.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department has spent on support for grassroots amateur Rugby League clubs since 5 March 2021.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Supporting grassroots sport is a key government priority and we recognise the importance that high quality facilities play in encouraging people to take part in sport and ensuring participation rates continue to grow. Our new strategy ‘Get Active’ sets out our unapologetic ambition to build a more active nation, with a target to get 3.5 million more people classed as ‘active’ by 2030.
Between 2021 and 2025, the UK Government has committed over £400 million to multi-sport grassroots facilities across the UK. This is all part of our mission to ensure every community has the pitches and facilities it needs.
We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s length body, Sport England - which receives £323m in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. Since 2021, Sport England has provided over £22.6m of support to programmes which facilitate participation in grassroots rugby league.
In partnership with the National Lottery, Sport England has also supported the ‘CreatedBy’ capital grants programme. Which delivered £26.4m in legacy funding to celebrate England’s hosting of the 2022 Rugby League World Cup, providing investment in facilities and equipment to encourage participation.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the economic benefits of allowing asylum seekers to work if they have been waiting six months or more for an initial decision.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Asylum seekers who have had their claim outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own, are allowed to work. Those permitted to work are restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List. This is based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee. It is the Home Office’s assessment that any analysis in this area is dependent on making assumptions from limited evidence and will therefore produce uncertain results.
Whilst we keep all policies under review, there are no immediate plans to change the existing policy, other than aligning it with the upcoming Immigration Salary List, which replaces the SOL. It is important that we distinguish between individuals who need protection and those seeking to work here who can apply for a work visa under the Immigration Rules. The Government has always been clear that asylum seekers do not need to make perilous journeys in order to seek employment in the UK. Those in need of protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
Whilst there is mixed evidence that access to work in itself is a pull factor, it is reasonable to assume that this is one element in a range of factors that may drive illegal migration rather than use of legal routes to work in the UK. These routes include Skilled Worker, Global Talent, and Health and Care routes, which are supporting UK businesses to recruit workers with the skills and talent they need from around the world.
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, what steps she is taking to reduce NHS waiting lists in (a) the North West and (b) Liverpool.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is one of this Prime Minister’s top priorities. To reduce the National Health Service waiting list, the Department plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This funding will expand capacity through creating a new network of community diagnostic centres and maximising all available independent sector capacity.
In addition, we are managing demand through specialised advice in primary care and giving patients more control over where they receive their care. We are also increasing productivity through transforming outpatient services, developing new surgical hubs to increase theatre productivity, and working actively with trusts to support and challenge on their performance.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the grime music scene in urban centres across England.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our world leading music sector, including at a grassroots level across the country. Grime music projects have been successful in applying for the Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) Supporting Grassroots Music Fund, to which the government last year committed an additional £5 million, taking our total investment through the Fund to almost £15 million. The Fund enables grassroots music organisations including venues, rehearsal and recording studios, festivals and promoters from all music genres to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support them to be more financially resilient.
The Government also supports our world leading music industry through a range of export support programmes, including the Music Export Growth Scheme (MEGS) co-funded by DCMS and DBT. MEGS has supported over 300 musical acts from a range of genres and backgrounds, including grime artists, to grow their international profile and exports in global markets. As part of the Creative Industries Sector Vision we announced that funding for MEGS will be tripled to £3.2 million over the next two years, helping to support more artists than ever before.
DCMS works closely with ACE to develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences to enrich people's lives. ACE offers a range of grants and support offers, such as Developing Your Creative Practice and Project Grants, which are open to applicants from any music genre or background. DCMS officials continue to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders from across the music industry to better understand issues and concerns and to identify opportunities to support.