Tag: Baroness Redfern

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-12-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to encourage local authorities to include personal assessments as part of a broader care programme alongside other measures to help individuals to achieve greater control over the support they receive.

Lord Prior of Brampton

One of the overarching aims of the Care Act 2014 is to give people more choice and control over their care and support. Local authorities must assess any person who appears to have care and support needs. The aim of the needs assessment is to identify what needs individuals may have, what impact these needs have on their wellbeing, and what outcomes they are looking to achieve. The Act also requires that the person, their carer and anyone else they request must be involved in the assessment.

The Act clarifies that one method of carrying out an assessment is through a supported self-assessment, where the person and local authority carry out the assessment jointly. This gives the person more control over their own assessment and supports their involvement in the development of their care and support plan.

The Department published statutory guidance which provides more detail on the assessment provisions for local authorities. The Department also commissioned Skills for Care and the Social Care Institute for Care Excellence to develop materials to support local authorities with the implementation of the assessment requirements, including supported self-assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-12-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Department for Health has made of the number of adult carers in the UK, and the capacity of those carers to provide an improved quality of care to individuals in their own homes.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We have assumed the Noble Lady is referring to informal, unpaid, carers rather than to paid care workers.

The 2011 Census indicated that there are approximately 6.26 million adults with informal caring responsibilities in the United Kingdom.

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers and the importance of supporting them in their caring roles. That is why we continue to support implementation of the improved rights for carers enshrined in The Care Act 2014. This includes a right to an assessment on the appearance of needs for support that will look at a carer’s wellbeing in their own right and what support they may need in their caring role.

The Department has provided £104 million of funding to local authorities for these rights in 2015/16, which include, for the first time, a legal duty on local authorities to meet carers’ eligible needs for support. We have also made an additional £400 million available to the NHS between 2011 and 2015 to provide carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities to sustain them in their caring role. The carers’ breaks funding of £130 million for 2015/16 is in the Better Care Fund.

The Department is also leading the development of a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy that will look at what more we can do to support existing carers and future carers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they are providing to workers affected by the recent job losses in the United Kingdom steel industry.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

We have announced packages of support worth up to £80 million to support people who have lost their jobs in Redcar and up to £9 million, with Tata, for people who have lost their jobs in Scunthorpe. We have also established Task Forces at both locations which are making good progress under the strong leadership of Amanda Skelton and Baroness Redfern respectively. I am pleased that we have recently agreed a number of support packages worth over £40million with the Redcar taskforce which will provide financial assistance to affected workers, fund retraining, rehouse fifty apprentices and support the wider local economy and supply chain. We are working closely with the Scunthorpe taskforce on how best to target support there.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-12-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is being done to increase the number of specially adapted homes in (1) North Lincolnshire, and (2) nationally, so that those with complex care needs can live independently for longer.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Since 2011 the Government has invested over a billion pounds into the Disabled Facilities Grant to fund adaptations to disabled people’s homes to help them live independently and safely at home for longer. This provides for around 40,000 adaptations each year and around 200,000 homes have been adapted since 2010. North Lincolnshire has received £5,143,717 of this funding over this period. Future funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant will rise to over £500 million in 2019-20.

The Government is also providing specialised housing for disabled and older people through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme and these will deliver 24 specialised homes in North Lincolnshire between 2011 – 2018.

In the Spending Review we have committed to £400 million of funding to deliver 8,000 specialist homes for the vulnerable, elderly or those with disabilities. A commitment to funding from Department of Health could deliver up to a further 7,500 homes over the Spending Review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether steps are being taken to amend European Union procurement rules to ensure more United Kingdom companies’ involvement in government projects.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The new EU Directive on Public Procurement was transposed in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which came into effect earlier this year. The Regulations implement a range of reforms, including offering flexibility for contracting authorities to take into account relevant wider social and economic considerations, where consistent with best value for money, in Government procurement activities. We have also published new Cabinet Office guidance which will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government contracts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Chairman of Committees what assessment he has made of the case for creating a circular economy for leftover paint in Parliament, in the light of the recommendations made in the British Coatings Federation’s interim report published on 19 November 2015.

Lord Laming

No formal assessment has been made of the Report. The House keeps minimal base colours in stock for touch-ups etc. and orders specific quantities as job requirements dictate. Any leftover paint is dealt with in compliance with legal disposal requirements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to support the United Kingdom steel industry.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

There is no straightforward solution to the complex global challenges facing the steel industry. However, the Government has been extremely active advocating for and supporting the sector. On 16th October, my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State chaired a Steel Summit, which was an important opportunity to bring the key players together. Since then we have been taking action to address the key asks of the steel industry, operating through three Ministerial led working groups. We are also supporting the metals sector more widely through the industry-led Metals Strategy, which will provide a platform for Government to work with the industry on some of the most pressing issues holding back the future growth of the sector.

We have taken EU and International level action on dumping and unfair trade practices. We supported and voted for the renewal of EU anti-dumping measures on wire rod and recently steel tubing and lobbied successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar. My Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State had meetings with European Commissioners and spoke to key counterparts in other Member States on 28 October, calling for firmer, faster action against unfair trade practices. As a direct result, we secured agreement for an extraordinary meeting of the EU’s Competitiveness Council which took place on 9th November. At this Member States agreed that EU level action needed to be taken to address the challenges facing the steel sector. Specifically, the Council agreed to take action to address unfair trading practices, energy costs, investment for modernisation and retraining and the regulatory burden facing the sector.

The Government has confirmed to the steel industry that it will be able to take advantage of special flexibilities to comply with new EU rules on emissions.

Turning to energy costs, we have announced that we will bring forward our compensation package for the industry’s additional costs from climate change policies starting as soon as state aid approval is given by the European Commission. This means that Energy intensive industries will benefit from all compensation at the very earliest opportunity. We have also confirmed that compensation and mitigation arrangements for the costs of climate change policies for Energy Intensive Industries will continue for the whole of the Parliament giving the sectors greater investment confidence. This will save Energy Intensive Industries such as steel hundreds of millions of pounds over the next five years. This will come on top of the more than £50 million we have already paid to steelmakers in compensation for energy costs.

Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The National Infrastructure Plan contains a significant number of projects which will use British steel, e.g. Crossrail – with four UK based companies providing over 50,000 tonnes of steel; and HS2 – where Government has already given notice of the thousands of tonnes of steel that will be needed. Following the first meeting of the steel procurement working group chaired by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government projects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage innovation in paint products to make better use of resources, and what steps they are taking to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and to create new markets for paint products.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

I am pleased to highlight a project by Akzo Nobel, Newlife Paints and Seymour Consulting supported through our delivery arm – Innovate UK – to industrialise the process of recycling paint through increased automation which has proved successful and could lead to significant commercial opportunities as well as a better environmental outcome.

Additionally, the Government’s Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund is supporting a RePaint project in Cheshire which is working across the local community to minimise the amount of paint going for disposal.

The disposal of liquid waste, including liquid paint, to landfill is banned under the Landfill Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste). The ban is implemented in England through the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (as amended) and is enforced by the Environment Agency through the environmental permits it issues to landfill operators.

The creation of new markets for paint products was one of the recommendations from the British Coatings Federation’s “Paintcare” initiative which was launched last year. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is taking steps to encourage consumers to recycle/reuse household paint by providing information through the Recycle Now campaign. This includes a postcode locator to pinpoint local facilities and information on how to deal with paint.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of their measures to reduce long-term unemployment, and how many people previously classified as long-term unemployed have entered work since 2010, (1) nationally, and (2) in North Lincolnshire.

Lord Freud

Since 2010 long term unemployment has fallen by over a quarter of a million in the UK, and since the Work Programme began in June 2011, it has helped 459,370 long term unemployed people find sustained work. In North Lincolnshire alone, 1,550 long term unemployed people have found sustained work through the Work Programme.

The Department is continuing to modernise the way Jobcentre Plus delivers its services and has given responsibility to Jobcentre Plus Work Coaches – trusting them to assess the individual needs of people and offer the support and advice they think is best to get them back into work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that departments assist projects such as the British Coatings Federation’s PaintCare project.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government welcomes the PaintCare initiative and is working constructively with the British Coating Federation in relation to several aspects of the project. This includes identifying potential regulatory barriers to the recycling and re-manufacturing of paint and how these might be overcome, as well as providing opportunities to raise awareness of the potential benefits of PaintCare, for example at the G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency conference in Berlin last October.

My Hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), spoke at the Parliamentary launch of PaintCare’s interim report in November. The Waste and Resources Action Programme has also been working with PaintCare to provide information to consumers on how to recycle and dispose of household paint, through the Recycle Now campaign.