Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential health risks to (a) pupils and (b) staff of the use of lead pipes in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department takes the health and wellbeing of both pupils and staff very seriously. All schools need to be safe, well maintained, and compliant with all relevant regulations. This is the responsibility of those running the schools, which includes Local Authorities, academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies. Where responsible bodies discover lead piping, they must take action, working, as appropriate, with water companies directly.
The Department does not collect data on whether schools have lead pipes.
All schools must ensure their water supply meets the requirements of either the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 or the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 for maintained schools and academies respectively.
These Regulations set strict requirements that schools must provide 'suitable drinking water facilities' and that they are clearly labelled and readily accessible at all times when schools are in use. The Water Supply Regulations 2016 require water to be wholesome at the point of consumption and the School Premises Regulations reinforces this requirement.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to remove lead pipes from schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department takes the health and wellbeing of both pupils and staff very seriously. All schools need to be safe, well maintained, and compliant with all relevant regulations. This is the responsibility of those running the schools, which includes Local Authorities, academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies. Where responsible bodies discover lead piping, they must take action, working, as appropriate, with water companies directly.
The Department does not collect data on whether schools have lead pipes.
All schools must ensure their water supply meets the requirements of either the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 or the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 for maintained schools and academies respectively.
These Regulations set strict requirements that schools must provide 'suitable drinking water facilities' and that they are clearly labelled and readily accessible at all times when schools are in use. The Water Supply Regulations 2016 require water to be wholesome at the point of consumption and the School Premises Regulations reinforces this requirement.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs on the impact of international development spending on girls’ education.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Between 2015 and 2020 FCDO supported 8.1 million girls to gain a decent education.
Through our Girls’ Education Challenge programme, we have supported up to 1.6 million girls, and over 150,000 girls with disabilities, to make progress in school.
We will soon launch a new campaign on girls’ education results, to demonstrate the lifechanging impact of UK funding.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the capacity of the endoscopy workforce to support patients with Crohn’s and colitis.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan sets out the steps needed to meet the future needs of the country, including growing the workforce by: doubling the number of medical school training places, increasing GP training places by 50% and increasing adult nursing training places by 92%. NHSE are putting plans in place to train 50% more clinical endoscopists in 2023-24. This is 75 endoscopists, up from the 50 originally planned. This will ensure there are more doctors and nurse to perform procedures such as endoscopies.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether developers that are found not to need to undertake remediation work on their properties will be allowed to leave the Responsible Actors Scheme without sanction.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The regulations provide that a developer is only be eligible for the Scheme if they have developed or refurbished specific types of residential buildings relevant to the Scheme. Once a developer has joined the Scheme, Regulation 27 enables membership to be ended without sanction where the member has substantially satisfied their obligations under the Scheme.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the Responsible Actors Scheme does not apply to companies connected to developers that have no direct responsibilities for development.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023 were signed into law on 3 July. We intend to launch the Scheme this Summer.
The eligibility criteria include a £10 million per annum average operating profits threshold, in order to make sure that the Scheme's initial focus is on substantial, profitable businesses. Companies that developed defective buildings but do not meet the profits threshold will be able to join the Scheme voluntarily, and we intend to extend the Scheme to cover all developers who have developed defective residential buildings over 11m and should be paying to fix them. The Building Safety Act 2022 also provides other ways to pursue developers who were responsible for unsafe buildings.
The regulations make it possible for entities which are controlled by a prohibited developer but are not in the building industry to apply for an exception from the prohibitions.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that unprofitable developers that built faulty and dangerous buildings are accountable under the Responsible Actors Scheme.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023 were signed into law on 3 July. We intend to launch the Scheme this Summer.
The eligibility criteria include a £10 million per annum average operating profits threshold, in order to make sure that the Scheme's initial focus is on substantial, profitable businesses. Companies that developed defective buildings but do not meet the profits threshold will be able to join the Scheme voluntarily, and we intend to extend the Scheme to cover all developers who have developed defective residential buildings over 11m and should be paying to fix them. The Building Safety Act 2022 also provides other ways to pursue developers who were responsible for unsafe buildings.
The regulations make it possible for entities which are controlled by a prohibited developer but are not in the building industry to apply for an exception from the prohibitions.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has made on reviewing the responses to the call for evidence on local authority remote meetings that closed on 17 June 2021; when he plans to publish the Government's response to that consultation; and for what reason the Department has not published its response as of 29 June 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 95817 2 December 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for publication of guidance for schools on matters relating to gender identity.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department understands that gender is a complex and sensitive issue, and that some schools and colleges feel that they need more support in this area in order to help pupils, students and parents deal with concerns raised. That is why the Department is working with the Minister for Women and Equalities to develop guidance to support schools in relation to gender questioning pupils. The Department will publish a draft for consultation later in the summer term.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Victims Funding Strategy was published in May 2022. It set out a framework which will improve the way we fund victim support services across government, seeking to better align and co-ordinate funding to enable victims to receive the support they need.
In 2018 we published the first ever cross-government Victims Strategy. This clarified the specific support victims can expect, beginning immediately after a crime and ending long after court proceedings.
It also committed to first consult on a revised Victims’ Code before bringing forward proposals for a Victims Law, including strengthening compliance with the Code.
A new Victims’ Code was published in 2021. The Code was restructured into 12 key entitlements in a way which is clear, concise and easy to understand, outlining the minimum levels of service victims can expect at each stage of the criminal justice process.
Additional entitlements for victims in the Code include increased communication between victims and the CPS and promoting the use of Community Impact Statements.
On 29 March, we introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill to Parliament, to improve victims' experiences of the criminal justice system, strengthen the parole system to ensure that the public and victims are better protected, and prohibit whole life prisoners from marrying or forming civil partnerships to drive up confidence in the justice system.
These changes for victims have been accompanied by a greater investment in victims’ services. We are more than quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10.