Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he plans to take through proposals in the Levelling Up White Paper to assist ethnic minority business owners.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government's levelling up missions will spread economic opportunity and support businesses to fulfil their potential through investment in R&D, skills, connectivity, and business finance across the country.
The Levelling Up White Paper drew on the findings of the independent Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED), which emphasised that geography is a key factor affecting equality of opportunity and social mobility, and geographical and ethnicity-related factors are closely interrelated. In action 56 of the Government’s response to CRED, the Inclusive Britain report, the Government committed to support HSBC to develop and launch a pilot for a competition-based, entrepreneur support programme in spring 2022
By reducing spatial disparities across the UK, particularly in the places where they are most stark, the plans set out in the Levelling Up White Paper will improve the lives of groups with the worst outcomes, complementing and supporting our wider work to tackle race and ethnic disparities.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times the Building the Right Support Delivery Board has met since 3 February 2021; and on how many times a Minister has attended those meetings.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Building the Right Support Delivery Board has commissioned new work, including the rapid review into funding flows and is overseeing the development of the Building the Right Support Action Plan. The Board meets quarterly and as of 15 March 2022, has met three times since 3 February 2021. A Minister has attended every Board meeting to date. The membership of the Building the Right Support Delivery Board is as follows:
- President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services;
- President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services;
- Chair of the Association of Directors of Children's Services' Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee;
- Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission;
- Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission;
- Deputy Director – Policy and Advocacy, Children’s Commissioner;
- Chair of the Children and Young People’s Steering Group;
- Chair of the Independent Care (Education) Treatment Reviews Oversight Panel;
- Co-chairs of the Advisory Group of people with lived experience;
- Director of Strategy, Social Mobility and Disadvantage, Department for Education;
- Director for Mental Health and Disabilities, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Chief Social Worker, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director of Neurodiversity, Disability and Learning Disability, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director Operational Research and Statistician, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director of Housing with Care and Support, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities;
- Chief Nurse, Health Education England;
- Deputy Chief Executive, Local Government Association;
- Deputy Director of Female Offenders and Health Policy, Ministry of Justice;
- National Director of Learning Disability and Autism, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Clinical Director for Learning Disabilities and Autism, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Director of Policy, NHS England & Improvement;
- Autism Programme Director, NHS England & Improvement;
- Head of Children and Young people, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Director for Social Care, Ofsted;
- Association for Real Change, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Care England, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Learning Disability England, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Health and Wellbeing Alliance, Representative from the Voluntary and Community Sector; and
- Chief Executive Officer, Skills for Care.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide details of the membership of the Building the Right Support Delivery Board.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Building the Right Support Delivery Board has commissioned new work, including the rapid review into funding flows and is overseeing the development of the Building the Right Support Action Plan. The Board meets quarterly and as of 15 March 2022, has met three times since 3 February 2021. A Minister has attended every Board meeting to date. The membership of the Building the Right Support Delivery Board is as follows:
- President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services;
- President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services;
- Chair of the Association of Directors of Children's Services' Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee;
- Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission;
- Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission;
- Deputy Director – Policy and Advocacy, Children’s Commissioner;
- Chair of the Children and Young People’s Steering Group;
- Chair of the Independent Care (Education) Treatment Reviews Oversight Panel;
- Co-chairs of the Advisory Group of people with lived experience;
- Director of Strategy, Social Mobility and Disadvantage, Department for Education;
- Director for Mental Health and Disabilities, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Chief Social Worker, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director of Neurodiversity, Disability and Learning Disability, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director Operational Research and Statistician, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director of Housing with Care and Support, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities;
- Chief Nurse, Health Education England;
- Deputy Chief Executive, Local Government Association;
- Deputy Director of Female Offenders and Health Policy, Ministry of Justice;
- National Director of Learning Disability and Autism, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Clinical Director for Learning Disabilities and Autism, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Director of Policy, NHS England & Improvement;
- Autism Programme Director, NHS England & Improvement;
- Head of Children and Young people, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Director for Social Care, Ofsted;
- Association for Real Change, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Care England, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Learning Disability England, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Health and Wellbeing Alliance, Representative from the Voluntary and Community Sector; and
- Chief Executive Officer, Skills for Care.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Building the Right Support Delivery Board.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Building the Right Support Delivery Board has commissioned new work, including the rapid review into funding flows and is overseeing the development of the Building the Right Support Action Plan. The Board meets quarterly and as of 15 March 2022, has met three times since 3 February 2021. A Minister has attended every Board meeting to date. The membership of the Building the Right Support Delivery Board is as follows:
- President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services;
- President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services;
- Chair of the Association of Directors of Children's Services' Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee;
- Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission;
- Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission;
- Deputy Director – Policy and Advocacy, Children’s Commissioner;
- Chair of the Children and Young People’s Steering Group;
- Chair of the Independent Care (Education) Treatment Reviews Oversight Panel;
- Co-chairs of the Advisory Group of people with lived experience;
- Director of Strategy, Social Mobility and Disadvantage, Department for Education;
- Director for Mental Health and Disabilities, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Chief Social Worker, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director of Neurodiversity, Disability and Learning Disability, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director Operational Research and Statistician, Department of Health and Social Care;
- Deputy Director of Housing with Care and Support, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities;
- Chief Nurse, Health Education England;
- Deputy Chief Executive, Local Government Association;
- Deputy Director of Female Offenders and Health Policy, Ministry of Justice;
- National Director of Learning Disability and Autism, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Clinical Director for Learning Disabilities and Autism, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Director of Policy, NHS England & Improvement;
- Autism Programme Director, NHS England & Improvement;
- Head of Children and Young people, NHS England & Improvement;
- National Director for Social Care, Ofsted;
- Association for Real Change, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Care England, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Learning Disability England, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, Representative from the Provider Group;
- Health and Wellbeing Alliance, Representative from the Voluntary and Community Sector; and
- Chief Executive Officer, Skills for Care.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions she has had with Ministerial colleagues on improving social mobility in the most deprived parts of the country.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Levelling up is at the heart of the Government’s agenda to build back better after the pandemic. Responsibility for driving forward the levelling up agenda has recently moved to the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to embed levelling up commitments and create tangible improvements in every part of the UK.
