Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will take steps to secure an Autism Access Award from the National Autistic Society for the parliamentary estate.

Tom Brake

The House of Commons started work on this earlier in the year, as reported in the Head of Diversity and Inclusion’s quarterly update to the House of Commons Commission in January. The National Autistic Society has conducted its mystery shopping part of the accreditation. We are aiming to submit our evidence for the remainder of the assessment by June this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure the randomised control trial his Department is conducting on in-work progression follows the code of ethics set by the British Psychological Society.

Priti Patel

The Department considers the ethical implications of trials throughout development, implementation and analysis.

Research on our in-work progression trial adheres to the Government Social Research Code.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35960, on universal credit, what the exclusion criteria are.

Priti Patel

In some cases, where a claimant would be excluded from work related requirements they will be excluded from the pool of “qualifying claimants”. They will also cease to be part of the scheme if the same circumstances apply after they have been selected. These are:

• recent victims of domestic violence;
• claimants who provide medical evidence of unfitness for work pending a work capability assessment;
• prisoners;
• claimants absent from GB for medical treatment etc;
• claimants suffering a bereavement;
• claimants undergoing treatment for drug or alcohol addiction.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 20 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016, what steps he is taking to oversee implementation of the recommendations of that report.

Alistair Burt

The Government is working with delivery partners to carefully consider the Taskforce’s recommendations and aims to publish a strategic Implementation Plan in the autumn that will set out how Government and partners will deliver the recommendations. This will include detail of the governance and reporting arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to support patients and families affected by the closure of the Antelope Centre in Southampton; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

These are matters for the National Health Service. NHS Improvement advises that the majority of patients requiring Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) care during the period of closure of the PICU at Antelope House will receive this at the Huntercombe unit in Roehampton, London.

The Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which provides services at Antelope House, is working with partners to provide PICU bed capacity on another site for an interim period of eight months by redistributing staff from the PICU to the hospital’s other two wards. NHS Improvement further advises that the recruitment focus will be on addressing the root causes of staffing issues.

The Antelope House team has begun talking to patients, carers and family members to make sure they are fully aware of decisions that affect them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure access to social housing for people in Liverpool, Wavertree constituency who require such housing.

Gavin Barwell

Through the Spending Review the Government has committed to investing £8 billion to deliver 400,000 affordable housing starts, doubling our investment from 2018/19. This includes £1.6 billion towards delivering 100,000 affordable homes for rent by 2021.

Since April 2010, we have delivered over 293,000 affordable homes. Between 1997 and 2010 the stock of rented affordable homes fell by 420,000. Between 2010 and 2015, the stock of rented affordable homes rented increased by 64,000.

Alongside increasing supply, the Localism act 2011 has maintained the statutory ‘reasonable preference’ criteria which ensure that overall priority for social housing is given to those who need it most.

The introduction of fixed term tenancies in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 will ensure councils get the best use out of their social housing stock by focusing it on those who need it the most for as long as they need it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools.

Edward Timpson

The Department contributed a written submission to the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s inquiry into the scale and impact of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools in 2016. This is published on the Parliament website.[1] The Committee published the report of its inquiry on 13 September, and the Government will make a formal response to the usual timetable.

The Department does not collect information on the number of cases of sexual harassment or sexual violence either by pupils or by teachers – and it has not produced any estimates.

The closest information held on levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence by pupils is the number of permanent and fixed period exclusions for sexual misconduct, which includes lewd behaviour, sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual bullying, sexual graffiti and sexual harassment.

Exclusions information, broken down by reason for exclusion, is published annually by the Department in the ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England’ National Statistics release.[2]

The 2015 National Foundation for Educational Research’s teacher voice survey is a nationally representative survey commissioned by the Department. Teachers were asked questions on a range of topics, including common forms of bullying. Sexual bullying was not included as a category, however, a minority reported that homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic bullying was common at their school. The report and data have been published by the Department.[3]

The closest information held on sexual harassment and sexual violence by teachers relates to the number of cases of teacher misconduct relating to sexual misconduct reported to the Department. However, cases of teacher misconduct relating to sexual misconduct cover a broad range of incidents and it is not recorded whether these relate to incidents that took place on school sites.

[1] http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/sexual-harassment-and-sexual-violence-in-schools/written/34902.pdf

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-voice-omnibus-june-2015-responses

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were treated for body dysmorphic disorder in (a) Liverpool Wavertree constituency, (b) Liverpool, (c) England and (d) each region in each year since 2010.

Nicola Blackwood

This information is not available in the format requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with the Department of Health on the rate of people taking their own lives in prisons.

Andrew Selous

Every death in custody is a tragedy, and we are committed to reducing the rate of self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

My department works closely with the Department of Health on measures to reduce suicide in prisons and in the wider community. Both the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Quality and I are members of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody, which also includes the Minister for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice and Victims, senior officials from our respective departments and a range of stakeholders. There was a detailed discussion of the recent data on self-inflicted deaths in prisons at the most recent meeting of the Board on 21 October and further consideration of this topic is planned at the February meeting.

Healthcare staff in prisons play an important role in the identification and management of prisoners at risk of self-harm and suicide. Commissioners and providers of healthcare services are active partners with the National Offender Management Service in its work to prevent self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of whether there has been an increase in the use of mental health services by chemsex drug users in the last 12 months.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England is due to publish a briefing for commissioners and providers of drug and alcohol services highlighting issues for men who have sexual contact with other men (MSM) and chemsex. The briefing contains background information, recent data and survey findings, and prompts for local areas and drug services – including liaison and referral for sexual, mental and physical health problems. Information is also collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre on contacts with drug and alcohol support teams, however data is not broken down by drug type or by behaviours associated with drug use.