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Daily Report Wednesday, 30 October 2019
This report shows written answers and statements provided on 30 October 2019 and the
information is correct at the time of publication (06:40 P.M., 30 October 2019). For the latest
information on written questions and answers, ministerial corrections, and written statements,
please visit: http://www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/
CONTENTS
ANSWERS 5
ATTORNEY GENERAL 5
Attorney General: Jainism and
Zoroastrianism 5
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY 5
Business: Digital Technology 5
Disclosure of Information 6
Loneliness 6
New Businesses: Government
Assistance 7
Post Offices: Tenbury Wells 8
Retail Trade 8
Retail Trade: Employment 9
Social Enterprises 9
Thomas Cook: Insolvency 10
CABINET OFFICE 11
Brexit: Publicity 11
DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND
SPORT 12
National Citizen Service Trust 12
Youth Investment Fund 12
EDUCATION 12
Children in Care 12
Holiday Activities and Food
Research Fund 13
Schools: Asbestos 13
Schools: Buildings 14
Voluntary Schools: Capital
Investment 15
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND
RURAL AFFAIRS 15
Agriculture: Northern Ireland 15
Air Pollution 16
Beverage Containers:
Recycling 18
Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs:
Jainism and Zoroastrianism 19
Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs: Living
Wage 19
Dogs 20
Environment Protection:
Finance 21
European Agricultural Fund for
Rural Development 27
Horse Racing: Animal Welfare 28
FOREIGN AND
COMMONWEALTH OFFICE 28
British Indian Ocean Territory:
Sovereignty 28
British Nationals Abroad:
Homicide 30
Foreign and Commonwealth
Office: Private Education 30
India: Pakistan 33
USA: Diplomatic Service 34
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 34
Air Pollution 34
Blood Cancer: Medical
Treatments 34
Care Homes 35
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 35
Dental Services: Finance 35
Derriford Hospital Plymouth:
Repairs and Maintenance 36
General Practitioners:
Postnatal Care 37
General Practitioners:
Standards 38
General Practitioners: Tyne
and Wear 39
Genito-urinary Medicine 40
Health Professions:
Hampshire 41
Health Services: Tyne and
Wear 42
Health Visitors 42
HIV Infection: Drugs 43
Hospitals: Construction 43
Immigrants: Health Services 44
Incontinence: Medical
Treatments 45
Intensive Care: Private Sector 45
Lighting: Health Hazards 46
Mental Health Services:
Children 46
NHS and Social Services:
Agency Workers 46
NHS: Disclosure of Information 47
Orkambi 47
Palliative Care: Expenditure 48
Palliative Care: Finance 48
Secure Accommodation:
Autism 49
Sepsis: Health Education 51
Social Prescribing: Training 52
Syringes 52
HOME OFFICE 52
British Nationality:
Assessments 52
British Nationality: Children 53
Hampshire Constabulary: ICT 53
Home Office: Pay 54
Immigrants: Glasgow Central 54
Immigration: EU Nationals 54
Immigration: Families 56
Immigration: Windrush
Generation 56
Police Interrogation: Standards 57
Police: Safety 57
HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 58
Buildings: Insulation 58
Buildings: Safety 58
Housing: Construction 59
Housing: Insulation 59
Local Plans: Oxfordshire 60
Loneliness 60
Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local
Government: Brexit 61
Muslims: Discrimination 62
INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT 62
Developing Countries:
Tuberculosis 62
Yemen: International
Assistance 63
JUSTICE 63
Courts 63
Courts: Finance 64
Criminal Proceedings:
Translation Services 64
Judiciary 65
Ministry of Justice: Contracts 65
Ministry of Justice: Serco 66
Ministry of Justice: Sodexo 67
Pleural Plaques:
Compensation 69
Prison Officers 69
Prison Officers: Labour
Turnover 70
Prison Officers: Long Service
Awards 70
Prison Sentences 70
Prisoners: Free School Meals 71
Prisoners: Qualifications 71
Prisons 71
Prisons: Restraint Equipment 72
NORTHERN IRELAND 73
[Subject Heading to be
Assigned] 73
Abortion: Northern Ireland 73
Local Growth Deals and City
Region Deals: Northern
Ireland 74
PRIME MINISTER 74
Members: Surveillance 74
TRANSPORT 75
Abellio Greater Anglia:
Finance 75
Driving Instruction: Electric
Vehicles 75
First TransPennine Express:
Finance 75
Forests 75
Motorways: Accidents 76
Northern: Finance 76
South Western Railway:
Finance 77
UK Trade with EU: Freight 77
TREASURY 77
Financial Services
Ombudsman 77
Funerals: Pre-payment 78
Infrastructure 78
Mineworkers' Pension Scheme 78
Offshore Funds 79
Research Fund for Coal and
Steel 79
UK Trade with EU: Northern
Ireland 80
WALES 80
Foreign Students: Wales 80
WORK AND PENSIONS 80
Universal Credit 80
Universal Credit:
Disqualification 81
Universal Credit: Fraud 81
MINISTERIAL CORRECTIONS 82
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 82
NHS and Social Services:
Agency Workers 82
JUSTICE 82
Prisons: Repairs and
Maintenance 82
WRITTEN STATEMENTS 84
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY 84
People with Significant Control
Post-Implementation Review 84
EDUCATION 85
Education Update 85
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 91
Departmental Update 91
JUSTICE 93
Prisoner Escort and Custody
Services 93
PRIME MINISTER 93
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry:
Publication of its Phase 1
Report 93
Notes:
Questions marked thus [R] indicate that a relevant interest has been declared.
Questions with identification numbers of 900000 or greater indicate that the question was originally tabled as an
oral question and has since been unstarred.
ANSWERS
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Attorney General: Jainism and Zoroastrianism
Gareth Thomas: [3523]
To ask the Attorney General, when representatives of the (a) Jain and (b) Zoroastrian
community were invited to national events organised by his Department in each of the
last two years.
Michael Ellis:
The Jain and Zoroastrian communities of this country have made, and continue to
make a positive contribution to life in the United Kingdom. The Government values
this contribution enormously.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has not organised any national events in the
last two years where it has invited representatives of the Jain or Zoroastrian
communities. The AGO is a small and specialised Ministerial Department that does
not commonly organise national events. The AGO will endeavour to invite
representatives of the Jain and Zoroastrian communities to relevant events.
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Business: Digital Technology
David Simpson: [3631]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps
her Department is taking to help businesses expand through the use of digital platforms.
Kelly Tolhurst:
We want the UK to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business.
Government is taking action to support businesses to take advantages of the
opportunities to expand through digital platforms in several ways:
As businesses and consumers increasingly use digital platforms, it is important that
competition works well in these markets. That is why the Government commissioned
Professor Jason Furman to identify how to unlock competition in digital markets. The
Government is considering his proposals and will respond in due course.
Government’s Exporting is GREAT campaign supports UK businesses with free
expert e-commerce export support. DIT’s E-Exporting Programme’s Selling Online
Overseas Tool, that sits on great.gov.uk, is a free to use online service that helps UK
companies identify and sell on global marketplaces.
We are acting to support SMEs to adopt basic digital technology, including using e-
commerce software. For example, we recently announced the third wave of funding
through our Business Basics Programme to test innovative ways of encouraging
SMEs to adopt basic technologies. This round of funding will include up to £1m
focusing the adoption of payment technology, including ecommerce technologies.
The Digital Skills Partnership (DSP), announced in the UK Digital Strategy 2017,
aims to improve digital skills across the skills spectrum and the Digital Enterprise
Delivery Group, led by Lloyds Banking Group, is working to increase the digital
capabilities of SMEs. The group is now working with partners on a programme aimed
at increasing efficiency and productivity through greater tech adoption among SMEs.
Disclosure of Information
Martyn Day: [2852]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent
assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of protections for whistleblowers;
and if she will make a statement.
Kelly Tolhurst:
The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers are prepared to
shine a light on wrongdoing, and believes that they should be able to do so without
fear of recriminations.
Government has committed to review the UK whistleblowing framework and will carry
this out once sufficient time has passed for there to be the necessary evidence
available to assess the impact of recent reforms.
Loneliness
Vicky Foxcroft: [3777]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference
to the Government's loneliness strategy, how many employers have committed to the
Campaign to End Loneliness pledge on supporting the social wellbeing of employees.
Kelly Tolhurst:
The Campaign to End Loneliness and BEIS are engaged with a range of
organisations through the Employers Leadership Group and others including the
Federation of Small Businesses, Contact the Elderly and TalkTalk, to draw together
examples of good practice in tackling loneliness. We are working with these
organisations to share good practice and develop advice and guidance which may
help others do more to support the social wellbeing of employees. Thirty employers
have so far signed the Campaign to End Loneliness Pledge.
Vicky Foxcroft: [3780]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference
to page 39 of the Government's loneliness strategy, what recent discussions she has had
with businesses on how businesses can provide community space outside business
hours.
Kelly Tolhurst:
BEIS continues to work with the Campaign to End Loneliness through the Employer
Leadership Group to identify best practice by employers in tackling loneliness – both
in their own workforce and in the wider community. The group strengthens
cooperation and coordination between Government, business and other groups with
an interest in tackling loneliness. It last met on 23rd July, and will meet again on 7th
November. The intention is to publish examples of good practice by the end of the
year. We expect this to include examples of employers providing community space.
New Businesses: Government Assistance
Bill Esterson: [5002]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps
she has taken to support (a) women and (b) people from ethnic minorities that want to set
up businesses.
Kelly Tolhurst:
[Holding answer 29 October 2019]: The UK is one of the best places in the world to
start and grow a business. Government is committed to supporting all entrepreneurs,
whatever their background, to have the opportunity to make their business ideas a
reality.
We provide support to all entrepreneurs to set up businesses through our online
services on GOV.UK, the Business Support Helpline, and the network of 38 local
Growth Hubs across England. In 2018, 47% of the Business Support Helpline’s
callers were women.
We have been working closely with HM Treasury and industry to implement the
eight initiatives from the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, to tackle
the barriers faced by women when starting and scaling a business. We have set an
ambition to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030 –
equivalent to an additional 600,000 female entrepreneurs.
The British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans Programme provides funding and
intensive support to new entrepreneurs, and has delivered over 67,000 loans,
worth over £534m since it began in 2012 (as at end-September 2019). 40% of Start
Up Loans have gone to women – worth over £198m. 20% of Start Up Loans have
gone to BAME entrepreneurs – worth over £100m.
BEIS has also launched an independent review into Young Entrepreneurship, led by
the Prince’s Trust, that seeks to better understand young entrepreneurs, including
young female and ethnic minority entrepreneurs, the specific barriers and
opportunities they face – such as access to finance, and networks - and what more
can be done to support them to start and grow a business.
Post Offices: Tenbury Wells
Harriett Baldwin: [2882]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will
make representations to Post Office Limited to ensure that Tenbury Wells Post Office is
open for the peak Christmas period; and if she will make a statement.
Kelly Tolhurst:
The Government recognises the critical role that post offices play in communities and
for small businesses across the UK. This is why the Government committed to
safeguard the post office network and protect existing rural services. The overall
number of post offices across the UK remains at its most stable in decades with over
11,500 branches thanks to significant Government investment of over £2 billion since
2010.
While the Government sets the strategic direction for the Post Office, it allows the
company the commercial freedom to deliver this strategy as an independent
business. The opening of the Tenbury Well Post Office is an operational matter for
Post Office Limited. I have therefore asked Nick Read, the Group Chief Executive of
Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of his reply will
be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Retail Trade
Mr Jim Cunningham: [4920]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps
her Department is taking to support discussions between local governments and the retail
industry to help ensure a joint approach to draw consumers to the high street.
Kelly Tolhurst:
[Holding answer 29 October 2019]: The Government is committed to helping
communities adapt to market processes and we are taking action to help the high
street evolve. In July 2019, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a £3.6
billion Towns Fund to re-energise local economies so that everyone can share in a
new era of prosperity. This included £1 billion for the Future High Streets Fund, which
will support local areas in England to renew and reshape town centres and high
streets in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future
sustainability.
We are also supporting local leadership with a High Streets Task Force, giving high
streets and town centres expert advice to adapt and thrive. This will provide hands-on
support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local
areas to relevant experts. The Task Force will also provide training and help to
improve coordination between different groups working to improve their high streets
which includes retailers.
The Government has also established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring
Government and industry together to boost the sector's productivity and economic
health. The Council has established its six priority workstreams which includes the
Industrial Strategy with a focus on place. The Council has identified high streets as
an important area to be considered on an ongoing basis.
Retail Trade: Employment
Mr Jim Cunningham: [4919]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he
is taking to prevent job losses in the retail industry.
Kelly Tolhurst:
[Holding answer 29 October 2019]: Retail remains a high employment sector –
approximately 3 million jobs in the UK. More people are involved in retailing than in
any other single industry in the country.
There were 84,000 vacancies in the retail sector as of August 2019.
In 2018, Government established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring
Government and industry together to boost the sector’s productivity and economic
health. The Council has agreed its six priority work areas with four already underway.
These are: Costs to Business, Skills and Lifelong Learning, Industrial Strategy and
Employment workstreams.
As part of wider Government efforts to support adult training, we are also investing
£100m to develop The National Retraining Scheme, which will help prepare adults for
future changes to the economy, including those brought about by automation, and
help them retrain into better jobs. This funding has allowed us to start delivering the
first part of the service, Get Help to Retrain, whilst developing and evaluating as we
build-up the scheme.
We have introduced Get Help to Retrain to 6 areas of England and we will be rolling it
out across England in 2020. The digital service helps adults understand their existing
skills and explore alternative occupations, and training opportunities to develop new
skills.
Social Enterprises
Bill Esterson: [5003]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps
she has taken to promote (a) social enterprise and (b) other alternative forms of business.
Bill Esterson: [5004]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps
she has taken to promote community interest companies as a form of business.
Bill Esterson: [5005]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps
she has taken to encourage people setting up businesses to embed (a) social and (b)
environmental purpose into their business structures.
Kelly Tolhurst:
[Holding answer 29 October 2019]: The Government welcomes the contribution
which social enterprises make to local growth and prosperity in our communities up
and down the country. The UK’s company law framework allows for a variety of
business forms, in part to suit those adopting social or environmental purposes.
We welcome the growth of purposeful businesses and have taken steps to
encourage and enable this trend. The Government encouraged the business-led
development of ‘Purposely’, a tool to help social entrepreneurs embed purpose into
their businesses using the flexibility provided in the Companies Act; it also
established the Inclusive Economy Partnership to harness the power of business as a
force for good in our society; and it has supported the new Impact Investing Institute
to grow social investment.
Community Interest Companies (CICs) are a huge success story. They are delivering
benefits to more and more of our communities right across the UK. CICs have grown
exponentially since 2005. There are now over 17,000 now on the public register.
They are promoted by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, which is an
independent statutory office holder appointed by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of
State.
The UK’s corporate governance framework has been updated to promote purpose in
businesses. The UK’s Corporate Governance Code was revised, with effect from 1
January 2019, to promote the importance of having a clear corporate purpose. The
Governance Principles for Large Private Companies developed last year by Sir
James Wates do the same. Company reporting requirements, also introduced this
year, now require companies to report how they have regard to wider societal
interests within the meaning of Section 172 of the Companies Act.
Thomas Cook: Insolvency
Ms Lisa Forbes: [2913]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to
the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 374, how much funding from the public purse
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority received from the package of
support following the collapse of Thomas Cook; and what funding the Government is
providing to support (a) former employees with re-employment and (b) businesses to take
on redundant employees of that company.
Kelly Tolhurst:
The National Taskforce for Thomas Cook will look to ensure existing mechanisms to
offer support and associated governance are working effectively.
Additionally, the Rapid Response Service is helping people find a new job as soon as
possible by offering tailored support, which includes:
• Help with job searches, including CV writing and interview skills.
• Help to identify transferable skills and skills gaps, linked to the local labour market.
• Training to update skills, learn new ones and gain industry recognised certification
that will improve employability.
• Help to overcome barriers to attending training, securing a job or self-employment,
such as childcare costs, tools, work clothes and travel costs.
Ms Lisa Forbes: [2914]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what
assessment she has made of the potential merits of establishing a business growth zone
for Peterborough following the collapse of Thomas Cook.
Kelly Tolhurst:
Government is supporting businesses in Peterborough by continuing to invest in the
Signpost 2 Grow Growth Hub run by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Combined Authority.
The Growth Hub is available to help support business growth through signposting
and referring to existing business support provision and to identify gaps in provision
and source suitable alternatives whether free, subsidised or commercially available.
Signpost 2 Grow is a part of the network of 38 Growth Hubs that are local
public/private sector partnerships led by the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).
They join up national and local business support, so it is easy for businesses to find
the help they need.
CABINET OFFICE
Brexit: Publicity
Mr Steve Reed: [5447]
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how
much has been spent on the Get ready for Brexit communications campaign as of 25
October 2019.
Ruth Jones: [5478]
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how
much money from the public purse has been spent on (a) posters, (b) billboards, (c)
electronic communication and (d) paper communication advertising the UK leaving the
EU on 31 October 2019.
Chloe Smith:
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to grouped PQs 290437, 290765 and
290970 on the 30th September 2019.
DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
National Citizen Service Trust
Chuka Umunna: [R] [3656]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she
has made of the validity of the decision by the National Citizen Service Trust to withdraw
NCS contracts from The Challenge; and what steps her Department and the Cabinet
Office plan to take to help (a) resolve those issues that The Challenge reportedly raised
with her Department on the National Citizen Service Trust before the withdrawal of its
contracts and (b) maintain NCS (i) jobs and (ii) places.
Nicky Morgan:
The NCS Trust are the contracting authority for the NCS programme and have
operational accountability for the NCS delivery chain. As such, procurement issues
are a contractual matter between the NCS Trust and The Challenge, with DCMS
being regularly informed. The procurement process for the re-commissioning of NCS
contracts, carried out by the NCS Trust in 2019, was approved by both DCMS and
HMT.
