The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will initiate a review of the welfare support available to homeless people.
Priti Patel
There are no plans to initiate a specific review of welfare support available to homeless people as our ongoing policy work takes account of different vulnerable groups, including homeless people.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the provision by the NHS of free IVF to women whose partners have had immigration applications rejected.
Jane Ellison
The provision of in-vitro fertilisation services is a matter for clinical commissioning groups, in compliance with the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015, and with regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on fertility services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that reviews decisions by local authorities to rule that a person is intentionally homeless are conducted by people independent of that authority.
Mr Marcus Jones
The homelessness legislation gives households rights to request a review of local authority homelessness decisions. A review may be carried out by the housing authority itself or by someone acting as an agent of the housing authority. Where the review is to be carried out by an officer of the housing authority, the officer must not have been involved in the original decision, and must be senior to the officer who took the original decision.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what provisions are in place to safeguard vulnerable adults who are declared intentionally homeless and who do not want to be separated from family members also declared intentionally homeless in order to be rehoused.
Mr Marcus Jones
Local authorities are under a duty to provide accommodation to vulnerable households who have made themselves intentionally homeless, for such time as will give the household a reasonable opportunity of securing their own accommodation. They must also provide them with advice and assistance to help them secure their own accommodation. There is no time limit on this duty and authorities should consider each case in light of its particular facts.
Local housing authorities are also under a duty to make arrangements to ensure that social services are aware of cases where households with children may be intentionally homeless.
The question asked by Kate Osamor, the Labour MP for Edmonton, in the House of Commons on 8 November 2022.
What steps he is taking to support flood relief efforts in Nigeria.
The Minister for Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)
Nigeria is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, and it is experiencing the worst floods in a decade. The UK is providing support through the multi-donor Start fund, which has allocated £580,000 so far this rainy season. That funding is supporting 26,288 people affected by flooding. We will continue to help Nigeria make progress towards long-term climate change adaptation and resilience.
Kate Osamor
I welcome the Minister to his place. The floods in Nigeria have already left more than 1 million people displaced, 200,000 homes destroyed and, sadly, 600 people dead. In the wake of those floods, cholera cases are skyrocketing in some areas, due to a lack of access to clean water. Will the Minister assure me that the Government will be focusing aid to help ensure access to water and sanitation, and prevent the death toll from rising further?
Mr Mitchell
I thank the hon. Lady for her comments and her question. Over the past five years, Britain has provided £425 million of humanitarian support, which has specifically reached more than 2 million people in north-east Nigeria, including individuals affected by the flooding. I give her a commitment that, working with Nigerian agencies, we will seek to strengthen flood risk management. Prior to COP26 we supported Nigeria’s national adaptation work to help cope with climate change.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure councils have adequate funding to protect social care following the implementation of the National Living Wage in April 2016.
Alistair Burt
Funding decisions for 2016/17 onwards, including for social care, are subject to the ongoing Spending Review which will review expenditure and future demand for services. This includes considerations such as the forthcoming implementation of the National Living Wage. The Spending Review will be published on 25 November 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the performance of (a) the police and (b) her Department in responding to human trafficking; and what steps she is taking to improve the way reports of human trafficking are dealt with.
Karen Bradley
The Government has set out its plan for responding to human trafficking in the Modern Slavery Strategy. The Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group (IDMG) on Modern Slavery oversees implementation of the strategy, supported by a quarterly Strategy Board, a monthly stakeholder meeting, and a Modern Slavery Threat Group that is chaired by Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer, the National Policing Lead for Modern Slavery. The IDMG’s 2015 report will be published shortly and will provide a detailed assessment of the scale and nature of the threat, what the Government has done to respond and our priorities for future work. In addition, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner will each year publish a report on his work and on progress being made on tackling modern slavery. As part of our wider strategy, the Government is committed to strengthening the way in which we identify and refer potential victims of trafficking into the National Referral Mechanism. As part of this, the Home Office is piloting reforms to the National Referral Mechanism in West Yorkshire and the South West.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many victims of human trafficking have been detained in the last five years.
Karen Bradley
Individuals who have been identified as victims of trafficking by the competent authorities are normally considered suitable for detention in only very exceptional circumstances, which include cases where there is a risk of public harm. This data is not collected centrally and accurate figures are not available. Once a person is detained their continued detention remains under review by the Home Office at least at monthly intervals, and earlier in response to any change of circumstances that might have a material effect on their detention.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the longest recorded time is for which a person has been held in immigration detention since 2010.
James Brokenshire
The longest time a person has been detained in the immigration estate – a foreign criminal who who left detention and was returned to Algeria in Q1 2012 – was 2,319 days.
The individual in this case had accumulated 14 convictions from 32 offences committed between 1998 and 2004, including – but not limited to – convictions for firearms/ shotguns/offensive weapons, drug offences, offences relating to police/courts/prisons and theft. He was continuously non-compliant with the Home Office and Algerian authorities, using a false identity and nationality, which frustrated attempts to obtain travel documentation to facilitate his deportation. His continued non-compliance, deception and a history of absconding led to detention being prolonged.
This information does not include those held in prisons solely under Immigration Act powers.
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within the Immigration Statistics release on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of reduction in funding to English for Speakers of Other Languages Mandation Courses on the level of employment among people for whom English is an additional language.
Nick Boles
The decision to withdraw the 2015/16 English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Plus (Mandation) funding was taken in the knowledge that providers could use their adult skills budget to continue to provide ESOL training for jobseekers and therefore mitigate any adverse impact. Our data showed that the numbers of claimants being referred to ESOL Plus (Mandation) provision was significantly lower than originally anticipated.