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1416312

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Afghanistan: Refugees
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2022 to Question 101733 on Afghanistan: Refugees, whether the R reference code confirms eligibility to relocate to the UK.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
uin	111584
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>An 'R' reference code is assigned to an Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) applications once it has been assessed as successful against ARAP criteria at the first stage of the application process and precedes a range of checks by both Ministry of Defence and UK Visas and Immigration. This does not confer eligibility for relocation to the UK.</p> answering member constituency Wells answering member printed James Heappey question first answered 28/01/2022 11:25:45 answering member 4528 label Biography information for James Heappey
tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

1416313

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Chevening Scholarships Programme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of when Chevening Scholars who arrived in the UK via Operation Pitting on six-month visas which expire in February 2022 will receive documentation to confirm their indefinite leave to remain status in the UK; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	111541
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>In recognition of the urgency of the evacuation and the need to act quickly, the majority of those who entered the UK during the evacuation phase were granted limited leave to enter, usually for 6 months, with access to public funds and employment. This status is not a bar to them being permanently housed or to starting their life in the UK, including taking employment.</p><p>Our aim is to conclude the process of confirmation of Indefinite Leave to Remain status before anyone’s leave expires.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 28/01/2022 14:16:04 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1416314

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Adoption
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's data published on 18 November 2021, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle the declining number of adoptions and (b) ascertain the reasons for the 18 per cent decrease in adoptions in 2020-21.
tabling member constituency	Sefton Central
tabling member printed	Bill Esterson
uin	111561
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:</p><ul><li>boost adopter recruitment so that adoptive children are found permanent loving families quickly;</li><li>improve how children are matched with families through removing unnecessary barriers and bureaucracy placed in the way of those seeking to adopt;</li><li>continue to support adoptive families through the Adoption Support Fund; and</li><li>employ a new full-time national Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) strategic leader and support staff to drive collaboration between adoption agencies across the country and lead engagement with other services such as health and education to help children and adopters get the support they need.</li></ul><p>To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.</p><p>We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.</p><p>Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).</p><p>Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 111562 111563 question first answered 28/01/2022 11:36:50 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4061 label Biography information for Bill Esterson

1416315

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Adoption
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage more people to adopt and (b) give prospective adopters assurance of lifetime support.
tabling member constituency	Sefton Central
tabling member printed	Bill Esterson
uin	111562
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:</p><ul><li>boost adopter recruitment so that adoptive children are found permanent loving families quickly;</li><li>improve how children are matched with families through removing unnecessary barriers and bureaucracy placed in the way of those seeking to adopt;</li><li>continue to support adoptive families through the Adoption Support Fund; and</li><li>employ a new full-time national Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) strategic leader and support staff to drive collaboration between adoption agencies across the country and lead engagement with other services such as health and education to help children and adopters get the support they need.</li></ul><p>To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.</p><p>We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.</p><p>Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).</p><p>Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 111561 111563 question first answered 28/01/2022 11:36:50 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4061 label Biography information for Bill Esterson

1416316

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Adoption
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what initial assessment his Department has made of the impact of the national #YouCanAdopt campaign on the number of (a) adoption enquiries and (b) adoption approvals.
tabling member constituency	Sefton Central
tabling member printed	Bill Esterson
uin	111563
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:</p><ul><li>boost adopter recruitment so that adoptive children are found permanent loving families quickly;</li><li>improve how children are matched with families through removing unnecessary barriers and bureaucracy placed in the way of those seeking to adopt;</li><li>continue to support adoptive families through the Adoption Support Fund; and</li><li>employ a new full-time national Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) strategic leader and support staff to drive collaboration between adoption agencies across the country and lead engagement with other services such as health and education to help children and adopters get the support they need.</li></ul><p>To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.</p><p>We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.</p><p>Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).</p><p>Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 111561 111562 question first answered 28/01/2022 11:36:50 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4061 label Biography information for Bill Esterson

1416325

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Foreign Companies: Money Laundering
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of foreign-owned financial services companies involved in money laundering operating in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Walton
tabling member printed	Dan Carden
uin	111684
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>HM Treasury does not hold an assessment of the number of foreign-owned financial services companies involved in money laundering in the UK and is not responsible for collecting such data.</p><p> </p><p>However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does collect information on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) investigations opened into firms and individuals where entities may have breached their obligations under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) or the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs).</p><p> </p><p>The FCA currently has 41 AML investigations opened into firms and individuals, the number of foreign owned firms under investigation is eight. These investigations are regulatory, civil and criminal in nature covering a wide range of potential breaches of systems and controls covered under the MLRs and the requirements under FSMA. It is important to keep in mind, that when the FCA opens an investigation, it is fact finding in nature and does not in itself mean any misconduct has occurred.</p><p> </p><p>Where the FCA has evidence of ongoing breaches of AML regulations, it will take intervention action to prevent and/or contain ongoing harm. As a result of the FCA’s investigations, since 2018 the total of financial penalties issued is £970,067,419 (before settlement discounts). The FCA also secured its first criminal conviction against a body corporate for breaches of the MLRs in October 2021.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 28/01/2022 10:54:46 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4651 label Biography information for Dan Carden