In regards to the issues raised by The Challenge, NCS Trust is an arms-length body
of DCMS and, in line with standard complaint procedures, DCMS is investigating the
matters raised and will address any findings as appropriate.
All NCS delivery regions have been successfully contracted for, to make sure there is
minimal loss in NCS participation levels from 2020 onwards.
Youth Investment Fund
Mr Steve Reed: [5446]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the £500
million youth investment fund includes money allocated from her Department's budget.
Matt Warman:
The £500 million Youth Investment Fund announced by the Chancellor on 30th
September, will be additional funding to the DCMS baseline budget from April 2020.
EDUCATION
Children in Care
Helen Hayes: [5468]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the looked-after children who
were cared for in a friends and family foster placement were placed there under a section
20 of the Children Act 1989 voluntary agreement in (a) 31 March 2018, (b) 31 March
2017 and (c) March 2016.
Michelle Donelan:
The number of looked-after children in foster placements with a relative or friend who
were placed there under a section 20 of the Children Act 1989 voluntary agreement
in (a) 31 March 2018, (b) 31 March 2017 and (c) March 2016 is shown in the
following table:
CHILDREN LOOKED AFTER IN FOSTER PLACEMENTS WITH RELATIVE OR FRIEND AT 31 MARCH 1
(Years ending 31 March 2016 to 2018)
2016 2017 2018
2,110 1,830 1,560
Holiday Activities and Food Research Fund
Frank Field: [5405]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will extend the Holiday Activities and
Food programme to cover school holidays in 2020.
Nick Gibb:
The Holiday Activities and Food Programme will run again in 2020. The Department
for Education has published an invitation to bid which closes on 13 December 2019.
Further information is available here:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/2cd0c5d3-e34f-4040-b0c9-
17188231346b.
Schools: Asbestos
Alex Cunningham: [3700]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019
to Question 1024, on Schools: Asbestos, if his Department will publish the names of the
schools that were found not to be managing asbestos in line with regulatory
requirements.
Alex Cunningham: [3701]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to
ensure that all schools participate in the Asbestos Management Assurance Process.
Nick Gibb:
The Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP) was a voluntary data
collection which had an excellent response rate of over 88%. All state-funded schools
and academies in England, and their respective responsible bodies, were expected to
participate and the Department is contacting the schools that did not respond to the
AMAP to ask them to do so.
The AMAP remains open for schools to update their information and the Department
does not intend to publish information provided by individual schools and responsible
bodies. This data was not collected on the basis that school responses would be
published. Doing so would be likely to increase the burdens on school leadership
teams and discourage future participation in data collections, undermining the
Department’s ability to collect information to support schools in the effective
management of asbestos.
The Department published a detailed report on the findings from the AMAP in July
2019. Where the AMAP identified a concern, the Department is continuing to work
with schools and duty holders directly, and with the Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) as a regulator, to offer support. Where appropriate, this might include targeted
inspections by the HSE to ensure they are taking remedial action to address issues in
their asbestos management.
The Department is also sharing guidance written specifically for schools on asbestos
management to support schools and responsible bodies to meet their duties under
the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
Schools: Buildings
Vicky Foxcroft: [3668]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 11 of the
Government's Loneliness strategy, whether he has issued guidance to schools on using
their grounds as public community spaces.
Nick Gibb:
The Department is developing guidance for schools which will include advice on how
schools can use their premises for community use. This guidance will set out different
types of income generation activities including letting out premises, working with local
businesses, selling goods and services, and applying for grants. The Department
intends to publish this on GOV.UK in due course.
The Department’s aim is to level the playing field between schools in their ability to
generate income and help them build strong community links at the same time.
Vicky Foxcroft: [3779]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 39 of the
Government's strategy for tackling loneliness, what records his Department holds on the
number of schools that allow their premises to be used outside school hours.
Nick Gibb:
The information requested is not held centrally as the Department does not currently
hold data on the number of schools that allow their premises to be used outside
school hours. The Department will collect data on the income generated by schools
letting their premises for the year 2019-20. This data should be available towards the
end of next year.
The Department encourages schools to make the best use of their facilities,
particularly where this creates more opportunities for young people to access a broad
range of activities.
Schools sit at the heart of their community and there are some excellent examples of
this happening. For example, the Deanery CE Academy in Swindon, opened in
September 2019, where community access has been designed in the layout of this
school.
Voluntary Schools: Capital Investment
Mike Kane: [3646]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were made under the
first round of the new voluntary-aided schools capital scheme which closed in February
2019.
Nick Gibb:
The Department received 14 bids in the first round of the voluntary-aided schools
capital scheme; one bid (Runnymede St Edward's Catholic Primary School) was
deemed ineligible and one bid (Archbishop Romero School) subsequently withdrew.
A full list of applicant information can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/voluntary-aided-schools-capital-scheme-
applicant-information/voluntary-aided-schools-applicant-information.
Mike Kane: [3647]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce a second round
of the new voluntary-aided schools capital scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Nick Gibb:
The Department is currently developing the second round of the voluntary-aided
capital scheme and expect to launch it shortly.
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Agriculture: Northern Ireland
David Simpson: [3615]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what financial
support the Government will provide to farmers in Northern Ireland in the event that the
UK leaves the EU without a deal.
George Eustice:
As a responsible Government, we have been working with our DAERA colleagues to
minimise any disruption to farmers in the event of a no deal.
We have made it clear that we will support vulnerable sectors through Government
intervention in a no deal, should this be necessary. We will be monitoring the sectors
which may be exposed to short-term difficulties as a result of Exit closely to identify
early signs of market disturbance, allowing us to intervene swiftly if necessary.
Air Pollution
Sue Hayman: [2747]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to
the Answer of 8 October to Question 293612, what air quality programmes and
deliverables are included under which headings; and if she will publish the (a) resource
departmental expenditure limit, (b) capital departmental expenditure limit and (c) annually
managed expenditure funding allocated to air quality programmes and deliverables for
2019-20.
Sue Hayman: [2749]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to
the Answer 8 October to Question 293610, what specific programmes and deliverables to
tackle waste and promote recycling are included under which headings; and if she will
publish the (a) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, (b) Capital Departmental
Expenditure Limit and (c) Annually Managed Expenditure funding allocated to each of
those programmes for 2019-20.
Sue Hayman: [2750]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to
the Answer of 8 October to Question 293609, what (a) programmes and (b) deliverables
were included in the Food, sustainable and competitive farming programme under the
heading Food and Farming; and if she will publish the (i) Resource Departmental
Expenditure Limit, (ii) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit and (iii) Annually Managed
Expenditure funding allocated to each of those programmes for 2019-20.
George Eustice:
Please see the table below that sets out 2019-20 planned funding and key
deliverables for specific programmes. Negative figures show overall planned savings
(this is where a small adjustment is needed to ensure the budget as a whole
balances at the beginning of the financial year, these savings (negative balances) will
be off-set against a positive budget later in the year when savings/priorities are
identified) or income.
2019-20
PROGRAMME AND KEY
DELIVERABLES SPEND TYPE
SUB-
PROGRAMME
RESOURCE
(£'000)
CAPITAL
(£'000)
Natural environment and
atmosphere improvement
programmes Deliverables: Deliver
commitments in the Nitrogen
Dioxide Air Quality Plan, the wider
Clean Air Strategy and the National
Air Pollution Control Programme to
improve how information on air
quality is provided, including better
access to air quality forecasts and
health advice. Monitor air quality
through the UK’s air quality network
and reduce emissions from
permitted sites through the
Industrial Emissions and Medium
Combustion Plant Directives.
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Air Quality &
Industrial
Emissions
86,389 -222
Waste Deliverables: Show
leadership on tackling plastic
pollution, with the aim to clean up
the country and achieve a
substantial reduction in litter. Take
forward measures to reform
Extended Producer Responsibility
for packaging, and ensure
consistent and frequent collections
for household rubbish and
recycling. Implement new
regulations to tackle waste crime,
stop illegal waste activities and
reduce illegal waste sites and
marine plastic pollution through
domestic, regional and global
action.
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Waste and
recycling 28,602 10,369
Departmental Future 67,462 0
Food, sustainable and
competitive farming Deliverables:
Making the UK a great place to
start, thrive and grow as a farming
or food and drink business, and
help our businesses to deliver high
quality products to more consumer
markets across the globe.
Continued delivery of the Rural
Development Programme for
England, seeking to improve
environmental quality, support farm
productivity improvements and
drive rural economic growth. This
programme of work is underpinned
by science and evidence which
delivers tactical, strategic and
applied R&D, statistical and
economic analysis and behavioural
insights.
Expenditure
Limit
farming and
land use
Food chain
programme 17,030 4,490
Beverage Containers: Recycling
Sandy Martin: [3806]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she
has made of the potential annual (a) costs and (b) savings accruing to local authority
finances of a deposit return scheme.
Rebecca Pow:
The introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is expected to increase recycling
and reduce littering of the drinks containers in-scope. The greenhouse gas emissions
reduction associated with this is 2.9 metric tonnes of CO2e over the ten-year
appraisal period. The Net Present Value of a DRS for drinks containers is estimated
in the initial impact assessment to be more than £2 billion over the appraisal period
for the ‘all-in’ option, and £250 million for the ‘on-the-go’ option. We will continue to
refine our analysis of the costs and benefits as we receive more evidence and
develop further policy options.
Sandy Martin: [3810]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment
she had made of the implications for her policies of the Impact Assessment entitled,
Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme on beverage containers, published on 15 February
2019.
Rebecca Pow:
We published an impact assessment that detailed the costs and savings to local
authority finances, including possible reduction in litter cleaning costs and loss of
material revenues. However, under the reformed packaging producer responsibility
system, packaging producers will be responsible for the costs of dealing with the
packaging waste they produce, so the identified kerbside costs and benefits are
expected to fall to packaging producers, rather than placing a burden on local
authorities.
The Government has also committed to funding any additional net costs that the new
policies will bring to local authorities.
We will continue to refine our analysis of the costs and benefits as we receive more
evidence and as we develop further policy options.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Jainism and Zoroastrianism
Gareth Thomas: [3525]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when
representatives of the (a) Jain and (b) Zoroastrian community were invited to national
events organised by his Department in each of the last two years.
George Eustice:
Ministers have attended a number of key events coordinated by Jain and Zoroastrian
organisations, and officials have invited representatives from both communities to
participate in roundtable discussions where relevant issues are discussed.
The Jain and Zoroastrian communities of this country have made and continue to
make a positive contribution to life in the UK. The Government values this
contribution enormously.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Living Wage
Matthew Pennycook: [R] [4416]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff in
her Department are paid less than the London Living Wage; and what requirements her
Department places on contractors to pay the London Living Wage to London-based staff.
George Eustice:
This Government is committed to paying people a decent living wage, which is being
addressed through the statutory National Living Wage (NLW). In April 2019, the NLW
increased to £8.21 per hour, handing a full-time worker a further £690 annual pay
rise. By 2024 the NLW will rise to £10.50 per hour, reaching 66% of median UK
earnings. The scope will be expanded to everyone aged 21 and over and is expected
to benefit over 4 million low paid workers.
There are 85 staff in core-Defra, based in the National pay region, paid less than the
London Living Wage (LLW) rate of £10.55 per hour, as set out by the Living Wage
Foundation (LWF).
There are less than 5 staff based in the London pay region paid less than the LLW.
There will be no staff based in the London pay region paid less than the LLW once
the 2019 Defra pay award (effective from 1 July 2019) has been implemented. This is
expected to be in November pay.
The Government will always award contracts on the basis of the best value for money
for the taxpayer.
The service providers contracted to carry out third party cleaning contracts for Defra
managed buildings, including those of our executive agencies, are provided through
an outsourced Total Facilities Management contract with Interserve FM. The contract
requires Interserve FM to pay all employees the living wage as defined by the LWF.
The Facilities Management supplier holds information on the rate of remuneration of
its staff. Members of the LWF pay the voluntary real living wage, which is higher than
the statutory rate and includes a higher rate for London based staff.
The LWF rates (published online) can be found on the link below:
https://www.livingwage.org.uk/
Dogs
Angela Smith: [5416]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she make an
assessment of the potential merits of (a) updating and (b) consolidating the regulations
on dog control.
Zac Goldsmith:
The Government considers that the powers and measures contained within
dangerous dog legislation allow enforcers such as police and local authorities to take
the necessary action in order to prevent and tackle incidents of dangerous dogs.
Local initiatives such as Local Environmental Awareness on Dogs (LEAD) can also
be adopted in areas where police, local authorities and other interested parties can
come together to promote responsible dog ownership.
In addition, early intervention measures such as Community Protection Notices can
be issued by local authority officers or police to anyone causing low level anti-social
behaviour involving a dog.
The Government last reviewed the law on dangerous dogs in 2014 and made a
number of changes. The changes included extending the scope of the offence of
allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control from public places to all places;
increasing the maximum penalties for allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control;
when a dog causes injury or death and when a dog attacks an assistance dog.
The Government realises the importance of quality research to help inform its policy,
and in November 2018 Defra commissioned further research in collaboration with
Middlesex University to look at responsible ownership across all breeds of dog. The
research will consider different approaches and the effectiveness of current dog
control measures. The research will also seek to identify and examine the factors and
situations that may cause dog attacks and how to promote responsible dog
ownership.
Environment Protection: Finance
Sue Hayman: [2752]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to
the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Questions 292921 and 292922, what specific
programmes, projects and deliverables are covered by (a) Arms Length Bodies
Partnership And Public Appointments, (b) Natural Environment Policy Director & Support,
(c) Air Quality & Industrial Emissions, (d) Nature Improvement Programme, (e)
Environment Quality Portfolio Office, (f) EU Environment, (g) Environment Quality
Commercial, (h) Climate, Noise, Data & Information, (i) Water, Flood, Chemical,
Biological, Radiological And Nuclear Emergencies, (j) Wildlife, International, Climate And
Forestry Programme and (k) Wildlife International, Climate And Forestry; and if she will
publish the (i) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, (ii) Capital Departmental
Expenditure Limit and (iii) Annually Managed Expenditure funding allocated to each of
those programmes, projects and deliverables for 2019-20 with the gross and net
spending and the source of any planned income.
George Eustice:
Please see the table below that sets out 2019-20 planned funding and key
deliverables for specific programmes. Negative figures show overall planned savings
(this is where a small adjustment is needed to ensure the budget as a whole
balances at the beginning of the financial year, these savings (negative balances) will
be off-set against a positive budget later in the year when savings/priorities are
identified) or income.
PROGRAMME AND
KEY DELIVERABLES SPEND TYPE SUB-PROGRAMME
SPEND
CATEGORY
RESOURCE
(£'000)
CAPITAL
(£'000)
Arms Length
Bodies Partnership
And Public
Appointments
Deliverables: This
covers 3 of Defra’s
arms length bodies
as follows: SFIA is a
non-departmental
public body that
supports the sea
food industry.
CEFAS is an
executive agency of
Defra. It leads in
Annually
Managed
Expenditure
Limit
Sea Fish Industry
Authority (SFIA)
Expenditure 10,776 0
Income -10,715 0
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Centre for
Environment,
fisheries and
aquaculture
science (CEFAS)
Expenditure 44,776 2,372
Income -30,400 0
Marine
Management
Organisation
(MMO)
Expenditure 20,713 0
Income -7,265 0
marine science and
technology,
providing innovative
solutions for the
aquatic
environment,
biodiversity and food
security. MMO is a
non-departmental
public body that
licences, regulates
and plans marine
activities in the seas
around the UK so
that they are carried
out in a sustainable
way.
Natural
Environment
Policy Director &
Support
Deliverables: This
budget covers the
running costs of the
Natural Environment
Directorates
Portfolio Office,
managing and
assisting the
delivery of all the
Natural Environment
directorates
objectives and
projects. It also
includes budget to
cover the costs of a
closed pension
scheme and funding
that goes to Joint
Nature Conservation
Committee (JNCC).
Annually
Managed
Expenditure
Limit
Natural
Environment
Policy Directors
Office
Expenditure -465 0
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Natural
Environment
Policy Directors
Office
Expenditure 3,351 0
Income -1,869 0
Air Quality &
Industrial
Departmental
Expenditure
Air Quality &
Industrial Expenditure 9,276 -222
Emissions
Deliverables: Deliver
commitments in the
Nitrogen Dioxide Air
Quality Plan, the
wider Clean Air
Strategy and the
National Air
Pollution Control
Programme to
improve how
information on air
quality is provided,
including better
access to air quality
forecasts and health
advice. Monitor air
quality through the
UK’s air quality
network and reduce
emissions from
permitted sites
through the
Industrial Emissions
and Medium
Combustion Plant
Directives.
Limit Emissions
Air Quality Expenditure 77,113 0
Nature
Improvement
Programme
Deliverables:
Supports the
Environment 25
year plan which sets
out how we will
improve the
environment over a
generation – by
creating richer
habitats for wildlife,
improving air and
water quality, and
curbing the scourge
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Environment
analysis unit Expenditure 3,141 1,653
Environment 25
year plan Expenditure 1,394 0
of plastic in the
world’s oceans.
Environment
Quality (EQ)
Portfolio Office
Deliverables: A
central resource of
programme
management, day to
day finance
management and
administrative
expertise to the
directorate. The
team will typically
manage all EQ-wide
commissions,
particularly, those
from the Defra
Corporate centre,
including reporting
and business
planning. Alongside
this it will provide
assistance with
recruitment
processes, including
leading and
managing EQ-wide
exercises. The team
can also provide
guidance and best
practice on carrying
out programme and
project activities
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
EQ Portfolio
Office Expenditure 840 0
EU Environment
Deliverables:
Effective
management of
chemicals and
pesticides to
safeguard people
and the environment
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
EU Environment Expenditure 5,980 509
Environment
Quality
Commercial
Deliverables: The
Waste PFI project,
Local Partnerships
Grants and
contracts.
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Flood & Water
Commercial
Policy
Expenditure 118,247 0
Income -2,030 0
Climate, Noise,
Data & Information
Deliverables: This is
now included under
the climate change
element of Wildlife,
International,
Climate and
Forestry
Programme. The
deliverables are
explained in this
section below.
