Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure participants in multi-level marketing schemes are protected from misleading claims about the financial benefits of said schemes.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Although multi-level schemes are not illegal, it is a criminal offence to persuade someone to make a payment to a scheme by promising benefits from getting other people to join the same scheme (Fair Trading Act 1973 section 120(3)).
Also, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) prohibit unfair and misleading marketing tactics towards consumers. This includes “establishing, operating or promoting a pyramid promotional scheme where a consumer gives consideration for the opportunity to receive compensation that is derived primarily from the introduction of other consumers into a scheme rather than from the sale or consumption of products.”
To strengthen the enforcement of these and other consumer rights, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 increases the powers available for enforcement bodies.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, which regulations govern multi-level marketing schemes; and if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the regulatory framework of such schemes.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Although multi-level schemes are not illegal, it is a criminal offence to persuade someone to make a payment to a scheme by promising benefits from getting other people to join the same scheme (Fair Trading Act 1973 section 120(3)).
Also, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) prohibit unfair and misleading marketing tactics towards consumers. This includes “establishing, operating or promoting a pyramid promotional scheme where a consumer gives consideration for the opportunity to receive compensation that is derived primarily from the introduction of other consumers into a scheme rather than from the sale or consumption of products.”
To strengthen the enforcement of these and other consumer rights, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 increases the powers available for enforcement bodies.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital funding her Department has allocated to schools in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department provides annual capital funding to support the education sector, which includes funding to maintain and improve the condition of the school estate and to create school places. The department’s capital budget also supports providers other than schools, and there is no separate capital budget for schools specifically. It is not possible to break all funding down by constituency or local authority.
The total Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) outturn in each financial year since 2014/15 is available in the table below. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports.
Table 1: Total CDEL outturn in each financial year since 2014-15
Financial year | CDEL, £billions |
2014/15 | 4.8 |
2015/16 | 5.1 |
2016/17 | 5.7 |
2017/18 | 4.9 |
2018/19 | 5.4 |
2019/20 | 4.9 |
2020/21 | 4.8 |
2021/22 | 4.8 |
2022/23 | 5.9 |
2023/24 | 6.6 |
The department supports schools by providing capital funding to responsible bodies, including local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary aided bodies to invest in improving the condition of their estates. In addition, we deliver rebuilding programmes to replace school buildings in the worst condition.
In the last ten years, under the Priority School Building Programme and the School Rebuilding Programme, the department has handed over, or committed to, ten rebuilding projects in Cheshire West and Chester and one in Cheshire East, the local authorities covering Mid-Cheshire constituency, as part of over 1000 projects across England. Individual schools in the programmes are published on GOV.UK.
It is up to the local authorities to allocate their annual school condition funding across their maintained schools, based on local knowledge of need, prioritising keeping schools safe and operational. The total allocated to Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East and their maintained schools from 2015, including School Condition Allocations and Devolved Formula Capital, as well as one-off capital funding allocations, including the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund, is available in the table below:
Table 2: Total capital funding allocated to Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East and their maintained schools from 2015 (including School Condition Allocations and Devolved Formula Capital, as well as one-off capital funding allocations, including the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund).
Financial year | Cheshire East £millions | Cheshire West and Chester £millions |
2015/16 | 3.79 | 4.24 |
2016/17 | 3.36 | 4.21 |
2017/18 | 2.97 | 4.05 |
2018/19* | 3.74 | 5.57 |
2019/20 | 2.23 | 3.76 |
2020/21* | 2.18 | 5.21 |
2021/22 | 2.39 | 5.38 |
2022/23* | 3.5 | 7.37 |
2023/24 | 2.2 | 5.66 |
2024/25 | 2.75 | 5.32 |
*includes additional one-off allocations.
Large academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies with schools in the area will also have been allocated a school condition allocation, but allocations typically span constituency and local authority boundaries. Smaller and stand alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges have been able to bid for funding to the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF). Capital allocations and successful CIF projects are published on GOV.UK.
The annual condition funding for school buildings allocated by year across England, as well as one-off capital funding allocations, including the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund, is available in the table below:
Table 3: The annual condition funding for school buildings allocated by year across England (as well as one-off capital funding allocations, including the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund).
Financial year | Total £billions |
2015/16 | 1.4 |
2016/17 | 1.4 |
2017/18 | 1.4 |
2018/19* | 1.9 |
2019/20 | 1.4 |
2020/21* | 2 |
2021/22 | 1.8 |
2022/23* | 2.2 |
2023/24 | 1.8 |
2024/25 | 1.8 |
*includes additional one-off allocations.
