Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, whether he has plans to celebrate Black Country Day on the 14 July 2022.
Answered by Boris Johnson
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in the context of reported figures on black people being ten times more likely than white people to be sent to prison for first-time drug offences, what steps he is taking to tackle this imbalance.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We recognise that race disparities persist in the Criminal Justice System, and we are committed to identifying and addressing disparities under the axiom of ‘explain or reform’ laid out in the Lammy Review. And though we acknowledge that Black people are overrepresented amongst those sentenced to prison for a first-time drug offence, this falls short of the reported 10-fold figure.
Recent data indicates that the main drivers of this overrepresentation lie upstream of the point of prosecution. The government’s data on Outcomes by Offence shows that relative to Black individuals being prosecuted for drug possession, a similar proportion go on to be sentenced for the same offence (15% of individuals identified as Black during prosecution and at the point of sentencing). At the point of sentence, in 2020, 3% of Black individuals were sentenced to immediate custody as a proportion of all Black individuals sentenced for drug possession, which was the same rate as for White individuals, also 3%. These figures suggest that upon reaching prosecution, Black individuals receive outcomes at similar rates to White counterparts. This mirrors the findings of the report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, and our ambitious response - the Inclusive Britain strategy, which highlighted the importance of a whole system approach.
Whilst sentencing is a matter for our independent courts, we are committed to tackling the deep-rooted reasons why people from ethnic minorities are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, including the disproportionate criminalisation of ethnic minorities for drug offences. As set out in Inclusive Britain we have committed to exploring a wide range of schemes to divert people away from the CJS for possession, where appropriate, and will share what works best with police services around the country.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2022 to Questions 108488 to 108505, what the salary range is for the (a) CEO and (b) Chair of each integrated care system referred to in those questions.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The following table shows the chief executive pay ranges for the requested integrated care systems (ICSs).
Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership | £250,000 - £270,000 |
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System | £250,000 - £270,000 |
Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership | £250,000 - £270,000 |
The Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care partnership | £175,000 - £197,500 |
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care system | £175,000 - £197,500 |
Joined-up Care Derbyshire Integrated Care System | £190,000 - £212,500 |
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care System | £190,000 - £212,500 |
Lincolnshire Integrated Care System | £175,000 - £197,500 |
Live Healthy Live Happy Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System | £220,000 - £240,000 |
Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership Integrated Care System | £175,000 - £197,500 |
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System | £190,000 - £212,500 |
Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System | £175,000 - £197,500 |
The Black Country Integrated Care System | £190,000 - £212,500 |
Together we’re better – Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System | £190,000 - £212,500 |
Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care System | £175,000 - £197,500 |
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care System | £175,000 - £197,500 |
Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System | £220,000 - £240,000 |
In exceptional cases, such as where an area has multiple significant health and organisational challenges, NHS England and NHS Improvement can seek ministerial approval for higher salaries.
The following table shows the chair pay ranges for the requested ICSs.
Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership | £70,000 - £80,000 |
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System | £70,000 - £80,000 |
Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership | £70,000 - £80,000 |
The Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Partnership | £55,000 - £65,000 |
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System | £55,000 - £65,000 |
Joined-up Care Derbyshire Integrated Care System | £60,000 - £70,000 |
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care System | £60,000 - £70,000 |
Lincolnshire Integrated Care System | £55,000 - £65,000 |
Live Healthy Live Happy Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System | £65,000 - £75,000 |
Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership Integrated Care System | £55,000 - £65,000 |
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System | £60,000 - £70,000 |
Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System | £55,000 - £65,000 |
The Black Country Integrated Care System | £60,000 - £70,000 |
Together we’re better – Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System | £60,000 - £70,000 |
Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care System | £55,000 - £65,000 |
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care System | £55,000 - £65,000 |
Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System | £65,000 - £75,000 |
Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether an equality impact assessment was made before delaying the grant to CLEx about the impact on black, Asian, and minority ethnic language learners' access to national accreditation at (a) GCSE, and (b) A Level.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government understands the importance of all languages for the UK’s economic and diplomatic interests, as well as the many personal and social benefits learning another language can bring. This is why the study of languages is a statutory part of the national curriculum for pupils in key stages 2 and 3.
