I refer my Rt Hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 24536 on 8 May 2024.

It is unacceptable for anyone to have to live in damp and mouldy conditions. Damp and mould can have a serious impact on the health of tenants. That is why the Secretary of State wrote to all providers of social housing, including local authorities, setting out his expectations that they go further than the letter of the Decent Homes Standard and have particular regard to damp and mould. He also wrote to local authority chief executives and council leaders making it clear they must take action to resolve poor housing conditions in their area.

Social housing tenants of local authorities who are unsatisfied with their landlord’s response to their complaint on damp and mould can raise their issue with the Housing Ombudsman. Our new guidance on damp and mould can also be accessed by tenants at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/damp-and-mould-understanding-and-addressing-the-health-risks-for-rented-housing-providers.

We have committed to introducing ‘Awaab’s Law’, which will set requirements for social landlords to investigate and fix hazards such as damp and mould in social housing. Our consultation on Awaab’s Law closed on 5 March and we will bring forward secondary legislation to bring this into force as soon as practicable.

We have also given local authorities strong legal powers to use where privately rented or housing association houses or flats are in a seriously dangerous condition, including through damp and mould.

Qualifying leaseholders in relevant buildings are protected in law from all costs associated with the remediation of unsafe cladding. For non-cladding building safety defects there are protections for leaseholders in relevant buildings with a qualifying lease.

This means that for the majority of qualifying leaseholders, their maximum cap for non-cladding remediation and interim measures is £15,000 in Greater London (or £10,000 elsewhere in England). In addition, all leaseholders in relevant buildings benefit from qualifying lease status for their principal residence.

The department aims for all children and young people, to receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life, including those with visual impairments, dyslexia and other neurodiverse conditions. The department is creating a new single national Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) system which will focus on how needs are identified and met across Education, Health and Care. This new single national system will set standards on what support should be made available in mainstream settings, including for children with visual impairments, and when specialist provision, including AP, is most appropriate for meeting a child or young person’s needs.

Early identification of need and support is critical to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND, including those with dyslexia. The department already has numerous measures to help teachers do this, including the Phonics Screening Check and statutory assessments at the ends of key stage 1 and 2. The department has also introduced a package of measures to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those at risk of falling behind. This includes the launch of the English Hubs programme; the publication of the Reading Framework; and an updated list of high-quality phonics programmes for schools.

The department is committed to ensure a steady supply of teachers of children with visual impairments in both specialist and mainstream settings. To teach a class of pupils with visual impairments, a teacher is required to hold the relevant mandatory qualification in sensory impairment (MQSI). There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh from September 2024. In addition, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is developing a new occupational standard for teachers of sensory impairment, expected to launch in 2025.

On 11 July 2023, the department published an updated version of the Reading Framework. The Reading Framework includes guidance on teaching reading to pupils with moderate to severe SEND and complex needs. It is primarily aimed at mainstream schools where, with the right support, the vast majority of pupils will be able to make expected progress.

It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. Many head teachers recognise the important role school libraries play in improving literacy and encouraging pupils to read for pleasure and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided.

We do not hold data on the number of vacancies which offer home or hybrid working. We are exploring how to improve the service to help jobseekers identify vacancies by this criterion.

We are working to ensure that individuals have tailored personal support in order to make the most of their talents, for some this will mean remote working for some hybrid and for others face to face.

During the IMF Annual Meetings, the Chancellor met with Ms Nadia Fettah Alaoui, the Moroccan Minister of Finance.

The UK works closely with Morocco to maximise cooperation in a number of areas, including in bilateral trade and investment. The UK Morocco Association Agreement, which entered into force in January 2021, facilitates this trading relationship. Under this agreement, bilateral trade between the United Kingdom and Morocco was worth £3.4 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023, up £661 million on the same period the previous year. The Government frequently engages with Morocco to promote and support green investment into Morocco, while the UK and Morocco are co-leads on the Power Breakthrough, which aims to make clean power the most affordable and reliable option for all countries by 2030.

During the IMF Annual Meetings, the Chancellor met with Ms Nadia Fettah Alaoui, the Moroccan Minister of Finance.

The UK works closely with Morocco to maximise cooperation in a number of areas, including in bilateral trade and investment. The UK Morocco Association Agreement, which entered into force in January 2021, facilitates this trading relationship. Under this agreement, bilateral trade between the United Kingdom and Morocco was worth £3.4 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023, up £661 million on the same period the previous year. The Government frequently engages with Morocco to promote and support green investment into Morocco, while the UK and Morocco are co-leads on the Power Breakthrough, which aims to make clean power the most affordable and reliable option for all countries by 2030.

The Central Digital and Data Office, in the Cabinet Office, does not hold a specific estimate of the environmental and economic impact of data storage contracts.

Improving sustainability is a commitment within the Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, and a requirement within the Technology Code of Practice, which is a set of criteria to help government design, build and buy technology.

Data storage requirements across departments will not solely be met through specific contracts for these services; they will be met through capital purchase of hardware and through agreements for broader services, such as the provision of cloud platforms, or of software-as-a-service solutions.

Commercial benefit, as assessed by the Crown Commercial Service using third party market intelligence, shows that existing Government organisations save 51% by using Crown Hosting Data Centres.

On relocation of their back-office IT infrastructure to Crown Hosting, Government organisations typically save 75% of their costs, when comparing before and after relocation. Savings are made through a combination of energy efficiency and economy of scale of Crown Hosting.