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Climate Change Expenditure -846 0
Water, Flood,
Chemical,
Biological,
Radiological and
Nuclear
Emergencies
Deliverables: This
covers, the UK’s
preparedness to
emergencies
pertaining to
Chemical,
Biological,
Radiological and
Nuclear; Flood and
Water emergencies;
Better flood
forecasting
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Water and
Chemical,
Biological,
Radiological and
Nuclear and
Emergencies
Expenditure 3,122 0
Frontline Line
Service -
Government
Decontamination
Service
Expenditure 1,366 0
Wildlife,
International,
Climate and
Annually
Managed
Expenditure
Wildlife Expenditure -500
Forestry
Programme
Deliverables:
Encourage thriving
plants and wildlife
Work internationally
to halt biodiversity
loss, including
driving global action
on the Illegal Wildlife
Trade, as a Party to
the Convention on
Biological Diversity
and the Dasgupta
Review of the
Economics of
Biodiversity. Fully
implement the Ivory
Act, bringing into
force the UK ban on
ivory sales. Develop
a Nature Recovery
Network including
creation or
restoration of
500,000 hectares of
wildlife rich habitat
as part of the new
Nature Strategy.
Protect, improve
and expand
England’s
woodlands,
including planting 11
million trees this
Parliament and
keeping the public
forest estate in trust
for the nation. Use
resources from
nature more
sustainably and
efficiently Publish
the English Tree
Limit
Departmental
Expenditure
Limit
Climate &
Forestry Expenditure 2,626 3,368
Frontline Line
Service – Official
development
assistance
Expenditure 42,770 35,370
International
Biodiversity and
Environment
Expenditure 844 0
International
Strategy Expenditure 3,374 0
Wildlife Expenditure 5,528 0
Wildlife
International
Climate and
Forestry Directors
Office
Expenditure -1,752 0
Strategy to set out
how we intend to
use a natural capital
approach to rural
and urban forestry
to maximise the
biodiversity, water,
climate, noise and
other benefits trees
can provide.
Mitigate and adapt
to climate change
Deliver statutory
climate adaptation
obligations under
UK Climate Change
Act and drive
delivery of the
National Adaptation
Plan to strengthen
resilience to climate
change.
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Gillian Keegan: [3805]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to
approve the final national call for applications to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural
Development; and whether she has made an assessment of the trends in the time it
takes for applications to be assessed and approved by her Department and the Rural
Payments Agency.
George Eustice:
My department is aiming to open a new round of national-level Rural Development
Programme for England (RDPE) Growth Programme calls for business development,
food processing and tourism infrastructure projects in early November. This will
enable all stages of the project application and assessment process to be completed
in time for funding to be awarded, in line with the Government’s guarantee to honour
all funding commitments signed by the end December 2020.
Horse Racing: Animal Welfare
Caroline Lucas: [3670]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent
comparative assessment she has made of the number of racehorse fatalities (a) in the
first nine months of 2019 and (b) in the same period in 2018; what assessment she has
made of the effectiveness of the British Horseracing Authority in reducing annual levels of
racehorse fatalities; and with reference to the Answer of 16 April 2019 to Question
242198 on Horse Racing: Animal Welfare, what recent discussions officials in her
Department have had with the British Horseracing Authority.
Zac Goldsmith:
The official annual statistics on fatality rates are published on the British Horseracing
Authority (BHA) website, in an approach endorsed by the Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs Select Committee. We would expect the fatality rates for 2019 to be
published by BHA in the New Year. Officials regularly meet with a wide range of
stakeholders, including the BHA.
Caroline Lucas: [3671]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it
her policy to set up new independent welfare body to protect race horses from abuse.
Zac Goldsmith:
The Horse Welfare Board (HWB) was formed in March 2019 and is currently
developing a comprehensive equine welfare strategy, covering the whole life of the
racehorse, which will be published in the coming months. The Government will stay in
regular contact with the industry and the new HWB. We will continue to press them
for improvements in racehorse welfare and a reduction in the number of fatalities.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty
Daniel Kawczynski: [3686]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment
his Department has made of the legal implications of the UN resolution on the future of
the Chagos Islands.
Daniel Kawczynski: [3687]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is
taking to meet the six-month deadline set by the UN resolution on the future of the
Chagos Islands.
Christopher Pincher:
The UN General Assembly (GA) resolution relates to an Advisory Opinion issued by
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the British Indian Ocean Territory
(BIOT). Neither the ICJ Advisory Opinion nor the UN GA resolution are legally
binding. Mauritius has never held sovereignty over BIOT and we do not recognise its
claim. We have, however, made a long-standing commitment to cede sovereignty of
the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defence purposes. The
British Government remains concerned that the referral to the ICJ contravened the
principle that the Court should not consider bilateral disputes without the consent of
both States concerned. It is notable in this context that in the UN GA, nearly 80
member states did not vote in favour of the resolution. The Government has
considered the content of the Opinion carefully, however we do not share the Court’s
approach. Any action in the UN GA that seeks to cut across a bilateral dispute by
specifying how or when a non-binding Advisory Opinion might be implemented
should be of concern to all Member States.
Daniel Kawczynski: [3689]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to
hold discussions with his Mauritian counterpart on proposals for co-management of the
British Indian Ocean Territory.
Christopher Pincher:
We have no doubt about our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory,
which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. The United
Kingdom remains committed to implementing the UN Convention on the Law of the
Sea Arbitral Award of 2015. In line with the Award we will continue to approach
discussions with Mauritius with an open mind about the best way to meet our
obligations under the Award and to ensure proper conservation management of this
unique marine environment.
Daniel Kawczynski: [3690]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the
Government’s policy is on claims the Maldives have made on the seabed around the
British Indian Ocean Territory.
Christopher Pincher:
We have no doubt about our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory,
which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. As communicated
to the UN Secretary-General at the time the Government considers that the
submission of the Republic of the Maldives to the Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf of 28 July 2010 does not take into full account the 200 nautical mile
Fisheries and Environment Zones of the British Indian Ocean Territory, both of which
themselves respect boundaries agreed with the Maldives at a technical level. The
United Kingdom is fully committed to formalising these boundaries with the Maldives
at the earliest opportunity.
British Nationals Abroad: Homicide
Mr Jim Cunningham: [5399]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is
taking to ensure that families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to
interpreter and translation services.
Andrew Stephenson:
In cases where an interpreter or translator is needed families are provided with a list
of translators that are compiled by our British embassies, high commissions and
consulates abroad. Although we are unable to recommend translators our aim is to
provide British nationals with relevant information to make informed decisions. This
list is also published on the GOV.UK website.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides funding to the Victim Support
National Homicide Service who can also help families with translation of key
documents where a murder or manslaughter occurred.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Private Education
Stephanie Peacock: [1130]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his
Department spent from the Continuity of Education Allowance on placements at (a) Eton,
(b) Charterhouse, (c) Harrow, (d) Rugby, (e) Shrewsbury, (f) Westminster, (g)
Winchester, (h) St Paul's and (i) Merchant Taylors schools in the last financial year for
which data is available.
Christopher Pincher:
[Holding answer 21 October 2019]: Members of the diplomatic service are expected
to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take
their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff
to take their children either for health or security reasons. However, frequent moves
by staff and families between the United Kingdom and overseas, and between Posts
overseas, can be disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO
provides Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet
certain eligibility criteria to choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their
children at a British boarding school in the United Kingdom while they continue to
take up postings overseas at regular intervals during their career. CEA is a long-
standing FCO policy dating back in its current form to 1996 that provides clearly
defined and limited financial support to staff to help maintain the continuity of their
children's education.The FCO refunds standard term fees up to a ceiling which is
reviewed annually. Where staff opt to send their children to more expensive schools,
the difference in cost is met by the individual member of staff.
The figures below represent the data for financial year 2018/19. For context, we have
set out the FCO's total spend on education for children of staff posted overseas in PQ
752.
SCHOOL CEA COSTS
Eton
£295,440.00
Charterhouse
£97,428.00
Harrow
Rugby
£119, 233.00
Shrewsbury
Westminster
£78,651.00
Winchester
£163,345.00
St Pauls
Merchant Taylors
Stephanie Peacock: [2951]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the cost to the
public purse was of continuity of education allowances for placements at (a) Fettes (b)
Gordonstoun (c) Marlborough (d) King's Canterbury (e) Cheltenham (f) Tonbridge (g)
Stowe (h) Benenden (i) Ampleforth and (j) Clifton private schools and colleges in 2018-
19; how many there were at each school and college in that year; and what the (i) civil
service grade and (ii) diplomatic service title was of each claimant.
Christopher Pincher:
[Holding answer 24 October 2019]: Members of the diplomatic service are expected
to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take
their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff
to take their children either for health or security reasons, and frequent moves by staff
and families between the UK and overseas, and between Posts overseas, can be
disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO provides Continuity of
Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet certain eligibility criteria to
choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their children at a British boarding
school in the United Kingdom while they continue to take up postings overseas at
regular intervals during their career. CEA is a long-standing FCO policy dating back
in its current form to 1996 that provides clearly defined and limited financial support to
staff to help maintain the continuity of their children's education. The FCO refunds
standard term fees up to a ceiling which is reviewed annually. Where staff opt to send
their children to more expensive schools, the difference in cost is met by the
individual member of staff.
The figures below represent the data for financial year 2018/19. We are unable to
provide the diplomatic service title for each claimant in order to protect their identity.
For context, we have set out the FCO's total spend on education for children of staff
posted overseas in PQ 752
NUMBER
OF
OFFICERS
PER
GRADE
School Number
of
children
A2 B3 C4 C5 D6 D7 SMS Total
costs
Ampleforth 4
1*
2 129,081
Fettes 3
1
1
1 97,949
Gordonstoun 5
3
1* 152,656
Marlborough 2
1 1 64,952
Kings
Canterbury
4
1*
2 123,642
Cheltenham 2
1
1 56,241
Tonbridge 2
1* 64,952
Stowe 6
1 1 1 1 1 1 195,101
Benendon 3
1
1 1 97,428
Clifton 0
0.00
TOTAL 31 0 4 5 2 4 3 13 982,002
*officer has 2 children at the school
Stephanie Peacock: [2953]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many
diplomatic staff claimed Continuity of Education Allowance in 2018-19 for UK-based
private school fees; how many of the claimants were at each pay grade; and what
contribution his Department asked claimants to make towards those fees.
Christopher Pincher:
[Holding answer 24 October 2019]: Members of the diplomatic service are expected
to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take
their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff
to take their children either for health or security reasons, and frequent moves by staff
and families between the UK and overseas, and between Posts overseas, can be
disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO provides Continuity of
Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet certain eligibility criteria to
choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their children at a British boarding
school in the UK while they continue to take up postings overseas at regular intervals
during their career. CEA is a long-standing FCO policy dating back in its current form
to 1996 that provides clearly defined and limited financial support to staff to help
maintain the continuity of their children's education.
The FCO refunds standard term fees up to a ceiling which is reviewed annually.
Where staff opt to send their children to more expensive schools, the difference in
cost is met by the individual member of staff.
The figures below represent the data for financial year 2018/19. For context, we have
set out the FCO's total spend on education for children of staff posted overseas in PQ
752.
GRADE
OF
OFFICERS
A2 B3 C4 C5 D6 D7 SMS1 SMS2 SMS3 Total
Number
of
Officers
claiming
CEA by
Grade
5 26 46 46 60 42 62 36 15 338
India: Pakistan
John Spellar: [3538]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he will
raise the deteriorating military and security situation on the India Pakistan border at the
next meeting of the UN Security Council.
Mrs Heather Wheeler:
The longstanding position of the UK is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting
political resolution on Kashmir bilaterally, taking into account the wishes of the
Kashmiri people. We encourage India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue and find
lasting, diplomatic solutions to maintain regional stability, but it is not for the UK to
prescribe a solution or act as a mediator.
USA: Diplomatic Service
Keith Vaz: [6199]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he will
announce the name of the successor to Sir Kim Darroch as British Ambassador to the
USA.
Christopher Pincher:
A new appointment will be made in due course. The United Kingdom has a strong
relationship with the US which is based on many decades of close cooperation and
partnership, and that will remain the case.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Air Pollution
Peter Aldous: [3696]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is
taking to ensure that local authorities have access to adequate data on air pollution and
its associated health risks in order to make informed policy decisions.
Jo Churchill:
In the Government’s Clean Air Strategy, the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs committed to making local and national monitoring data accessible from
a single location to help local authorities make informed policy decisions. These data
can be viewed at the following link:
https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also provides calculation
tools to support local authorities in their monitoring and modelling efforts at the
following link:
https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/networks/find-
sites?site_name=&pollutant=9999&group_id=9999&country_id=9999®ion_id=999
9&location_type=9999&search=Search+Network&view=advanced&action=results
Blood Cancer: Medical Treatments
Henry Smith: [900212]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has
to ensure that GPs follow NICE guidance on blood cancer.
Jo Churchill:
[Holding answer 29 October 2019]: The National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence’s (NICE) clinical guidelines help healthcare professionals deliver the best
possible care based on the best available evidence. The guidelines are not
mandatory, although healthcare professionals are expected to take them fully into
account
NICE’s updated referral guidelines for suspected cancer published in June 2015
could save about 5,000 lives a year, with general practitioners urged to think of
cancer sooner and to lower the referral threshold for tests.
Care Homes
Sir Graham Brady: [4274]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of
the number of residential places in therapeutic communities available in each (a) clinical
commissioning group and (b) local authority area; and what the average waiting time is
for those places in each area.
Ms Nadine Dorries:
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Faisal Rashid: [3828]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a)
update GP guidance and (b) increase GP awareness of the symptoms of chronic fatigue
syndrome.
Caroline Dinenage:
General practice is where most patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic
encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) are likely to be managed, and the condition is identified
as a key area of clinical knowledge in the Royal College of General Practitioners
(RCGP) Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) content guide. The AKT is a summative
assessment of the knowledge base that underpins general practice in the United
Kingdom within the context of the National Health Service and is a key part of GPs’
qualifying exams.
In 2007, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the
clinical guideline, ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or
encephalopathy): Diagnosis and management of CFS/ME in adults and children. This
sets out best practice in the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people with the
condition
Dental Services: Finance
Julian Sturdy: [3637]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what share of new funding
under the NHS Long Term Plan is being assigned to increasing the capacity of NHS
dental services.
Julian Sturdy: [3638]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of new funding
under the NHS Long Term Plan he plans to allocate to NHS dental services in the Vale of
York.
Jo Churchill:
The NHS Long Term Plan published on 7 January 2019, set out a 10-year strategy
for the National Health Service. It sets out how the NHS will spend the £33.9 billion
cash terms annual increase going into the NHS budget by 2023/24.
It is for NHS England and NHS Improvement to make decisions about how to
prioritise the how they meet the Long Term Plans commitments on dentistry from
within the total settlement.
Over the NHS Long Term Plan period, to 2023/24, NHS England and NHS
Improvement’s commissioning allocations for dental services are planned to increase
to cover population growth, increasing demand for services and inflationary cost
pressures.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with the Department to
introduce a new NHS dental contract that will focus on achieving good oral health and
increasing access to NHS dentistry, with a particular focus on improving the oral
health of children, which are all key deliverables of the Long Term Plan.
Derriford Hospital Plymouth: Repairs and Maintenance
Luke Pollard: [4399]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been
allocated from the public purse to the rebuilding of Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.
Edward Argar:
As announced on 30 September £100 million of seed funding has been made
available to support 21 major projects covering 34 hospitals, to commence their
development of schemes to be delivered in a second phase of major hospital rebuilds
(HIP2), one of which is the Derriford Hospital scheme.
This £100 million of seed funding will be provided as capital and will mainly be for
enabling project teams, specialist advisers and site surveys.
The funding will be drawn by providers in line with need up to 1% of the estimated
capital value of each HIP2 scheme. Funding will be allocated following visits to the
scheme by NHS England and NHS Improvement to discuss their proposals and how
they can be helped to develop. Then Trusts will be required to provide a breakdown
of what seed funding will be spent on and how that will accelerate the project
development.
The budget has been received for 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years, but funding
could be available in the current financial year if there is an immediate and strong
case.
Seed funding will not constitute approval of the scheme as a whole as that will be
subject to further development and subject to the usual business case approvals
process, including demonstrating affordability and value for money.
General Practitioners: Postnatal Care
Fiona Bruce: [5429]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made
of the medical effectiveness of post-natal physical and mental health checks for new
mothers, carried out by GPs.
Ms Nadine Dorries:
Post-natal care can be delivered by a number of different providers, including
midwives, health visitors and general practitioners (GPs). Commissioners and
providers should ensure that women are offered a review of their physical, emotional
and social wellbeing by a healthcare professional at the end of the postnatal period
(between 6-8 weeks).
NHS England and NHS Improvement expects commissioners and providers of
maternity care to pay due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence (NICE) guidelines. NICE guidance on ‘Postnatal care up to 8 weeks after
birth’ states that at each postnatal contact, women should be asked about their
emotional wellbeing, what family and social support they have and their usual coping
strategies for dealing with day-to-day matters. At the end of the postnatal period, the
coordinating healthcare professional should ensure that the woman’s physical,
emotional and social wellbeing is reviewed. NHS England and NHS Improvement
have been reviewing the available evidence to establish a clearer picture of current
practice in this area. NHS England has been working with the National Childbirth
Trust on developing the evidence base, and we are following this important work
closely.
Fiona Bruce: [5430]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made
of the potential merits of including maternal post-natal mental health checks in the next
GP contract.
Jo Churchill:
The potential for a six-week post-natal maternal health check for all mothers is the
subject of further work by NHS England and NHS Improvement.
Decisions on changes to the general practitioner (GP) contract for 2020/21 will be
made following negotiations between NHS England and the British Medical
Association (BMA). NHS England will soon start formal negotiations with the General
Practitioner Committee of the BMA on the 2020/21 GP contract.
Support from health visitors and other professionals at the universal 6-8 week review
is an important time for assessing the health and wellbeing of new parents,
particularly in looking for signs of postnatal depression.
General Practitioners: Standards
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3575]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time
was for a patient to see a GP in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) Tyne
and Wear, (d) the North East and (e) England in each year since 2010.
Jo Churchill:
Data on appointments in general practice have only been available since November
2017. The most recent data on the time between booking an appointment with a
general practice and having the appointment (in days) for South Tyneside Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS England North East and Yorkshire (Cumbria and
North East) Regional Local Office, and England are presented in the table below as
the average over the 12 months from September 2018 to August 2019. NHS Digital is
unable to provide data for all the geographical areas requested as the data is
collected at CCG level, but has provided data for three included in the table.
The data is taken from the NHS Digital publication ‘Appointments in General
Practice’. This is a new experimental data collection which is still being refined and
improved.
It should be noted that the ‘time from booking to appointment’ refers only to the time
elapsed between the successful booking of an appointment and the appointment
actually taking place. The data does not take into consideration that many patients
will be appropriately booking ahead as part of the continuity of care they receive for
long-term conditions.
SOUTH TYNESIDE CCG
NHS ENGLAND NORTH
EAST AND YORKSHIRE
(CUMBRIA AND NORTH
EAST) REGIONAL LOCAL
OFFICE ENGLAND
Distribution of average time elapsed between booking an appointment
and the appointment taking place, September 2018 to August 2019.
(Numbers may not add to 100% due to rounding.)
Same Day 38% 40% 42%
1 Day 9% 7% 7%
2 to 7 Days 25% 21% 20%
8 to 14 Days 13% 14% 14%
15 to 21 Days 6% 7% 8%
22 to 28 Days 4% 5% 5%
More than 28 Days 3% 5% 5%
SOUTH TYNESIDE CCG
NHS ENGLAND NORTH
EAST AND YORKSHIRE
(CUMBRIA AND NORTH
EAST) REGIONAL LOCAL
OFFICE ENGLAND
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Notes
1. There are several factors that drive the time from a booking to an appointment. This
includes appointment availability at the practice, patient availability, the urgency of
the appointment and general practitioner (GP) advice.
2. The data does not differentiate between emergency and routine appointments in
general practice.
3. The data does not include any information about the patients or clinical information
4. The data in the response includes appointments with all healthcare professional
types, including GPs and other practice staff.
5. Not all practices in England are included in the appointments in general practice
publication, meaning the total number of appointments is not known.
6. Same day and next day bookings are of particular interest so are presented here
separately. Further bookings are presented grouped by weeks.
7. The number of appointments that have already happened is provided as recorded
in participating practices in England. The data presented only contains information
which was captured on the GP practice systems. This limits the activity reported on
and does not represent all work happening within a primary care setting.
General Practitioners: Tyne and Wear
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3574]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many practising GPs there
were in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside in each year since 2010.
Jo Churchill:
The number of headcount general practitioners (excluding locums), working in
general practice for each year since September 2015 is available in the following
table. General practitioner (GP) locums are excluded as improvements have been
made to GP locum recording methodology and figures are not comparable prior to
December 2017. Current data is not comparable to 2010. As such, September 2015-
18 data has been provided. Figures are not available for Jarrow constituency.
SOUTH TYNESIDE CLINICAL COMMISSIONING
GROUP HEADCOUNT GPS (EXCLUDING LOCUMS)
September 2015 106
September 2016 104
September 2017 99
September 2018 99
Notes:
1. Data as at 30 September 2015-2018.
2. Figures shown do not include GPs working in prisons, army bases, educational
establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres and
walk-in centres.
3. Figures contain estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid General
Medical Practice staff records.
4. Headcount totals are unlikely to equal the sum of the components. Further
information on the headcount methodology is available in the General Practice
Workforce publication.
5. The figures for GPs excluding Locums as this data is not comparable across the
time series.
6. Data must be compared from the same time point in the year, therefore September
2018 data is provided to allow comparison the earliest available data. Data covering
30 September 2019 will be published on 28 November 2019 and is available at the
following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-
personal-medical-services
1. Data collected and published prior to September 2015 is not comparable due to a
change in data collection methodology.
2. “-” denotes zero, “0” denotes greater than 0, less than 0.5, “..” denotes not
applicable.
3. Source – NHS Digital
Genito-urinary Medicine
Robert Halfon: [3778]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) introduce a national
sexual health strategy to tackle increases in the levels of sexually transmitted infections
(STIs) and (b) allocate funding to testing for all STIs in sexual health clinics in England.
Jo Churchill:
We have made excellent progress in some aspects of sexual and reproductive
health, for example reducing new HIV infections and teenage pregnancy, but we are
concerned about the worrying increases in some sexually transmitted infections. To
address this, we announced on 24 October a new sexual health strategy to ensure
that people know how to protect themselves, and can access the services they need
for good sexual and reproductive health.
The Government provides funding to local authorities for public health services,
including sexual health services, through the ringfenced public health grant. It is for
local authorities to determine how the public health grant is allocated in their local
areas to meet their needs. Sexual health service providers should ensure
commissioned services are in line with current national guidance, standards of
training and care and quality indicators.
Health Professions: Hampshire
Mr Damian Hinds: [3720]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answers
of 9 September 2019 to Question 286692 and 4 October 2019 to Question 290772 on
Health Professions: Hampshire, what estimate he has made of the number of FTE (a)
general practitioners, (b) other doctors and (c) nurses employed by the NHS in (i)
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight STP area, (ii) Fareham and Gosport CCG, (iii) North
East Hampshire and Farnham CCG, (iv) North Hampshire CCG, (v) Portsmouth CCG, (vi)
South Eastern Hampshire CCG, (vii) Southampton City CCG and (viii) West Hampshire
CCG in (A) 2010 and (B) the most recent year for which figures are available.
Mr Damian Hinds: [3721]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, To ask the Secretary of State
for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answers of 9 September 2019 to
Question 286692 and 4 October 2019 to Question 290772 on Health Professions:
Hampshire, what estimate he has made of the number of FTE (a) doctors (b) nurses and
(c) other staff employed by the NHS in (i) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight STP area, (ii)
Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, (iii) Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation
Trust, (iv) Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, (v) Solent NHS Trust, (vi) South Central
Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, (vii) Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
and (viii) University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust in (A) 2010 and (B) the
most recent year for which figures are available.
Edward Argar:
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics
for England. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning
groups, but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.
The data requested is attached.
Attachments:
1. PQ3720 and 721 table [PQ3720 and 3721 formatted.xlsx]
Health Services: Tyne and Wear
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3576]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is
taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for NHS services in (a) Jarrow constituency and
(b) South Tyneside.
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3578]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been
allocated from the public purse for NHS services in South Tyneside in each year since
2010.
Edward Argar:
Clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations for South Tyneside CCG, which
covers Jarrow, are shown in the attached table. The CCG is expected to receive
more than the England average per head per year in every year from 2019/20 to
2023/24. It has also received above the England average per head per year from
2013/14 to 2017/18.
In 2019/20, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust was allocated £2
million Public Dividend Capital for GDE Fast Follower scheme. In addition, North East
Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which covers South Tyneside and
Jarrow, secured £835,000
The Trust’s predecessor, City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, also
secured a £887,000 Public Dividend Capital award as part of a national programme
for Energy Efficient LED Lighting.
The Department are also aware of a likely award of Public Dividend Capital relating to
Urgent and Emergency Care Services provision which is in the process of being
allocated and there are a number of ongoing capital funding programmes that the
Trust may be considering applications for.
Attachments:
1. pq3576 3578 tables [PQ3576 PQ3578 - CCG allocations table.xlsx]
Health Visitors
Jo Platt: [3796]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has
made of the number of health visitors in England in each year since 2010.
Jo Churchill:
The data is not available in the format requested.
Jo Platt: [3797]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has
made of the effect of trends in the level of health visitors in England on children's health.
Jo Churchill:
Health visiting is an essential part of broader early years family support. The number
of health visitors employed by National Health Service organisations reported through
Electronic Staff Records shows reduction, but this is not a complete picture of the
workforce as this goes not include social enterprises, private sector organisations or
local authorities. It is the responsibility of local authorities to determine how the
programme is provided to their communities based upon local needs.
Data on mandated health visitor reviews shows national coverage remains above
those achieved in 2015. However, there is variation at a local level. Data is available
at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/health-visitor-service-delivery-metrics-2018-
to-2019
Progress against health and wellbeing outcomes for the zero to five years population,
and inequalities in these outcomes, is published in Early Years Profiles at the
following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/child-health-
profiles/data#page/1/gid/1938133223/pat/6/par/E12000001/ati/102/are/E06000005
HIV Infection: Drugs
Mr Ben Bradshaw: [3529]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department
plans to allocate to the routine commissioning of PrEP.
Mr Ben Bradshaw: [3530]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had
with local government, NHS England and Public Health England on identifying funding for
(a) the routine commissioning of and (b) a national programme for PrEP.
Jo Churchill:
The Department is continuing to work closely with NHS England and NHS
Improvement, Public Health England and local government to ensure there is a
seamless transition to routine commissioning of pre-exposure prophylaxis upon
culmination of the trial. We will set out how the programme will be funded and how
commissioners will be supported very shortly.
Hospitals: Construction
Karin Smyth: [3742]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8
October 2019 to Question 293621 on Hospitals: Construction, if he will publish the
business cases.
Karin Smyth: [3743]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8
October 2019 to Question 293621 on Hospitals: Construction, whether the business
cases will be supported by sustainability and transformation partnerships.
Karin Smyth: [3745]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8
October 2019 to Question 293621 on Hospitals: Construction, if he will publish the scores
achieved by applicant schemes against the criteria referred to in paragraph five of the
answer.
Edward Argar:
National Health Service organisations undertaking investment schemes are required
to produce business cases to support their decisions. Business cases are prepared
by the NHS. The Department does not routinely publish business cases and the
decision to publish the outline or full business cases this would be for the lead NHS
organisation.
Business cases will be supported by a range of stakeholders including sustainability
and transformation partnerships and NHS regional teams. We have announced
changes to the process for approving business cases, including looking at offering
more assistance for providers in developing their business cases, potentially
releasing some funding earlier, and streamlining the approvals process for submitted
cases.
The schemes on the shortlist of 21 projects, covering 34 hospitals were not assigned
a “score”. The criteria used to arrive at the 21 projects identified to receive seed
funding to kick start their schemes considered various aspects. The estates and
facilities running costs were a factor and backlog, in particular Critical Infrastructure
Risk (a subset of the highest risk elements of backlog with a potential for significant
impact e.g. fire safety). Other areas considered were unused and functionally
unsuitable space and incidents having an impact on clinical services. Furthermore,
the list was checked to ensure regions were fairly represented. All this took place with
engagement through NHS regional teams taking their view on overall investment
need and local prioritisation.
Immigrants: Health Services
Thangam Debbonaire: [5454]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion
of people paying the immigration healthcare surcharge required healthcare in the 2018-
19 financial year; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of that
healthcare.
Edward Argar:
This information is not collected by the Department.
In July 2018, the Government published an impact assessment. The impact
assessment is available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/126/pdfs/ukia_20180126_en.pdf
On the immigration health surcharge which included an estimation that the average
cost of a surcharge payer to the National Health Service was approximately £480.
Incontinence: Medical Treatments
Rosie Cooper: [5414]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's
policy that continence challenges should be (a) considered and (b) treated by NHS
England to be a long-term condition.
Caroline Dinenage:
Continence challenges are already being considered as part of the National Bowel
and Bladder Health Project to support the delivery of the ambitions of the Excellence
in Continence Care Programme within the National Health Service. This is led by
NHS England and NHS Improvement and is aimed at improving the experience of
care for patients and their carers.
This programme will work towards a model of care which takes into account the
expertise and resources of the people with long-term conditions and their
communities, which the National Bowel and Bladder project aims to support via the
clinical pathway workstreams. This will help to provide a holistic approach to patient
care and lives, and help individuals achieve the best outcomes possible.
Intensive Care: Private Sector
Dr Rupa Huq: [3798]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made
of the implications of his Department’s policy of outsourcing healthcare for patients in
need of intense 24 hour care.
Edward Argar:
This Government is fully committed to the National Health Service as a public service
free at the point of need, whether care is provided by NHS organisations or by the
private, voluntary or social enterprise sectors.
No assessment has been made by the Department of the implications of outsourcing
healthcare for patients, which in this instance we have taken to mean intense 24-hour
NHS-Continuing Healthcare care. It is the responsibility of commissioners of NHS
healthcare services to ensure that the NHS provides the highest quality of services
possible, on a financially and operationally sustainable footing. For that reason, the
Department neither bans nor promotes the use of the private, voluntary or social
enterprise sectors – the key is whether outcomes for patients improve.
Lighting: Health Hazards
Tracey Crouch: [3627]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his
Department has made of the correlation between LED lighting in offices and (a) migraines
and (b) other health conditions.
Jo Churchill:
Public Health England (PHE) considers the impact of optical radiation on health, both
from artificial and natural sources. There is currently insufficient evidence to develop
specific advice on the link between the symptoms of migraines and other health
conditions to Light Emitting Diode lighting in offices. PHE will continue to monitor the
scientific literature in this area.
Mental Health Services: Children
Mr Ranil Jayawardena: [4405]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of
3 October 2019 to Question 294220 on Children: Mental Health, if he will make it his
policy to collect data on the number of children provided with (a) therapy and (b)
psychiatric medication for eco-anxiety.
Ms Nadine Dorries:
We have no plans to do so.
NHS and Social Services: Agency Workers
Mr Damian Hinds: [3731]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of
the cost to the (a) NHS and (b) social care system of (i) fees, (ii) markups and (ii)
commissions to supply agencies for (A) clinical and (B) other staff.
Edward Argar:
In 2018/19, National Health Service trusts spent £2.40 billion on agency staff,
including clinical and non-clinical staff. Between March 2018 and March 2019, £938
million was spent on agency medical staff, £950 million on agency nursing staff and
£513 million on other staff.1
NHS Improvement’s agency rules include a cap which sets a ceiling for agency fees.
Full details of the NHS Improvement price caps are attached.
The Department does not hold data that shows the breakdown of fees, markups and
commissions.
The Department does not hold this data for social care. The Skills for Care
programme estimates that in 2018/19 agency social care staff represented 7% of the
1.52 million people strong adult social care workforce. 2
Notes:
[1]
https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/5404/Performance_of_the_NHS_provider_se
ctor_for_the_quarter_4_1819.pdf
2https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-
intelligence/documents/State-of-the-adult-social-care-sector/State-of-Report-2019.pdf
NHS: Disclosure of Information
Karin Smyth: [3746]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8
October 2019 to Question 293626 on NHS: Disclosure of Information whether the FOI
(Civil Procurement) Policy and Guidance Version 2.0 applies to commissioners of NHS
services.
Edward Argar:
The document ‘FOI (Civil Procurement) Policy and Guidance Version 2.0’ was
published by the Office of Government in November 2008. The document provides
policy and guidance on how requests for civil procurement-related information under
the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) should be handled. Whilst primarily aimed at
central Government Departments, it has application across the wider public sector
wherever civil procurement is practised.
The guidance states that this document represents the Government’s view of the
application of the FOI to public procurement information but that the guidance is only
intended as a starting point and public authorities remain responsible for making their
own judgements in individual cases.
Orkambi
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3577]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his
Department has made on negotiations between NHS England and Vertex
pharmaceuticals on making Orkambi available on the NHS for people diagnosed with
cystic fibrosis.
Jo Churchill:
On 24 October, NHS England and NHS Improvement announced that a deal had
been agreed with the company Vertex to make Orkambi and its other licensed cystic
fibrosis drugs available to National Health Service patients in England.
This deal, while commercially confidential, constitutes good value for the NHS, is
backed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and will benefit
around 5,000 patients with cystic fibrosis. NHS England and NHS Improvement have
announced that there is no cap on patient numbers and all patients who might benefit
can now get these treatments on the NHS. Clinicians will be able to begin prescribing
these drugs within 30 days of this announcement.
Palliative Care: Expenditure
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3568]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was
allocated to palliative care in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North
East and (d) the UK in each year since 2010.
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3569]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospices have
closed in the (a) North East and (b) UK in each year since 2010.
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3570]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many operational hospices
there were in (a) the North East, and (b) the UK in each year since 2010.
Caroline Dinenage:
Data on the total funding allocated to hospice services in England is not routinely
collected centrally, as the vast majority of funding decisions are a matter for local
commissioners. Funding in the constituent countries of the United Kingdom is a
matter for the devolved administration of those countries.
Palliative Care: Finance
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3571]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department
plans to allocate to end of life care in each of the next five years.
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3572]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on the funding
of hospices; and what levels of funding his Department plans to allocate to palliative care
in each financial year until 2025.
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [3573]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on allocating
funding to hospices in (a) the North East and (b) the UK; and what level of funding his
Department plans to allocate to palliative care in each financial year until 2025.
Caroline Dinenage:
As with the vast majority of National Health Service services, the commissioning of
palliative and end of life care is a local matter, over which individual clinical
commissioning groups (CCGs) have responsibility. CCGs are best placed to
understand the needs of local populations and allocate funding for services to meet
those needs from the overall resource allocations they receive.
Much of the palliative care patients receive will be provided either in outpatient or
community settings, by nurses, community teams or general practitioners (GPs) as
part of general NHS services provision, rather than as an identified palliative care
service. In such services, data are either not available or do not identify palliative
treatment. In addition, social and voluntary sector organisations can provide
additional support to patients and the end of life. Therefore, figures for the total cost
or allocation of funding for palliative and end of life care services are not available.
The vast majority of hospices were established from charitable and philanthropic
donations and are therefore primarily charity-funded and independently run.
However, they receive some statutory funding from CCGs and the Government for
providing local NHS services. The majority of decisions regarding the statutory
funding hospices receive, are a local matter.
Published in January 2019, the NHS Long Term Plan has a commitment to match
CCGs up to £7 million from NHS England for Children and Young People’s Palliative
and End of Life Care (CYP PEOLC), on condition of £7 million match funding from
CCGs by 2023/24. This will create a total planned additional spending of at least
£14million a year for CYP PEOLC services across all providers.
In addition, on 20 August the Government announced that £25 million in funding for
hospices and palliative care services. This will help alleviate pressures on hospices
and boost our local palliative care services; providing for new services – such as out-
of-hours support, respite care and specialist community teams. Importantly, the
funding is for adults and children and young people’s hospices and palliative
services; this is non-recurrent funding and the £25 million announcement relates to
2019/20 only and; the money is to be spent locally, improving care for patients as
soon as possible.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to get this money into local
areas as a priority and have uplifted CCG resource allocations to reflect the new
funding this month. The expectation is that CCGs work collaboratively to assign the
money to hospices and palliative services as a sustainability and transformation
partnership (STP) across their STP footprint.
On 1 July 2019, the Government announced plans to increase Children’s Hospice
grant from £12 million in 2019/20 to £25 million by 2023/24. The grant is provided to
children’s hospices to compensate for lower levels of local statutory funding they
receive, compared to adult hospices. The planned grant allocations by financial year
are as follows: 2020/21 £15 million; 2021/22 £17 million; 2022/23 £21 million;
2023/24 £25 million. Plans for financial year 2024/25 yet to be developed as the Long
Term Plan only covers the period to 2023/24.
Secure Accommodation: Autism
Ann Clwyd: [3584]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people with
autism placed in secure accommodation in England in 2018-2019 were held in seclusion.
Ann Clwyd: [3585]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people with
autism placed in secure accommodation in England in 2015 were held in seclusion.
Caroline Dinenage:
The data is not held centrally in the format requested.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to achieving at least a 50% reduction in the
number of people with a learning disability or autism who are inpatients in mental
health hospitals by 2023/24. The NHS Planning Guidance requires a 35% reduction
as soon as possible in 2019/20.
In May 2019, the Care Quality Commission published their thematic review interim
report regarding the use of restrictive interventions in settings that provide inpatient
and residential care for people with, or who might have, mental health problems,
learning disabilities and/or autism. We accepted all the recommendations and will
undertake independent reviews of the care of everyone with a learning disability or
autism detained in long-term segregation.
The Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 applies in relation to the use of
force (restraint) in mental health units which provide National Health Service-funded
treatment.
The aim of the Act is to bring more rigour and accountability around the recording,
reporting and training of staff in the use of force in mental health units, with a view to
reducing the use of restrictive practices.
The Act applies to all patients, children, young people and adults, who are being
assessed or receiving treatment in a mental health unit.
Ann Clwyd: [3586]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people with
autism were placed in secure accommodation in 2018-19.
Ann Clwyd: [3587]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of
the number of young people with autism placed in secure beds in hospitals since October
2015.
Caroline Dinenage:
The Assuring Transformation (AT) dataset provides data on the numbers of people
with a learning disability and/or autism receiving inpatient care commissioned by the
National Health Service in England. The AT dataset does not cover other secure
settings such as young offender institutions or secure children’s homes.
According to the AT dataset, the number of inpatients under the age of 18 with autism
in a secure hospital ward between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019 was 70.
The following table shows the number of inpatients under the age of 18 with autism in
a secure hospital ward by year, from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2019,
according to the AT dataset.
DATE NUMBER OF INPATIENTS*
1 October 2015 – 30 September 2016 60
1 October 2016 – 30 September 2017 45
1 October 2017 – 30 September 2018 70
1 October 2018 – 30 September 2019 70
Note:
The Assuring Transformation collection covers England, but includes patients whose
care is commissioned in England and provided elsewhere in the UK. These figures
represent the number of patients who are receiving inpatient care at the end of each
month. Figures have not been revised with more recent information, but show the
position at the end of each month as extracted from the system at that time.
Values have been rounded to the nearest five to minimise disclosure risks associated
with small numbers.
Some patients have not been formally diagnosed with either a learning disability or
autism but remain in the collection as they are understood to fall under one of these
categories and as such were returned by data submitters.
The above table includes patients who are under 18 at the start of the reporting year
but may have turned 18 during the year.
Inpatients may appear across more than one year.
Sepsis: Health Education
Mr Jim Cunningham: [5401]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whats steps he is taking to
improve public awareness and understanding of sepsis.
Ms Nadine Dorries:
The Government continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis,
through initiatives like Public Health England (PHE)’s national Start4life Information
Service for Parents email programme, which targets parents of children under five-
years-old; leaflets, posters and a content-rich social media toolkit for partners to use
on their own channels are available for them to raise awareness at a community
level. PHE has also worked in partnership with Mumsnet, a leading digital platform for
parents, to raise awareness through editorial and social media promotion.
Social Prescribing: Training
Vicky Foxcroft: [3732]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 27 of the
Government's Loneliness strategy, what progress his Department has made on piloting a
new accredited learning programme for social prescribing link workers.
Jo Churchill:
NHS England has supported the development of a Level 3 Certificate in Social
Prescribing, which is currently being piloted with a group of link workers across the
North of England. An online learning programme has also been created working with
Health Education England and partners. The first module is now live and can be
found at the following link:
www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/social-prescribing/
Syringes
Mr Jim Cunningham: [5398]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to
introduce needle and syringe exchanges for drugs users.
Jo Churchill:
Needle exchange and syringe services have played a vital role in harm reduction
since the 1980s, reducing the number of drug-related deaths and blood-borne virus
infections, particularly hepatitis C and HIV. They are commissioned by local
authorities and are supported in this by Public Health England. The United Kingdom’s
drug treatment clinical guidelines published in 2017 includes guidance on needle and
syringe programmes and is available at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm
ent_data/file/673978/clinical_guidelines_2017.pdf
HOME OFFICE
British Nationality: Assessments
Alex Chalk: [346]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is
taking to ensure that the Life in the UK citizenship test questions are intelligible and
accessible to applicants of all backgrounds and age groups.
Seema Kennedy:
The Life in the UK test is based on the Life in the UK handbook, “Life in the UK: a
guide for new residents”. The test is administered by PSI on behalf of the Home
Office. The questions were set with the assistance of linguistic experts and
professional question writers.
The tests have a number of accessibility features which are available to all
candidates. These include the ability to adjust settings and use audio. Additional
tailored access arrangements can be provided by test centres.
British Nationality: Children
Rushanara Ali: [3833]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what use is made of the £1,012
fee when an application to register a child as British is rejected.
Seema Kennedy:
Refunds are not provided when applications are refused. It is made clear that the fee
paid is for the consideration of an application and is payable regardless of the
decision made.
Fee income is retained by the Home Office and funds the direct and indirect costs
associated with the provision of chargeable visa and immigration services, and also
contributes towards the cost of the wider immigration system, as permitted under
Section 68(9) of the 2014 Immigration Act.
Hampshire Constabulary: ICT
Stephen Morgan: [4392]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an
assessment of the effect of Hampshire police service's new contact management
platform on the effectiveness of Hampshire police officers; and if she will make a
statement.
Kit Malthouse:
Contact management is an operational matter for policing. Decisions about the
allocation of police resources and deployment of officers are for Chief Constables
and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. They are
responsible for ensuring the needs of the local community are met.
Stephen Morgan: [4393]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion
of the budget of Hampshire police has been allocated to the implementation of its contact
management platform in (a) each year since its inception and (b) 2019 to date.
Stephen Morgan: [4394]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her
Department has had with the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner on Hampshire
police service's contact management platform; and if she will make a statement.
Kit Malthouse:
Contact management is an operational matter for policing. Decisions about the
allocation of police resources and deployment of officers are for Chief Constables
and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. They are
responsible for ensuring the needs of the local community are met.
Home Office: Pay
Chris Stephens: [1735]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the pay system in her
Department has been changed to take account of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling
on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Mr G Willetts and Others on holiday pay and
voluntary overtime; and whether affected workers in her Department have been given
back pay as a result of that ruling.
Victoria Atkins:
The Home Office currently has a form of Holiday Pay allowance built into the pay
system. The Home Office is aware of the Employment Appeal Tribunal referred to in
the Question, and the implications for our approach to pay. The Department has
signalled to the Trades Unions in Summer 2019 that it intends to open negotiations
on this subject later in 2019. Decisions on back pay will be taken as part of the
negotiations process.
Immigrants: Glasgow Central
Alison Thewliss: [1910]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Glasgow
Central are designated as having no recourse to public funds.
Victoria Atkins:
The no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition is applied to the leave to enter and
remain of most migrants in the UK as a legitimate means of maintaining and
protecting our economic resources.
Information about NRPF is held on individual case files and to provide this
information would require a manual search and would exceed the disproportionate
cost threshold. Wider population data, such as that requested in relation to Glasgow
Central, is not held by the Home Office.
Immigration: EU Nationals
Kate Green: [3629]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the £9 million
funding for voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals applying to the EU
Settlement Scheme has been allocated; and how much funding has been allocated to
each voluntary organisation.
Kate Green: [3630]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will extend beyond March
2020 the period of funding for voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals
in applying for the EU Settlement Scheme.
Kate Green: [3632]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what equality impact
assessment has been made of the extent to which each protected characteristic under
the Equality Act 2009 has been allocated funding through voluntary organisations to
support vulnerable EU nationals applying to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Kate Green: [3633]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans are in place to
ensure that funding for voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals in
applying to the EU Settlement Scheme is allocated adequately to geographical areas
where individuals with certain protected characteristics are concentrated.
Brandon Lewis:
Details of the grant funding and payment allocations remain commercial in
confidence therefore the funding amount allocated, and the amounts to each
voluntary organisation cannot be disclosed.
All grant funded organisations are required to submit quarterly returns, reporting on
outcomes to the Home Office. The Home Office is currently evaluating the quarter
two return. Consideration of the need and effectiveness of any further funding will be
done thereafter.
A policy equality statement has been completed for the EU Settlement Scheme
ensuring the scheme is accessible to all and does not discriminate based on any
protected characteristic. The grant fund was open to any voluntary and community
sector organisations.
The fund concentrates on delivering a service based on supporting vulnerabilities
such as, but not limited to, homelessness, disability, age, victims of domestic violence
and trafficking. The organisations that were successful in their bid for funding
demonstrated their ability to provide practical support and outreach to the most
vulnerable EEA citizens and family members of EEA citizens.
Funding was awarded based on expected numbers of vulnerable people that could
be supported by the organisation, the geographical reach of the organisation and
their ability to mobilise within the required timeframes.
Hywel Williams: [511]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has
made of the number of elderly and vulnerable applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme;
and what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of support provided to those
applicants.
Brandon Lewis:
The number of applications to the EU Settled Status scheme are regularly monitored
and reviewed against forecasts.
There is a range of direct and indirect support available for vulnerable EU citizens.
This ranges from the telephone helpline available where citizens and their carers and
helpers can discuss any aspect of the application with a trained caseworker at any
point during the process.
For those who need assistance with IT, the Home Office has put in place an Assisted
Digital solution which provides support over the phone, at one of around 300 local
centres across the UK or at home with a trained tutor.
We have also provided up to £9 million of grant funding in this financial year to 57
voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK. These organisations
are being funded and supported by the Home Office to deliver practical assistance to
vulnerable or at-risk EU citizens in applying to the scheme. More than 40 of the
organisations included the provision of support for older people in their bid for
funding. Further information can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-community-
support-for-vulnerable-citizens/list-of-organisations
We have also provided a paper application form for those whose specific individual
needs require it.
The Home Office is working with a range of other government departments and
stakeholders to identify how we can best support vulnerable adults with significant
care and support needs, including those in care homes.
Immigration: Families
Alex Norris: [358]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to extend
Family Immigration Rules for Dependent Relatives to include British Citizens intending to
return to the UK with their dependent relative.
Seema Kennedy:
The family Immigration Rules set out the requirements to be met to allow any adult
dependant relative of a British citizen to come to the UK. The applicant must be
outside the UK and in most cases, the sponsor will be in the UK.
The adult dependant relative rules, together with the policy on exceptional
circumstances, ensure that leave can be granted for those who demonstrate that, as
a result of age, illness or disability, there is a level of long-term personal care required
that can only be provided in the UK by their British relative who is here, or who is
intending to return here with their dependant relative.
Immigration: Windrush Generation
Afzal Khan: [697]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her
Department has had with the office of Wendy Williams on a timetable for taking delivery
of the final report of the Windrush lessons learned review.
Seema Kennedy:
The Windrush Lessons Learned Review is an independent review, and all
engagement must respect this independence. As expected for this type of review, the
Department and the review team have engaged routinely and will continue to use this
engagement to confirm the timetable for delivery of the final report.
Police Interrogation: Standards
Nic Dakin: [998]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to make it a
requirement for police forces to adhere to a structured interview protocol.
Kit Malthouse:
The use of specific techniques, within lawful bounds, remains an operational matter
for chief constables. We will continue to support the police to ensure they can
effectively investigate crime and protect the public.
Police: Safety
Stephen Morgan: [4387]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking in
addition to her urgent review of the safety of police officers to protect officers on the front
line.
Kit Malthouse:
We are committed to ensuring that the police have the support and protection they
need, and we welcome the NPCC-led Officer Safety Review. The Government has
outlined its commitment via the Queens Speech to bring forward a Police Protection
Bill to give police the support and protection the police need to do their jobs
effectively and safely.
We have set out a vision for a new Police Covenant, recognising the bravery and
commitment of officers who work night and day to keep us safe. We plan to focus on
physical protection for officers, their health and wellbeing and support for their
families.
The Government has also recently announced a £10 million ring fenced fund to
support chief constables to buy more Tasers to ensure frontline officers are better
protected. £10 million in ring fenced funding could mean over 10,000 more police
officers in England and Wales will be able to carry the devices to help protect
themselves and the public from harm.
HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Buildings: Insulation
Mr Steve Reed: [3621]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with
reference to his Department's data release entitled Building Safety Programme: Monthly
Data Release for August 2019 published on 12 September 2019, how many of the 1,494
non-ACM cladding samples held at the Building Research Establishment contain
combustible materials.
Esther McVey:
[Holding answer 28 October 2019]: The screening programme set up after the
Grenfell fire tragedy was focussed on identifying and the types of aluminium
composite materials received. 1,421 samples of other materials were also submitted
but these were not suitable for the screening tests. A detailed explanation of the
screening tests is set out in this note published in June 2017.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-note-on-safety-checks-and-
testing.
The non-Aluminuim Composite Materials (ACM) samples were catalogued but it is
not possible given their size and condition to reliably identify and classify each
sample. These samples would not provide reliable or representative indication of the
materials currently present on the existing building stock, this is because only those
buildings with ACM cladding systems were asked to submit samples.
I refer also to my answer of 24 January to question UIN 210599.
Sarah Jones: [4433]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will
publish the feedback from (a) the expert panel on building safety and (b) other
organisations that his Department consulted on whether Advice Note 14 on external wall
systems that do not incorporate aluminium composite material should be revised.
Esther McVey:
[Holding answer 28 October 2019]: Advice Note 14 was published for Building
Owners to take appropriate action to ensure their buildings are safe. The Department
has received representations from industry seeking clarification on Advice Note 14.
These representations are being considered in conjunction with the Independent
Expert Advisory Panel.
Buildings: Safety
John Healey: [4271]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether
he plans to present his legislative proposals on safety standards to Parliament in the form
of a draft Bill.
John Healey: [4272]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he
plans to bring forward his legislative proposals on building safety standards.
Esther McVey:
[Holding answer 28 October 2019]: This government is committed to bringing
forward legislation that delivers meaningful and lasting change at the earliest
opportunity.
Our consultation, Building a Safer Future: proposals for reform of the building safety
regulatory system, closed on 31 July 2019, and we will be providing a response by
the end of this year. A decision on whether the Bill will be published in draft will be
taken in due course.
We are not waiting for legislation to begin reforming the system – we are acting now
to fix existing problems, trial new approaches and encourage industry to lead the
necessary culture change. In his statement to the House on 5 September (Official
Report, column 372), my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State updated the House,
reporting on our progress in a range of areas.
Housing: Construction
John Healey: [5403]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
estimate he has made of the number of homes that will be built in each of the next five
years.
Esther McVey:
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not publish
estimates of the number of homes that will be built in future years. As part of its latest
Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2019, the Office for Budget
Responsibility produced forecasts of private enterprise housing completions and net
additions to the housing stock for each quarter until the end of the forecast period in
2023-24.
The government is committed to build the homes that the country needs and is
aiming to deliver 300,000 homes a year on average by the mid-2020s. Over 1.3
million new homes have been delivered since 2010, including over 430,000
affordable homes. In the latest year, over 222,000 additional homes were delivered –
the highest level in all but one of the last 31 years.
Housing: Insulation
Mr Steve Reed: [2877]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
estimate he has made of the number of homes in England that have been valued at £0 as
a result of surveyors being unable to confirm that (a) cladding and (b) insulation in those
homes was not flammable.
Esther McVey:
[Holding answer 24 October 2019]: Ministers are aware of these issues and the
department is working at pace to find solutions. Officials are supporting the Royal
Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and wider industry to improve, for example,
the process through which building owners share relevant information with lenders to
provide reassurance.
Sarah Jones: [4437]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether
his Department has received representations on mortgage lenders and building insurers
requiring additional information due to Government Advice Note 14 on external wall
systems that do not incorporate Aluminium Composite Material.
Esther McVey:
[Holding answer 28 October 2019]: The Department has received correspondence
from individuals looking to sell, buy or remortgage properties in some high-rise
residential blocks highlighting that lenders are requesting additional information about
the external wall system of the building. Building owners should share relevant
information and professional reports with lenders to assist in their lending decisions.
Local Plans: Oxfordshire
Layla Moran: [5473]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
discussions he has had with Oxfordshire County Council officers on that council
potentially taking over responsibility for South Oxfordshire District Council's local plan.
Esther McVey:
The Secretary of State has not conducted any discussions with Oxfordshire County
Council about taking over responsibility for South Oxfordshire District Council’s local
plan.
Loneliness
Vicky Foxcroft: [3661]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with
reference to page 43 of the Government's loneliness strategy, what progress his
Department has made on funding research into the impact of community-led housing and
cohousing on loneliness.
Esther McVey:
The Department has recently tendered for a research contract to explore the
effectiveness with which community-led housing (and cohousing in particular)
addresses loneliness. Specifically, the impact of housing interventions on loneliness;
understand the impact of community-led housing and co-housing on reducing
loneliness across all ages; and to explore best practice in housing schemes that
promote social cohesion.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Brexit
Mary Glindon: [5027]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
equality impact assessment his Department has undertaken on the selection of staff for
normal hours day time working in the Departmental Operations Centre on the UK leaving
the EU without a deal.
Jake Berry:
Working in our DOC under a normal hours day time arrangement is no different to
other such arrangements for roles elsewhere in the Department and does not require
a specific or separate equality impact assessment. All staff deployed in our DOC will
be assigned to roles commensurate with their grade and will be provided with
appropriate training and support. Our existing policies and proactive diversity and
inclusion agenda ensures all staff are treated fairly including those with protected
characteristics.
Layla Moran: [5474]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how
many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department have been internally
reassigned to preparations for the UK leaving the EU from oversight of local plans (a) in
the last month, (b) in the last six months, (c) in the last 12 months and (d) since the 2016
EU referendum.
Jake Berry:
We do not have a record of the number of staff who have been internally reassigned
to preparations for the UK leaving the EU against a definition of ‘oversight of local
plans’ or for the specific time periods specified. We can confirm that throughout the
time periods specified the highest number of staff redeployed from other duties was
in week commencing 21 October 2019 when a total of 219 Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) staff were working within our
Departmental Operations Centre (DOC), approximately 9.5 per cent of all MHCLG
staff. We did not separately record the number of staff working in the DOC prior to the
government’s decision to increase no deal preparations in December 2018 and at
that time the number of people working in the DOC was approximately 40,
approximately 2 per cent of all MHCLG staff.
Ms Lisa Forbes: [5481]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
estimate he has made of the number of staff his Department will need to work on a (a)
two and (b) three shift pattern to staff the Departmental Operations Centre in the event
that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Jake Berry:
The current estimates are that a two shift working arrangement in our Departmental
Operations Centre would require 389 people and a three shift working arrangement
would require 621 people in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Muslims: Discrimination
Yasmin Qureshi: [4975]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with
reference to the Integrated Communities Action Plan published in February 2019,
whether his Department has facilitated meetings between the Anti-Muslim Hatred
Working Group and the Independent Press Standards Organisation to help them to
develop guidance for editors and journalists to tackle unnecessary negative portrayals of
Muslims in the media.
Jake Berry:
Members of the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group continue to engage with the
Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) on the development of guidance
for editors and journalists on the reporting of Muslims in the media. Members are
currently working with IPSO to develop and refine the guidance. This work is an
important contribution towards commitments set out in the Integrated Communities
Action Plan and Government’s Hate Crime Action Plan refresh.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Developing Countries: Tuberculosis
Nic Dakin: [4996]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment his
department has made of (a) the implications for his policies of the WHO report entitled
Global Tuberculosis Report 2019 and (b) the potential effect of a new TB vaccine on
achieving the (i) SDG target of ending the TB epidemic by 2030 and (ii) WHO End TB
Strategy of reducing TB deaths by 95% and cutting new cases of TB by 90% between
2015 and 2035.
Dr Andrew Murrison:
The Global Tuberculosis Report 2019 provides important evidence on the challenge
in tackling tuberculosis as an issue of global public health importance. We remain
committed to the global effort and the World Health Organisation End Tuberculosis
Strategy. We are proud to be at the forefront of work to prevent, detect and treat
tuberculosis, including funding research to develop new treatments to tackle drug
resistant tuberculosis. Our commitment to provide £1.4 billion to the latest
replenishment of the Global Fund will help provide tuberculosis treatment and care
for over 2 million people.
A new tuberculosis vaccine could potentially have a significant effect on reducing
tuberculosis deaths, and there is cautious optimism about the results for one potential
vaccine, although there is still a very high degree of uncertainty for this high-risk
research. DFID carefully considers robust data on specific vaccines before taking a
view on its role in tackling a disease, including its relative impact alongside other
established interventions.
Yemen: International Assistance
Keith Vaz: [4267]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate his
Department has made of the extent of the fulfilment of pledges of humanitarian aid by
British allies towards the Yemen Humanitarian Response plan.
Dr Andrew Murrison:
The UN’s 2019 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is 69.5% funded so far this
year.
We thank all donors who have provided funding, including Saudi Arabia, the United
Arab Emirates and Kuwait, who provided approximately $800 million between them in
September.
We continue to encourage all donors to rapidly release their remaining pledges and
consider providing further funding.
JUSTICE
Courts
Yasmin Qureshi: [4973]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of (a) court rooms and (b)
courts were sitting on each day from January 1 2019 to 20 October 2019 in all criminal
courts.
Chris Philp:
The information requested about what proportion of (a) court rooms and (b) courts
were sitting on each day from January 1 2019 to 20 October 2019 in all criminal
courts could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Yasmin Qureshi: [5420]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sitting court days there have been in
each year since 2010.
Chris Philp:
The official statistics for judge sitting days (tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 of the Civil Justice
Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2019) were withdrawn on 5 September 2019,
due to data discrepancies that were discovered after publication on 6 June 2019 and
deemed potentially misleading to users. These discrepancies remain under
investigation and, in line with the Code of Practice on Statistics, the Chief Statistician
and Head of Profession decided to withdraw these tables until the investigations were
complete. The revised figures will be published in due course, and will provide the
total sitting days in Family, Civil and Crown courts.
Courts: Finance
Faisal Rashid: [5100]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will increase funding for (a) magistrates
courts and (b) county courts to prevent court closures.
Chris Philp:
HM Courts & Tribunals Service assesses the court and tribunal estate against its
estates principles - ensuring access to justice, delivering value for money and
enabling efficiency in longer-term.
The decision to close any court is not taken lightly – it only happens following full
public consultation and only when effective access to justice can be maintained.
Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to one
another with every penny of those closed since 2016 reinvested in the justice system.
We have always been clear that our Reform Programme will result in the need for
fewer court and tribunal buildings and that this will only happen when there is sound
evidence that people are using them less.
There are currently no active proposals to close further crown or magistrates’ courts
beyond those already announced.
Criminal Proceedings: Translation Services
Yasmin Qureshi: [4974]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases have been adjourned due to a
lack of translation or interpreting services in each week since the start of 2019 in all
criminal courts.
Chris Philp:
The Ministry does not hold weekly statistical figures for the information requested.
However, central information does exist on the number of trials listed in the criminal
courts which were adjourned as a result of interpreters being unavailable in quarterly
figures. This data is published in Criminal Court Statistics, “Trial effectiveness at the
criminal courts tool”.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics
Latest published statistics are available to June 2019. Data covering the period July-
September 2019 is provisionally due for publication December 2019.
Our most recent statistics show the total number of language service requests are at
their highest level since the new contract was introduced in 2016 and the vast
majority of these were fulfilled.
Judiciary
Yasmin Qureshi: [4972]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many days (a) recorders and (b) judges
have sat in each of the last 12 months.
Chris Philp:
The official statistics for judge sitting days (tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 of the Civil Justice
Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2019) were withdrawn on 5 September 2019,
due to data discrepancies that were discovered after publication on 6 June 2019 and
deemed potentially misleading to users. These discrepancies remain under
investigation and, in line with the Code of Practice on Statistics, the Chief Statistician
and Head of Profession decided to withdraw these tables until the investigations were
complete. The revised figures will be published in due course, and will provide the
total sitting days in Family, Civil and Crown courts.
Ministry of Justice: Contracts
Richard Burgon: [5068]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the
performance of companies with which his Department holds contracts against key
performance indicators.
Chris Philp:
The MoJ regards well-managed contracts as fundamental to the proper functioning of
the justice system, and a vital part of court and prison reform plans. The MoJ’s
contract management teams closely monitor providers to ensure they fulfil their
contractual commitments to maintain service delivery and value for money.
The Department conducts monthly assessments of the performance of its high
priority contracts using a high-level scorecard. The scorecard assesses the
performance of these contracts along 8 key themes:
• Contractual Compliance;
• Contract Management Processes;
• Finance;
• Operations;
• Risk;
• Disputes;
• Supplier views; and
• Customer views.
Ministry of Justice: Serco
Richard Burgon: [4338]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) fines and (b) other financial penalties
have been paid to his Department by (i) Serco and (ii) Serco subsidiaries for failures to
meet contractual obligations in each year since 2010.
Chris Philp:
This PQ has been interpreted to mean the level of financial remedies that the Ministry
of Justice has been in receipt of from Serco, or Serco subsidiaries, in relation to
failure to meet contractual performance obligations since 2010.
The Ministry of Justice has been in receipt of the following financial remedies from
Serco in relation to failure to meet contractual performance obligations since 2010:
We manage all of our contracts with Serco robustly and deal with any performance
issues in accordance with the mechanisms of the contracts. Overall our Serco
Contracts perform well and the performance management mechanisms in our
contracts are effective in addressing any performance concerns.
For privately managed prisons the total value of financial remedies imposed for each
financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:
FINANCIAL YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2010/2011 £35,982
2011/2012 £44,636
2012/2013 £42,337
2013/2014 £190,521
2014/2015 £293,203
2015/2016 £357,040
2016/2017 £568,471
2017/2018 £162,717
2018/2019 £91,703
2019/2020 (Q1 reported only £0
For the Prison Escort and Custody Service (PECS) the total value of financial
remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the
below table:
FINANCIAL YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2010/2011 £157,000
2011/2012 £315,000
2012/2013 £207,000
2013/2014 £478,000
2014/2015 £578,000
2015/2016 £625,000
2016/2017 £525,000
2017/2018 £445,000
2018/2019 £210,000
2019/2020 (Year to date) £9,000
For the Hassockfield STC the total value of financial remedies imposed for each
financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:
FINANCIAL YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2010/2011 £0
2011/2012 £0
2012/2013 £990
2013/2014 £2,250
Ministry of Justice: Sodexo
Richard Burgon: [4337]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) fines and (b) other financial penalties
have been paid to his Department by (i) Sodexo and (ii) Sodexo subsidiaries for failures
to meet contractual obligations in each year since 2010.
Chris Philp:
This PQ has been interpreted to mean the level of financial remedies that the Ministry
of Justice has been in receipt of from Sodexo, or Sodexo subsidiaries, in relation to
failure to meet contractual performance obligations since 2010.
We manage all of our privately managed prison contracts with Sodexo, or Sodexo
subsidiaries, robustly and deal with any performance issues in accordance with the
mechanisms of the contracts. Privately managed prison providers achieve the
majority of their contractual targets; however, we will not hesitate to take action where
standards fall short.
For privately managed prisons the total value of financial remedies imposed for each
financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:
FINANCIAL YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2010/2011 £48,000
2011/2012 £0
2012/2013 £103,091
2013/2014 £86,153
2014/2015 £70,381
2015/2016 £273,056
2016/2017 £458,516
2017/2018 £451,335
2018/2019 £667,971
2019/2020 (Q1 only) £15,027
For CRCs the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has
been provided and is included in the below table:
FINANCIAL YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2015/2016 £329,250.84
2016/2017 £1,029,755.43
2017/2018 £116,310.20
2018/2019 £113,390.62
For facilities management contracts the total value of financial remedies imposed for
each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:
CALENDAR YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2018 £107,000
CALENDAR YEAR VALUE OF FINANCIAL REMEDY
2019 (Year to date) £31,500
Pleural Plaques: Compensation
Julian Sturdy: [3639]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to re-establish the right to
compensation for people in England and Wales who developed pleural plaques as a
result of exposure to asbestos.
Wendy Morton:
The Government has no plans to reopen the pleural plaques compensation scheme,
which operated between 2 August 2010 and 1 August 2011.
The scheme operated as an extra-statutory one, making £5000 payments on an ex-
gratia basis to applicants who fulfilled the scheme’s criteria, namely that they were
individuals who had begun, but not resolved, a legal claim for compensation for
pleural plaques at the time of the House of Lords ruling in October 2007 in the case
of Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd [2007] UKHL 39. That ruling had held that
the occurrence of pleural plaques is not a compensatable disease.
Eligibility for the scheme was limited to that category of people as they would have
had an understandable expectation of receiving compensation when they began their
claim, an expectation which would not have been shared by those diagnosed later.
Prison Officers
Richard Burgon: [5069]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy
of the number of prison officers.
Lucy Frazer:
Our hard-working officers play a crucial role in keeping prisons safe and transforming
offenders’ lives, and ultimately make sure the public is protected.
We recognise the need to recruit and retain staff to keep our prisons secure. We
have invested significantly in increase staff numbers, recruiting an additional 4,366
(full time equivalent) prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019,
surpassing our original target of 2,500. We will continue to recruit officers to ensure
prisons are safe and decent.
We’re giving staff the tools they need to do the job safely – rolling out PAVA
incapacitant spray, and investing £100m to bolster security, in addition to £70 million
announced previously, to fund tough airport-style security that will clamp down on the
illicit items which fuel violence and hinder rehabilitation.
Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
Richard Burgon: [5071]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the
effect of employment conditions for prison officers on retention of prison officers.
Lucy Frazer:
We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers. We have improved
induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our
staff and offer additional training. These measures are part of the work we are doing
directly with Governors to address local issues and ensure experienced staff and new
recruits remain in the service.
Prison Officers: Long Service Awards
Mrs Madeleine Moon: [3693]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the
potential merits of changing the eligibility criteria for prison officer long service medals to
enable officers employed in privately managed prisons to receive them; and if he will
make a statement.
Lucy Frazer:
The Prison Service’s (operational duties) Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is
awarded to operational staff in UK Prison Services on completion of 20 years
continuous service. The medals are awarded by HM The Queen and aligns
operational public sector prison staff with other comparable other front line public
services such as the police, fire and ambulance services, and the Armed Forces.
HMPPS has previously approached the Cabinet Office in relation to making this
medal available to staff in private sector prisons. The Cabinet Office confirmed that
there are a series of protocols concerning the issue of medals of this type, one of
which is that they can only be awarded to staff working in public sector prisons (civil
servants) and not those prisons run by private sector companies.
Prison Sentences
Gloria De Piero: [5419]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the population of (a) Ashfield,
(b) Nottinghamshire and (c) England has received a (i) custodial prison sentence and (ii)
suspended prison sentence at some point in their lives.
Lucy Frazer:
This information is not readily available and would require individual court files to be
checked for the required information which would incur disproportionate costs.
Prisoners: Free School Meals
Gloria De Piero: [5417]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population is
estimated to have been eligible for free school meals while they were in education.
Lucy Frazer:
The information requested is not currently collated by HM Prison and Probation
Service.
Upon arrival in custody, offenders are presented with numerous introductory
questions to assist with their reception. However, this does not include historical
information regarding their elibility for free school meals.
Prisoners: Qualifications
Gloria De Piero: [5418]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population left
school without any formal qualifications.
Lucy Frazer:
The information requested is not held by the Department.
The Department for Education publishes data on English & maths assessments
undertaken when someone is received into prison. This can be found via the
following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-education-and-
training
Previous MoJ studies have shown as many as 47% of those entering prison reporting
as having no formal qualifications. As stated in our Education and Employment
Strategy, published in May 2018, we recognise the importance of providing
opportunities for learning for all. Such opportunities are irrespective of previous
educational attainment, and are an important part of helping to change lives and
reduce the risks of reoffending.
Prisons
Mr Ranil Jayawardena: [3793]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce costs across
the prison estate.
Lucy Frazer:
It remains the case that we are investing in our prisons to deliver value for the
taxpayer but, more importantly, rehabilitate offenders to reduce their likelihood of
reoffending – which costs society around £18 billion each year.
As part of the Government’s wider law and order agenda we have committed to:
• Creating an additional 10,000 modern, efficient prison places, to crack down on
crime behind bars. This investment means prison places will become cheaper per
place, per year.
• Investing £100 million to bolster security in jails, introducing tough airport-style
security scanners, mobile phone detection and prevention technology, and anti-
corruption and intelligence operations. This investment will help to reduce drugs
and violence across the estate, leading to an overall reduction in costs for other
public sector agencies associated with prisons, such as the police and the NHS.
• Spending an additional £156 million on maintenance of the prison estate, to update
critical infrastructure such as fire systems and boilers, refurbish cells and showers
and improve conditions for those living and working in prisons requiring the most
urgent attention.
Although we are significantly investing in prisons, we are continuing with efforts to
drive efficiencies across the estate to ensure as much money as possible goes back
into keeping our prisons safe, decent and secure. This includes empowering
Governors to make local decisions on how to spend their budget in a way that
creates the most value for money and efficiency, and through better use of
technology including video conferencing; facial recognition technology; and kiosks.
In addition, we want to support Governors in reaching out into communities to ensure
that we join up across our system and work with others to address the needs of
offenders to stop them coming into or returning to custody.
Prisons: Restraint Equipment
Imran Hussain: [5448]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers in each prison are
deployed with rigid handcuffs.
Lucy Frazer:
We are rolling out rigid-bar handcuffs to prison officers as part of our continued focus
on improving safety and reducing violence.
Before a prison can deploy rigid bar handcuffs, all uniformed staff must be trained in
their use. At the moment, only HMP Stoke Heath has completed its training, and 153
staff have been issued with rigid-bar handcuffs. At HMP Brinsford 43 staff have
completed their training, with a further 13 to be trained by the end of this week. Other
prisons are also at various stages of delivering their training.
In addition to these deployments, rigid-bar handcuffs are also carried by staff of the
National Tactical Response Group and by Regional Search and Dog teams, as part
of the operational response to incidents.
NORTHERN IRELAND
[Subject Heading to be Assigned]
Bob Blackman: [900152]
What progress has been made on restoring devolved government in Northern Ireland.
Julian Smith:
I was disappointed that the parties were unable to reach an accommodation before
the 21 October deadline. Getting Stormont back up and running remains my absolute
priority, and I will do everything in my power to make it happen before the 13 January
deadline. At that point, the choices facing us will be very limited indeed.
Greg Hands: [900154]
What recent discussions he has had with the Irish Government on ensuring that there is
no hard border on the island of Ireland.
Julian Smith:
I have regular discussions with the Irish Government concerning the UK's exit from
the EU.
The Government is fully committed to ensuring there will be no hard border between
Northern Ireland and Ireland. The Prime Minister has negotiated a new deal which
ensures that will be the case.
Chris Green: [900156]
What recent assessment he has made of the economic importance of the tech sector to
Northern Ireland.
Julian Smith:
Northern Ireland continues to benefit from the decision taken by this Government to
build a stronger economy across the whole of the United Kingdom. Of particular
importance, is the Tech Sector, which provides highly skilled and rewarding jobs, as
well as boosting innovation.
The UK Government has announced economic investments of over £600m through
City and Growth Deals and other initiatives that cover all 11 councils in Northern
Ireland. This provides an excellent opportunity for each to enrich their Tech Sector
capabilities, including digital and R&D innovations; and clearly demonstrates the
Government’s continued support for the development of skills provision and growth in
this innovative sector.
Abortion: Northern Ireland
Stella Creasy: [5439]
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when the consultation on section 9 of
the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 will be launched; and what the
terms of the consultation will be.
Julian Smith:
The Government believes that a period of consultation on the issues of abortion law
in Northern Ireland is the right thing to do, given the range of sensitive policy issues
that need to be carefully worked through. We will be looking to shortly launch a
consultation on the proposed new legal framework to be in place by 31 March 2020.
The consultation will focus on how we can deliver the proposed new legislative
framework for Northern Ireland, consistent with the recommendations in the United
Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Report, Inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, to deliver on the statutory duty in section 9
of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019.
Local Growth Deals and City Region Deals: Northern Ireland
Mr Gregory Campbell: [5412]
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what his timescale is for making city
and growth deals payments for Northern Ireland in the event of (a) restoration of
devolution and (b) devolution not being restored in the next 12 months.
Julian Smith:
The release of financial contributions towards City and Growth deals can only be
made with the sign-off of Full Business Cases. The timescale to achieve this is
primarily dependent on the pace and resourcing of the relevant Councils and Deal
partners. For devolved projects, a restored Executive will have to consider the
question of match-funding and agreement of individual projects.
PRIME MINISTER
Members: Surveillance
Chuka Umunna: [5440]
To ask the Prime Minister, with reference to the then Prime Minister’s Written Statement
of 4 November 2015 on the Wilson doctrine, what his policy is on the Wilson doctrine.
Boris Johnson:
The Wilson Doctrine is unchanged from the position set out in my predecessor's
Written Statement of 4 November 2015 (HCWS291).
TRANSPORT
Abellio Greater Anglia: Finance
Andy McDonald: [3770]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the financial performance
data received by his Department from Greater Anglia on 27 September 2019, whether
Abellio Mitsui is fully compliant with the requirements of its franchise agreement.
Chris Heaton-Harris:
The Department can confirm that Greater Anglia was fully compliant with the relevant
financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial
performance data received on 27 September 2019.
Driving Instruction: Electric Vehicles
Douglas Chapman: [3717]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department provides incentives
for driving instructors to use electric vehicles.
George Freeman:
The Department provides incentives through grant funding schemes to assist with the
cost of purchasing new electric vehicles. These incentives are available for all
motorists, including driving instructors. Grant funding schemes are also available to
help pay for installing chargepoints in motorists’ homes, residential streets and
workplaces. All electric vehicle motorists benefit from a favourable tax regime that
rewards the cleanest vehicles.
First TransPennine Express: Finance
Andy McDonald: [3769]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to
Question 239 on First TransPennine Express: Finance and with reference to the financial
performance data received by his Department on 27 September 2019, whether First is
fully compliant with the requirements of its operating franchise agreement.
Chris Heaton-Harris:
The Department can confirm that First TransPennine Express was fully compliant
with the relevant financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the
financial performance data received on 27 September 2019.
Forests
Andy McDonald: [3772]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many woodland clearances have been
(a) proposed and (b) undertaken by Highways England since 2015; and what estimate he
has made of the total number of woodland clearances proposed by HS2 Ltd.
Paul Maynard:
Highways England do not hold data on woodland clearances centrally. Data on
woodland clearance is, however, recorded within the relevant Environmental
Statement or environmental assessment report developed for each project. Given the
various stages at which Highways England’s projects are developed and delivered it
is not possible to provide an accurate figure at this time of how many woodland sites
have been affected.
HS2’s anticipated impacts on woodlands are set out in the Environmental Statements
for each Phase of the project. The route between London and Crewe (Phases One
and 2a) will affect approximately 3.8 square kilometres of woodland (consisting
0.39km2 ancient woodland, 3.4km2 non-ancient). Along the Phase One route alone,
HS2 Ltd will be creating 9 square kilometres of new native woodland. In addition
HS2’s Woodland Fund will create further woodland and enhance the quality of
existing woodlands.
The working draft Environmental Statement for Crewe to Manchester and West
Midlands to Leeds (Phase 2b) assumes approximately 0.5 square kilometres of
woodlands (consisting 0.17km2 ancient, 0.34km2 non-ancient) will be affected.
Further woodland planting similar to Phase One and 2a will be implemented to
mitigate and compensate.
Motorways: Accidents
Andy McDonald: [3774]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the of
accidents on smart motorways.
George Freeman:
The top three contributory factors identified by police officers attending the scene of
collisions on smart motorways, which represent around three quarters of those
identified are:
• Driver/Rider Error (i.e. failed to look properly, loss of control)
• Injudicious Action (i.e. close following, travelling too fast for the conditions);
• Impairment/Distraction (i.e. fatigue, mobile phones and impaired by alcohol).
Northern: Finance
Andy McDonald: [3768]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to
Question 238 on Northern: Finance and with reference to the financial performance data
received by his Department on 27 September 2019, whether Arriva is fully compliant with
the requirements of its operating franchise agreement.
Chris Heaton-Harris:
The Department can confirm that Northern was fully compliant with the relevant
financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial
performance data received on 27 September 2019.
South Western Railway: Finance
Andy McDonald: [3767]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to
Question 231 on South Western Railway: Finance and with reference to the financial
performance data received by his Department on 27 September 2019, whether First
Group and MTR Company are fully compliant with the requirements of its operating
franchise agreement.
Chris Heaton-Harris:
The Department can confirm that South Western Railway was fully compliant with the
relevant financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial
performance data received on 27 September 2019.
UK Trade with EU: Freight
Andy McDonald: [3771]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to
Question 230 on UK Trade with EU: Freight, what estimate he has made of the cost of
terminating government-secured freight capacity contracts if they are not required from
31 October 2019.
Chris Heaton-Harris:
In the event that the capacity is no longer required, DfT would be liable to pay a
maximum of £11.5m in early termination fees though the final figure is expected to be
lower.
TREASURY
Financial Services Ombudsman
Thangam Debbonaire: [5460]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure
that the Financial Services Ombudsman has adequate resources to (a) conduct thorough
investigations and (b) deliver timely decisions on cases.
John Glen:
Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA) is required to take such steps as are necessary to ensure that the Financial
Ombudsman Service (FOS) is capable of exercising its functions, including approving
the FOS’s annual budget. Furthermore, the FOS is subject to statutory audit by the
National Audit Office and must publish reports of determinations.
The FOS and the FCA are operationally independent of Government.
Funerals: Pre-payment
Mr Gregory Campbell: [5413]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the timeframe is for publishing the outcome
of his Department's consultation on a policy proposal for the regulation of pre-paid funeral
plans.
John Glen:
HM Treasury launched a call for evidence on the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans
in June 2018. The call for evidence confirmed that consumer detriment is present in
the pre-paid funeral plan sector and that there is broad demand for the sector to
come under compulsory regulation.
Consequently, the government intends to bring the pre-paid funeral plan market
within the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority and has consulted on the
proposed legislative framework to implement this proposal. The consultation closed
on 25 August and the government is currently reviewing the responses. A response
to the consultation will be published in due course.
Infrastructure
Kelvin Hopkins: [3519]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment the Government has made of
the implications for its policies of the recommendations made by the Institution of Civil
Engineers in its paper entitled Reducing the gap between cost estimates and outturns for
major projects and programmes.
Jesse Norman:
The Government considers all reports from relevant stakeholders, and considerable
work is taking place across government to improve the delivery of infrastructure
projects.
Mineworkers' Pension Scheme
Nick Smith: [5421]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by what date his Department plans to implement
proposals of the Mineworkers' Pensions Scheme on the long-term protection of pension
bonuses for members of that Scheme.
Rishi Sunak:
A decision on the changes has been taken and we will communicate this to interested
parties shortly.
Offshore Funds
Tulip Siddiq: [5470]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many bank accounts are held offshore by
(a) central Government, (b) local government and (c) Government controlled companies.
Tulip Siddiq: [5471]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what work his Department (a) has undertaken in
the last two years and (b) plans to undertake to strengthen the (i) rules on and (ii)
transparency of the use of offshore banking by government.
Tulip Siddiq: [5472]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what (a) work and (b) reviews his Department
has requested from the (i) Ministry of Defence, (ii) Department of Health and Social Care,
(iii) Department for International Development and (iv) Foreign Office on the adequacy of
controls on senior staff using offshore bank accounts.
John Glen:
HM Treasury continues to monitor the value of funds held outside the Exchequer
through regular disclosures made by government departments. These returns include
funds held in offshore bank accounts.
Managing Public Money sets out that it is the responsibility of the organisation’s
accounting officer, working with internal and external auditors, to ensure that the
appropriate financial controls are in place and that the use of all banking services
complies with relevant laws and regulations.
Information on the specific number of offshore bank accounts held by central
Government, local government and Government-controlled companies is currently
not available and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Research Fund for Coal and Steel
Jessica Morden: [3655]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received on the
use of the £225 million UK share of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel after the UK
leaves the EU.
Rishi Sunak:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has not received any recent representations on the
use of the UK’s share of the assets of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel. Future
expenditure will be decided at the Spending Review.
If the UK leaves the EU with a withdrawal agreement, we will continue to participate
in the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, during the implementation period.
In a no-deal scenario, UK entities that receive RFCS funding from the European
Commission or submit a successful bid before EU exit will be covered by the
government’s EU programmes guarantee, for the lifetime of the projects. This will
support UK participants to continue to take part in RFCS projects, subject to the UK
entity being eligible to continue to participate in the project.
UK Trade with EU: Northern Ireland
David Simpson: [3624]
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with businesses in
Northern Ireland on the requirement to fill out declaration forms to trade with the rest of
the UK under the Government's agreement with the EU.
Jesse Norman:
The Government has engaged and will engage closely with affected businesses and
business representative organisations over the new deal, including those in Northern
Ireland, to ensure that delivery of any new administrative requirements works for
everyone.
WALES
Foreign Students: Wales
Mrs Madeleine Moon: [3682]
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent assessment he has made of the (a)
current level of funding available for study abroad programmes and (b) level of funding for
study abroad programmes available post 2020 for students in Wales; and if he will make
a statement.
Alun Cairns:
As education is devolved, the UK Government does not hold figures on the current
levels of funding for study abroad programmes in Wales.
The UK Government values international exchange and collaboration in education
and training as part of our vision for a global Britain. That is why we support a number
of outward mobility and exchange programmes which broaden access to international
opportunities – schemes such as Fulbright scholarships and Generation UK China.
We can expect our world-leading HE providers to continue their strong track record of
partnering with overseas institutions post-2020.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Universal Credit
Mike Amesbury: [3790]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of
the adequacy of the six-month limit on the easement of work-related requirements for
universal credit for bereavement of a partner or child.
Will Quince:
When a Universal Credit (UC) claimant suffers a bereavement there are easements
to work-related requirement which can be applied. These will be discussed and
agreed, on an individual basis, with the claimant’s Work Coach or Case Manager. In
some circumstances payment of UC, that would otherwise reduce or stop following a
bereavement, can continue for a short time. This is called a ‘Bereavement run-on’,
and may be applied when a partner or dependent child dies.
The ‘Bereavement run-on’ results in UC continuing to be paid as if there had been no
change of circumstances for the assessment period in which the death occurs and
the following two assessment periods.
Universal Credit: Disqualification
Neil Gray: [3707]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government
response to the Work and Pensions Committee’s Nineteenth Report of Session 2017–19,
Benefit sanctions. HC1949, when her Department plans to publish its evaluation on
whether the sanctions regime within universal credit is effective at supporting claimants to
search for work; and what the reason is for the time taken to publish that evaluation.
Mims Davies:
The Department will look to publish its evaluation by the end of 2019.
Universal Credit: Fraud
Mike Amesbury: [6511]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the
debt incurred by individuals as a result of being scammed into claiming an advance for
universal credit.
Guy Opperman:
On the 18th September 2019 we brought in changes to the application process for
Universal Credit advances to protect innocent people from these scams.
In order to determine whether an individual is liable to repay an advance, we look at
the strength of evidence provided. Our investigations play an important part in
establishing whether a claimant has had any involvement. In some cases, we will be
able to establish that a claimant was entirely innocent and did not benefit from the
payment, in which case we would not seek to recover the money from them.
As each case is different and is judged solely on its merits, and as our investigations
are still ongoing, it is not possible to accurately estimate the amount individuals could
be asked to repay.
MINISTERIAL CORRECTIONS
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
NHS and Social Services: Agency Workers
Mr Damian Hinds: [3731]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of
the cost to the (a) NHS and (b) social care system of (i) fees, (ii) markups and (ii)
commissions to supply agencies for (A) clinical and (B) other staff.
An error has been identified in the written answer given on 30 October 2019. The
correct answer should have been:
Edward Argar:
In 2018/19, National Health Service trusts spent £2.40 billion on agency staff,
including clinical and non-clinical staff. Between March 2018 and March 2019, £938
million was spent on agency medical staff, £950 million on agency nursing staff and
£513 million on other staff.1
NHS Improvement’s agency rules include a cap which sets a ceiling for agency fees.
Full details of the NHS Improvement price caps are attached.
The Department does not hold data that shows the breakdown of fees, markups and
commissions.
The Department does not hold this data for social care. The Skills for Care
programme estimates that in 2018/19 agency social care staff represented 7% of the
1.52 million people strong adult social care workforce. 2
Notes:
[1]
https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/5404/Performance_of_the_NHS_provider_se
ctor_for_the_quarter_4_1819.pdf
2https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-
intelligence/documents/State-of-the-adult-social-care-sector/State-of-Report-2019.pdf
Attachments:
1. Price_card_2019-20_v2.0.xlsx
JUSTICE
Prisons: Repairs and Maintenance
Richard Burgon: [2868]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) key performance indicators are for
Amey under the prison maintenance contracts and (b) average annual performance of
Amey has been against those indicators.
An error has been identified in the written answer given on 24 October 2019. The
correct answer should have been:
Lucy Frazer:
Please see the accompanying document, which details the KPI regime for the
facilities management contract HMPPS holds with Amey, as well as the recorded
performance against these KPI’s averaged across the last 12 months for which this
data is available (June 2017- May 2018). Contractor performance is robustly
monitored and we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short.
Attachments:
1. Amey KPI's and 12 monthly average performance.xlsx
WRITTEN STATEMENTS
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
People with Significant Control Post-Implementation Review
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and
Corporate Responsibility) (Kelly Tolhurst): [HCWS50]
The Government will today publish the report on the statutory post-implementation review
of the People with Significant Control (PSC) regulations. We are required to complete a
PIR by virtue of various regulations:
• Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015;
• The Register of People with Significant Control Regulations 2016;
• The Limited Liability Partnerships (Register of People with Significant Control)
Regulations 2016;
• The European Public Limited-Liability Company (Register of People with Significant
Control) Regulations 2016;
• The Scottish Partnerships (Register of People with Significant Control) Regulations
2017.
The People with Significant Control (PSC) register was established in 2016 to enhance
the transparency of ultimate (beneficial) ownership of UK companies. The goals of the
register are to promote good corporate behaviour and to deter illicit activity. UK
companies and partnerships in scope of the regulations are required to keep a register of
their beneficial owners and to report this information to Companies House.
This is the first review of the PSC regulations since the register was established. My
Department assessed the operation of the register, the stakeholder engagement with it
and the burdens the requirements place on business.
The review report concludes that the PSC register is meeting its objectives and that the
costs to business have been proportionate and in line with the original estimates. The
register is widely used, has a positive economic effect and contributes to the fight against
criminal use of companies.
The report notes the importance of ensuring the reliability of the PSC Register
information. This is being considered and will be addressed as part of the wider review of
the corporate transparency and register reform.
The PSC Regulations will, therefore, remain in their current form and we will continue to
monitor the operation of the register. The next statutory Post-Implementation Review of
the PSC Regulations will be carried out within the next 5 years.
A copy of the post-implementation review report will be laid before Parliament.
EDUCATION
Education Update
The Secretary of State for Education (Gavin Williamson): [HCWS52]
I would like to update the House on some of the Department for Education’s key
achievements since 2010.
We are helping families with the cost of childcare. The parents of over 1.4 million
children are taking advantage of funded early education in 2019. This Government is
committed to making childcare more affordable and more accessible, saving eligible
families up to £5,000 per child every year.
• We offer free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds. The Government offers a free
universal 15 hours per week of childcare, with a free additional 15 hours for 3 and 4
year olds whose parents are in work (a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week
for eligible working parents).
• The vast majority of eligible children benefit from these entitlements. An estimated
328,200 children aged 3 and 4 were benefitting from 30 hours free childcare in the
spring term of 2019. Take up of the 15 hours offer is very high - 92% of 3 year olds
and 95% of 4 year olds are benefiting from free hours.
• An estimated 600,000 children have benefitted from a 30 hours place throughout
the first two years of national delivery.
