Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has plans to update the statutory guidance on children that (a) run away and (b) go missing from home or care.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government takes the issue of missing children extremely seriously. The existing statutory guidance, ‘Children who run away or go missing from home of care’, outlines what local authorities and their partners must do to prevent and protect missing children.
For example, it mandates that local authorities must offer an independent return home interview to all children who go missing from home or care.
The department is updating its guidance on Child Sexual Exploitation, including how this affects children who go missing. We are investing over £500 million in the national rollout of the families first partnership programme which will implement family help and multi-agency child protection to ensure children have the right support at the right time, including those who go missing.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of repeat missing incidents amongst children.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government takes the issue of missing children extremely seriously. The existing statutory guidance, ‘Children who run away or go missing from home of care’, outlines what local authorities and their partners must do to prevent and protect missing children.
For example, it mandates that local authorities must offer an independent return home interview to all children who go missing from home or care.
The department is updating its guidance on Child Sexual Exploitation, including how this affects children who go missing. We are investing over £500 million in the national rollout of the families first partnership programme which will implement family help and multi-agency child protection to ensure children have the right support at the right time, including those who go missing.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure his Department's work on reducing suicide rates includes measures to help those that have been reported missing.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The actions set out in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England will apply to missing people where relevant. However, we are not taking any specific actions targeted at measuring and reducing suicide rates among people reported missing.
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we are committed to tackling suicides as one of the biggest killers, working closely with other government departments and agencies.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the correlation between trends in the number of people (a) going missing and (b) committing suicide.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The actions set out in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England will apply to missing people where relevant. However, we are not taking any specific actions targeted at measuring and reducing suicide rates among people reported missing.
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we are committed to tackling suicides as one of the biggest killers, working closely with other government departments and agencies.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) reduce missing incidents and (b) provide additional support to people at risk of going missing who are care experienced.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Effective multi-agency working is the key to reducing missing person incidents, particularly for vulnerable cohorts, such as children with care experience who are at more likely to go missing repeatedly.
The Missing Persons Authorised Professional Practice (APP), issued by the College of Policing, sets out best practice guidance for all missing person investigations for police forces in England and Wales in order to prevent missing incidents as well as ensure that all safeguarding partners play a role in an investigation; this includes multi-agency enquiries. The APP for missing persons is publicly available on the College’s website.
In addition to the APP, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for Missing Persons has developed the ‘Multi-agency response for adults missing from health and care settings’ framework, which is being rolled out, and the ‘Missing Children from Care’ framework, which has been piloted in West Yorkshire. These frameworks outline good practice that can be adopted by local areas when setting up their own multi-agency protocols for the strategic and operational response to a missing incident, with an aim to ensure that the appropriate safeguarding partner responds in the best interest of the missing person.
In response to concerns about unconscious bias in the police response to missing persons from BAME communities, the Home Office has funded the NPCC for Missing Persons to conduct research to explore disproportionality and discrimination in police missing persons investigations; comparing how risk is categorised in different ethnic groups. The final report is nearing completion. The NPCC lead for Missing Persons is committed to working with partner agencies to understand issues of disproportionality and addressing any issues. I will continue to monitor developments and insights from partners to ensure our response remains effective.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) reduce missing incidents and (b) provide additional support to people at risk of going missing from BAME communities.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Effective multi-agency working is the key to reducing missing person incidents, particularly for vulnerable cohorts, such as children with care experience who are at more likely to go missing repeatedly.
The Missing Persons Authorised Professional Practice (APP), issued by the College of Policing, sets out best practice guidance for all missing person investigations for police forces in England and Wales in order to prevent missing incidents as well as ensure that all safeguarding partners play a role in an investigation; this includes multi-agency enquiries. The APP for missing persons is publicly available on the College’s website.
In addition to the APP, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for Missing Persons has developed the ‘Multi-agency response for adults missing from health and care settings’ framework, which is being rolled out, and the ‘Missing Children from Care’ framework, which has been piloted in West Yorkshire. These frameworks outline good practice that can be adopted by local areas when setting up their own multi-agency protocols for the strategic and operational response to a missing incident, with an aim to ensure that the appropriate safeguarding partner responds in the best interest of the missing person.
