Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Levelling Up Fund Round 3: explanatory and methodology note on the decision-making process, published on 20 November 2023, whether any projects that scored 74.25 or above did not qualify for funding as a result of the cap on regeneration projects outside priority areas by local authority or ILT1 area.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government has published an explanatory and methodology note which sets out the decision-making process for selecting successful bids for Round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund. As set out in paragraph 15 ‘projects were capped at one per local authority and four per ITL1 region. These were selected in score order, except for in ITL1 regions where ITL2 distribution could be maximised, where an additional cap of one project per ITL2 in this stage was introduced to improve regional spread’. A threshold of above 74.25 for scores was applied in England and Wales, and 72.25 in Scotland, with further requirements set out in the note.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2023 to Question 1396 on Local Government: Standards, which local authorities were identified as potentially in need of a review under the tender for the provision of external assurance reviews of local authorities, reference 2022/S 000-024515, published on 1 September 2022.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As the answer to Question UIN1396 set out, the contract referenced provides for the provision of external assurance reviews of local authorities in support of DLUHC's role as steward of the local government sector and Local Government Accountability Framework.
The referenced number of reviews, a minimum of six and maximum of 32, as per the referenced document CPD4124050 was an anticipated requirement given the demand led nature of the work.
The contract award notice is published here. Spend against the contract is published here as part of normal Departmental transparency requirements.
The Government has been transparent about the outcome of reviews and, for example, published previous reviews linked to requests for Exceptional Financial Support on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the potential cost to the Exchequer of raising statutory sick pay.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Payments of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) are made by employers. Any indirect costs and benefits that would be derived to the Exchequer because of changing the rate of SSP would need to be assessed.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May to Question 184825on Protective Clothing: China, how many items of personal protective equipment held in China were (a) donated, (b) recycled and (c) sold between January 2020 and September 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
Between January 2020 and September 2022, the total number of personal protective equipment (PPE) items held in China that were donated was approximately 57.15 million. No PPE items held in China were recycled or sold.
The majority of stock held in China were in categories of PPE for which the Department has sufficient stock in the UK to meet remaining demand and the items were therefore surplus to requirements.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost of storing personal protective equipment in China was per (a) day and (b) week in (i) February and (ii) March 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
Storage costs data for personal protective equipment are compiled on a monthly basis and the latest collated figures relate to March 2023. The following table shows the cost of storing items in warehouses in China during February and March 2023.
| February 2023 (£) | March 2023 (£) |
Daily | 31,343 | 30,827 |
Weekly | 219,400 | 215,786 |
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May to question 172423 on Protective Clothing: China, what proportion of the items of Personal Protective Equipment disposed of since September 2022, has been (a) donated to other countries, (b) recycled and (c) sold.
Answered by Will Quince
No items of Personal Protective Equipment held in China have been donated, recycled or sold since September 2022.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of usable energy generation from the 3.14 billion items of PPE removed from stock through incineration up to 28 February 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
No estimate has been made.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May to question 172423 on Protective Clothing: China, whether his Department has made an estimate of potential usable energy generation from incineration of the items of Personal Protective Equipment disposed of since September 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has not made an estimate of potential usable energy generation from incineration of the items of Personal Protective Equipment disposed of in China since September 2022.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the (a) number and (b) value of contracts for personal protective equipment for which his Department (i) has brought and (ii) plans to bring legal action against the supplier due to quality issues; and how many of those suppliers have been excluded from taking part in public procurement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has continued to place quarterly update reports in the libraries of both Houses. These reports include information from the Department’s Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Contracts Dissolution Team and provide an update on progress made by the team, with the most recent being placed on 16 March 2023. The March update reported that the Department had reduced the number of contested PPE contracts from 176 to 60, with an associated value at risk reduced from £2.6 billion to £1.6 billion.
The Department has brought one legal action against one supplier for a contract to the value of £122 million. The other contested contracts are currently under investigation and may or may not result in legal proceedings. Procurement exclusion decisions are made on a case-by-case basis against the criteria set out in Regulation 57 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and are taken by contracting authorities when bidders have applied to participate in a procurement exercise.
The supplier against which legal action has been taken by the Department has not participated in any subsequent procurement exercises undertaken by the Department, and therefore no exclusion has been exercised.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2022 to Question 61151 on Protective Clothing: Storage, what proportion of those items of personal protective equipment have been (a) shipped to the UK and (b) destroyed.
Answered by Will Quince
Of the 589 million items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) referred to in the previous answer of 9 November 2022, no items have been shipped to the United Kingdom.
The majority of remaining stock held in China were in categories of PPE for which the Department has sufficient stock in the UK to meet remaining demand and the items were therefore surplus to requirements. In managing down the stock held in China we made donations to other countries. All of the remaining items are being disposed of through incineration.
As of 31 March 2023 there were 12 million items of PPE remaining in storage in China. All of the reduction in stock held in China since 26 September 2022 has been through disposal, with the aim of enabling an exit from the storage facility as soon as possible.