Tag: Helen Hayes

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring a local authority to keep publicly accessible lists of banned letting agents to prevent such agents from being able to operate in other local authority areas.

Gavin Barwell

The Housing & Planning Act 2016 contains a package of measures to help local authorities crack down on rogue landlords who exploit their tenants by renting out unsafe and substandard accommodation. The measures include a database of rogue landlords and property agents who have been convicted of certain offences or received at least two civil penalties for a breach of housing legislation.

The database will enable local authorities to keep track of those landlords and property agents and target their enforcement action. Only DCLG and local housing authorities will be able to access the database, although the data will be made available publically in an anonymised format.

Access to the database is being restricted in this way for data protection reasons and because making the database publicly available would effectively blacklist all those individuals and companies on the database and prevent them from continuing to be involved in renting out or managing property, which is not the purpose of the database.

Where a local authority believes that a landlord or property agent should no longer be involved in the renting out or management of property, they will be able to seek a banning order from the First Tier Tribunal.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police forces are able to maintain existing levels of frontline policing over the next five years.

Mike Penning

Ultimately, decisions on the size and composition of a police force’s workforce are for individual chief officers and Police and Crime Commissioners. The police have demonstrated that, with reform, it is possible to deliver more for less and to prioritise available resource at the frontline.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the introduction of the Ebac on the take-up of creative subjects by pupils.

Nick Gibb

This Government’s aim is to have at least 90% of pupils taking GCSEs from the English Baccalaureate subjects of English, maths, science, humanities and languages.

These subjects are part of a broad and balanced curriculum. The EBacc has been designed to be limited in its size in order to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the curriculum for pupils to study other subjects of their choice, including creative subjects. A good foundation in the EBacc subjects will help students keep their options open for work and further study.

On 3 November 2015 the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate[1]. The consultation closed on 29 January 2016 and the government response will be published in the spring.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-the-english-baccalaureate

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people living in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency have taken more than 60 days to process in each of the last 12 months.

Karen Bradley

The following table shows the number of applications from people living in Dulwich and West Norwood that have taken more than 60 days in each of the last 12 months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidelines his Department issues to NHS Foundation Trusts on the publication of board papers.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Department does not issue guidelines on the publication of board papers to National Health Service foundation trusts (FTs).

The NHS Foundation Trust Code of Governance from NHS Improvement provides best practice guidance to help FTs deliver effective corporate governance, contribute to better organisational performance and ultimately discharge their duties in the best interests of patients. There is no recommendation in relation to publication of board papers however FTs may outline their decisions for board papers in their constitutions.

Provisions in the 2006 Act amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 require the board of directors of FTs to hold meetings in public, giving members and the wider public a direct understanding of the delivery of their healthcare services, and the opportunity to challenge and scrutinise decision making. The Act also requires directors to send their governors agendas for, and minutes of, their board meetings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

Karen Bradley

The previous Government signed the Istanbul Convention in June 2012 and this Government remains committed to its ratification.

The UK already complies with the vast majority of the articles through our comprehensive work to protect women and girls from violence, including criminalising forced marriage as required by the Convention. However, primary legislation will be required to comply with the extra-territorial jurisdiction provisions in Article 44 of the Convention before ratification. The Government is liaising with the devolved administrations about ratification, including any further legislative steps necessary.

The Government takes its international commitments very seriously and will only commit to such ratification when we are absolutely satisfied that we comply with all articles. We will continue to lead efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, end Female Genital Mutilation and combat early and forced marriage, both at home and abroad.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effects of changes in feed-in tariffs on small businesses in the solar industry.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government published an impact assessment alongside the Government Response to the FIT Review consultation on 17 December, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486084/IA_-_FITs_consultation_response_with_Annexes_-_FINAL_SIGNED.pdf.

This assessed impacts of the changes across the solar industry as a whole.

.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what further steps the Government plans to take to reduce the incidence of drownings of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.

Mr David Lidington

The Government’s focus is on addressing the root causes of irregular migration so as to reduce the need for people to make perilous journeys to Europe. We have taken action to tackle smugglers and save lives at sea: HMS Enterprise is deployed as part of the EU’s counter migration operation, Operation Sophia. The UK has rescued almost 18,000 people, and disrupted suspected people smugglers, in the Mediterranean since 2015. At the G7 Summit in Japan on 27 May, the Prime Minister announced that the UK will work on a plan to boost the capability of the Libyan coastguard to stem the flow of illegal migration across the Mediterranean into Europe. Once a detailed plan has been agreed with the Libyan authorities, the UK will send a training team to assist in its implementation, and as soon as the relevant permissions and UN Security Council Resolution are in place, we will deploy a naval vessel to the South Central Mediterranean.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government plans to take to support providers of supported housing affected by planned reductions in social housing rents.

Gavin Barwell

The Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable through our welfare reforms. That is why we have exempted supported housing from the Local Housing Allowance cap until 2019/20, from which point we will bring in a new funding model which will ensure that the sector continues to be funded at current levels, taking into account the effect of Government policy on social sector rents. We will apply the rent reduction to supported housing, with the exception of domestic violence refuges, with rents in these properties decreasing by 1% a year for 3 years, up to and including 2019/20.

Our social rent reduction policy was based on the need to put welfare spending on a sustainable footing whilst protecting the most vulnerable. It is right that supported housing providers make the efficiency savings we are asking of the whole social housing sector, and that’s why the 1% rent reduction will apply to the majority of them. In exceptional circumstances, supported housing providers (as for general needs social sector providers affected by the policy) who feel that compliance with the social rent reduction policy would result in serious financial difficulty or jeopardise their financial viability, can apply for an exemption from the requirement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-11-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the cumulative effect of the Government’s spending policies on the economic prospects of young people.

Damian Hinds

The economic prospects of young people are improving. The number of 18 to 24 year olds not in education, employment, or training is at its lowest rate since Q1 2004. And the youth unemployment is at its lowest rate since Mar-May 2008.

We have supported youth employment by abolishing employer National Insurance Contributions for those aged under 21, introducing the apprentice levy to provide funding for 3 million apprenticeships, and will introduce the Youth Obligation, which will help develop the skills that young people need to enter sustainable employment. The government is also building 200,000 starter homes, sold at a discount to first time buyers, which will help young people to get on the housing ladder.