The Minister for Women and Equalities announced the Equality Data Programme to ensure that geographic and socio-economic inequality is considered, alongside other factors, when identifying barriers to opportunity. Furthermore, since April, the Social Mobility Commission has been sponsored by the Equality Hub in the Cabinet Office, so that it can play a wider role in tackling socio-economic inequality.
Additionally, the Government will publish a landmark Levelling Up White Paper later this year, setting out bold new policy interventions to improve livelihoods and opportunity in all parts of the UK.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children live in households that are subject to the under-occupancy penalty.
Answered by Will Quince
The removal of the spare room subsidy policy has been an important tool to help to manage housing support expenditure and enable mobility within the social rented sector. For those who require additional support with housing costs, Discretionary Housing Payments are available.
The information requested for households in Housing Benefit is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
The information for Universal Credit is not readily available.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the removal of the spare room subsidy on debt levels since the outbreak of covid-19.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
For those living in the Social Rented Sector, maximum housing costs support is based on actual rent and eligible service charges less any deductions for under-occupation.
The ‘Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy’ policy has helped to encourage mobility within the social rented sector, strengthen work incentives and make better use of available social housing.
The policy already allows for the provision of an additional bedroom for disabled people and carers, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel, and people who have suffered a recent bereavement. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
If a claimant’s ability to mitigate any shortfall between their housing support and rent has changed as a result of Covid-19, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available. DHPs can be paid to those in receipt of Housing Benefit or support with housing costs in Universal Credit, who face a shortfall in meeting their rental housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHP funding.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will review the spare room subsidy policy to ensure that people who are unable to work as a result of illness are not obliged to pay that charge.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy’ policy has helped to encourage mobility within the social rented sector, strengthen work-incentives and make better use of available social housing.
There are no plans to amend the policy which already allows for the provision of an additional bedroom for disabled people and carers, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel, and people who have suffered a recent bereavement. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
If a claimants ability to mitigate any shortfall between their housing support and rent has changed, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available. DHPs can be paid to those in receipt of Housing Benefit or support with housing costs in Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their rental housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHP funding.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2021 to Question 137304 on Equality, what the evidential basis is for her assessment in that Answer that the socio-economic duty provided for by the Equality Act 2010 could become a general due regard duty with the potential to become a tick-box exercise, complied with to minimise the risk of legal challenge rather than to promote real change in social mobility.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The socio-economic duty in the Equality Act is, as the legislation stands, a “due regard” duty, and therefore similar in form to the public sector equality duty, which is also a “due regard” duty.
The way that the public sector equality duty is used by some public authorities, as a tick-box exercise, has been criticised on various occasions, including in the 2013 Hayward Review of the Duty; by the 2015-16 House of Lords Committee on the Equality Act 2010 and Disability; and in a number of court judgments, for instance London and Quadrant Housing Trust v Patrick (2019).
For these reasons this Government, like its Conservative predecessors, thinks that it is better to focus on specific policies and practical actions that will deliver real change in tackling poverty and promoting social mobility – for example in education, through a reformed welfare system, and in following through on our manifesto commitment to greater developmental devolution in England and rebalancing the economy with the introduction of schemes such as the Towns Fund.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consensus statement by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Housing, household transmission and ethnicity, published on 26 November, and in particular its recommendations on (1) the under-occupancy levy, (2) the benefit cap, and (3) the No Recourse to Public Funds rule.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
No assessment has been made.
(1) The removal of the spare room subsidy has been an important tool to help to manage housing support expenditure and enable mobility within the social rented sector. Making a change to this policy would not increase the size of properties people are currently living in or increase their bedroom entitlement under local authority lettings policies.
(2) There are currently no plans to change the Benefit Cap. The Benefit Cap ensures fairness between those receiving out-of-work benefits and taxpayers. The Government firmly believes that, where possible, it is in the best interests of children to be in working households and the benefit cap provides a clear incentive to move into work. A child living in a household where every adult is working is about 5 times less likely to be in relative poverty than a child in a household where nobody works.
Universal Credit claimants with household earnings of at least £604 in an assessment period are exempt from the cap along with the most vulnerable claimants that are entitled to disability benefits and carer benefits.
(3) The decision to apply a no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition as part of a non-UK national’s immigration status is a Home Office policy matter. Non-UK nationals and family members who are issued with a residence permit with a NRPF condition are not eligible to access taxpayer-funded benefits such as Universal Credit, Child Benefit or housing assistance for the duration of their leave to remain. DWP has no powers to award taxpayer-funded benefits to an individual whose Home Office immigration status specifies no recourse to public funds. Public funds do not include contributions-based benefits such as New Style Job Seekers Allowance.
Non-UK nationals can apply for a change to their NRPF condition if, since being granted leave to remain, their financial circumstances have changed and they have become destitute or there are now particularly compelling reasons relating to the welfare of their child on account of their very low income, or there are now exceptional circumstances in their case relating to their financial circumstances.
Winter support package funding is being provided to local authorities, with more scope for distribution to individuals with no recourse to public funds. It will be at the discretion of local authorities to ensure those who need it most receive it. Local authorities may also provide basic safety net support if it is established that there is a genuine care need that does not arise solely from destitution, for example, where there are community care needs, migrants with serious health problems or family cases where the wellbeing of a child is in question.