Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 fan ownership in sports.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Fan ownership can be a model of success for many sporting clubs and organisations, as can other models incorporating appropriate fan engagement.
The Government is committed to supporting investment into sports clubs and organisations, whether that is fan ownership, private ownership or some combination of the two.
Many fan owned clubs and organisations are operated by co-operative or community benefit societies). Charitable community benefit societies do not have to pay certain taxes as they have to meet certain requirements about how they operate as a society. These are tax measures aimed to support societies to support their local communities, including fan owned or community owned sports clubs.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to support the introduction of safe standing to professional football grounds.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
‘Safe standing’ has been a licensing option for all professional football grounds currently subject to the all-seater policy since July 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the branded school uniform cap on families from less affluent backgrounds.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
For too many families, the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require, to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities. This will give parents more choice in where to purchase uniform and allow them greater flexibility to make the spending decisions that suit their circumstances.
Departmental research has found the average expenditure on uniform reduced as the range of outlets from which parents could purchase items increased. Average spend was significantly lower where all items could be purchased from anywhere (£227.29), than where all had to be purchased from a designated shop or from a school (£283.90).
For some items, the survey found that parents buying from a designated shop or from school had paid twice that of parents able to buy from anywhere. The data also show that 8% of parents had, at some point in the past, been discouraged from applying to enter their child into a particular school due to the cost of uniform, rising to 26% among parents who had experienced financial hardship as a result of purchasing school uniform items. This research is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms-survey-2023.
Whilst savings to families from less affluent backgrounds will vary depending on schools' current practices, we estimate that requiring fewer branded items from designated suppliers could save some parents over £50 per child during the back-to-school shop from September 2026.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her planned timetable is for when Northern Powerhouse Rail will be complete.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As announced in the Autumn 2024 Budget, which can be accessed on the following webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-2024, the Government is maintaining momentum on Northern Powerhouse Rail by progressing planning and design works to support future delivery, building upon the Transpennine Route Upgrade. The Government will set out further details of its plans in due course.
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 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.