Every parliamentary written question tabled by Paula Barker this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 241–260 of 346 · this parliament
Whether her Department is taking steps with HMRC to data match housing benefit claimants with those eligible for pension credit.
DWP do not need HMRC data to match Housing Benefit customers with Pension Credit. The government is actively working with external partners and local authorities to boost the uptake of Pension Credit and to target additional support to the poorest pension...
What steps she is taking to support elderly, disabled people who are ineligible for pension credit with higher energy costs.
This Government is committed to pensioners. Everyone in our society, no matter their working history or savings deserves a comfortable and dignified retirement. Given the substantial pressures faced by the public finances this year and next, the governmen...
For what reason each prisoner who was released under the revised terms of the early release scheme and had previously breached a restraining order was released.
Certain offences are excluded from the SDS40 change. Exclusions included the Breach of Restraining Order (BoRO) offence under Section 363 of the Sentencing Act 2020.This offence replaced an older offence in Section 5 of the Protection from Harassment Act ...
What steps her Department is taking to ensure that Ukrainians living in the UK are not separated from their families, in the context of changes to the Ukraine visa schemes in February 2024.
Ukrainian family members, including children, are not prevented from entering the UK. The Homes for Ukraine Scheme remains open to new applicants, their applications must be sponsored by someone who is British, Irish or who has settled status. Ukrainians ...
Communities and Local Government, when her Department plans to publish the next round of submissions on homelessness duties owed to Ukrainians by each lower-tier local authority.
The Homelessness Pressures Management Information was last published on 3 October 2024. The publication included data submitted from local authorities in England on homelessness duties accepted for Ukrainian households, covering the period from 24 Februar...
What steps her Department is taking to help protect victims of domestic abuse and violence who are affected by the early release of some prisoners.
Due to acute prison capacity pressure, the Government has had no option but to introduce a change that will allow prisoners serving an eligible standard determinate sentence (SDS) to be released after serving 40% rather than 50% of that sentence in custod...
What steps her Department is taking to reduce the processing times for pension credit applications.
The Department has secured funding for additional staffing to assist with the processing of the additional Pension Credit claims being made.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure the continuity of (a) patient care and (b) NHS resilience in respect to specialist food products used by the NHS in the contex
Defra officials are working with colleagues across the Government to ensure continuity of supply into Northern Ireland of specialist food products used by the NHS and to facilitate patient care, recognising the importance of these products to enable patie...
What steps her Department is taking to simplify the pension credit application process.
The Department continues to assess the Pension Credit service. This led to the introduction of the online claim process, providing customers with a convenient alternative claim route, alongside the existing telephony and paper application methods. As the ...
Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities on reducing the number of women sleeping rough.
We recognise that women sleeping on the streets have different experiences and needs to men, particularly relating to experiences of violence and abuse.£9.2 million funding is available for women-specific rough sleeping services. We will take action to ta...
What steps his Department plans to take to reduce the waiting lists for NHS mental health services.
People with mental health issues across the country are not getting the support or care they deserve. This is why we will fix the broken system to ensure that mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be co...
What steps her Department is taking to ensure that perpetrators in line for early release who have (a) history of and (b) prior convictions for domestic violence do not reoffend.
The Government inherited a justice system on the brink of collapse and due to acute prison capacity pressure, the Government had no option but to introduce a change that will allow prisoners serving an eligible standard determinate sentence (SDS) to be re...
Whether any prisoners convicted of violent offences are scheduled for early release.
Certain offences have been excluded from this change. This includes serious violent offences with a sentence of four years or more; specified offences linked to domestic abuse irrespective of sentence length (including stalking, coercive or controlling be...
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to (a) clean up water ways in a timely manner and (b) encourage companies to invest in waterways to improve infrastructure in the water industry
Ofwat on 11th July proposed allowing a spending package of £88bn by water companies. This investment will deliver upgrades of 1500 wastewater treatment works, improvement of thousands of storm overflows and investment in improving bathing waters. The Secr...
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the UK responds adequately to the humanitarian crisis of the collapsed healthcare system in Gaza.
The UK Government is concerned about the worsening humanitarian context in Gaza. The FCDO is closely monitoring the impact of the conflict, including on health. We recently announced £5.5 million for UK-Med to support the ongoing work of its field hospita...
Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) end Section 21 evictions and (b) support tenants facing eviction under a Section 21 notice before that time.
The Government introduced the Renters’ Rights Bill on Wednesday 11 September. It delivers on our manifesto commitment to overhaul the regulation of the private rented sector, including by abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.We want to see tenants b...
If she will make it her policy to provide mandatory training for social workers on identifying signs of coercive and controlling behaviour.
The regulator for the social work profession, Social Work England, sets the professional standards which all social workers must meet. The professional standards include that social workers must be able recognise the risk indicators of different forms of ...
What steps her Department plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce violence against women and girls on public transport.
This Government is committed to tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), and we have set out our unprecedented mission to halve it within a decade. Achieving this means concerted work on prevention and overhauling every aspect of society’s respon...
Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support residents of buildings with unsafe cladding.
The Government is committed to protecting qualifying leaseholders from the costs of fixing historic building safety defects that were not their fault. Legislation has been introduced to ensure that qualifying leaseholders are both protected from costs an...
What methodology was used to determine a 18 month review period for the new Early Release Scheme.
The Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis. Due to ongoing pressures on prison capacity, the Government adjusted the release point for prisoners serving eligible standard determinate sentences (SDS), allowing release after 40% of their s...