Tag: Thangam Debbonaire

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what (a) funding and (b) guidance his Department provides to local authorities to enable people who have recently been granted refugee status to benefit from rent deposit schemes if they are not considered to be in priority need for housing.

Gavin Barwell

Any person, including those granted refugee status, who is not in priority need is eligible for homelessness assistance. Local authorities have a duty to provide advice and information on homelessness, free of charge, to anyone seeking help. Wherever possible local housing authorities will try to stop households from facing the stress and upheaval of a homelessness crisis by taking steps to prevent their homelessness. That is why government has maintained and protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

Statutory guidance does not mandate the use of specific preventative tools but sets out a wide range of options so that local authorities can meet the specific needs of an individual on a case by case basis. Rent deposit and rent bond schemes are included within this guidance and the majority of local authorities will operate one.

Since 2010 local authorities have prevented homelessness for over 1.1 million households. We have committed to work with local authorities, homelessness charities and across departments to consider options, including legislation, to put prevention at the centre of our approach to tackling homelessness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what monitoring her Department undertakes of the incidence of female genital mutilation (a) for each of the four known types of female genital mutilations and (b) in Bristol; and if she will make a statement.

Sarah Newton

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.

Work to tackle FGM forms an integral part of our cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy published on 8 March. The first annual statistics on the number of cases recorded by the NHS in England were published on 21 July for the period April 2015 to March 2016. They show that there were 5,702 newly recorded cases of FGM reported and of those, where type was known, Types 1 and 2 have the highest incidence (35 and 31 per cent respectively). In Bristol, there were 385 cases newly recorded.

More information on these figures is available on the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s website.

A 2015 prevalence study part-funded by the Home Office estimated that approximately 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales are affected by FGM and 60,000 girls were born to women who had undergone FGM.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government plans to take to enable young people from the UK to take part in the Erasmus scheme after the UK has exited the EU.

Joseph Johnson

The referendum result has no immediate effect on students abroad under the Erasmus scheme or applying for 2016/17. Payments will be made in the usual way. Access to the programme after we leave the EU is a matter for the forthcoming negotiations. The Department offers the same support for study abroad under other schemes as for Erasmus.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new junior doctors’ contract on patients’ safety.

Ben Gummer

The proposals are to introduce a safer, fairer contract for junior doctors that will help improve their training experience to better support patient care every day of the week.

Our ambition for the National Health Service to be the safest healthcare system in the world is underpinned by reducing, not increasing, the number of hours junior doctors work each week. The new contract will include improved, legally (and contractually) enforceable safeguards – including that no junior doctor working full time will be expected to work on average more than 48 hours a week, unless they opt-out of the European Working Time Directive in which case it is maximum of an average 56 hours a week. The number of hours that can be worked in any single week by any junior will be limited to 72 (down from 91 currently) and there will be a limit of five consecutive long days or four consecutive nights.

We will also bring the working hours and service delivery of junior doctors within the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection regime. Putting patients first is the responsibility of employers and staff. Juniors must feel confident that when they raise safety concerns they are listened to. Where doctors are asked to work in conditions that they believe are unsafe, including being asked to work patterns that put patient safety at risk, they will be asked to use the reporting mechanisms available to them (including alerting their line managers/clinical supervisors, reporting through the local incident reporting system which will upload to the National Reporting and Learning System) to raise the issue with both the board of their trust, and reporting data will be available for the CQC to use during inspections. We would expect trust boards to look at any such report and decide how to respond to it; and we would expect the CQC, when it carries out an inspection, to look at how the board has responded to this and other data reporting safety incidents and concerns.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been transferred from the UK to other EU countries under the Dublin III Regulation (a) in total and (b) for the purposes of family reunification in the last 12 months.

Karen Bradley

An answer is still being prepared. We are currently extracting the data and need to ensure it is correctly quality checked to give the Hon. Member an accurate response and I will write to the honourable Member when it is finished.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons the Government decided to reduce the allocation of top-up funding for provision for children with special needs.

Mr Sam Gyimah

We have not reduced the allocation of top-up funding for children with special educational needs (SEN). We announced in December that we would provide an additional £92.5 million nationally for high needs in 2016-17. Bristol City Council’s share of this additional funding is £750,000.

It is for local authorities to determine how best to use their high needs allocation, after consultation with local providers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government about the effect on arts and culture of changes to local government funding from central government; and what further such discussions are planned on this issue.

Mr Edward Vaizey

DCMS and DCLG Ministers and officials regularly discuss matters of shared interest including arts, culture and public libraries.The Culture White Paper which was published in March reflects the close working between the two Departments​.​

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigration officials of her Department are based in refugee camps in Greece; and by what means refugees are expected to make contact with those officials.

James Brokenshire

As notified in my statement of 21 April, HCWS687, 75 UK personnel will be deployed to Greece to support implementation of the EU-Turkey Migration Agreement. They will work alongside the Greek Asylum Service to process cases through the admissibility procedure. They will also provide expert support to the Greek authorities on overall co-ordination of the response.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to allow people who have recently been granted refugee status and have not yet received a refugee integration loan to remain in asylum accommodation.

Mike Penning

We are working towards achieving more integrated communities and creating the conditions for everyone to live and work successfully alongside each other.

Those who are granted refugee status are given access to the labour market, mainstream benefits and housing assistance from their local authority. There are therefore no plans to allow refugees to stay in asylum support accommodation.

The Home Office offers integration loans to recognised refugees. The loan is designed to help refugees integrate into UK society by offering financial support towards housing costs, employment and training.

The Home Office also funds strategic migration partnerships which provide coordination and support services for those organisations working with migrants and refugees in local communities.

Earlier this year the Government announced that £20 million of additional funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses would be introduced in October 2016. This funding will reach the most isolated communities in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures her Department plans to put in place to improve the processing time for sending documentation including national insurance numbers and biometric residence permits to people who have been granted refugee status.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Details to apply for a National Insurance Number (NINO) are collected at the substantive interview and sent to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if a claimant is granted asylum. DWP aim to return these to the Home Office within seven working days before it is sent to the claimant. Processing for Biometric Residence Permits begins once claimants have enrolled their details. If completed promptly it can be received by them within seven working days of the grant of asylum but delays can occur if a claimant has not enrolled their signature or biometrics prior to the grant of asylum.