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, how he plans to measure the success of the Restart Programme; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the programme operates effectively.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department carries out continuous evaluation to assess the impact of the programme on job outcomes, earnings, and intermediate outcomes such as improvements in confidence, well-being and job-searching skills.
Management information and Universal Credit data is used to ensure effective delivery. The evidence and good practice identified is fed back to Restart delivery partners with a view to continuously improving our support offer.
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, if he will make it his policy to extend the length of the Restart Programme for people who have had a long period of unemployment.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Restart scheme is contracted to provide support for long-term unemployed people for up to 12 months.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage and develop safe and stable ways for people to leave prostitution and sex work and to find alternative work.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We believe that people who want to leave prostitution and sex work should be given every opportunity to find routes out. Where someone wishes to exit prostitution or sex work, we would seek to support them to achieve this, as we know that there can be particular barriers to exiting. We continue to work with the police, Crown Prosecution Service and others to ensure that this is the focus.
As the Bristol University research on the nature and prevalence of sex work and prostitution shows, activity is increasingly moving online. We are providing £1.36m over the next three years to ‘Changing Lives’ to better understand the levels and types of online abuse and exploitation that are happening, and why, and identify and develop the pathways that are needed to improve support.
Victims of Modern Slavery have access to DWPs mainstream employment support where they qualify for income related benefits. This includes the Work and Health Programme, Restart and Sector Based Work Academy Programmes. To support everyone seeking alternative work, the Find a job service has over 170,000 job vacancies across a wide range of industries.
In addition to this, to protect the most vulnerable we are increasing benefits in line with inflation. This means that, subject to Parliamentary approval, they will rise by September Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation – 10.1%. Furthermore, we are making cost of living payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) to more than 8 million low-income households on Universal Credit, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Pension Credit, with £150 to individuals receiving disability benefits.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals (a) were referred to, (b) participated in and (c) had a job outcome from Restart programme in each of the financial years it was available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 15 December 2022 the department published an ad-hoc statistical release for the Restart Scheme. The statistics include information on referrals, starts and job outcomes since the scheme started in June 2021 and is available at:
Restart Scheme to September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to increase the (a) provision of defibrillators and (b) number of people trained in (i) first aid and (ii) CPR.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, NHS England have assessed the benefits of providing Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public places and have included improving bystander use of AEDs as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out that a national network of community first responders and AEDs will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028.
No specific assessment has been has made of the availability of defibrillators across regions of the United Kingdom. The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government, access to defibrillators is an important part of that commitment and it recently agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of AEDs that expands publicly supported access to defibrillators. We will set out agreed criteria to ensure that the delivery of AEDs in the community is based on being accessible on a 24 hour seven days a week basis and are equitable both nationally and socially.
Working with St John Ambulance, 141 community advocates have been recruited to deliver sessions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillator use. As of December 2022, 163 sessions had been delivered and 3249 people had been reached by these advocates. The first responders programme also had a key involvement in restart a heart day.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the availability of defibrillators across regions of the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, NHS England have assessed the benefits of providing Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public places and have included improving bystander use of AEDs as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out that a national network of community first responders and AEDs will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028.
No specific assessment has been has made of the availability of defibrillators across regions of the United Kingdom. The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government, access to defibrillators is an important part of that commitment and it recently agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of AEDs that expands publicly supported access to defibrillators. We will set out agreed criteria to ensure that the delivery of AEDs in the community is based on being accessible on a 24 hour seven days a week basis and are equitable both nationally and socially.
Working with St John Ambulance, 141 community advocates have been recruited to deliver sessions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillator use. As of December 2022, 163 sessions had been delivered and 3249 people had been reached by these advocates. The first responders programme also had a key involvement in restart a heart day.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, NHS England have assessed the benefits of providing Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public places and have included improving bystander use of AEDs as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out that a national network of community first responders and AEDs will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028.
No specific assessment has been has made of the availability of defibrillators across regions of the United Kingdom. The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government, access to defibrillators is an important part of that commitment and it recently agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of AEDs that expands publicly supported access to defibrillators. We will set out agreed criteria to ensure that the delivery of AEDs in the community is based on being accessible on a 24 hour seven days a week basis and are equitable both nationally and socially.
Working with St John Ambulance, 141 community advocates have been recruited to deliver sessions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillator use. As of December 2022, 163 sessions had been delivered and 3249 people had been reached by these advocates. The first responders programme also had a key involvement in restart a heart day.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the underspend on the Restart scheme contract exceeded £1.2 billion.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As per the NAO report, the original estimated cost for Restart was £2.58bn, this has been revised to £1.68bn creating a £0.9m underspend.
The underspend is not expected to exceed £1.2bn. The original value of the contracts was £2.6bn. As explained in the accounting officer note in July 2022 and the NAO report, the lower numbers participating in the programme due to the better than anticipated labour market position means the spend is expected to be around £1.7bn – so the underspend is expected to be around £0.9bn. Payment is contingent on performance and that the Department retains options to refer more people and to extend the programme so we cannot yet confirm a final spend figure for the programme.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to restart development of the Type 32 frigate programme.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Type 32 Frigate programme remains in the concept phase, and the programme and procurement strategy will be decided following the completion of the concept phase.
Asked by: Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of HMP Dovegate’s scheme to train prisoners to become fully qualified dog trainers; and whether they will implement similar schemes in all prisons across England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Restart Dogs Programme at HMP Dovegate is currently funded through the local prisoners’ Amenities Fund, and its continuation will be reviewed in line with routine assurance checks to ensure continuing value for money and defined outcomes. There are no plans to implement the project across prisons in England and Wales, but it is available to Governors under the Dynamic Purchasing System, using their Learning and Skills budgets, if they determine that there is a local need.