Using data reported by the EU Resource Efficiency Coordination Action (EURECA) 2018 study, Crown Hosting reduces electricity consumption by approximately 300% compared to the average public sector data centre.

Commercial benefit, as assessed by the Crown Commercial Service using third party market intelligence, shows that existing Government organisations save 51% by using Crown Hosting Data Centres.

On relocation of their back-office IT infrastructure to Crown Hosting, Government organisations typically save 75% of their costs, when comparing before and after relocation. Savings are made through a combination of energy efficiency and economy of scale of Crown Hosting.

Using data reported by the EU Resource Efficiency Coordination Action (EURECA) 2018 study, Crown Hosting reduces electricity consumption by approximately 300% compared to the average public sector data centre.

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, is responsible for the Government’s Cloud strategy and for advising government departments on Cloud.

CDDO has a quarterly data commissioning process that collects metrics across a number of strategic areas including cloud adoption. Central government organisations report their estimated percentage of technology assets hosted on cloud. Further to this, CDDO operates the Quarterly Business Review, a joint Cabinet Office-HM Treasury assurance review of departmental delivery that allows CDDO to query departmental progress on implementing cloud first adoption.

The consultation closed on Monday 30 October. Over 1300 individuals and organisations submitted a response and 14 public consultation events were held, both face-to-face across Great Britain, and virtually.

The department has developed estimates of the number of claimants impacted across the range of options that were considered in the Work Capability Assessment consultation.

We will continue to refine these estimates as responses are considered following the end of the consultation period.

Decisions on whether to disclose body-worn video footage are matters the police, in line with Human Rights and Data Protection law.

The NPCC has published clear guidance on the standards police forces in England and Wales should follow when operating body-worn video devices and information management processes. The NPCC guidance is available here: https://www.npcc.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/publications/publications-log/2022/body-worn-video-guidance.pdf.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provides guidance for people on the right of access and how to obtain personal data held by organisations, including police forces and the wider criminal justice system. The ICO guidance is available here: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/crime/

The Home Office has no plans to make any changes relating to the management by police forces of body-worn camera footage.

The Government recognises that pets can bring joy and comfort to their owners, as well as supporting their mental and physical wellbeing.

The Renters (Reform) Bill will ensure that private landlords cannot unreasonably refuse a request from their tenant to keep a pet. The Bill provides added flexibility where they need to obtain consent of a superior landlord when considering a request. We know that some landlords are concerned about the potential damage caused by pets, so we will also allow landlords to require insurance covering pet damage.

The ability of a leaseholder to keep a pet will depend on the terms of individual leases. We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament. Where leases restrict the keeping of pets however, this would be a matter for individual leaseholders to raise with their landlord.

Data on the number of children on a waiting list for an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments and waiting for a diagnosis is not held centrally but may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts. The Department is investigating options for improving data collection and reporting on waiting times for ADHD assessments and diagnoses, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way and in line with the NICE guideline on ADHD.

With respect to autism, NHS England publishes data on how many people are waiting for an autism diagnosis and for how long, which provides useful information nationally and locally to support local areas to improve their performance and to reduce assessment and diagnosis waiting times.

The statistics published on 8 June 2023 provide data up to 31 March 2023. Of the total 157,579 patients with an open referral for suspected autism (diagnosis not yet complete) in March 2023, 92,622 were aged zero to 17 years. 6,940 of this age group with an open referral received a first contact appointment within 13 weeks. Data on children and young people in this dataset is expected to be an underestimate. The next data release will be published on 14 September.

The current reported autism data comes from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) only. Several providers of MHSDS data were affected by a cyber incident which impacted the data for August 2022 onwards. Data presented for August 2022 onwards are imputed estimates based on data from providers not impacted by the cyber incident. The trends and activity reported by these providers are, for the most part, reflective of the providers who were impacted by the cyber incident. However, caution should be used when interpreting these statistics.

We have strengthened our fight against economic crime through the publication of the landmark Economic Crime Plan in July 2019, which brought together government, law enforcement and the private sector in cooperation to deliver a whole system response to economic crime.

The total Spending Review 2021 settlement and the Economic Crime Levy represent an overall package of circa £400 million to tackle economic crime over the next three years, including fraud. This is in addition to the funding that the Home Office commits each year to the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, and police forces.

Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses of all sizes, reduce the impact on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters. This is why the Home Office will shortly be publishing a new strategy to address the threat of fraud.

Fraud, money laundering and bribery related offences, typically considered to be economic crime, made up 16% of all police recorded crime in the year to September 2022.

Fraud, money laundering and bribery related offences, typically considered to be economic crime, made up 16% of all police recorded crime in the year to September 2022.

The following table shows the number of frontline National Health Service healthcare workers (HCWs) vaccinated with the flu vaccine, for each of the last five years.

Source:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2022-to-2023

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2021-to-2022

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2020-to-2021

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2019-to-2020

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2018-to-2019

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2017-to-2018

Notes:

1. All data is final end of season data apart from the 2022 to 2023 season.
2. This data is provisional monthly data (published on 22 December 2022) and may vary slightly following further data validation checks.
3. The 2022 to 2023 season includes independent sector health care providers. In previous seasons this data was reported as part of general practitioner data returns rather than as part of NHS Trusts in England.