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1134009

	registered interest
	date	24/06/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on a universal credit claimant’s health and well-being of the ability to repay hardship payments.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	268345
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2019 answer text <p>Hardship payments are available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs (including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene) as a result of a benefit sanction.</p><p> </p><p>Work Coaches ensure they consider the claimant’s circumstances, including issues relating to their health and well-being, at the point of the new claim to Universal Credit, to tailor the service accordingly. This also includes when claimants are repaying any hardship payments.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 27/06/2019 14:23:18 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1138418

	registered interest
	date	11/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Independent Case Examiner
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints for the Independent Complaints Commissioner were received in 2018; and how many of those complaints have been allocated to a caseworker.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	276139
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>The Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office received 5,307 complaints in 2018 of which 1,943 were accepted for examination. Of those complaints accepted, 567 have been allocated to Case Managers.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 16/07/2019 13:45:25 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1134563

	registered interest
	date	25/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to reduce the number of households living temporarily in bed and breakfasts, private hostels, short-stay houses of multiple occupancy and guesthouses.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	268955
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2019 answer text <p>Tackling homelessness is a priority for this Government. We are already undertaking a significant programme of work backed by £1.2 billion in funding, to tackle homelessness. This includes supporting local authorities with implementing the landmark Homelessness Reduction Act, increasing access to the private rented sector for families in temporary accommodation and supporting London boroughs to procure more efficiently.</p><p>The Government has targeted funding streams focused on reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation. For example, we recently launched the £20 million Private Rented Sector (PRS) Access Fund which funds schemes targeting families who are or at risk of homelessness and supporting them to access and sustain PRS accommodation.</p><p>This Government has been clear that the long term use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children is both inappropriate and unlawful and we are determined to stop this practice. Our Homelessness Advice and Support Team, drawn from local authorities and the homelessness sector, have provided support to help local authorities to end the placement of families in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than 6 weeks.</p><p>We are working with other government departments to assess what more can be done to address the number of people in temporary accommodation. This work is being overseen by the Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Ministerial Taskforce.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 01/07/2019 15:13:41 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1134565

	registered interest
	date	25/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people living temporarily on license agreements in privately-owned (a) bed and breakfast accommodation, (b) hostels, (c) short-stay house in multiple occupation and (d) guesthouses were placed by local authorities in discharge of a statutory homelessness duty.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	268956
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2019 answer text <p>In October to December 2018 there were a) 6,980 households in bed and breakfast hotels (including shared annexes), of which 2,420 households contained children and b) 5,740 households in hostels (including reception centres, emergency units and refuges) in England.</p><p>The figures provided are for all people who are owed a statutory homelessness duty by a local authority. They include people in temporary accommodation under assessment, who are owed the main rehousing duty, and who are accommodated for a short period to allow them to source alternative accommodation</p><p><br>These figures are taken from an experimental statistical release and caution should be taken when using the data. Further information is provided in the release available at this link <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statutory-homelessness-in-england-october-to-december-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statutory-homelessness-in-england-october-to-december-2018</a>.</p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 01/07/2019 15:05:29 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1137800

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Justlife's report or April 2018, Lifting the Lid on Hidden Homelessness: A New Analysis and its estimate that over 51,500 homeless households are living in bed and breakfast accommodation in England, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of that estimate; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	275094
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The ‘Lifting the Lid on Hidden Homelessness’ report asked local authorities for the number of tenants claiming housing benefit for bed and breakfast in a financial year. The MHCLG experimental statistics on statutory homelessness record the stock of households in temporary accommodation (including bed and breakfast) at the end of each quarter who are owed a homelessness duty. The 51,500 figure in the Justlife report includes anyone who has spend any time in bed and breakfast accommodation over the financial year, however short. MHCLG figures for the 2015/16 financial year are shown below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="5"><p><strong>Number of households in bed and breakfast hotels 2015/16</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>Q3</p></td><td><p>5,910</p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Q4</p></td><td><p>5,120</p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016</p></td><td><p>Q1</p></td><td><p>5,960</p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Q2</p></td><td><p>6,490</p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have made a manifesto commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, placing a priority on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.</p><p>Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.</p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 15/07/2019 15:49:58 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1137801

