Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help support police officers with mental health issues.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government takes the physical and mental health of the police workforce very seriously and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support for officers and staff. Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £14m to the National Police Wellbeing Service. The Service is helping forces to identify where there is most risk of impacts on mental health, and developing work around building resilience, as well as putting in place support for those who need it in response to traumatic events.
Through the Police Covenant, we continue to work with policing partners to ensure those who work in policing and their families get the support and protection they need. We have already delivered pre-deployment mental health support for all new starters, established a Chief Medical Officer for policing and set an initial priority work stream on suicide prevention.
The Home Office is also providing funding to establish and run the first year of a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support line for current and former members of the police workforce. This will provide urgent support for our police when they need it the most and can be accessed from any area at any time.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent employees of her Department work on the delivery of Op Courage.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Op COURAGE is a bespoke National Health Service commissioned service for veterans, delivering a comprehensive mental health treatment pathway. The Department retains oversight of the service with 1.4 full time equivalent (FTE) supporting policy delivery on Armed Forces and Veterans Health.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent employees in her Department work on the delivery of Op Restore.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Op Restore is a bespoke National Health Service-commissioned physical health and wellbeing service, which supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces and have continuing, physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces.
Op Nova provides support for those who have served in the British Armed Forces and who are in contact with the justice system, enabling them to access the services they need.
The Department retains oversight of these services, with 1.4 full time equivalent employees supporting policy delivery on armed forces and veterans’ health.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent employees in her Department work on the delivery of Op Nova.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Op Restore is a bespoke National Health Service-commissioned physical health and wellbeing service, which supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces and have continuing, physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces.
Op Nova provides support for those who have served in the British Armed Forces and who are in contact with the justice system, enabling them to access the services they need.
The Department retains oversight of these services, with 1.4 full time equivalent employees supporting policy delivery on armed forces and veterans’ health.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help ensure that fire and rescue services are able to respond to extreme weather events.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS).
This data includes the location category of the fire and the source of ignition. However, the system does not currently record whether an incident is a wildfire.
The IRS system is currently being replaced and wildfires will be included in the future. Outdoor fire data is published at Outdoor fires in England incident level dataset (expanded) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many wildfires there were in the UK between October (a) 2021 and 2022 and (b) 2022 and 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS).
This data includes the location category of the fire and the source of ignition. However, the system does not currently record whether an incident is a wildfire.
The IRS system is currently being replaced and wildfires will be included in the future. Outdoor fire data is published at Outdoor fires in England incident level dataset (expanded) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an estimate of the number of fire stations that have closed per region since 2010.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
For the latest available data, to year ending March 2021, there were 1,390 fire stations, compared with 1,439 in year ending March 2010, a reduction of 49 stations over the period for the whole of England. In the year ending March 2010, there were 101,159 primary fires in England, compared with 61,922 in year ending March 2021.
Table 1: Number of Fire Stations in England, by year
Year ending March | Number of Fire Stations | England-wide Annual Change |
2010 | 1,439 |
|
2011 | 1,435 | -4 |
2012 | 1,422 | -13 |
2013 | 1,416 | -6 |
2014 | 1,407 | -9 |
2015 | 1,409 | +2 |
2016 | 1,400 | -9 |
2017 | 1,400 | 0 |
2018 | 1,394 | -6 |
2019 | 1,395 | +1 |
2020 | 1,393 | -2 |
2021 | 1,390 | -3 |
Change 2010 to 2021 | -49 | |
Data on fire stations is published in FIRE1403, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/634d2ed6e90e0731aa0fcc59/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire1403-201022.xlsx. This provides the number of fire stations by year for England, and for each fire and rescue service (FRS), designated as either metropolitan or non-metropolitan. We do not publish the data by region, but the numbers for each FRS can be aggregated to provide required regional level data.
Data on the number of primary fires is published in FIRE0102, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65324b0e26b9b1000faf1c5e/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire0102-261023.xlsx.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints relating to the timeliness of decisions from the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme his Department has received in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The total number of formal complaints submitted to the Complaint Resolution Team (CRT) that identified a delay in processing a case or reaching a decision as the root cause of the complaint is detailed in the below table:
Calendar Month | Number of complaints |
November 2022 | 4 |
Dec 2022 | 1 |
January 2023 | 0 |
February 2023 | 2 |
March 2023 | 4 |
April 2023 | 3 |
May 2023 | 7 |
June 2023 | 4 |
July 2023 | 4 |
August 2023 | 5 |
September 2023 | 7 |
October 2023 | 5 |
November 2023 | 4 |
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent employees in his Department work on the delivery of Op Fortitude.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
Op Fortitude is coordinated by the Cabinet Office and delivered by third sector partners requiring flexible support depending on the demands on the service.
The Riverside Group is the lead delivery partner for Op FORTITUDE, bringing together Local Authorities, charities and housing providers across the UK to support homeless or rough sleeping veterans.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his planned timeframe is for delivering the recommendations of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme Quinquennial Review 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) compensates for any injury, illness or death which was caused by service on or after 6 April 2005. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to ensuring that the AFCS delivers for those who make a claim, and there are mechanisms of assessment and accountability in place to ensure this is the case.
The AFCS Quinquennial Review (QQR) takes place every five years to ensure the AFCS remains fit for purpose and to identify opportunities for improvement. The AFCS QQR 2022-23 was carried out by an independent reviewer with administrative support, as needed, provided by MOD staff. The MOD is carefully considering all the recommendations and the official Government response will be published by the end of the year, with a timeframe for delivering those recommendations which are accepted.
The full report can be found at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/quinquennial-review-of-the-armed-forces-compensation-scheme-2023-headline-findings-and-progress-report