The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many residential properties were owned by private landlords in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014, (f) 2015 and (g) 2016.
Gavin Barwell
These data are published in Live table 104 here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/519499/LT_104.xls
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the report, Disabled people’s experiences of social care, published by the disability charity Scope in November 2015.
Alistair Burt
The Department welcomes the report which was funded by the Department, NHS England and Public Health England, as part of the Health and Social Care Voluntary Sector Strategic Partnership Programme. The Department and its partners will use the findings of the report to review relevant policies to improve experiences and outcomes for people with disabilities.
The Care Act 2014 put personal budgets on a legal basis for the first time, including for disabled people and carers. This drives a focus on personalisation and increases opportunities for greater control and independence, so that people can choose care and support best suited to their needs.
The Care Act 2014 introduced a new national eligibility threshold which enables local authorities to maintain continuity of access to support for service users who move between local authorities. This threshold is set out in the Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015, and local authorities cannot tighten eligibility criteria beyond this threshold.
The Care Act 2014 contains a new duty for local authorities to provide independent advocacy to facilitate and support a person’s involvement in the care and support assessment, planning and review processes. Local authorities must also establish and maintain a service that provides information and advice relating to care and support for adults and support for carers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of children who will be homeless between 1 December 2015 and 1 January 2016.
Mr Marcus Jones
We have maintained homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.
We have increased central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million over the Spending Review period.
There were 103,430 children and expected children in temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities in England as at 30 September 2015. The Department does not produce forecasts of homelessness.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lingfield on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they are taking to ensure that Education Health and Care plans, in particular for young people transferring to post-16 and post-19 provision, meet the requirements for what must be specified under sections 37–48 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
Lord Nash
The Department is monitoring the implementation of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms and securing a wide range of feedback. This feedback is collected through statutory data collection; regular surveys of local authorities, parents and carers; regular inputs for the Special Educational Consortium (which represents more than 30 organisations); and reports from contractors such as the Council for Disabled Children, which provides Independent Support services in all local authority areas, and Contact a Family, which runs a national helpline for parents of children with SEND.
The Department provides support to local areas in a range of ways, such as voluntary and community sector experts and a team of specialist SEND Advisers.
Local authorities must include information about Personal Budgets in their Local Offers, including information on how to request one. Parents and young people have the right to request a Personal Budget for elements of an Educational Health and Care (EHC) plan; local authorities are under a duty to prepare a budget when requested. Our termly surveys collect responses on the number of EHC plans which carry a Personal Budget.
Since April 2013, the Government has provided nearly £1.5 million in funding to a number of projects with voluntary sector organisations to develop materials to support local areas to introduce Personal Budgets. We regularly promote these projects in our communications to families and to organisations in the sector. For example, KIDS produced guidance in 2015, through the Making it Personal 2 project. The Department is currently funding KIDS to build on this project, to develop further guidance and training resources, including some specifically aimed at young people with SEND, in a range of accessible formats. The SEND Gateway, which is run by the National Association for Special Educational Needs, also offers practical resources on Personal Budgets to assist both users and professionals.
Through our regional support networks, we have funded a number of workshops aimed at local authorities, parents and others about Personal Budgets and we will continue to offer support for of this kind.
Following publication of the Children and Families Act 2014, the Government set out the statutory duties to which local authorities and those working with children and young people must adhere, in the SEND Code of Practice: 0-25 years[1]. The Code of Practice includes clear information on the processes of EHC plan assessment and production. The Department’s team of specialist SEND Advisers are working with local areas to improve the quality of EHC plans, and are currently leading workshops on this across England.
The SEND Code of Practice includes clear requirements that all local authorities must meet when developing, publishing and reviewing their Local Offer. All local areas have Local Offers in place, but we recognise that the quality varies. This is another area we are monitoring through our termly surveys, our voluntary and community sector experts and specialist SEND Advisers. We have provided regular advice to local areas about how to improve the quality of Local Offers. We are confident that local authorities are working with their partner bodies and with families and young people to continue to improve their Local Offers to ensure they respond to local needs.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what amount of direct pay arrears has accrued on the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme; and to how many case groups those arrears relate.
Priti Patel
A case is classed as ‘Direct Pay’ when the maintenance calculation has been derived by the Child Maintenance Service (after assessment of the case) and the Paying Parent pays child maintenance directly to the Receiving Parent. These cases are assumed to be fully meeting their current liability since clients can come back to the CMS if there is a default on their payment or to request a revised calculation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-03-16.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the only current option for English farmers who wish to plant trees with CAP support is to have forestry as a separate enterprise on their holding, with densities of around 400 trees per hectare, rather than integrate the trees into their arable or livestock areas in a less dense planting.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
English farmers can plant trees with Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support either to create woodland habitat under the forestry measure of the Rural Development Regulation or to deliver a range of benefits such as landscape or the provision of nesting and habitat for farm wildlife under its agri-environment measure. Both these measures are available to farmers and other land managers as part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme. Tree-planting options do not require a minimum density (or number) of trees to be planted except when used to create new woodland.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what grounds her Department grants exemptions from (a) the life in the UK written test and (b) the language requirements of an application for UK citizenship; and if she will make a statement.
James Brokenshire
The Secretary of State may waive the Knowledge of Language and Life in the UK requirement for British citizenship on the basis of a person’s age, physical or mental condition.
A person will normally be exempted from this requirement if they provide evidence from an appropriate medical practitioner that their condition is so severe that it prevents them from being able to learn English or prepare for or sit an English test or the Life in the UK test. Each application is considered on its own merits.
Information cannot be obtained from UKVI data systems to show how many exemption requests were made and granted. This information could only be obtained from looking at individual records at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-05-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have evaluated the possible risks to national security and social cohesion of the spread of the Wahhabi ideology.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
HM Governement’s Counter Extremism Strategy and Counter – Terrorism strategy, CONTEST, set out approach to tackling the full range of factors that allow extremist and terrorist groups to grow and flourish. These include directly challenging ideologies, including those which have a theological basis.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-07-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to release local authority children’s services departments from their safeguarding children responsibilities.
Edward Timpson
There are no plans to release local authority children’s services departments from their safeguarding responsibilities. The Children and Social Work Bill proposes a power for local authorities to test different ways of working. This power is not about questioning the fundamentals of what local authorities need to do in relation to children’s safeguarding, but about exploring how things could be done better. We are seeking to create a controlled, time-limited space to test new ways of working before seeking to make any wider changes to the legislative framework. Accountability for safeguarding will remain the same even if exemptions are being tested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the amount of its own capital that BT has invested in the rural broadband rollout programme to date.
Matt Hancock
BDUK does not hold data on BT’s total capital investment to date in the Superfast Broadband Programme. As each project completes, BT is required to confirm that either its contracted capital commitment is fully drawn down, or that any unused capital contribution is committed to an investment fund which is managed by the Local Body to support further delivery. BT’s total capital commitment for Phase 1 of the programme is £348 million.