Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of safeguards protecting residents of retirement homes from additional paid-for services from independent living providers.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to ensuring that leaseholders, including those living in retirement homes, are protected from unfair and unreasonable practices.
There are currently two government-approved codes of practice in force in relation to the residential leasehold sector and private retirement housing. These are the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Residential Management Service Charge Code and the Association of Retirement Housing Managers (AHRM) Code of Practice. The enforcement of standards set out in these codes can be taken into account as evidence, at court or tribunal hearings.
Individual leases set out what services leaseholders may expect to receive, and what they should pay for. By law variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard. Should leaseholders wish to contest the reasonableness of their service charges, they may make an application to the appropriate tribunal. On 4 July, the government published a consultation on strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services. It can be found on gov.uk here.
The government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations from the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report, including in relation to specialist accommodation for older people.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Office for National Statistics not requiring public bodies to collect data on ethnicity for (a) Jews and (b) Sikhs.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS, which is independent of government, is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will ask the Office for National Statistics to change its policy that recommends excluding Jews and Sikhs from data collected on ethnicity in its ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS, which is independent of government, is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make representations to the ONS on including (a) Sikhs and (b) Jews in their advice to public bodies on using ethnicity categories.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS, which is independent of government, is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will ask the Office for National Statistics to update the ethnicity harmonised standard to include a tick box option for (a) Jews and (b) Sikhs.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS, which is independent of government, is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing specific (a) Sikh and (b) Jewish options for a person’s ethnic group in data collection conducted by his Department.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics. The Cabinet Office also uses these standards to collect diversity data.
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group. The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate has she made of the number of children who will be eligible for Free School Meals under the plans to expand eligibility in (a) Birmingham Edgbaston constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
Providing over half a million children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will also lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
We have published data on the number of children who could benefit from expanded provision by constituency/region/local authority here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency will receive funding from the school rebuilding programme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government has given a long-term commitment for funding through to 2034/35 to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England.
The department is investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding the School Rebuilding Programme, with a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years.
Details of schools currently in the School Rebuilding Programme are published on GOV.UK, including the following schools in the constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston: Welsh House Farm Community School and Special Needs Resources Base, and Baskerville School. The department plans to set out further details about the selection process for the additional 250 schools to be selected for the programme later this year.
In addition, the department is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26. Details of annual capital funding are made available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data he holds on the number of (a) referrals and (b) complaints to social care services received by councils from (i) retirement residential home and (ii) independent living providers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information.
By law, all health and social care services must have a procedure for dealing efficiently with complaints, and anyone who has seen or experienced poor-quality care has the right to complain to the organisation that provided or paid for the care.
If an individual is not satisfied with the way a provider or local authority has dealt with a complaint, they may escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who can investigate individual concerns.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data (a) his Department and (b) NHS England hold on the number of (i) Sikh and (ii) Jewish people with late stage cancer diagnoses.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England, as the national cancer registry, collects and analyses diagnosis and treatment data on cancer patients in England. The religion of patients is not collected or stored by the NDRS. Further information on the NDRS is available at the following link: