Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress she has made on implementing the mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
I can assure the honourable Member that we remain firmly committed to the mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid. This will help to prevent around 200 neural tube defects each year.
This policy is being delivered across the UK as part of the wider review of the Bread and Flour Regulations. In January, we published the consultation response, and we will bring forward legislation to implement the policy later this year.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who is responsible for (a) accommodating, (b) maintaining, (c) supporting and (d) compensating workers in the UK on the Seasonal Worker visa who become ill; who is responsible for (i) monitoring and (ii) enforcing this right; and which body handles complaints on healthcare support for those workers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Scheme Operators are responsible for monitoring pay, conditions, and worker’s general welfare whilst they are in the UK.
The Home Office works closely with DEFRA to monitor the scheme to ensure Scheme Operators adhere to the stringent requirements set for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the seasonal workers. This includes ongoing monitoring of the route’s performance, regular communication with Scheme Operators and ongoing compliance monitoring which is underpinned by compliance visits to both Scheme Operators and growers, which are carried out by UKVI. Action is taken if concerns are identified during sponsor visits, with sponsor licences being suspended while UKVI investigate further.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 14330 on Seasonal Workers, who is responsible for ensuring that seasonal workers receive a minimum of 32 hour’s pay each week for each week of their time in the UK; and what steps his Department is taking to support enforcement of this.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Scheme Operators are responsible for monitoring pay, conditions, and worker’s general welfare whilst they are in the UK.
The Home Office works closely with DEFRA to monitor the scheme to ensure Scheme Operators adhere to the stringent requirements set for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the seasonal workers. This includes ongoing monitoring of the route’s performance, regular communication with Scheme Operators and ongoing compliance monitoring which is underpinned by compliance visits to both Scheme Operators and growers, which are carried out by UKVI. Action is taken if concerns are identified during sponsor visits, with sponsor licences being suspended while UKVI investigate further.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of 5 September 2023, Official Report, column 281, what progress her Department has made on publishing a consultation on barriers to developing community energy projects.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has been codesigning the consultation with the community energy sector via the Community Energy Contact Group (CECG). The Government intends to publish the consultation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential adequacy of protections to ensure that people on the seasonal worker visa scheme who (a) become ill and (b) are injured at work have access to (i) healthcare, (ii) accommodation and (iii) compensation for loss of work.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Seasonal Workers enjoy the same protections under UK law as resident workers. In addition, Seasonal Workers must receive a minimum of 32 hour’s pay each week for each week of their time in the UK.
As part of their duties as Seasonal Worker operators, sponsors provide seasonal workers with information about their rights and how to raise concerns. The Home Office monitors this by interviewing workers and engaging with sponsors to check what information is provided and in what format.
The majority of workers also undertake pre-departure orientation courses, developed by the International Organisation for Migration.
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) also produce and distribute similar material at source of recruitment.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department take steps to support workers on the health and care worker visa to find an alternative sponsor in the event that their initial sponsor has its licence revoked.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
UKVI Compliance Command work with local authorities and the Association of Adult Social Care Directors.
Relevant authorities receive prior notification of suspended and revoked sponsors and the numbers of workers affected by a compliance action.
This allows time for authorities to relocate workers with other care providers in the area and ensure continuity of care provision.
UKVI work proactively with authorities in the timing of revocations and, where appropriate, delay revocation and cancellation to allow workers the opportunity to find new sponsors.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of care workers on the health and care worker visa are employed by visa sponsors that (a) are and (b) are not registered with the Care Quality Commission as of 14 February 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office does not record or publish data on this matter. However, care workers who are currently sponsored by non-CQC-registered providers will be able to continue working for those providers after the upcoming rules change.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Prime Minister’s oral contribution at Prime Minister's Questions on 10 January 2024, Official Report, column 297, on what evidential basis he said that the number of people living in poverty has reduced by 1.7 million since 2010.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The latest available National statistics on Households Below Average Income covering 2021/22 are here.
These statistics show that there were 1.7 million fewer people in absolute low income after housing costs in 2021/22 compared to 2009/10, a 4 percentage-point decrease. This includes 400,000 children, 1 million working age individuals and 200,000 pensioners.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 29 April 2021 to Question 183169 on Windrush Compensation Scheme, how many and what proportion of applicants to the Windrush Compensation Scheme have died in the period between applying for and receiving compensation.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
As at the end of November 2023, in line with the latest published Transparency data, out of the 7,534 claims received by the Windrush Compensation Scheme, we are aware of 53 claimants* who have unfortunately passed away after having submitted a claim.
The Windrush Compensation Scheme staff are working hard to ensure claims are prioritised for claimants with critical or life-limiting illnesses.
In the unfortunate circumstances where a claimant has passed away after submitting a compensation claim, before the claim is fully resolved, the team continues to work closely with the appointed representative, usually members of the family, to ensure the compensation payment is made as quickly as possible to the family member.
Our priority is to ensure people receive the maximum compensation as quickly as possible. We have reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, from 18 months to under 4 months. The 4-month period includes all essential eligibility checks, together with a Preliminary Assessment to make an initial payment of £10k wherever possible.
*Please note that this data is manually recorded and is reliant on the person receiving the information on a claimant’s death, notifying the Windrush Compensation Scheme to record this information.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his oral contribution of 4 December 2023, Official Report, column 41, if he will make it his policy to apply the existing minimum income requirement of £18,600 for family visas to people already in the UK on a family visa and who seek further or indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The revised minimum income requirement will be implemented in spring 2024.
The Government will set out any transitional provisions associated with the increase in the minimum income requirement in due course.
Any applications already submitted will be considered in line with the existing policy.