In response to concerns about unconscious bias in the police response to missing persons from BAME communities, the Home Office has funded the NPCC for Missing Persons to conduct research to explore disproportionality and discrimination in police missing persons investigations; comparing how risk is categorised in different ethnic groups. The final report is nearing completion. The NPCC lead for Missing Persons is committed to working with partner agencies to understand issues of disproportionality and addressing any issues. I will continue to monitor developments and insights from partners to ensure our response remains effective.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to compensate employees of (a) the Post Office, (b) sub-postmasters and (c) shops that fulfilled Post Office functions who were (i) prosecuted, (ii) arrested and (iii) had their employment terminated on the basis of flawed information generated by the Horizon system.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Regardless of employment status, individuals who had their Horizon-related convictions overturned, or were prosecuted but not convicted, are eligible to apply for redress through the Overturned Convictions Scheme or Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme. Postmasters who were part of the 2019 group litigation against the Post Office are eligible for redress via the Group Litigation Order Scheme, whilst those not in any of these groups who suffered mainly shortfall losses may seek redress via the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS).
Individuals who were employees of the Post Office, or those who were employed by a business partner of the Post Office or a postmaster in branch, unfortunately are not eligible for redress under the HSS. This is because they did not have a direct contract with the Post Office. We are, however, continuing to look actively at potential gaps in the provision of redress which may prevent individuals who were affected by the Horizon scandal from being able to claim redress.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on establishing Attendance Hubs; what datasets her Department is collecting to measure the success of that programme; and if she will publish the data collected in relation to that programme to date.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The attendance hubs are established and led by schools with strong practice and intended to give senior leaders in schools a forum to discuss and share effective attendance practice. To date 31 hubs have been established and these have offered support to around 2,000 schools.
Last year, the department shared some of the effective practice from the hubs through our ‘Attendance toolkit for schools’, which can be found here: https://attendancetoolkit.blob.core.windows.net/toolkit-doc/Attendance%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf?utm_campaign=Daily%20Briefing%20Emails&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8b6UxxFW90snpeTz6dwjH6sUkBsMfMBDwkOxVCp7I9g1uY5-VXiWWsDjvKIk2YbdGp8qvIfotuo4qIG3GrzkbCWEFw_A&_hsmi=99095029&utm_content=99095029&utm_source=hs_email.
Feedback from the schools who have engaged with an attendance hub has suggested that they have found participation useful. We are using the feedback to evaluate the work of hubs further as it develops.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to prevent companies from polluting (a) Lake Windermere and (b) other national parks.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Labour introduced National Parks 75 years ago, and introduced the Rights of Way Act that secured public access and preserved natural beauty.
A thriving natural world underpins our economy, health and society. That’s why this Government is investing £400 million to protect and restore nature, including in our Nationals Parks.
This Government is committed to making Protected Landscapes, such as the Lake District National Park which contains Windermere, greener, wilder and more accessible. We have just announced our intent to strengthen legislation when parliamentary time allows. We will develop the details of the new legislation with partners, with the intention of ensuring that public bodies deliver better outcomes for people and nature in Protected Landscapes.
The Government is committed to taking action to address water pollution in Lake Windermere and in National Parks. The Water (Special Measures) Bill will deliver on the Government’s commitment to put water companies under special measures. The Bill will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.
Ofwat has recently published final determinations on PR24. United Utilities’ will invest approximately £200 million in Lake Windermere, with improvements planned at all six storm overflows and nine wastewater treatment works impacting the lake.
Ofwat are also supporting a reduction in phosphorous in Lake Windermere by United Utilities. This includes ensuring United Utilities engage third parties to reduce the phosphorus entering the catchment and improve the water quality.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to push for greater humanitarian access to Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As the Prime Minister has said, the world will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance. We continue to press Israel to end its aid restrictions and ensure that the UN and humanitarian partners can work safely and effectively. The Foreign Secretary recently wrote to Israeli Foreign Minister Sa'ar, alongside French and German counterparts, calling on Israel to urgently increase aid, and implement the UN's plan to prepare the civilian population for winter. I raised these issues with Deputy Foreign Minister Haskel on 5 December and the Foreign Secretary raised this again with Foreign Minister Sa'ar in their call on 8 December. We continue to work alongside our international partners to press for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of the hostages, better protection of civilians and a significant increase in aid to Gaza. At a UN Security Council meeting on 18 November, the Foreign Secretary reiterated that there is no excuse for Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid and that they must be lifted.