Furthermore, the department provides the Basic Need capital grant to support local authorities meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient mainstream school places for children in their area. Basic Need allocations for all years from 2011/12 to 2025/26 for: i) England; ii) Cheshire West and Chester Council; and iii) Cheshire East Council are published at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations.
The department has also invested over £3 billion into school places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision since 2018 when this funding began. Of that funding, Cheshire East has received £33,482,797 and Cheshire West and Chester has received £13,633,503. As funding is allocated to local authorities, there is no constituency level data for high needs capital. Special Provision Capital Fund allocations for 2018 to 2021 are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-provision-capital-funding-for-pupils-with-ehc-plans. High Needs Provision Capital Allocation allocations for 2021 2025 are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-provision-capital-allocations.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when her Department plans to set out details of the independent Loan Charge Review.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government will commission a new independent review of the Loan Charge to help bring the matter to a close for those affected whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers. Further details about the review will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to mental health services in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board is responsible for providing health and care services to meet the needs of the people of Mid Cheshire constituency and Cheshire, taking into account local considerations.
Nationally, we recognise that many people with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure that mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment which will also help ease pressure on hospitals. By cutting mental health waiting lists and intervening earlier with more timely mental health support, we can get this country back to good health.
We will also ensure every young person has access to a mental health professional at school, and set up Young Futures hubs in every community, offering open access mental health services for young people.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the reintroduction of beavers to the wild on meeting targets on halting the decline in species abundance by 2030 as set under the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
No direct assessment of beavers’ impact on the species abundance target has been conducted but we continue to improve our evidence base underpinning the targets more broadly.
However, evidence demonstrates that beavers can boost biodiversity and create and restore wetland habitats. A 2020 evidence review of the interaction between beavers and the natural and human environments found that beaver reintroductions can bring many benefits by helping to restore lost natural ecosystem function. Therefore, beaver reintroductions could contribute to broad ambitions to restore biodiversity, through the restoration of more naturally functioning habitat mosaics, benefitting many species.
Beaver populations in England are currently small, so any positive impact on biodiversity and species abundance will be spatially limited.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the regional spread of business debt in each of the last five years.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Business debt in the UK is spread across each of the regions, with the biggest proportions found in London, the South East and South West. Please find a detailed breakdown of the changes in the regional spread of business debt in each of the last five years, using figures from UK Finance:
Table: The share of the value of SME loan facilities (with each year-on-year difference)
Region | Q2 2019 | Q2 2020 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2022 | Q2 2023 | Q2 2024 |
London | 19.7% | 21.0% (+1.3%) | 21.6% (+0.6%) | 20.9% (-0.7%) | 21.6% (+0.6%) | 21.4% (-0.2%) |
South East | 13.0% | 13.5% (+0.6%) | 13.3% (-0.2%) | 13.2% (-0.1%) | 13.8% (+0.6%) | 12.9% (+1.0%) |
South West | 12.1% | 10.9% (-1.2%) | 10.7% (-0.2%) | 10.7% (+0.1%) | 10.9% (+0.2%) | 11.9% (+1.0%) |
East Midlands | 5.6% | 5.7% (+0.1%) | 5.7% (-0.1%) | 6.1% (+0.4%) | 5.8% (-0.3%) | 6.1% (+0.3%) |
West Midlands | 9.1% | 9.0% (+0.0%) | 8.9% (-0.1%) | 8.6% (-0.3%) | 8.8% (+0.2%) | 8.5% (-0.2%) |
East of England | 6.7% | 6.6% (-0.1%) | 6.7% (+0.0%) | 6.5% (-0.1%) | 6.7% (+0.2%) | 6.8% (+0.1%) |
Yorkshire & The Humber | 7.1% | 7.1% (+0.1%) | 7.3% (+0.2%) | 7.1% (-0.2%) | 7.4% (+0.3%) | 7.2% (-0.2%) |
North East | 3.2% | 3.1% (-0.1%) | 3.1% (+0.0%) | 3.1% (+0.0%) | 3.0% (-0.1%) | 2.9% (-0.1%) |
North West | 10.1% | 10.5% (+0.4%) | 10.4% (-0.1%) | 11.2% (+0.8%) | 9.7% (-1.5%) | 9.5% (-0.2%) |
Wales | 4.7% | 4.3% (-0.5%) | 4.2% (-0.1%) | 4.5% (+0.3%) | 4.3% (-0.2%) | 4.3% (+0.0%) |
Scotland | 8.7% | 8.2% (-0.6%) | 8.2% (+0.1%) | 8.1% (-0.2%) | 8.0% (-0.1%) | 8.5% (+0.5%) |
Source: UK Finance (Aggregated SME Database, average of small and medium businesses value of loan facilities). Quarterly figures may not be directly comparable between years due to a re-segmentation of businesses and improvements in reporting from 2023 Q2 onwards. This includes some regional re-classification.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of fraud in each of the last five years.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
No. of estimated fraud incidents against individuals | Year Ending June | ||||
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
4,332,000 | 5,035,000 | 3,819,000 | 3,335,000 | 3,560,000 | |
The ONS’ Crime Survey for England & Wales (CSEW) has been used to assess trends in the level of estimated fraud against individuals in England and Wales in each of the last 5 years (Year ending June 2020 to Year ending June 2024)1.