French, Spanish and German remain the most popular languages for pupils to study at school. The government provides resources and professional development for teachers in these languages through the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Hub programme, run by the National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy.
An increasing number of pupils now choose to study Mandarin, and the government supports many of these pupils through the £12 million Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP). The MEP is the department’s flagship programme for the study of Mandarin, with the aim of providing a pipeline of fluent Mandarin speakers to meet the UK’s future economic and diplomatic needs. We are currently considering what steps might be taken to provide greater support for the study of other languages, including Arabic and Urdu.
Schools are free to offer any language which they feel best meets the needs of their pupils and the wider community. GCSEs and A levels are available in Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Turkish and Urdu. All these languages count towards the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) school performance measure, ensuring that most young people study a core of academic subjects at GCSE. The provision of these qualifications is ultimately a decision for awarding organisations. However, the department is supportive of ongoing opportunities to study these languages, signifying Britain's role as an outward-facing, vibrant country, enriched by the diversity of its people.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and unique circumstances in 2021, the government made a grant available to support exam centres to meet costs associated with the additional demands of assessment for private candidates, including those taking community and heritage languages. The claims window opened on 29 November 2021 and closed on 10 January 2022. The department subsequently carried out quality assurance checks on the evidence provided by centres to ensure the accuracy of claims and payment allocations. The assurance checks that needed to be carried out always meant that payments would be made to centres at the end of the 2021/22 financial year. Centres that supplied the evidence required in the claims were due to be paid on 31 March 2022. This included a payment to the Community Language Examination Centre.
The grant was only available for teacher assessed grades produced in summer 2021, not to any other assessment period, due to the unique circumstances in 2021. It has helped centres to meet costs and will not have led to any exam entry reductions.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 increase NHS capacity in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover elective services and increase capacity in England over the next three years. Supported by £8 billion, the NHS will increase elective activity, improve productivity, embed new models of care and technologies and empower patients with information and support.
In the Midlands, NHS England and NHS Improvement are providing specific support to high volume specialties via pathway improvement initiative and best practice programmes such as the Getting it Right First Time programme (GIRFT). In the Black Country and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), capacity is being increased through the use of digital care and flexible working between teams and trusts, while building diagnostic capacity. The CCG has opened two new community diagnostic centres and added additional capacity by working with private sector providers.
The University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has added additional theatres to Solihull Hospital to increase the number of elective procedures and added two wards to each of the Heartland, Good Hope and Queen Elizabeth hospitals. At Solihull and Queen Elizabeth hospitals, enhanced post-operative care units have been established, reducing the need for intensive therapy units to provide complex operations.
In the Coventry and Warwickshire CCG, theatre capacity will be optimised through protected elective theatres and day surgery units. The CCG will also use virtual appointments where appropriate to increase efficiency for those patients requiring face-to-face consultations. Through increased utilisation of day case and outpatient procedures in accordance with GIRFT standards, the CCG will release capacity for the most complex cases and cancer patients.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the veracity of reports that Black and Ethnic Minority people fleeing from Ukraine are being denied safe passage and refuge in neighbouring countries; and what steps the Government is taking to support neighbouring countries to ensure safe passage of all people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The FCDO is aware of reporting of difficulties faced by some Black and Ethnic Minority people seeking to leave to Ukraine. The UK has announced £120 million in emergency aid to help tackle Ukraine's humanitarian crisis. As well as ensuring that Ukrainians have access to basic necessities and medical supplies, this will help countries surrounding Ukraine to receive and support the increasing flow of refugees. A 4-person team of UK humanitarian experts arrived in Poland on 26 February and another is in Moldova to support the regional response, providing logistics advice and analysis of needs on the ground. We will deploy additional experts across the region in the coming days. We also have specially trained consular staff at the Ukrainian borders to help British nationals to leave the country safely.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of patients attending A&E in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England were seen within four hours during each month of 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The following table shows the proportion of patients attending accident and emergency (A&E) in Coventry and seen within four hours during each month of 2021.
January 2021 | 78.3% |
February 2021 | 81.3% |
March 2021 | 85.3% |
April 2021 | 86.2% |
May 2021 | 81.1% |
June 2021 | 78.4% |
July 2021 | 74.3% |
August 2021 | 74.6% |
September 2021 | 69.6% |
October 2021 | 69.6% |
November 2021 | 70.5% |
December 2021 | 71.8% |
Source: This information is taken from; https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity
The following table shows the proportion of patients attending A&E in the West Midlands and seen within four hours during each month of 2021.
January 2021 | 76.1% |
February 2021 | 82.5% |
March 2021 | 85.1% |
April 2021 | 85.7% |
May 2021 | 83.0% |
June 2021 | 79.6% |
July 2021 | 76.5% |
August 2021 | 75.7% |
September 2021 | 74.4% |
October 2021 | 74.1% |
November 2021 | 74.0% |
December 2021 | 74.2% |
Source: This information is taken from https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
Note:
West Midlands is comprised of Birmingham and Solihull Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP), The Black Country and West Birmingham STP and Coventry and Warwickshire STP.
The following table shows the proportion of patients attending A&E in England seen within four hours during each month of 2021.
January 2021 | 78.5% |
February 2021 | 83.9% |
March 2021 | 86.1% |
April 2021 | 85.4% |
May 2021 | 83.7% |
June 2021 | 81.3% |
July 2021 | 77.7% |
August 2021 | 77.0% |
September 2021 | 75.2% |
October 2021 | 73.9% |
November 2021 | 74.0% |
December 2021 | 73.3% |
Source: This information is taken from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what specialist treatment is available for mothers suffering post-natal depression in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In Coventry and Warwickshire, the commissioned perinatal mental health pathway provides treatment for post-natal depression including specialist multi-disciplinary team assessments, a dedicated perinatal specialist general practitioner and advanced nurse practitioners who are early years specialists.
In the West Midlands, support is provided across the Black Country and West Birmingham for early identification of post-natal depression and access to specially trained staff. In the Birmingham and Solihull area, there are the Perinatal Mental Health Specialist Community Services and the Acacia Young Parent’s Project. In the Herefordshire and Worcestershire area the Maternal Mental Health Service offers targeted psychological interventions.
The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment for a further 24,000 women to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023/24. Specialist community perinatal mental health services have now been deployed across England and we are expanding access to talking therapies within specialist perinatal mental health services through 26 hubs by April 2022.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the agreed salary is of the (a) chief executive and (b) chair of The Black Country integrated care system.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Owing to data protection reasons, individual salaries cannot be disclosed without the individual’s consent.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help strengthen support for victims of domestic abuse in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
This Government is committed to supporting all victims of domestic abuse. Our landmark Domestic Abuse Act will strengthen our protection to victims and ensure perpetrators feel the full force of the law. It includes the first legal definition of domestic abuse, improved support for victims in the courts, new offences and strengthened legislation around cruel acts of controlling or coercive behaviour. The majority of the provisions in the Act apply to England and Wales, or England only.
Alongside this, in the coming months we will be publishing our Domestic Abuse Strategy, which will seek to transform the whole of society’s response to domestic abuse in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems in place to address it.
In 2021-22, Government will provide just under £151m for victim and witness support services. This includes an extra £51m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims; £27m for creating 700 new posts for Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisers; £20.7m for local, community-based sexual violence and domestic abuse services; and £2m for smaller specialist organisations helping Black, Asian and minority ethnic, LGBTQ+ or disabled victims. The majority of this funding has a national reach across England and Wales and therefore will cover areas such as the West Midlands. Specifically in the West Midlands, the Home Office provides £300,000 to Black Country Women’s Aid to provide therapeutic support to children, as part of the 21/22 £3.1m Children Affected by Domestic Abuse Fund.
The Home Office also launched a new Ask for ANI Codeword scheme in January 2021 to enable victims to seek safe and discreet support from participating pharmacies.