Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of recent reluctance by Libyan stakeholders to establish elections in the country.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The ongoing political impasse in Libya is unsustainable, and deeply damaging for ordinary Libyans. It leaves Libya extremely vulnerable to third state actors set on pursuing control over Libya's security, politics and economy. The UK continues to support the UN's efforts to broker a Libyan-owned and led political settlement, with the onus on Libya's leaders to fulfil their responsibilities. We note with regret the resignation by UN Special Representative of the Secretary General, Abdoulaye Bathily, and renew our full support to the United Nations and the key role it continues to play in Libya.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's (a) mean result and (b) standard deviation in the civil service people survey results for questions (i) W01, (ii) W02, (iii) W03 and (iv) W04 on personal wellbeing has been in each of the last 15 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The questions on personal wellbeing were introduced to the Civil Service People Survey in 2012 and therefore have only been in the survey for each of the last 12 years.
The attached table provides the mean average and standard deviation of the department’s results for the four questions on personal wellbeing W01 to W04.
The department does not hold the individual-level survey data, which is required in order to calculate the mean and standard deviation for 2017 or 2019.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people on probation (a) have been assessed as eligible for the Building Better Relationships programme and (b) are waiting for a place on that programme as of 23 April 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are unable to provide data on the number of people on probation who have been assessed as eligible for the Building Better Relationships programme (BBR) or who are waiting for a place on that programme as of 23 April 2024 without incurring disproportionate cost. We are also unable to provide the number of available places on the BBR programme for people on probation in 2024-25 without incurring disproportionate cost. This information is not collated and recorded centrally. Regions collect their own management information and waiting lists vary with average waiting times for BBR between one and five months. Each region manages their own accredited programme referrals and allocation of places is based on risk and order expiry date.
We are unable to provide data on the number of filled custodial places on the Building Better Relationships (BBR) programme in 2023-24 at this time as to do so would breach official statistics publication rules outlined in the Code of Practice for Statistics as they will form a subset of future published statistics. Data for 2023-2024 will be published in the Prison Education and Accredited Programme Statistics report on 26 September 2024.
There are 210 places available on the BBR programme for people in custody for 2024-25. This is subject to review related to changes in both the demand for different programmes, and the transition to new programmes being introduced in-year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the impact of rural pharmacy closures on access to primary care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the statutory duty of every local authority in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas including those that are rural in nature, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards have regard to those assessments when commissioning services and where a pharmacy closure impacts on the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.
Patients who struggle to access pharmacy premises can access pharmacy services remotely through any of the over 400 online pharmacies that are contractually required to deliver medicines free of charge. Alternatively, in some rural areas, doctors are permitted to dispense medication to patients.
The Pharmacy Access scheme provides additional funding to pharmacies in the areas where there are fewer pharmacies.
Asked by: Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to direct NHS England to withdraw Annex B of its guidance Delivering same-sex accommodation, published in September 2019.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is updating their Delivering Same-Sex Accommodation guidance, and a revised version will be published in due course. It is imperative that National Health Service trusts respect the privacy and dignity of patients. The Government has been clear that patients should not have to share sleeping accommodation with others of the opposite sex, and should have access to segregated bathroom and toilet facilities.
As previously announced, proposals to protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of patients will be brought forward soon as part of the review of the NHS Constitution and its handbook. Any measures consulted on will be in line with the Equality Act 2010, respecting the rights of all patients in hospital settings.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the resources available to district councils in England to provide temporary accommodation for people who are homeless or who are at risk of homelessness.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is committed to tackling homelessness. We are investing over £1billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years to help councils prevent homelessness and provide temporary accommodation, with a further £120 million UK-wide funding announced at Autumn Statement for 2024/25 to help prevent homelessness.
The Local Authority Housing Fund enables councils in England to buy or build housing stock to obtain better quality temporary accommodation for those owed a homelessness duty and provide a lasting affordable housing asset for the future. We recently announced a third round of funding, bringing the total funding to £1.2 billion.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights on the economy.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The FCDO has not made an assessment of this nature.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of animal population decline in other countries on the UK, following the WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 which showed that worldwide animal populations have declined by 69 per cent since 1970.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is susceptible to impacts from animal population decline worldwide through global impacts on food supply and the increasing emergence and transmission of diseases. For example, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Pollinators Assessment showed that 35% of global crop production volume depends on animal pollination, while the IPBES Workshop report on Biodiversity and Pandemics showed that over 30% of emerging disease events are caused by land-use change and its impacts on wildlife. Healthy ecosystems are also vital for mitigating and adapting to climate change, thus animal population declines may also exacerbate the climate impacts felt by the UK, as set out in the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment. The UK Government with others continues to support the work of the IPBES and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to further understand these global impacts.
A recently published report from the Green Finance Institute, entitled ‘Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK’, with direction from Defra and others, showed that about half of all UK nature-related risk comes from overseas, through supply chains and financial exposures. It showed that the combination of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation could lead to major economic shocks leading to UK Gross Domestic Product being up to 12% lower that it may otherwise have been by the 2030s (even lower when combined with climate impacts).
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make a comparative estimate of the number of people who were economically inactive and waiting for NHS treatment by (a) nation and (b) region as of (i) 23 April 2010 and (ii) 23 April 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information available on the number of people who were economically inactive and waiting for NHS treatment is given below.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published waiting times for a hospital appointment, test or to start receiving treatment through the NHS for those who are economically inactive as part of the Opinions and Lifestyles Survey. This data is available for Great Britain and is not available at lower-level geographies and the earliest available data is for 22 November to 18 December 2022 therefore a comparison with 2010 at a national and regional level cannot be made.
The latest Opinions and Lifestyle Survey data shows that the number of economically inactive adults aged 16 years and over in Great Britain is 6.9 million, excluding those who are retired (18 October 2023 to 1 January 2024). Economically inactive adults will, for example, include adults who are studying, have caring responsibilities or are long-term sick. Of this population, between 2.1 million (30%) and 2.6 million (38%) are currently waiting for a hospital appointment, test, or to start receiving medical treatment through the NHS.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the total value was of grant funding awarded from the Heritage High Street Fund to projects in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the East Midlands since 2019.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zones programme ran from 2019 to 2024. It was administered by Historic England. The programme has funded the transformation and restoration of over 60 high streets, creating economic growth and improving quality of life in these areas.
The total grant funding awarded for programmes in Lincolnshire from 2019 to 2023 was £2,616,859. There were two programmes in Lincolnshire – in Lincoln (£1,971,279) and Grantham (£645,580).
The total grant funding for the East Midlands (excluding Lincolnshire) from 2019 to 2023 was £5,727,564. There were five programmes across the East Midlands – in Buxton (£943,972), Hinkley (£577,868), Leicester (£1,909,237), Kettering (£2,124,417), and Newark (£172,070).