Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to increase the effectiveness safeguards for people with mental health conditions when engaging with the benefits system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All customer-facing DWP colleagues are undertaking mandatory mental health awareness training to better support claimants who may present with mental health issues. All colleagues also have access to a wide range of guidance and signposting to help support customers. Where further specialist help is required, DWP has a national network of Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders who can provide additional advice and support through the local networks they have built with external partners and organisations.
Additionally, through the national DWP Visiting Service, the department provides additional face-to-face support across all service lines to customers who cannot access DWP services in any other way. A visit can be arranged for a customer if they need extra help to claim benefits, for example because they have complex needs, are disabled, are a vulnerable young person making a claim for the first time, have nobody else to support them or cannot claim benefits in any other way.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to allow optometrists to share scan data directly with consultants, in the context of patient waiting times.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is testing how improving digital connectivity between primary care optometry and secondary care will allow optometrists to share diagnostic images and receive advice and guidance from specialists. This will enable more patients to be managed in the community, reducing the need for patients to be referred, and for those needing a referral to the hospital eye service, this could reduce the need for repeat diagnostics.
This approach aims to free up secondary eye care capacity and improve clinic efficiency, so specialists can prioritise patients needing specialist input on ophthalmology waiting lists.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that premises covered by the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill will also be required to provide (a) first aid equipment and (b) public access trauma kits.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Terrorism Protection of Premises Bill does not include a specific requirement relating to the provision of medical treatment and associated equipment.
Wider work is ongoing to strengthen Healthcare Standards. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is working with partners to put in place updated guidance for health care at events.
DHSC has also undertaken work with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and health sector partners to help improve and standardise the contents of Public Access Trauma (PAcT) kits.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to provide the same level of support to self-employed parents taking maternity leave as to self-employed people taking leave for adoption.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Self-employed pregnant women who have paid the required Class 2 National Insurance contributions are entitled to Maternity Allowance.
As a general rule, maternity pay is primarily a health and safety provision relating specifically to pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. As there is no associated period of pregnancy for adopters, they are unable to make a claim for maternity pay regardless of their employment status.
The Government very much values self-employed people who come forward to take on the challenging but rewarding role of being an adoptive parent, that is why there is provision for Local Authorities to make discretionary payments, equivalent to Maternity Allowance, to self-employed adopters who do not qualify for Statutory Adoption Pay and where they satisfy the relevant criteria. This payment is means-tested and ensures that resources are targeted at those adopters who need it most, as part of a package of post-adoption support.
Prospective adopters and the child or children that they intend to adopt are also entitled to an assessment of their family’s needs. This includes a whole host of support including discretionary means-tested financial support, advice, information and counselling, and support services.
Depending on individual circumstances, additional financial support, for example, Universal Credit, Child Benefit and the Sure Start Maternity Grant (a lump sum payment of £500) may also be available to new parents.
The Government has committed to a review of parental leave to ensure that it best supports working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of including grief education in the relationships and sex education curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) guidance, which sets out the specific topics pupils should be taught, makes clear that teachers should be aware of common adverse childhood experiences and understand when and how these may be affecting their pupils. This will help teachers to tailor their lessons accordingly, taking decisions on appropriate resources and support to enable them to teach the curriculum effectively. Teachers are free to draw on the support and expertise of subject associations and other providers of curriculum support. The RSHE statutory guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The RSHE statutory guidance is currently under review. The department is looking carefully at responses to the public consultation conducted last year, considering the relevant evidence and discussing with stakeholders before setting out next steps to make sure the guidance draws from the best available evidence. As part of this process, the department will explore whether additional content is required, including on grief education and bereavement.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 changing the funding for built environment Level 7 apprentices on the Government's commitment to build 1.5 million homes.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to 1.5 million homes being built across this Parliament while spreading opportunities and economic growth supported by a strong skills system.
The department is working closely with industry and across Whitehall on this ambition, including with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Work and Pensions to understand skill needs and how to address them.
The department has made early progress on expanding the skills offer with the announcement of Construction and Industry Training Board and National Housebuilding Council funding worth £140 million, to deliver up to 32 Homebuilding Skills Hubs and to make 5,000 more construction apprenticeships available, making use of existing flexibilities in our apprenticeships system to help businesses get the skilled workers they need more quickly.
There are 96 high quality apprenticeship standards in the construction and the built environment sector approved for delivery across levels 2 to 6 to support employers and apprentices to develop the skills they need, with three apprenticeship standards in the sector approved for delivery at level 7.
This government had a dire fiscal inheritance with a £22 billion blackhole in the nation’s finances. We are taking difficult decisions to fix the foundations of our economy and prioritise government spending where it can be most impactful, including in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers. The department will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves outside of the levy-funded growth and skills offer.
The department is taking advice from Skills England, who have been engaging with employers and sector-representative organisations, including in construction, and expects to make a final decision on affected apprenticeships shortly. Learners who have started these apprenticeships will be funded through to completion and employers will continue to be able to offer these apprenticeships where they choose to do so.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to ensure that local authorities remain democratically accountable for the provision of social care, in the context of her Department's plans for devolution.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has no intention of changing local authorities’ democratic accountability for provision of social care. As set out in the English Devolution White Paper, we will reset the relationship with local government, to give the sector more autonomy and put councils on the road to recovery.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ratify the Global Oceans Treaty.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is completely committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement, also known as the Global Oceans Treaty or the High Seas Treaty), which is in line with our determination to reinvigorate the UK's wider international leadership on climate and nature. Work is in hand on the measures needed to implement the detailed and complex provisions of the Agreement before the UK can ratify.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to ensure that local authorities in rural areas receive higher levels of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26, in the context of her Department's plans to repurpose funding allocated for the Rural Services Delivery Grant.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is absolutely committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Places with a significant rural population will on average receive around a 5% increase in their Core Spending Power next year, which is a real terms increase. No council will see a reduction – and new funding will be available to rural areas in 2025-26 through guaranteed EPR payments.
The Rural Services Delivery Grant does not properly account for need and a large number of predominantly rural councils receive nothing from it – that’s clearly not right and a sign we need to allocate funding more effectively. The government is keen to hear from councils about how best to consider the impact of rurality on the costs of service delivery, and demand, as part of our longer term consultations on local authority funding reform.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the monthly payment of war pensions.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The War Pension Scheme (WPS) compensates for any injury, illness or death which was caused by service before 6 April 2005. There are two main types of WPS awards depending on the level of disablement:
Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/war-pension-scheme-wps