The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, how much is owed in child maintenance arrears by non-resident parents whose CSA liability has ended as a result of the proactive or reactive CSA case closure process.
Priti Patel
The information requested on case closure arrears is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2016 to Question 26564, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that schools in conflict zones are protected from being attacked or occupied for military purposes.
James Duddridge
The UK is committed to the proper implementation of International Humanitarian Law. We comply fully with our obligations under it, including rules prohibiting civilian objects from being attacked. The UK also works closely with other states and the Red Cross Movement to promote compliance with International Humanitarian Law. We urge all states and non-state actors engaged in armed conflict to respect International Humanitarian Law and to act in accordance with their obligations under it.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support her Department has provided to fostering services in each year from 2011 to 2015; and how much that funding was for looked after child in each of those years.
Edward Timpson
Local authority (LA) funding for the provision of children’s services, including fostering services, is provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, LAs are required to submit annual budget and outturn statements about their actual spending to the Secretary of State for Education.
The total LA expenditure on looked after children (including fostering), based upon the section 251 out turn statements, are set out below for each financial year between
2011 – 2015:
|
2011-12 (£000s) |
2012-13 (£000s) |
2013-14 (£000s) |
2014-15 (£000s) |
|
|
Looked After Children |
£3,383,664 |
£3,495,626 |
£3,661,327 |
£3,768,523 |
|
Fostering |
£1,376,869 |
£1,477,678 |
£1,515,352 |
£1,540,324 |
Since the introduction of the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme in October 2013, the Department is funding the following programmes relating to supporting fostering:
The £100 million Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme is currently supporting 53 projects in the development, testing and spreading of more effective ways of supporting children and families who need help from children’s social care services. The programme is providing funding to projects which have elements that support foster services including matching, specialist foster placements and foster family support and training.
Achieving for Children (£1.1 m) to develop a new approach to supporting adolescents in, and on the edge of, care across the two boroughs of Richmond and Kingston. This will draw together specialist fostering placements, a children’s home and a family intervention team using a new, consistent training programme ‘Better by Design’ across all of these elements.
Action for Children (up to £3.3m) to work with Barnet, Harrow and Hounslow councils to run a suite of evidence based programmes (functional family therapy, multi-systemic therapy and multi-dimensional treatment foster care) to transform the support available to adolescents in West London.
The Fostering Network (£1.6m) to import and adapt the successful mockingbird family model of fostering from the US to the UK. Mockingbird clusters a group of 10 foster carers around a ‘hub’ home. This hub, led by an experienced foster carer, provides respite support and short breaks to the carers in the cluster. All of the carers receive shared training and the carers and young people within a cluster meet regularly, engage in activities and get to know and support each other.
The National Implementation Service (£4.1m) to hot-house, test and build the sustainability of evidence-based interventions in the UK – including multi-systemic therapy and RESuLT (a therapeutic training programme for residential care staff). Four sites have been specially funded to implement KEEP Safe, a training and support programme for foster carers who look after teenagers.
Match Fostercare (£781k) to take on delegated statutory social work responsibilities for children in foster care from several local authorities. They believe this will reduce duplication and bureaucracy and provide a better service to children.
NSPCC (£1m) to introduce the New Orleans intervention model in South London. The model aims to transform delivery and joint commissioning in children’s social work and CAMHS teams in relation to children aged 0 to 5 years who are in foster care due to maltreatment.
Sheffield and South Yorkshire Councils (£1.2m) to develop a sub-regional delivery model for young people experiencing or at risk of child sexual exploitation. This will include recruitment, development and support of specialist foster carers to provide safe placements for young people across South Yorkshire. Local authorities involved are Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster. Other partners are LSCBs in these areas and South Yorkshire police.
Further details about these and other Innovation Programme funded projects can be found here:
http://springconsortium.com/projects-being-funded/
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February 2016 to Question 27438, on children: maintenance, on what basis those cases have been referred for arrears cleansing or validation.
Priti Patel
Cases on the 1993 and 2003 are being selected for closure in groups determined by case characteristics. This process started in July 2014 and is planned to last until the end of 2017. When a case going through this process has its on-going maintenance liability ended, it is then referred for “arrears cleanse”. This process involves checking several elements of the case, to ensure that the final debt balance is stable and validated. This validated debt balance is moved to the 2012 system
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what powers she has to shorten the term of a Police and Crime Commissioner elected in May 2016 in order that the role is subsumed by a Metro-Mayor.
Mike Penning
If a local area were to make the case to transfer Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) functions to an elected mayor, secondary legislation would set out the details of the transfer of powers and the relevant timescales based on discussions between the local area and central government.
These powers are provided for in Section 107F of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (as amended by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016), which sets out the Secretary of State’s necessary order making powers to enable the transfer of PCC functions to an elected mayor.
Local areas can put forward a proposal to transfer PCC functions at any time and, as stated in response to the honourable member’s earlier question on this issue [32271], any proposal submitted by a local area for an elected mayor to take on PCC functions would be considered on its merits, on a case-by-case basis. The timing of any transfer of powers would also form part of this consideration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 15 March 2016 to Questions 30647 and 30649, what the evidential basis is for the statement that her Department’s policy enables thousands of people each year to be reunited with their families in the UK; and how many extended family members seeking family reunion have been granted asylum in exceptional circumstances by the Entry Clearance Officer in each of the last three years.
James Brokenshire
In the last three years, over 13,000 family reunion visas have been granted under the Immigration Rules. This information is available in the quarterly statistics published by the Home Office and available on Gov.UK here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015/list-of-tables#visas
A further 65 visas have been granted outside the Rules due to exceptional circumstances.
We have committed to making clearer in revised guidance the kinds of cases which may benefit from leave outside the Immigration Rules due to exceptional circumstances. The guidance will be updated by the end of April.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32506, what proportion of asylum claims made by unaccompanied children of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK were granted in each of the last three years.
James Brokenshire
I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 15 March 2015 to his question 30647. The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum claims from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in the Immigration Statistics release. This includes information on applications received, decisions made by sex, age and country of nationality.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether questions about the armed forces community will be included in the next national census; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much Child Support Agency scheme arrears were being dealt with by the child maintenance service at 31 March 2016; and how many cases those arrears relate to.
Priti Patel
As at 31 March 2016 the total amount of 1993 and 2003 Child Support Agency scheme arrears held on the 2012 system and currently being handled by the Child Maintenance Service stood at £153.3 million. Figures for 31 March 2016 are draft and subject to audit.
Information on related case groups and break downs by scheme are not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
We have at our disposal a range of strong enforcement powers, intended to ensure as many parents as possible fulfil their financial responsibilities towards their children. We are using all of the powers available to us where it is appropriate to do so. These include deducting maintenance directly from earnings, deduction directly from bank accounts, instructing bailiffs to collect arrears or seize goods, forcing the sale of property, commitment to prison and disqualification from driving.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 3 May 2016 to Question 35936, on blood: contamination, when he plans to publish a formal response to the public consultation.
Jane Ellison
The consultation on the infected blood payment scheme closed on 15 April 2016. Officials are currently analysing the replies and a formal response will be published as soon as possible.