Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to make a decision on the extension of transitional protections for free school meal entitlements beyond 31 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The continued provision of school food has an important role to play in breaking the unfair link between background and opportunity, which is why the department is considering the government’s school food offer as part of our work on child poverty.
As part of our Plan for Change, we have already taken wide-ranging action, despite this government’s incredibly challenging fiscal inheritance, including setting up the Child Poverty Taskforce.
The transitional protections policy on free school meals (FSM), put in place in 2018 during the roll out of Universal Credit (UC), ensures that households in receipt of FSM will retain their entitlement during UC migration.
As with all government programmes we will keep our approach, including to FSM and Pupil Premium, under continued review.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the tools available to (a) bars and (b) venues to (i) help prevent and (ii) spiking incidents.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.
The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:
The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.
A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help (a) identify and (b) promote new ways for (i) bars and (ii)venues to prevent spiking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.
The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:
The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.
A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle spiking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.
The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:
The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.
A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish a timetable for a data sharing agreement between the (a) Crown Prosecution Service, (b) courts, (c) police and (d) other criminal justice agencies; and if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of not having such an agreement.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
There are several data sharing agreements that exist between Criminal Justice System (CJS) agencies for specific purposes, and we are working with CJS agencies to further improve how data is shared. For example, we have run a pilot to link data between probation, prisons and police to enhance data driven decision-making by probation practitioners and are developing a cross-CJS dataset that brings together data from the Crown Prosecution Service, courts, police, prisons and probation services to better inform policy decisions.
We know there are several economic benefits to improving the flow of data across the CJS. The Ministry of Justice is currently working with Home Office and AGO/CPS on joint proposals to improve the flow of data across the system.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many extra appointments have been made available each (a) month and (b) week at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital since July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data is not held in the format requested. Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is missing from Secondary User Services data from July 2024 onwards because of its Electronic Patient Record digital upgrade, for which data submissions are not operational yet. The trust is working to resolve the issue.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of people waiting for their asylum application to be processed are living in hotels in (a) England and (b) Telford constituency for each year that data is available.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum seekers on support by local authority, including accommodation in hotels, is published in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This data is not broken down by constituency.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money has been allocated to West Mercia Police in special grant funding for financial year 2024-25.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office agreed to provide West Mercia Police with Special Grant funding of up to £1.8m in 2024-25, for Operation Lincoln. The final amount provided will not be known until after the end of the financial year.
The Home Office has not yet received a formal application from West Mercia Police for funding in financial year 2025-26. Special Grant funding is reviewed annually and the Department will consider a request when received.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve rail infrastructure using dormant rail lines.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government believes that local transport authorities are best placed to advocate for projects which will most benefit their local areas. The ultimate aim is to encourage strong business cases, which effectively identify the optimal transport solution, which support growth, more homes and increased job opportunities.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of initiatives to bring dormant rail lines into use.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government believes that local transport authorities are best placed to advocate for projects which will most benefit their local areas. The ultimate aim is to encourage strong business cases, which effectively identify the optimal transport solution, which support growth, more homes and increased job opportunities.