09:30
If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
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voted Aye - in line with the party majority
One of 140 Labour Aye votes vs 0 Labour No votes
Tally: Ayes - 194 Noes - 275
My constituents in Flitwick have been dismayed over the past few years as their high street has been gradually hollowed …
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy …
Division Voting information
Debates during the 2019 Parliament
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
Sparring Partners
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
(3 debate interactions)
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
(2 debate interactions)
Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
(2 debate interactions)
Department Debates
(2 debate contributions)
(2 debate contributions)
(1 debate contributions)
(1 debate contributions)
Legislation Debates
Alistair Strathern has not made any spoken contributions to legislative debateMid Bedfordshire Petitions
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
of 13,370 signatures (8.31%)
of 30,341 signatures (0.36%)
of 44,709 signatures (0.24%)
of 71,259 signatures (0.23%)
of 105,678 signatures (0.21%)
of 607,711 signatures (0.19%)
of 13,370 signatures (8.31%)
of 275,322 signatures (0.19%)
of 246,898 signatures (0.10%)
of 105,678 signatures (0.21%)
Latest EDMs signed by Alistair Strathern
Commons initiatives
These initiatives were driven by Alistair Strathern, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Alistair Strathern has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Alistair Strathern has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
Alistair Strathern has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Alistair Strathern has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
47 Written Questions in the current parliament
(View all written questions)The government aims to make the UK the best place in the world to start a business.
The Start Up Loans Company, part of the Government-owned British Business Bank, is creating opportunities for businesses to start and grow. As of October 2023, 13 SMEs in Mid Bedfordshire have received start-up loans to the value of £159,200 and 70 SMEs in Bedfordshire to the value of £838,600.
The government also provides extensive support to aspiring businesses, through the Business Support Helpline, a network of Growth Hubs and GOV.UK website, which provides information on starting up and running a business.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government aims to make the UK the best place in the world to start, scale up, and grow a business. We provide extensive business support, with over 40 help offers available.
12,469 business support grants totalling some £82.28m were made in Central Bedfordshire between March 2020 and March 2022.These grants provided vital support for businesses during the Covid-19 crisis.
Our Business Support Helpline and Growth Hubs provide expert advice, guidance, and signposting to all types of business. The Government-backed British Business Bank also improves access to finance and is providing over £12.4bn of finance to over 90,000 SMEs.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
2 Department for Energy Security & Net Zero Questions
(View all Alistair Strathern's DESNZ questions)ECO4 does not award funding to households, it is an obligation set by Government on large energy suppliers to install energy efficiency measures.
To the end of June 2023 (the latest available data by parliamentary constituency), ECO4 has supported 10 households in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency and 1,241 households in Bedfordshire (Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton Local Authorities combined).
Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has provided significant additional funding for renewable energy projects this autumn. Provisions include support via the next Contracts for Difference Allocation Round, funding for manufacturing for Windfarms and Networks and investment tax measures.
Grant funding for renewable innovation or community-based renewable schemes is open for both local authorities and private investors to bid on.
The Government encourages projects in Mid Bedfordshire to apply for these schemes as relevant to their proposals.
Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Central Bedfordshire Council has decided to transition from a three-tier to a two-tier school system. In these instances, it is a local authority’s responsibility to manage such a transition.
The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. While this funding is not designed to fund transitions from a three-tier to a two-tier system, it is not ringfenced (subject to published conditions), meaning local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities. Central Bedfordshire Council will receive just under £36.1 million for places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.
It is ultimately the council’s responsibility to manage the three-tier to two-tier process. The department has a support, a challenge and a decision-making role for changes made to academies.
Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places.
Basic Need funding allocations are based on the number of additional mainstream places needed in Reception to Year 11, which the department calculates using local authorities’ own pupil forecasts and data on existing school capacity. The department funds local authorities to provide at least a 2 per cent operating margin of places, to help support parental choice, churn in the pupil population, and the general manageability of the system. The funding rate per place each local authority receives is adjusted to reflect inflation and the different cost of construction in regions across the country.