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to collect data on households living in unsupported temporary accommodation who are homeless and not currently included in official homelessness statistics.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	275095
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have made a manifesto commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, placing a priority on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.</p><p>Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.</p><p><br> The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) brings more people such as single homeless households into scope to receive assistance from their local authority. These households were not assisted or reported through the old P1E collection, until the end of March 2018. The HRA has placed additional duties on local authorities to work to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible homeless applicants and to secure interim/permanent accommodation for those in priority need. The Department’s new case level data collection system, H-CLIC, since April 2018 includes information on households whose homelessness has been prevented and relieved, as well as those currently in different types of temporary accommodation, including bed and breakfast accommodation and hostels. This data can be found online here: <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fstatistical-data-sets%2Flive-tables-on-homelessness&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCatherine.Barham%40communities.gov.uk%7Ce6d2de6e6066400e9b7208d70560a8f4%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C636983785025299486&amp;sdata=4o4VNejDER%2B7hW4HXY68ZzNpg28qf%2F1%2FnnNwU4ym%2F9g%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness</a></p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 15/07/2019 15:51:15 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1137802

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Homelessness
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.6 on page 14 of the National Audit Office's report of Session 2017-18, Homelessness, published on 13 September 2017, what steps his Department is taking to tackle concerns raised in that report that his Department’s measures of homelessness do not capture its full extent; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	275096
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Measuring “hidden homelessness” is a complex issue. It will always be difficult by its nature – people are often not in contact with services, and it is challenging to establish everything that is going on in people’s lives. <br> <br> The Department does collect information on overcrowding and on concealed households (usually defined as single adults or groups of adults, with or without children, who occupy the accommodation with, but do not belong to, the household reference person’s family unit) through the English Housing Survey. Additional information is being collected through this survey to identify people who have experienced homelessness. <br> <br> The Homelessness Reduction Act brings more people such as single homeless households into scope to receive assistance from their local authority. These households were not assisted or reported through the old P1E collection, until the end of March 2018. Details on these non-priority need, single households often living with friends and family have been captured through the Department’s new case level data collection system, Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC), since April 2018. This data can be found online here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness</a><br> <br> The new data collection system, H-CLIC, captures information on households approaching for and receiving homelessness assistance, household demographics and the circumstances surrounding their homelessness. This includes any support needs of the homeless household. In time it will enable MHCLG to monitor repeat homelessness where people come back to services. It will help identify more detail on the circumstances of households vulnerable to homelessness and the interventions that are successful in preventing homelessness in the first place.</p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 15/07/2019 15:52:35 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1137803

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to collate statistics on the number of families who are not owed a statutory duty by a local authority but are living temporarily in bed and breakfast accommodation, private hostels, short-stay houses of multiple occupancy or guesthouses.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	275097
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Homelessness Reduction Act brings more people into scope to receive assistance from their local authority. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. A household who has become homeless unintentionally and contains dependent children is considered to be priority need and a local authority has a duty to secure accommodation for these households. A household may have to spend time in temporary accommodation before a final offer of accommodation is made. Details on these priority need, households with children have been captured through the Department’s new case level data collection system, H-CLIC, since April 2018. This data can be found online here: <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fstatistical-data-sets%2Flive-tables-on-homelessness&amp;data=02%7C01%7CParliamentary%40communities.gov.uk%7Cf33bb7fde4d64dbf9d4908d7090dc500%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C636987827045950319&amp;sdata=Y4MFkZodKHSJdNri9IPkv0lKh8RaQ4zyOptLtL5M88o%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness</a></p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 15/07/2019 14:45:53 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1132808

	registered interest
	date	18/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Educational Testing Service: Standards
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department made of the reliability of ETS’s validation systems before awarding that company a licence to deliver the TOEIC English language test in 2011.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	266059
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The licence which allowed TOEIC English language testing to be used for immigration purposes was awarded following a tendering process. As part of this process the Home Office assessed both the equivalence of each tester's English test to a recognised European Standard and security arrangements around testing.</p><p>Details of the security requirements which ETS Global BV were bound to adhere to were provided to the HASC in August 2016. A copy of these requirements can be found at Annex C of <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairs-committee/english-language-testing/written/36543.pdf%20" target="_blank">http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairs-committee/english-language-testing/written/36543.pdf </a></p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 24/06/2019 15:13:29 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1133377

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Migrants: English Language
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many criminal investigations have been undertaken into (a) students and (b) other people who were alleged to have cheated in the TOEIC English language test.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	266614
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>The focus of our criminal investigations was on the organised criminal groups operating at a number of colleges or test centres where intelligence supported widespread criminal abuse of the TOEIC test.</p><p>Inevitably this led to investigators interviewing students and other people who had allegedly cheated the TOEIC test. Of these 3 have been charged with offences relating to the cheating of the TOEIC test and await trial. One other person is due to be charged but that person’s whereabouts is currently unknown. In addition, 5 other test takers admitted cheating the TOEIC test and were deemed suitable for, and accepted, a criminal caution.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 25/06/2019 12:50:26 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms