Baroness McDonagh

Since 18 September 2017, data on Sure Start children’s centres has been supplied by local authorities via the department’s Get Information about Schools database portal, which can be found at the following link: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

Based on information supplied by local authorities as at 30 June 2019, 587 Sure Start children’s centres had closed since April 2010[1]. However, councils are reconfiguring services to deliver them more efficiently. If a council decides to close a Sure Start children’s centre, statutory guidance requires them to demonstrate that local children and families will not be adversely affected. There were more children's centres open in spring 2019 than at any time under Tony Blair's premiership.

Since 2010, the government has extended the entitlement to free early years education so that more children than ever can benefit from this. We introduced an entitlement to 15 hours a week of free early education for the most disadvantaged 2-year-olds (a programme that was not available before 2010). More than 850,000 disadvantaged 2-year-olds have benefitted from free early education places since the introduction of the programme in 2013. There are now more than 22,000 providers delivering places for disadvantaged 2-year-olds.

The department is already starting to see progress. Take-up of places for disadvantaged 2-year-olds has risen from 58% in 2015 to 68% in 2019. The department remains committed to increasing take up. In addition, the 2017/18 Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results show that the proportion of all children achieving a ‘good level of development’ improved in 2018, with 71.5% of children achieving a good level of development, up from 51.7% in 2013.

[1] Based on information supplied by local authorities as at 1 July 2019. These figures may be different to previous answers, and could change again in the future, as local authorities may update the database at any time.

On 30 June the Department for Transport announced funding of £100.445 million for 29 local highway maintenance projects through the Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, following a competition. All grant will be paid in summer 2020. The projects are listed in the attached table.

The Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands is being led by the Government, with inputs from the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure Projects Authority. The Government will engage on a formal basis with Northern and Midlands leaders.

The Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) will be led by Government and will be informed by independent assessments from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). The Integrated Rail Plan will be developed with input from Northern and Midlands leaders.

The information you have requested can be found in the following table:

The information requested is currently being validated and is due to be published in September 2021.

NHS England and NHS Improvement promoted restoration of cardiovascular disease (CVD) services as a priority, including diagnostic and treatment services for patients with heart failure and heart valve disease, as the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began to decline.

The United Kingdom Global Better Health Programme contributes to managing the impact of non-communicable diseases, including CVD, in its partner countries through technical collaboration which contributes to the World Health Organization and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The management of CVD has not been recently raised by the UK with G7 countries. The Department has recently commented on a working paper on CVD presented by the Italian Presidency of the G20 major economies. There are currently no plans to share Public Health England’s best practice.

NHS England and NHS Improvement promoted restoration of cardiovascular disease (CVD) services as a priority, including diagnostic and treatment services for patients with heart failure and heart valve disease, as the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began to decline.

The United Kingdom Global Better Health Programme contributes to managing the impact of non-communicable diseases, including CVD, in its partner countries through technical collaboration which contributes to the World Health Organization and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The management of CVD has not been recently raised by the UK with G7 countries. The Department has recently commented on a working paper on CVD presented by the Italian Presidency of the G20 major economies. There are currently no plans to share Public Health England’s best practice.

Public Health England (PHE) is aware of the paper by Professor Calder. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) considered the paper as part of a recent scoping exercise on nutrition and immunity. Interim conclusions of the committee were that there is currently a lack of robust evidence to suggest that specific nutrients or nutritional supplements can reduce the risk or severity of COVID-19. SACN and PHE will keep this topic under review.

Whilst there has not been a specific assessment of the review by François Trotten, we keep all evidence under review and note the work highlighted and the recommendation that more research is needed into gastrointestinal conditions in COVID-19 patients and welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom and has been part of a rolling United Kingdom-wide call for proposals that could make a significant contribution to the understanding, prevention and/or management of the COVID-19 and to better understand and manage the health and social care consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic beyond the acute phase.

The NIHR has also published a number of highlight notices to seek research proposals on high-priority areas topics, including on COVID-19 and ethnicity, transmission, and seroprevalence.

The Infrastructure Delivery Taskforce is led by the Chancellor, and comprises ministers and officials from No.10, HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the IPA, with other departments invited as required.

The Taskforce meets regularly to ensure the objectives of Project Speed are implemented.

The tax base for this measure consists of company insolvencies with gains resulting from tax avoidance, evasion and phoenixism, in addition to the amount HMRC currently writes off every year due to insolvencies.

This is estimated from HMRC operational and administrative data and is grown in line with the Budget 2018 OBR determinant for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at market prices deflator.

The costing is the tax recovered from insolvencies that HMRC would not otherwise have collected before the policy was implemented. Adjustments are made for tax and payment timing.

The costing accounts for a behavioural response whereby the measure has a deterrent effect on future insolvency as some taxpayers become compliant.

At Budget 2018, the Government published a full assessment of the exchequer impacts which is attached.

The close historic, social and cultural ties between the UK and Ireland have led to the creation of additional rights above those associated with common membership of the EU. The special status afforded to Irish citizens within the UK is rooted in the Ireland Act 1949 and, for the people of Northern Ireland, in the 1998 Belfast Agreement. Leaders in the UK and Ireland have confirmed their commitment to protecting the rights enjoyed by UK and Irish nationals when in the other State.

We remain committed to preserving the rights of Irish citizens within the UK.

As part of the New Deal for Britain, we are investing £900 million in a wide range of infrastructure projects through the Getting Building Fund, which will stimulate job creation and support economic recovery. We wrote to all Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to confirm their individual funding allocations and have requested that final agreed project lists be submitted to Government by Friday 17 July for consideration. Announcements of projects will be made in due course.

Local authorities receive general unringfenced revenue funding to support service delivery, including adult social care, through the local government finance settlement. The government has made a four year funding settlement offer for this Parliament that has been accepted by 97 per cent of councils.

We are also providing up to £3.5 billion additional funding for social care by 2019-20 through a new 2 per cent social care precept and the Improved Better Care Fund. The government consulted on the distribution of the improved Better Care Fund as a part of the local government finance settlement 2017 - 2018 technical consultation. The consultation closed on 28 October and we are currently analysing the responses.

Spanning the National Health Service and local government, the Better Care Fund creates a single local pooled budget to promote the integration of health and social care services. All upper tier authorities with responsibility for adult social care benefit from the Better Care Fund. In 2015-16, local areas pooled £5.3 billion under the Better Care Fund in 2015-16, including £1.5 billion above the mandated minimum.The government consulted on the distribution of the additional funding from the improved Better Care Fund which comes in from 2017-18 as a part of the local government finance settlement 2017 - 2018 technical consultation. The consultation closed on 28 October and we are currently analysing the responses.

We have strict safeguards in place to care for and manage transgender individuals in custody while protecting our staff and others in custody.

There have been no reported incidents of any type of sexual assault against prison officers by transgender prisoners.

Since 2010, out of the 122 sexual assaults that occurred in the female estate a total of five of those were sexual assaults against females in custody perpetrated by transgender individuals. These occurred at HMP Low Newton, HMP Foston Hall, HMP Peterborough (Female) and HMP Bronzefield. However, we are not able to break this data down year by year, as it may then be used to identify individuals. Information on the action taken against each perpetrator is not held centrally.