The department has announced Central Bedfordshire will receive a total of just under £36.1 million to support the provision of new school places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.
Developer contributions are also an important way of helping to meet demand for new school places when housing developments are driving pupil numbers. It is for Central Bedfordshire Council, as the Local Planning Authority, to secure developer contributions through section 106 agreements or the Community Infrastructure Levy, and to decide on the local infrastructure needs that this contribution should support.
Minister of State (Education)
As part of the commitments outlined in 'Stable Homes, Built on Love', the department made a commitment to implement or explore each of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s recommendations on kinship care.
The department is in the final stages of drafting its kinship strategy, which outlines plans to enhance support for all kinship families in England. This strategy will complement the existing support initiatives offered by the department, such as the peer-to-peer support service.
Following on from the progress and positive impact of the peer-to-peer support contract, the department will deliver a package of training and support that all kinship carers in England can access if they wish to, regardless of whether they have a legal order in place. This will be implemented from Spring 2024.
Statutory guidance issued to local authorities already makes it clear that children and young people should receive the support that they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare. There is no limit on the level of support, including financial support, that local authorities can provide. All local authorities should have in place clear eligibility criteria in relation to the provision of support services.
The department has committed to work across government to explore possible additional workplace entitlements for kinship carers with a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or Child Arrangement Order (CAO), as well as exploring the case for mandating a financial allowance for kinship carers with SGOs and CAOs in every local authority. Further details will be shared in due course.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to delivering this strategy this year and to improving outcomes for children in kinship care. This is part of a wider, once in a generation reset to the children’s social care system, as set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which aims to rebalance the children’s social care system away from costly crisis intervention, towards meaningful and effective help for families, to deliver better outcomes for children.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The median debt of full-time undergraduate borrowers funded by student finance England, whose postcode is within the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, and who entered repayment within the last 5 years, is £43,772.37. The median debt includes tuition fees and maintenance loans.
The borrower’s postcode refers to the current contact or home address supplied by the borrower to the Student Loans Company.
Full-time undergraduate higher education students starting in the academic year 2022/23 are expected to borrow on average £42,100 over the course of their studies. More information and a link to the publication can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england.
Minister of State (Education)
Information on the school workforce, including the pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios at national, regional, Local Authority and individual school level, is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
As at November 2022, the latest data available, there were over 468,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes the highest number of FTE teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The table below provides the pupil to adult ratio and the pupil to teacher ratio for state funded secondary schools in Mid Bedfordshire constituency and England for academic years 2019/20 to 2022/23.
Pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios for state funded secondary schools in Mid Bedfordshire constituency and England, by year
2019/20 and 2022/231
| Mid Bedfordshire constituency2 | England | ||
| Pupil to adult ratio3, 5 | Pupil to teacher ratio4, 5 | Pupil to adult ratio3, 5 | Pupil to teacher ratio4, 5 |
2019/20 | 12.8 | 18.1 | 11.9 | 16.6 |
2020/212 | 12.3 | 19.1 | 11.9 | 16.6 |
2021/22 | 12.6 | 18.2 | 11.9 | 16.7 |
2022/23 | 12.3 | 18.0 | 12.0 | 16.8 |
Source: School Workforce Census.
1. Workforce data as at November and pupil data as at the following January. For instance, 2019/20 relates to November 2019 workforce and January 2020 pupils.
2. There are 14 secondary schools in Mid Bedfordshire constituency. One school is removed from the ratio calculations each year due to the low reliability of reported figures, and a second school is not included for 2020/21 as they did not return data that year.
3. Pupil to adult ratio includes teachers and support staff (excluding administrative and auxiliary staff).
4. Pupil to teacher ratio includes all teachers.
5. The ratios are calculated using pupil numbers taken from the publication, ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
Minister of State (Education)
By 2027/28, the government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
The government is providing over £4.1 billion by the 2027/28 financial year to fund 30 hours of free childcare for children over the age of nine months. Investing £204 million next year, increasing to £288 million by 2024/25 for local authorities to increase the hourly funding rate to providers. This will include an average of 30% increase in the national average 2-year-old hourly rate from September 2023, which means that in 2024, the average hourly 2-year-old rate will be more than £8.
As part of this, Central Bedfordshire is due to receive £1,597,036.11 to enable them to deliver additional wraparound places. This financial year, local authorities have also received £12 million of delivery support funding to support them with meeting programme and delivery costs associated with rolling out the expanded early year entitlements. Central Bedfordshire will be allocated funds from this also.
The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity. The department is raising awareness of government funded childcare support available to stimulate increased take-up by eligible families. This support could make a significant financial difference to families, as well as incentivising more eligible providers to register with Ofsted, in order to give parents more choices about where they can use their government funding.
The department also continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. The department’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey shows that the number of places available has remained broadly stable since 2019. A £100 million allocation for local areas to use to make sure childcare settings in their areas have enough physical space, anticipated to add thousands of new places across the country. More detail on the £100 million capital funding, including allocation amounts to local authorities and accompanying guidance, will be published shortly. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the 'Early education and childcare' statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local Authorities can decide to transition from a three-tier to a two-tier school system. It is a Local Authority’s responsibility to manage such a transition. The Secretary of State is aware of some of the challenges faced, and recently met with parents, staff as well as representatives from the local community to discuss their concerns around delivering Central Bedfordshire Council’s transitional arrangements. The department’s role is to approve or decline changes to age ranges for schools that are academies. To date, the department has approved seven applications to support academies to become either primary or secondary schools.
The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support Local Authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. While this funding is not designed to fund transitions from a three-tier to a two-tier system, the funding is not ringfenced, therefore it is not subject to published conditions and Local Authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities. Central Bedfordshire Council will receive just under £36.1 million for places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.
Minister of State (Education)
5 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Questions
(View all Alistair Strathern's Defra questions)Ofwat assesses affordability for each water company through a 5 yearly process called the Price Review. As part of this process, water companies must set out in their business plans how they will address affordability and outline their support measures for households that are struggling to pay, or who are at risk of struggling to pay.
As set out in our Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat, we expect water companies to improve the availability, quality, and uptake of support to low income and other vulnerable household customers. All water companies offer reduced bills for eligible customers via the WaterSure scheme and social tariffs, as well as a range of other financial support measures such as payment holidays, bill matching and advice on debt management and water efficiency.
The Government expects water companies to continue to actively engage with households and inform them of support measures available.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 14 November, there are 90 farm businesses with a current Countryside Stewardship Agreement or a Countryside Stewardship Agreement starting on 1 January 2024 for the Mid Bedfordshire Constituency.
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Last year the Government launched the original Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan (SODRP). Following consultation, the government published an expanded SODRP to cover 100% of overflows in England, which will drive £60 billion capital investment by 2050 – the largest infrastructure investment in water company history.
In Mid Bedfordshire, the Environment Agency is working with Anglian Water Services (AWS) to reduce sewage pollution through AWS’s Pollution Incident Reduction Plan (PIRP). There are currently 23 schemes related to reducing or improving sewage discharges in Mid Bedfordshire which are due to be completed by 31 March 2025. Future schemes are currently being discussed for the next Price Review period, from 2025 to 2030.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Sustainable Farming Incentive has a rolling application window and as of 14 November there are currently 12 farm businesses with a SFI agreement for the Mid Bedfordshire Constituency.
The SFI23 application window opened in mid-September and there is a rolling window to apply which allows farm businesses to apply when they are ready to do so.
We have a number of farm businesses that have started an application but not submitted one.
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In our response to the Landscapes Review we launched a public consultation on the future of green lanes, using it as an opportunity to listen to the views of all those affected. We recognise that these unsealed routes often provide essential vehicular access for local residents and businesses without causing damage or disturbance. We have convened a multi-user stakeholder working group to consider further the vulnerability to damage of all green lanes.
It is the responsibility of local authorities to issue Traffic Regulations Orders to protect sensitive areas where necessary.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of personal injury collisions reported by police is collected via the STATS19 system, This records the road number and location of collisions but does not directly to assign them to the confines of a specific junctions.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Following the collapse of Vivarail in late 2022, WMT will reintroduce a partial train service on the Marston Vale Line on 20 November 2023. Initially, four services will run in each direction Monday-Fridays and services will be focused on the morning and afternoon peaks, with rail replacement buses continuing to operate at other times. West Midlands Trains aims to operate a full service from early 2024.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Funding has been identified to deliver step free routes between street level and all platforms at Flitwick station. Design work is nearing completion and Network Rail hope to begin onsite delivery in Spring 2024, with all upgrades entering passenger service in early 2025.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government recognises the importance of transport provision in rural areas and is committed to finding solutions which ensure that local communities in these areas have viable and improved transport services.
The Department for Transport is investing in the bus sector to deliver the ambitions of the National Bus Strategy to make bus services more reliable and cheaper. Over £1 billion was allocated to 34 Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) in the first phase of funding for LTAs to deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs). All other LTAs received funding from the £160m Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP+) fund announced in May 2023.
On 4 October, as part of Network North, we announced a further £1 billion from redirected HS2 funding to level up bus services in the North and Midlands via BSIP, making them more frequent, more reliable, cheaper, and easier to use. We are also extending the £2 bus fare cap until the end of 2024, meaning we are investing nearly £600 million in total to cap bus fares across England since the scheme was launched. On top of this, we have announced that a new uplift of 60% will be added to Community Transport Operators’ (CTOs) Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) claims until 31 March 2025.
Central Bedfordshire received £3,724,719 in Government funding to make improvements set out in their BSIP up to March 2025 in the first phase of BSIP funding. They have also been allocated £700,914 in the second phase of BSIP+ funding up to March 2025.
Bedford Borough Council have been allocated £1,093,514 in the second phase of BSIP+ funding up to March 2025.
LTAs in receipt of BSIP and/or BSIP+ funding may use the funding to target it on the actions that they – and local operators through their Enhanced Partnership (where relevant) – believe will deliver the best overall outcomes in growing long term patronage, revenues and thus maintaining service levels, whilst maintaining essential social and economic connectivity for local communities
Secretary of State for Transport
Bedford Borough Council are promoting and funding a new railway station at Wixams, in Bedfordshire.
The Department will continue to work with Bedford Borough Council in developing their plans for this scheme.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department provides funding to NHS England though financial directions. NHS England allocates funding to integra for primary care taking account of national contracts, for example, the GP contract, the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework and the dentistry contract. National contracts are determined in consultation with the relevant sectors.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024, by growing and diversifying the workforce. In the twelve months to September 2023, there were 356.6 million appointments booked across England, up by 14.8% (46.2 million) compared to the twelve months up to September 2019.
The National Health Service is clear that general practices must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations. Patients’ input into consultation type should also be sought and their preferences for face-to-face care respected unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. The constituency of Mid Bedfordshire sits within the ICB of Bedfordshire Luton and Milton Keynes Health and Care Partnership.
In September 2023, there were 499,000 appointments carried out. 79.7% of these appointments were face-to-face, compared to 78.2% in September 2022; this has increased by 1.5% within the year.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England, including in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
This extra funding will enable an extra two million people to be treated by NHS mental health services by March 2024.
We expect integrated care boards to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We remain committed to growing and diversifying the General Practice workforce, through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) Primary Care Networks (PCNS) and practices have recruited over 34,000 additional staff including Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, and social prescribing link workers.
These roles provide appointments and perform clinical and administrative tasks as part of the wider General Practice multi-disciplinary team.
NHS England have committed to supporting all of the roles recruited through the scheme into the future, PCNs, including those in Mid Bedfordshire, can be confident that there will be funding for any ARRS role recruited before March 2024.
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We published our ‘Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care’, with the goal of increasing capacity and making it easier to receive an appointment in primary care.
