Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons publication entitled Report on an unannounced inspection of HMYOI Wetherby by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (20 November – 7 December 2023), published on 5 March 2024, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) conditions and (b) maintenance of (i) communal areas and (ii) cells at HMYOI Wetherby.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Youth Custody Service is confident that HMYOI Wetherby is taking the required steps to improve the conditions of the grounds and facilities at the site.
A new recording process will be put in place to enable the weekly facilities management meeting to take forward improvements in decency and conditions on residential units. The residential heating systems will be reviewed. Necessary repairs have been identified, including the replacement of windows on the Keppel Unit. A new graffiti removal programme will be developed, and the cleaning schedules will be reviewed and extended, to provide additional cleaning of the residential units.
Residential managers will be identified, who can act as decency leads to improve maintenance assurance and ensure escalation of any continuing problems. HMYOI Wetherby is re-introducing weekend room inspections by custodial managers and senior leaders.
Opportunities for paid part-time employment, including cleaning and redecoration, will be created for young people at the young offender institution, together with incentives to instil a sense of pride in, and responsibility for, their own communities.
The Governor or Deputy Governor will meet weekly with AMEY, the facilities management provider, to discuss the delivery and completion of estate maintenance and the annual painting schedule. Progress will also be monitored at the monthly tri-partite meetings between the Governor or Deputy Governor, AMEY and the Regional Health and Safety Advisor.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2023 to Question 5438, if he will make an estimate of the number of people that are waiting for (a) trauma and (b) orthopaedic treatment and are unable to work until they receive treatment as of 12 December 2023; and what steps he is taking to help these people re-enter the workforce.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has not made such an assessment.
The Government is taking several steps to help support people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. In the Spring Budget, the government set out a package of measures to tackle the leading health-related causes keeping people out of work, including people with MSK conditions:
As announced in the Autumn Statement, to tackle rising economic inactivity, government is investing £2.5 billion over the next five years, building on the existing package of support that helps disabled people and individuals with health conditions, including MSK, to work. This includes:
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help ensure that people who have experienced work-related stress are helped to re-engage with work without delay.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government delivers an extensive programme of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions, including work-related stress, to start or speedily return to work, as well as to stay, and succeed, in work. These include:
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of fire and rehire practices on the labour market.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government previously asked the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to collect evidence into how dismissal and re-engagement is being used by employers. This report was published in June 2021 and is available from https://www.acas.org.uk/fire-and-rehire-report.
The government is taking action to address the practice of dismissal and re-engagement. We have consulted on a draft Statutory Code of Practice and are currently analysing responses. The Code sets out employers’ responsibilities when seeking to change contractual terms and conditions of employment and seeks to ensure dismissal and re-engagement is only used as a last resort.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of fire and rehire practices on the labour market in (a) Newport West constituency and (b) Wales.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government does not collect data on dismissal and re-engagement. We previously asked the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to gather evidence into how dismissal and re-engagement is being used by employers. This report was published in June 2021 and is available from https://www.acas.org.uk/fire-and-rehire-report.
The government is taking action to address the practice of dismissal and re-engagement. We have consulted on a draft Statutory Code of Practice and are currently analysing responses. The Code sets out employers’ responsibilities when seeking to change contractual terms and conditions of employment and seeks to ensure dismissal and re-engagement is only used as a last resort.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to support people over the age of 50 to re-enter the employment market.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There does not appear to be one single cause driving older worker inactivity, and an ONS survey of recently inactive people aged over-50 highlighted retirement, redundancy, changes in lifestyle, caring responsibilities, and illness as some of the most common reasons.
The Government has already announced a £1.3 billion support package to help those with health conditions or disabilities get into and thrive in work. This is alongside DWP’s 50PLUS: Choices offer, which provides support to help older workers remain in, or return to, work.