• We offer free childcare for disadvantaged 2 year olds. The Government offers 15
hours of free childcare per week for the most disadvantaged families.
• The vast majority of eligible children benefit from this entitlement. In the spring term
of 2019, 148,800 2 year olds from disadvantaged families benefited from 15 hours
a week of funded free childcare.
• Over 850,000 children have benefitted from the 2-year olds entitlement since it
began.
• Free childcare is popular with parents of 2-4 year olds. There is 95% satisfaction
among parents using the 2-year-old entitlement, 91% among parents using
universal hours for 3-4 year-olds, and 95% among parents using the 30 hours
entitlement on how the funded hours can be used. Three quarters of parents
reported having more money to spend since they started using the 30 hours, and
80% said the quality of their family life had improved.
• We plan to spend around £3.5 billion on our early education entitlements this year
alone, and £3.6 billion planned for next year. We want to support early years
providers in delivering high quality care and education, which is why the Chancellor
recently announced funding to increase hourly rates for the Government’s free
hours offers for 2020-21.
• We are raising the quality and professionalism of the early years workforce by
investing £20 million in high quality professional development for early years
practitioners.
We are giving schools the biggest funding boost in a decade over the next three
years: a total of £14 billion more - a cash increase of £2.6 billion next year, £4.8 billion
and £7.1 billion in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively, compared to 2019-20.
• We are levelling up funding across the country, so that every secondary school will
receive a minimum of £5,000 per pupil in 2020-21, and every primary school will
receive a minimum of £3,750 per pupil in 2020-21, rising to £4,000 by 2021-22.
• This is in addition to the £1.5 billion per year we will continue to provide to fund
additional pension costs for teachers over the next three years. Taken together,
this means that by 2022-23 we will be providing an additional £150 million a week
to our schools.
• We introduced the National Funding Formula to distribute school funding fairly
across the country, ensuring funding is based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and
characteristics, not accidents of geography or history.
• We are investing additional funding for 16 to 19 year olds, with increased funding of
£400 million in 2020-21 – the biggest injection of new money into 16-19 education
in a single year since 2010. In addition, we will be allocating at least £100 million in
2020-21 to cover pension costs in the further education sector.
Our education reforms mean more children are getting a world class education at
good or outstanding schools. 85% of all children are now in good or outstanding
schools, up from 66% in 2010. As of March 2019 there were 1.9 million more children in
good or outstanding schools than in 2010, thanks in part to our reforms.
• Failing schools are turned around as sponsored academies. Over 7 out of 10
inspected sponsored academies are now good or outstanding – only 1 in 10 were
judged good or outstanding before they converted. There are over 2,300
sponsored academies.
• Where schools are judged inadequate by Ofsted, we act quickly. For a maintained
school, this means becoming an academy to benefit from the support of a strong
sponsor. For an academy, we will transfer them to a stronger academy trust if
necessary.
• We are increasing support for schools that need additional help. We will be offering
around 2,400 schools rated ‘Requires Improvement’ by Ofsted optional support in a
package worth up to £16.5 million overall.
• We are making it easier for underperforming schools to access school
improvement support. Through the Teaching School Hubs test and learn phase
around 2,000 schools will benefit from reforms to strengthen and improve school
leadership. A competitive grant procurement is underway for Teaching School Hub
‘test-and-learn’ phase, which is the first part of our plans to strengthen the current
structure of system leadership.
• Introducing a clearer and simpler school accountability system. This offers much
greater clarity about when we will and will not intervene in a school, by removing
the floor and coasting standards, and acknowledges that Ofsted, as an
independent body, is best placed to identify inadequate educational performance
which requires intervention.
• We are tackling teacher workload. Our wide-ranging programme of work includes
publication of the workload reduction toolkit which supports school leaders,
teachers and other staff to address workload issues in their school. We have
published the Making Data Work report, and are acting on the recommendations to
tackle excessive data burdens in schools.
• In 2018, we announced an additional £7.7 million to support teachers to access
high quality curriculum resources and reduce their workload.
• The findings from the Teacher Workload Survey 2019, published on 11 October,
suggest there has been a reduction between 2016 and 2019 in reported working
hours for teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders of 5 hours a week. Whilst
this is encouraging, we will continue to take action to address workload and
improve work-life balance.
• We are working hard to recruit and retain brilliant teachers. In January 2019 we
launched the Early Career Framework. This will underpin a fully-funded, two-year
package of structured training and support for all early career teachers, linked to
the best available research evidence. We recruited 34,595 teachers to start their
training in 2018, over 2,600 more than in 2017-18.
• We are making sure teaching is an attractive graduate profession. It is vital we
ensure that the pay offer for teachers is positioned at the top of the graduate labour
market, and that is why we are setting out plans to significantly raise starting pay to
£30,000 by September 2022.
We are opening high performing new free schools to improve choice for parents
and outcomes for children. Through the free schools programme, this Government has
funded thousands of good new school places and opened schools across the country.
• As of 1 October 2019 there are 507 open free schools, 48 University Technical
Colleges and 24 studio schools. These will provide over 320,000 places when at
capacity.
• We have approved a further 227 applications from groups that we are now working
with to establish new free schools.
• In 2019, 7 of the top 15 provisional Progress 8 scores were achieved by free
schools, including 3 of the top 5 – Eden Boys’ School Birmingham, Eden Girls’
School Coventry and Michaela Community School in Brent.
• Free schools are disproportionately located in more deprived areas, and 18 per
cent of all open free schools are dedicated to special needs or alternative
provision.
• We have opened two specialist Maths Free Schools, offering A Levels in Maths,
Further Maths and Physics, for young people aged 16-19 who wish to study
mathematical subjects at university. These two schools are achieving excellent
results: in 2019 King’s Maths School reported that 100% of their students achieved
grades of A or A* at A Level Maths; Exeter Maths School reported that 93% of
students achieved an A or A* in their Maths A Level. There are a further five such
schools planned to open with funding secured for a total of eleven, enabling at
least one Maths Free School to open in every region.
We are ensuring that all children are able to succeed, no matter their background.
The attainment gap has narrowed between disadvantage pupils and others, as measured
by the disadvantage gap index, by 13 percent at age 11 and 9 percent at age 16 since
2011.
• We are supporting the most disadvantaged pupils, including those eligible for free
school meals, with additional funding. The Government has spent more than £15
billion since 2011 – and another £2.4 billion this year - through the pupil premium to
tackle educational inequality.
• We have increased funding for pupils with Special Educational Needs. We will be
investing an additional £780 million in high needs funding in 2020-21 – a 12%
increase on the amount available this year. This will bring the total spent on those
with the most complex needs to over £7 billion.
We are getting reading off to a strong start so children have the literacy they need
to succeed. In 2019, 82% of pupils met the expected standard in the phonics screening
check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced (in 2012).
More pupils are studying the core academic subjects at school. The proportion of all
pupils at the end of key stage 4 entering the English Baccalaureate (studying GCSEs in
English language and literature, maths, the sciences, geography or history and a
language) has risen from 22% in 2010 to 40% in 2019 in state funded schools.
• Since the EBacc performance measure was first introduced in 2010, the proportion
of pupils entering the EBacc has increased from 22% in 2010 to 40% in 2019 in
state funded schools.
• Mathematics has been the most popular A Level since 2014, making up 11.4% of
all A Level entries in 2019.
This Government has created one million more school places. We are on track to
create 1 million new school places this decade - the largest increase for two generations.
This follows a fall of 100,000 school places between 2004 and 2010.
We are creating T Levels – a new gold standard technical qualification so that
young people gain the skills they need for employment. T Levels will be high-quality
technical alternatives to A Levels, combining classroom theory, practical learning and a
meaningful industry placement.
• We are on track for the first three T Levels for Digital, Education and Construction
to be taught from September 2020, with a further seven taught from 2021, and all
25 by 2023.
• We have extensive support in place for their implementation, including £60 million
to build capacity for industry placements, £8 million to prepare teachers and
leaders and a £38m capital fund.
• Each T Level will require students to undertake a 45-day work placement.
• Overall additional funding for T Levels will rise to an extra £500 million a year once
the programme is fully rolled out.
Record rates of 18 year olds are going to university. In 2018, one-third of all 18 year
olds entered full-time higher education – the highest on record. The proportion of 18 year
olds from disadvantaged backgrounds entering full-time higher education is up from
13.6% in 2009 to 20.2% in 2018. This is the highest on record.
• We have removed the cap on student numbers, allowing more people with the
talent and potential the opportunity to be successful at university.
• Through the Higher Education and Research Act we introduced a duty to promote
equality of opportunity in access and participation in higher education and we
expect to see further progress, particularly among the most selective institutions.
• All higher education providers must now publish application offer, acceptance,
dropout and attainment rates of students by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic
background. This will help hold the sector to account for their record on access and
retention of students from lower socio-economic and other backgrounds.
• Higher Education providers have committed to spend £860 million in 2019/20 on
measures to improve access and student success – up significantly from £404
million in 2009. The Office for Students is monitoring how effectively higher
education providers spend this money.
Improving higher technical education by establishing new Institutes of Technology
– making it easier to upskill and gain highly skilled employment.
• An Institute of Technology is a legally binding collaboration between further
education colleges, higher education institutions and employers.
• They are being created to specialise in delivering higher technical training at Levels
4 and 5 (above A Level but below degree level), primarily in STEM subjects aligned
to local economic priorities.
• IoTs will deliver a mix of apprenticeship and classroom-based provision for
industries such as digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering – industries
where there are skills gaps and growing demand - in order to provide employers
with the skilled workforce they need.
We are investing up to £290 million capital funding to build an IoT network across the
country. The first 12 IoTs are now starting to go live, following a comprehensive
competition, and we have recently announced plans to open up to 8 more to enable there
to be an IoT in every region of the country.
More people are benefitting from new high-quality apprenticeships. Our reforms
have fundamentally changed what apprenticeships involve and the long-term
opportunities they provide.
• Over 1.8 million people have started an apprenticeship since May 2015.
• Over 60% of starts are now on high-quality, industry-designed standards, with over
500 available.
• In 2019-20 funding for apprenticeships is over £2.5 billion, double what was spent
in 2010-11.
Fewer young people are not in education, employment or training. The number of
16-24 year olds not in education, employment or training in the UK is down by 281,000
since 2010.
• We have raised the participation age so that young people are now required to
continue in education or training until at least their 18 th birthday. Young people
can choose to participate through full-time education, a job or volunteering
combined with combined with part-time study, or by undertaking an apprenticeship.
This gives all young people the opportunity to develop skills and qualifications that
will open doors to future employment, help them make the most of their potential,
and earn more over their lifetime.
We are improving support for the most vulnerable children.
• Adoption waiting times have come down. The average time between a child
entering care and being placed with a family has reduced by 7 months since 2012-
13.
• We are supporting families through the Adoption Support Fund. This has provided
over £130 million to local authorities and regional adoption agencies for therapeutic
support to over 5,000 families.
• We are supporting foster families to provide on-going support to young people
leaving care. We are investing a further £10 million to expand Staying Put, to
create stable homes for care leavers as they become adults. The programme will
help more care leavers to continue living with their foster families until they reach
21. We are providing a further £6 million in 2021/22 to roll out Staying Close across
the country, helping young people leaving residential care to continue to get on-
going support from their previous carers they know and trust.
• We are helping Care Leavers achieve their ambitions. We launched the Care
Leaver Covenant and are spending £5 million on 3 Social Impact Bonds to help
care leavers into education, employment or training. We are also investing £3
million to extend the Pupil Premium Plus to all 16-18 year old care leavers,
supporting their transition into further education.
• We are improving support for children in care. Our Innovation Programme has
invested £200 million in 98 projects to enable local authorities to test new
approaches to supporting children in the social care system.
• We are strengthening families. Building on and scaling the learning and evidence
from the Innovation Programme by enabling up to 60 local authorities to adopt and
adapt whole system and targeted projects which have successfully supported more
children to stay at home thriving in stable family environments.
• The Government has committed £920 million to the second phase of the Troubled
Families programme, which aims to achieve significant and sustained improvement
for up to 400,000 families in challenging circumstances.
• We are improving the quality and prestige of the social care workforce. More than
2,200 high achieving graduates have been trained through fast-track programmes
Frontline and Step up to Social Work. The Assessed and Supported Year in
Employment has supported more than 15,000 newly qualified social workers since
2012.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Departmental Update
Secretary of State for International Trade (Elizabeth Truss): [HCWS51]
I would like to update the House on the work of the Department for International Trade.
1. Supported UK exports worth over £2trn since June 2016. Since the department
was established, UK exports have grown from £537bn to £654bn – an increase
of 22%.
1. Sustained the UK’s place as Europe’s top destination for Foreign Direct Investment
since 2003. DIT has supported 3,118 individual investments in the UK, helping to
create 120,000 new jobs between April 2017 to March 2019 and attracting more
projects, new jobs and investment capital than any other European country.
1. Helped to realise the UK’s potential as the top destination for tech innovation and
talent by attracting international investment. This has resulted in the
announcement of billions of pounds of investment in the UK from leading
technology companies, including £1bn from software company VMware, £1.9bn
from software company Salesforce, and £150m from IT service management
company Markley Group.
1. Dismantled barriers and opened up markets to British businesses across the world.
This included:Securing an agreement with China to lift its longstanding ban on
exports of beef from the UK, a landmark move for British producers that was
estimated by industry experts at the time of the deal to be worth £250m in the first
five years alone;Lifting a ban on British beef and lamb exports to Japan, allowing
exports which at the time were estimated by industry experts to be worth £130m
over five years;Lifting the ban on British pork exports to Taiwan in August 2018.
This has contributed to £2.1m of UK pork being exported to Taiwan in the first half
of 2019 alone.Securing changes to public procurement rules on early childhood
vaccinations in Bulgaria, supporting the UK to win a procurement worth £35 m.
1. Kicked off detailed technical preparations to ensure that the UK is ready to have
our own independent trade policy for the first time in 46 years. This means that
now:We are ready to take our independent seat at the WTO.We have a Trade
Remedies Investigations Directorate to ensure UK businesses are safeguarded
from unfair trade practices.We have established working groups and high-level
trade dialogues with key trade partners including the United States, Australia,
China, the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Japan and New Zealand. We also
continue to use other instruments such as Joint Trade Reviews with countries
including China, India and Brazil.
1. Delivered a series of consultations on new trade agreements with the United
States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as potential accession to the
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. These
attracted over 600,000 responses from businesses and civil society groups across
the UK.
1. Launched a new Export Strategy further to raise exports to 35% as a proportion of
UK GDP. This will build on the increase of exports from 27% of GDP to 30% of
GDP since the department was created. Created the Export Champion network,
made up of over 1,000 export champions and advocates, to provide peer-to-peer
support to businesses across the UK.
1. Shielded UK trade from 85% of the additional duties that would have been
imposed, by securing 18 continuity trade agreements with countries that accounted
for £109 billion of trade in 2018, together with our Temporary Tariff Regime. This
will ensure continuity for U.K. businesses however we leave the EU. [1]
1. Attracted more than 94,000 bids for international export opportunities from UK
businesses via the GREAT.gov.uk platform. We launched a new Export
Opportunities platform to match UK businesses with international opportunities.
Over 285,000 export opportunities have already been published by international
businesses and governments, and GREAT.gov.uk is used by more than 36,000
registered businesses as well as around 140,000 unique visitors each month.
1. Providedover £7.9bn worth of backing for exports through UK Export Finance,
supporting over 63,000 jobs since April 2017. In June 2019, UK Export Finance
also announced an extensive new finance package to support the UK’s 5.7m
small and medium-sized enterprises to export into emerging markets.
[1] See gov.uk for more details: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-trade-agreements-with-
non-eu-countries-in-a-no-deal-brexit
JUSTICE
Prisoner Escort and Custody Services
The Minister of State for Justice (Lucy Frazer): [HCWS48]
I am pleased to announce the Government has awarded two new contracts for the
Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) Generation 4 Lot North and Lot South, to
GEOAmey Ltd and Serco Ltd respectively.
This follows a competitive procedure with negotiation conducted in accordance with
public sector procurement directive 2014/24/EU. GEOAmey Ltd and Serco Ltd have
offered the best overall bids in terms of quality of service and cost, relative to the other
bids received.
The new contracts will build upon the current service, and deliver significant
improvements and efficiencies to meet the future needs of Her Majesty’s Prison and
Probation Service (HMPPS), Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), the
Youth Custody Service (YCS) and the Police. Both suppliers will deliver more frequent
collections from police stations and courts, with quicker collection times from courts (and
return to prisons). The new service also includes a new fleet of escort vans with improved
safety and security features.
The new contracts will commence on 29 August 2020 for a period of 10 years, and
performance of both will be monitored through monthly Contract Management Review
meetings to ensure performance is maintained throughout the life time of the contracts
and suppliers are held to account.
PRIME MINISTER
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Publication of its Phase 1 Report
Prime Minister (Boris Johnson): [HCWS49]
This morning, Sir Martin Moore-Bick has published the phase 1 report of the independent
Grenfell Tower Inquiry. A copy of the report has been laid before each House of
Parliament. This is a difficult day for all those who lost their loved ones, homes and
possessions in that unimaginable tragedy, and found their lives devastated. Our first
thoughts should be with them.
The report is a very substantial document, which includes a detailed description of the
events of the night of 14 June 2017, as well as the Chair’s findings about the nature of
the building, the origins of the fire, it’s subsequent development, the response of the
London Fire Brigade and the steps taken by the other emergency services. It also
contains a number of recommendations that my Government will consider with the utmost
urgency. The bereaved, survivors and local residents have waited a long time for the
Inquiry’s report, and it is right that the report should be debated in parliament on the day
of its publication. But given the substantial nature of the report, and the limited time that
parliamentarians have had to read the text, I am committed to holding a further debate at
the earliest opportunity once Members have had an opportunity to properly scrutinise its
contents. I hope that the bereaved and survivors can draw at least some solace from the
rigorous, detailed nature of Sir Martin’s report.
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