1416326

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Banks: Closures
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local bank branches remain open to enable vulnerable people to have access to cash.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Walton
tabling member printed	Dan Carden
uin	111685
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>The Government recognises that cash remains an important part of daily life for millions of people across the UK, particularly those in vulnerable groups, which is why it has committed to legislate to protect access to cash.</p><p> </p><p>Last year, the Government held an Access to Cash Consultation on proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel a reasonable distance to pay in or take out cash. The Government’s proposals intend to support the continued use of cash in people’s daily lives and help to enable local businesses to continue accepting cash by ensuring they can access deposit facilities. The Government will set out next steps in due course.</p><p> </p><p>Following the Government’s commitment to legislate, firms are working together through the Cash Action Group to develop new initiatives to provide shared services. The Government welcomes the direction set by industry’s commitments at the end of last year and looks forward to seeing what results they deliver in protecting cash facilities for local communities across the UK.</p><p> </p><p>Regarding bank branches, guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. Firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements. This ensures the implementation of closure decisions is undertaken in a way that treats customers fairly.</p><p /><p>Alternative options for access to banking services can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking, and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers to deposit cheques, check their balance and withdraw and deposit cash at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 28/01/2022 11:09:56 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4651 label Biography information for Dan Carden

1416329

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Disability: Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Disabled Children’s Partnership polling released January 2022, what recent progress he has made on tackling the backlog in disabled children’s health services, including the provision of (a) therapies, (b) wheelchairs, (c) hoists and (d) other equipment.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull North
tabling member printed	Dame Diana Johnson
uin	111520
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>As part of COVID-19 recovery planning, we are reviewing how we can improve the provision of health services, including therapies for disabled children. We have made £2 billion available in 2021/22 and a further £8 billion from April 2022 to March 2025 to increase activity and reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children. This funding could deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures and allow the National Health Service in England to deliver 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 compared to pre-pandemic levels. A further £5.9 billion of capital funding was announced in the October 2021 to support elective recovery, diagnostics, and technology.</p><p>We are supporting access to appropriate disability equipment via NHS Supply Chain, which maintains a framework contract for the supply of rehabilitation and disabled services equipment, such as paediatric wheelchairs, to the NHS and other healthcare settings.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan question first answered 28/01/2022 12:27:11 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
tabling member	1533 label Biography information for Dame Diana Johnson

1416331

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Members: Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of correspondence from hon. Members is answered by the Home Office MP Account Management Team (a) within the 20 working day standard, (b) between 20 and 30 working days and (c) over 30 working days; and what the average response time is for enquiries made to the urgent inbox.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Gill Furniss
uin	111669
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of Hon. Members written correspondence within 20 working days.</p><p>Performance has been impacted by a very significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan. Ministers and officials have also had to instigate a remote process for drafting and signing correspondence during the period of COVID-19 restrictions.</p><p>The Department recognises that it has not been able to meet service standard in some cases but has implemented an action plan to clear backlogs and drive up performance. The Department has recruited additional resources and expects to return to answering Hon. Member’s correspondence within service standard by the end of March 2022.</p><p>Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members correspondence are published quarterly with the latest Quarter available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q3-2021" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q3-2021</a> and this includes data up to and including the end of quarter 3 - 2021.</p><p>The Department does not publish data about the number of cases still awaiting a response after 20-30 days, over 30 days or those specifically made to the MPs urgent inbox.</p> answering member constituency Torbay answering member printed Kevin Foster question first answered 28/01/2022 14:31:54 answering member 4451 label Biography information for Kevin Foster
tabling member	4571 label Biography information for Gill Furniss

1416332

registered interest
date	25/01/2022
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Prices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect of recent price rises of food in supermarkets on progress towards implementation of recommendations made in the National Food Strategy July 2021.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Gill Furniss
uin	111670
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2022 answer text <p>The Government monitors consumer food prices using the Consumer Prices Index (including Housing Costs) CPIH. Food prices are set individually by businesses and it is not for the UK Government to set retail food prices nor to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by companies.</p><p> </p><p>Henry Dimbleby published his independent food review in July 2021. We are considering the review’s recommendations and will set out our plans shortly in the Government Food Strategy. We are committed to ensuring a healthier, more sustainable, more resilient, and more accessible food system that levels up our country.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/01/2022 14:09:04 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4571 label Biography information for Gill Furniss