Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the level of funding available for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such assessment has been made. It is for individual local commissioners to allocate funding to mental health services, including child and adolescent mental health services, to meet the needs of their local populations. Integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the mental health investment standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year. Nationally, overall spend on children and young people’s mental health services has increased from £841 million in 2019/20 to just over £1 billion in 2022/23.
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in each of the past five years, what was the average length of time in England and Wales for the police and Crown Prosecution Service to investigate allegations of (1) murder, and (2) rape, before a decision was made on whether to proceed with prosecution.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the time taken by the police in England and Wales to reach an investigative outcome for notifiable offences.
Below is a table showing the median number of days taken to assign a charge/summons outcome, from date recorded by the police, for rape and homicide offences, for each year from 2018/19 to year ending September 2023:
Financial Year | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
| YE Sept 2023 |
Homicide1,2,3 | 40 | 21 | 25 | 30 | 29 |
| 23 |
Rape offences1 | 381 | 395 | 465 | 467 | 421 |
| 426 |
Notes:
1. Only includes data for forces who send offence-level data to the Home Office Data Hub
2. The number of median days for Year ending September 2022 and Year ending September 2023 includes 37 territorial police forces. Excludes Devon and Cornwall, Humberside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester Police. The data for these forces was identified to have quality issues or the data was not provided at record level to the Home Office Data Hub in for the reporting period.
3. 2018/19 excludes the 97 homicides which were assigned a charge/summons outcome in relation to the Hillsborough disaster by South Yorkshire Police Force. When these are included, the median number of days taken to assign a charge for homicide was 115 days in 2018/19.
4. Data are shown to the nearest whole day.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the Housing First programme on levels of offending behaviour.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Following the Government’s manifesto commitment to expand Housing First, DLUHC launched three Housing First pilots in the West Midlands (WMCA), Greater Manchester (GMCA) and Liverpool City Region (LCRCA) in May 2018. Since then, DLUHC’s expert advisers have been working closely with each of the three pilot regions to monitor and support progress.
DLUHC has published several evaluation reports during the pilots’ lifetime and will publish a final synthesis report following the pilots’ end. The evaluation will include findings on offending history and contact with the criminal justice system. DLUHC will use the findings of their evaluation of the Housing First pilots, together with their experiences from the three pilots, to inform next steps.
The Ministry of Justice will collaborate with DLUHC to contribute to the development of the next steps for Housing First to ensure that those with an history of offending are supported effectively through the service going forward.
The evaluation reports are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-first-pilot-national-evaluation-reports.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken with relevant authorities to improve storm (a) resilience and (b) recovery efforts in (i) the North West and (ii) St Helens.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(a) The Environment Agency (EA) is investing £748 million in the current capital programme (2021-27) to reduce the impact of flooding across the North West.
The EA has 850 assets in the Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire area which it operates and maintains, and staff available 24/7 to respond to incidents. The EA’s network of river telemetry informs its operation of the Flood Warning Service which helps at risk communities prepare for flooding. As part of the recovery from storms, the EA inspects its assets for damage and to confirm that they have operated as expected and meets with communities on the ground to determine the extent of flooding.
The EA attends regular operational meetings with St Helens Borough Council (BC) and United Utilities to review flood risk management issues and solutions. The EA is supporting St Helens BC on updating its multi-agency emergency flood plan and in the development of two new flood risk schemes – Black Brook and Rainford Brook. St Helens BC has an allocation of £769k towards flood defence schemes in the current capital programme
The EA conducts a routine maintenance programme in 13 locations in St Helens to reduce flood risk. It has completed removal of a silt island in Windle Brook, at the silt trap immediately upstream from Dilloway Street debris screen, in the previous 12 months to improve channel capacity and flow.
(b) The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities activated the Flood Recovery Framework on 6 January. For the Storm Henk Flood Recovery Framework activation, eligible areas are those upper and lower tier authority areas:
Local Authorities and LLFAs are responsible for distributing funding to affected people. They are able to do as soon as they notify the Government their area becomes eligible so the scheme can be extended. Government funding for eligible properties will be paid to Local Authorities retrospectively, based on the certified cost of providing relief.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many sub-postmasters from (a) Manchester Gorton constituency, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) the North West were wrongfully convicted due to the Horizon system; and if she will provide this breakdown by ethnicity.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We do not have the regional breakdown of the number of postmasters with overturned convictions according by ethnicity. So far 101 convictions have been overturned by the Courts across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is the Government’s opinion that there were many more wrongful convictions. We have announced that we will bring forward legislation so that Parliament can overturn them. The number of people whose convictions will be overturned by the legislation will depend on its precise terms.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many sub-postmasters from (a) Manchester Gorton constituency, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) the North West voluntarily left the Post Office due to issues with Horizon, broken down by ethnicity.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We do not have the regional breakdown of the number of postmasters who voluntarily left Post office due to Horizon. However, we know that at least 2,700 overall postmasters have been affected by Horizon issues as there have been 2417 Horizon Shortfall Scheme applicants (and a further 336 eligible late claims to date); 101 overturned convictions; and 492 who are currently eligible for the Group Litigation Order Scheme.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had discussions with the Mayor of (a) Greater Manchester and (b) the West Midlands on steps to improve rail connectivity between Birmingham and Manchester.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State and I met with the Mayors of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester on 31 January to discuss proposals to improve rail connectivity between the West Midlands and Manchester. The position on cancelling HS2 Phase 2 has not changed. We are already getting on with using the savings from HS2 Phase 2 to deliver Network North which will benefit more people in more places more quickly.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to recommendation 4.10 in the Annex entitled Guidelines for the implementation of the wise use concept in the publication entitled Guidelines for development and implementing National Wetland Policies adopted by Resolution VII.6 of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, whether his Department plans to formulate a National Wetland Strategy.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK plays an active role to support and implement the conservation and wise use of wetlands through the Ramsar Convention. In England we are not currently planning to publish a separate National Wetland Strategy but have set out our plan to recover nature and restore our habitats and wetlands in the revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23), as well as our England Peat Action Plan. We are also meeting our commitments under the Ramsar Convention, as laid out in our Environmental Improvement Plan and the National Adaptation Plan, through establishing a UK Wetland Inventory - mapping our wetlands for the first time and supporting future action to protect these vital habitats.
We recognise that wetland restoration will be critical to protect the vast number of wetland species as well as providing critical nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaption. By 2030 we have domestically committed to halt the decline in species abundance and by 2042 we aim to reverse species decline; to reduce the risk of species extinction; and to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats outside protected sites. Many wetlands are also Protected Sites, of which we have committed to restore 75% to favourable condition by 2042.
Alongside setting targets in other areas including water and air quality, we are taking targeted action to recover our wetlands. Our recently announced and government-supported Lost Wetlands Nature Recovery Project will reclaim, restore and rewet a mosaic of wetland habitats over 5,000ha in South Greater Manchester and North Cheshire, previously lost to industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural intensification. Defra has also launched a 60,000-hectare Nature Recovery Project focusing on the Somerset Wetlands, with the 6,140-hectare super National Nature Reserve at its heart. These projects will enhance connectivity, species recovery and resilience to climate change.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps the (a) police and (b) National Crime Agency have taken to tackle county lines operations in (i) Hampshire and (ii) the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is determined to crack down on county lines gangs which is why, through the 10-year Drug Strategy, we are bolstering our flagship County Lines Programme, investing up to £145m over three years to tackle this violent and exploitative distribution model.
County lines is a national issue which affects all forces which is why, through the Programme, we fund the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC) to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. The County Lines Programme forces (MPS, West Midlands, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and British Transport Police) also regularly conduct joint operations with importing forces. In addition, we have established a dedicated fund which provides local police forces, including Hampshire Constabulary, with additional funding to tackle county lines.
Since the County Lines Programme was launched in 2019, police activity has resulted in over 5,100 line closures, over 15,600 arrests and over 8,000 safeguarding referrals. This includes over 2,100 line closures by the Programme taskforces since April 2022, meeting the Drugs Strategy commitment of over 2,000 by April 2025 in half the time.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) train operating companies, and (2) other stakeholders, on improving rail services to Stansted airport.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Officials meet regularly with the owners of Stansted Airport, Manchester Airport Group, and attend the annual Stansted Airport Surface Access Forum, along with other stakeholders.
Officials also engage regularly with Greater Anglia and CrossCountry about Stansted Airport services.
As a result, off-peak and weekend Stansted Express services doubled from December 2023 to give a 15-minute frequency to London.
The aspiration for full hourly CrossCountry services from Birmingham to Stansted Airport should be met when resources allow.