To understand what further action should be taken as a result of the rise in economic inactivity, the Department for Work and Pensions is thoroughly reviewing workforce participation. The Government will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to assist people of working age who are economically inactive due to illness back into employment.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The government has a longstanding programme supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. This programme includes employment support programmes for disabled people and people with health conditions facing additional barriers into employment and interventions designed to minimise the risk of ill-health related job-loss. These programmes are accessible to the economically inactive and those at risk of falling into economic inactivity, including due to illness.
Long-term sickness is now the most common reason for being economically inactive, rising 3.5 percentage points in the last 3 years to a total of 2.5 million people. It is the biggest factor in the rise in economic inactivity since the start of the pandemic.
The 50-64 age group make up the largest proportion of those who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness. The government provides additional support to individuals aged 50 and over, in recognition of the additional challenges they may face re-joining the labour market.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports by the Office for National Statistics that record numbers of people are not looking for work due to long-term illness.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The latest figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for June to August 2022 show that the percentage of individuals who are economically inactive due to long-term illness is 27.7%, a record high (since data collection began in 1993).
Long-term illness is now the most common reason within the working-age population for an individual to be economically inactive, rising 3.5 percentage points in the last 3 years to a total of 2.5 million people.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the majority of the rise in economic activity is attributed to long-term sickness, totalling 380,000 or 60%. The percentage of individuals with long-term sickness who want a job is 23.3%.
The government has a longstanding programme designed to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. This includes employment support programmes for disabled people and people with health conditions who face additional barriers into employment, as well as more upstream interventions designed to minimise the risk of ill-health related job-loss, as outlined in the response to the Health Is Everyone’s Business consultation.
The 50-64 age group make up the largest proportion of those who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness. The government provides additional support to individuals 50 and over, in recognition of the additional challenges they may face re-joining the labour market.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether it is his Department's policy that cases concerning injuries to locally employed civilians who were resettled in the UK under the (a) Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and (b) ex gratia scheme will be (i) assessed and (ii) compensated in the same way as those of UK (A) armed forced personnel and (B) veterans.
Answered by James Heappey
The Government remains committed to awarding appropriate payments to former locally employed staff in Afghanistan who were injured as a result of their employment with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Those locally employed staff would not be assessed in the same way as members of the UK Armed Forces or veterans because they were never members of the UK military.
However, payments are based on Judicial College guidelines that inform personal injury cases, and our published criteria, but were also designed to reflect the socio-economic conditions of Afghanistan. For those Afghans who were injured and then subsequently resettled to the UK, a review was conducted in 2017 to ensure their medical payments were uplifted to reflect the socio-economic conditions of the UK where they are now living.
In 2020 the Government published the Ex-Gratia Medical payments review policy https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ex-gratia-medical-payments-reviews
This enables individuals who wish to have their cases re-assessed and those whose condition has deteriorated beyond their original prognosis, or those who have developed a late-onset condition, to receive a fair full and final payment without prejudice.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many special advisers appointed by the Cabinet Office to assist his predecessor are entitled to severance payments in financial year 2022-23 under the terms set out in Paragraph 14c of the model contract for special advisers; and what total costs will be incurred by his Department as a result.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Special advisers are employed by the department to which they were appointed to assist their minister, as such the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s special advisers are employed by HM Treasury; the administration of special advisers is however overseen by the Cabinet Office.
Under paragraph 14b of the Model Contract for Special Advisers, a special adviser’s employment is automatically terminated when their appointing minister ceases to hold the ministerial office to which they were appointed to assist them. Paragraph 14c of the Model Contract details the conditions that apply should a special adviser’s employment end, including eligibility for any severance payments. Paragraph 14c of the Model Contract also sets out that special advisers who are later re-appointed to government must repay their severance pay, less the amount of salary they would have been paid had they been employed during the period between their termination and their re-appointment.
These arrangements have been in place under successive administrations.
Pursuant to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and as part of the government’s policy on open data and transparency, the Cabinet Office routinely publishes an annual report on the numbers and costs of special advisers. The total cost of exit packages, including severance payments, for special advisers are published annually.