This will be accomplished by modernising telephone systems to help practices better match their capacity to patient demand as well as building additional capacity by diversifying the workforce to include a wider range of practitioners for patients. This will help free up GP time for more complex cases. We are also expanding community pharmacy, with the introduction of ‘Pharmacy First’. This will enable community pharmacists to manage seven common conditions including the supply of prescription-only medicines without a prescription from a GP. These proposals have the potential to release 10 million GP appointments. Pharmacy First is due to launch on 31 January 2024.
We are also investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In July 2022, we announced a package of reforms to improve access to National Health Service dentistry, which outlined the steps we are taking to meet oral health need and increase access to dental care, including in Mid Bedfordshire. The changes that have been implemented include improvements to ensure dentists are remunerated more fairly for more complex work and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. NHS dental activity as measured by Courses of Treatments delivered has increased by 23% between 2021/22 and 2022/23.
From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32.
But we know we need to do more, and that there are some areas where access is particularly problematic. We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with NHS England to increase the general practice (GP) workforce in England, including mid Bedfordshire. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice. NHS England has made available several new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce.
To boost recruitment, we have increased the number of GP training places. Last year, we saw 4,032 doctors accepting a place on GP training, up from 2,671 in 2014. The number of training places will rise to 6,000 by 2031/32, with the first 500 new places available from September 2025.
From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held in the format requested.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The pricing and availability of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. However, we recognise this is a concerning time for mortgage borrowers.
The path to lower interest rates is through low inflation. The independent Monetary Policy Committee continues to have the Government’s full support as it takes action to return inflation to target. The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households; and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
Over the last two years, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable by providing one of the largest support packages in Europe. Taken together, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion over 2022-25 - or £3,700 per UK household on average.
Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government announced further support at Autumn Statement 2023 to support the most vulnerable: From 1 April 2024, the Government is increasing the NLW by 9.8% for 2.7 million low paid workers. Local Housing Allowance rates will rise to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024 for 1.6 million households. The government will also uprate all working age benefits in full by September 2023 CPI of 6.7%, benefitting 5.5 million households in 2024-25. This brings the total support over 2022-2025 to help households with the high cost of living to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.
As part of the Government’s long-term plan to grow the economy and reform the tax system, employees will see their main National Insurance Contribution (NICs) rate cut from 12% to 10% from January 2024 onwards, and the main rate of Class 4 NICs for the self-employed will be reduced from 9% to 8% from April 2024. This is a tax cut worth over £9bn per year, the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed National Insurance.
Looking across all tax, welfare and spending decisions made since Spending Round 2019, the impact of government action continues to be progressive, with the poorest households receiving the largest benefit as a percentage of income in 2024-25.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.
The government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. Importantly, in relation to personal current accounts the FCA is required to seek to ensure reasonable provision of free cash access services.
Following this, the government published a Cash Access Policy Statement, which sets out the government’s policies on access to cash, including free cash access services. The FCA is required by law to have regard to these policies when determining its regulatory approach. The FCA will publicly consult on its regulatory approach in due course. The government’s policy statement is available on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cash-access-policy-statement/cash-access-policy-statement
In the context of the government’s legislation, the financial services sector is working together to develop and provide shared cash services, such as Banking Hubs and cash deposit services. To date, industry has committed to deliver new shared cash services in over 170 communities.
Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The pricing and availability of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. However, we recognise this is a concerning time for mortgage borrowers.
The path to lower interest rates is through low inflation. The independent Monetary Policy Committee continues to have the Government’s full support as it takes action to return inflation to target. The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households; and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
Over the last two years, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable by providing one of the largest support packages in Europe. Taken together, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion over 2022-25 - or £3,700 per UK household on average.
Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government announced at Autumn Statement 2023 a business rates support package worth £4.3 billion over the next 5 years to support small businesses and the high street. The small multiplier will be frozen and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief will be extended, which will ensure that the most vulnerable businesses continue to be supported.
The Government also announced further support to protect families: this brings total support over 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help households with the high cost of living to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.
The Government continues to maintain record levels of funding for the Money and Pensions Service to provide debt advice in England, bringing their debt advice budget to £92.7 million in 2023/24. Data from 2021 on debt advice in Mid Bedfordshire is published by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS). This can be found here:
https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/2021/09/30/need-for-debt-advice-2021-estimates-for-uk-constituencies-and-local-authorities/
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Core funding for police forces is set out at the annual Police Settlement. The main sources of PCC funding are the local council police precept and government grants, which are distributed on a funding formula basis.
Local resourcing decisions are the responsibility of Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including Mayors who exercise PCC or equivalent functions, to take decisions around their resourcing and estates. They are best placed to make decisions with their communities based on their local knowledge and experience, reflecting the operational independence of forces.
Bedfordshire Police funding will be up to £143.4 million in 2023/24, an increase of up to £15.2 million when compared to 2022/23. This is a continued increase in funding from the previous two financial years from £137.3 million in 2022/23 and £129.2 million in 2021/22.
Bedfordshire will also receive additional funding committed by the Home Office for the 2023-24 Pay Award of up to c£2.9 million for 2023-24.
During the Police Uplift Programme, the number of officers in Bedfordshire Police has increased from 1,351 in March 2021, to 1,411 in March 2022 and stood at 1,455 the end of March 2023.
Minister of State (Home Office)
Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 57% per cent fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending June 2023 with year ending March 2010 Crime Surveys; representing a fall from 917,000 to 394,000 incidents. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the significant impact invasive crimes such as domestic burglary can have on individuals and the wider community, and we are committed to tackling and preventing these crimes.
Through Round Five of the Safer Streets Fund, we have allocated £42 million to support a range of crime prevention interventions, including additional CCTV and improved street lighting and physical security of properties.
The public want to know the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council on the 8 June that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this policy since March. We are working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public. https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary
The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations. https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary Setting the standard in respect of the initial response and the subsequent investigation, the guidance sits alongside the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice on Investigations.
As part of this back-to-basics approach, police forces across England and Wales have committed to pursue all lines of enquiry where there is a reasonable chance it could lead them to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime. This commitment, announced on 28 August, has been worked up and agreed by the Home Office, in tandem with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders
Furthermore, we are clear there is an expectation that forces work with partners across the justice system to see more criminals charged and prosecuted.
To help ensure the police have the resources they need to fight crime and tackle anti-social behaviour, we have delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March this year. As of 31 March, a total of 20,947 additional officers had been recruited across England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme (PUP), raising the number of police officers in England and Wales to 149,566, the highest number on record since comparable records began. As a result of the PUP, as at 31 March 2023 Bedfordshire had a headcount of 1,455 police officers, a 15.0% increase on its pre-PUP peak of 1,265 police officers in March 2010.
Minister of State (Home Office)
Improving visibility of policing in a targeted way should be a priority for all forces. That is why the former Home Secretary and I wrote to all Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners in August 2023, asking them to set out their plans to increase visibility and confidence in local policing and share the results of this by March 2024.
Policing is operationally independent of government and decisions about the deployment and activities of officers, including in neighbourhood policing roles, are for operationally independent Chief Constables. They are best placed to use their local knowledge and experience to serve local needs.
Police and Crime Commissioners are responsible for setting strategic policing objectives and for holding Chief Constables to account for their running of the force to ensure the public receives the high-quality policing they are entitled to expect.
Minister of State (Home Office)
The government recognises that the current police funding formula is out of date and no longer accurately reflects demand on policing.
A review of the funding formula is underway to ensure that it fairly and transparently distributes the circa £8.6bn of annual core grant funding across the 43 police forces in England and Wales, including Bedfordshire.
We are working towards completing the first phase of the review and are considering the demands facing each police force and the relative impact of local factors on forces. We have engaged closely with the policing sector throughout the review, and this work continues.
Minister of State (Home Office)
Enforcement of speed limits is an operational matter for local Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.
Local authorities have the flexibility to make their own decisions about the design of their streets including any speed deterrent measures.
Minister of State (Home Office)