Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate has been made of the number of public-access defibrillators in (a) Pendle, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department does not hold figures on this. However, the British Heart Foundation was awarded £1 million by the Department in both 2015/16 and 2016/17 to invest in public access defibrillators.
NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention is supporting the British Heart Foundation in its work to identify the location of public access defibrillators. The aim is to establish a national database and to make this available to ambulance services.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve mobile telephone coverage in Pendle.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Improving mobile connectivity across the whole of the UK is a priority for the Government. The Ofcom licence obligations arising from the December 2014 agreement mean that the four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have a legally binding obligation for each of them to provide voice/SMS text coverage to at least 90% of the UK’s landmass by end-2017. Additionally Telefonica (O2) has a licence obligation to deliver indoor 4G coverage to 98% of UK premises. The Digital Economy Bill, currently going through Parliament, will give the regulator Ofcom the power to issue large fines to mobile phone companies who fail to meet their licence obligations.
The Government's agreement with the MNOs locked in investment of £5 billion and is delivering improved coverage across the UK. Data from Ofcom's 2016 Connected Nations Report shows that over 97% of premises in Lancashire now have indoor voice coverage from at least one MNO, while 96% have indoor 4G data coverage from at least one MNO (73% from all four). Our recent mobile planning reforms for England (November 2016) and proposed reforms of the Electronic Communications Code, will support further investment and improvements in connectivity across the UK and reduce not spots.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make provision for administrative costs incurred by nurseries as a result of extending the availability of free childcare.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are increasing our annual investment in the free early years entitlements by £1 billion per year by 2019-20. This includes over £300 million a year for a significant increase to Government funding rates. We have also legislated to ensure that local authorities pass the vast majority of Government funding onto providers.
This new investment is based on our ‘Review of Childcare Costs’, published in November 2015. The Review explicitly considered providers’ administrative costs and was described by the National Audit Office as “thorough and wide-ranging”.
In addition, we are providing £2.15m to local authorities to improve their IT systems to allow more automation of the administrative requirements on providers.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 4.5 of the Spring Budget 2017, what share of the £300 million in discretionary relief for business rate individual hard cases will be provided to businesses in Pendle constituency.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
My Department is currently consulting on the £300 million discretionary relief scheme. As part of the consultation the Government published details of the provisional allocations by local authority. Details of the consultation and allocations are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/discretionary-business-rates-relief-scheme
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help local authorities in the North West whose area is affected by ash dieback.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
We are working closely with local authorities to help them deal with the impacts of ash dieback by supporting them to be prepared and by providing guidance.
Infected ash trees can survive dieback for many years, continuing to provide recreational and biodiversity benefits, and could provide a source of disease tolerance in the future. For this very reason we are not encouraging the removal of infected ash unless it poses an immediate health and safety risk.
To ensure that the issue of health and safety is addressed we have convened an ash dieback taskforce with a number of key stakeholders and local authorities. We are working closely with this group to develop action plans for local authorities and supplement existing guidance for landowners, such as that published by the National Tree Safety Group. We will be making the action plans available for all local authorities in due course.
Local action plan work has initially focused on the areas most likely to be affected in the next few years, but we have been working with other areas and held workshops across the country to inform the research, and we will be engaging local authorities in the North West in this work later this year.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 3.17 of the Spring Budget 2017, what estimate the Government has made of the number of public houses that will be eligible for the £1,000 business rate discount in (a) Pendle, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
At the Budget on 8 March the Chancellor announced a new relief scheme for pubs with a rateable value below £100,000. Under the scheme, eligible pubs will receive a £1000 discount on rate bills. My Department will shortly consult on guidance which will include proposals on the eligibility criteria and other aspects of the scheme.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will provide an update on the Government's timetable for the publication of the techno-economic assessment of small modular reactors.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is currently considering the key findings of the techno-economic assessment of small modular reactors as part of on-going SMR policy development. Government will provide more information on the plan for publication of the techno-economic assessment in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the level of foreign direct investment in the UK from Pakistani investors in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent deaths from heart disease in developing countries.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
As part of DFID’s commitment to achieving Global Goal 3 – ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all – we support developing countries to strengthen their health systems.
The World Health Organisation estimates that Non Communicable Diseases, including cardiovascular disease, will result in cumulative economic losses of US$7 trillion over the next 15 years in low- and middle-income countries.
The UK provides specific support to tackling deaths from heart disease, including through our Health Partnerships Scheme helping to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Ethiopia. DFID does not provide any direct support for provision of genetic testing for heart disease in developing countries.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to improve the availability of genetic testing for heart disease in developing countries.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
As part of DFID’s commitment to achieving Global Goal 3 – ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all – we support developing countries to strengthen their health systems.
The World Health Organisation estimates that Non Communicable Diseases, including cardiovascular disease, will result in cumulative economic losses of US$7 trillion over the next 15 years in low- and middle-income countries.
The UK provides specific support to tackling deaths from heart disease, including through our Health Partnerships Scheme helping to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Ethiopia. DFID does not provide any direct support for provision of genetic testing for heart disease in developing countries.