Estimated incidents of fraud peaked sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a peak of over 5 million incidents in 2021. Fraud incidents then declined gradually, falling to 3.335 million incidents in YE June 2023.
The latest CSEW data shows that, in the year ending June 2024, there were an estimated 3.560 million incidents of fraud against individuals in England and Wales.
This Government takes the treat of fraud extremely seriously, and is committed to bring forward a new, expanded fraud strategy covering all elements of pernicious and damaging crime.
1 The CSEW only represents estimated incidents of fraud against individuals in England and Wales and does not capture fraud against businesses or HMG. Therefore, the true scale of fraud is likely to be larger than the figures presented above.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the number of homeless people who have died while living on the street in each of the last five years in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England; and what steps her Department is taking to end rough sleeping in those areas.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Every death of someone sleeping rough on our streets is one too many. The estimated number of deaths of homeless people in England and Wales is published by the Office for National Statistics. You can find the data for between 2013 and 2021 here. ONS are doing further work revising their methodology for the data set to make it more robust so it is likely that their next publication will be in 2025.
We are developing a new cross-government strategy to get us on back on track to ending homelessness and rough sleeping. The £547 million Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) is continuing its support to up to 300 local authorities across England by funding local, tailored rough sleeping services. Cheshire East received £222,000 and Cheshire West and Chester received £661,000 of RSI funding for 2024-25.
As announced at Budget, we are also providing an additional £233 million in 2025-26 to prevent homelessness, taking total spending to £1 billion in 2025-26.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for mental health treatment in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for adults in the Cheshire East local authority, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and second contact for adults in the Cheshire East local authority | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of adult referrals with a second contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 5,262 | 148.8 | 51 |
2020/21 | 5,986 | 122.2 | 34 |
2021/22 | 4,285 | 156.3 | 43.5 |
2022/23 | 3,005 | 234.3 | 69 |
2023/24 | 5,165 | 206.4 | 51 |
Similarly, the following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for children and young people aged under 18 years old in the Cheshire East local authority, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old in the Cheshire East local authority | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of child referrals with a first contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 3,244 | 133.5 | 28 |
2020/21 | 2,854 | 71.1 | 17 |
2021/22 | 2,810 | 139.6 | 27 |
2022/23 | 3,615 | 197.1 | 46 |
2023/24 | 4,145 | 104.3 | 30 |
The following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for adults in the Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and Chester local authorities combined, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and second contact for adults for the Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and Chester local authorities combined | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of adult referrals with a second contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 10,328 | 132.9 | 47 |
2020/21 | 10,474 | 115.6 | 27 |
2021/22 | 7,645 | 164.8 | 48 |
2022/23 | 6,210 | 218.1 | 56 |
2023/24 | 10,005 | 157.9 | 34 |
In addition, the following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for children and young people aged under 18 years old in the Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and Chester local authorities combined, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old for Cheshire East, and Cheshire West and Chester local authorities combined | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of child referrals with a first contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 5,300 | 106.0 | 27 |
2020/21 | 4,732 | 63.1 | 14.5 |
2021/22 | 4,510 | 133.2 | 26 |
2022/23 | 5,715 | 172.9 | 44 |
2023/24 | 7,310 | 83.3 | 30 |
The following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for adults in England, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and second contact for adults in England | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of adult referrals with a second contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 1,137,746 | 82.1 | 20 |
2020/21 | 1,139,423 | 69.7 | 13 |
2021/22 | 1,188,529 | 63.6 | 15 |
2022/23 | 1,176,748 | 68.2 | 19 |
2023/24 | 1,289,417 | 72.3 | 20 |
Finally, the following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for children and young people aged under 18 years old in England, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old in England | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of child referrals with a first contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 567,236 | 81.6 | 13 |
2020/21 | 568,703 | 75.3 | 7 |
2021/22 | 652,869 | 65.0 | 11 |
2022/23 | 674,702 | 69.7 | 13 |
2023/24 | 744,506 | 75.4 | 14 |
Source: Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS), NHS England
Notes: