Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many subject access requests his Department has (a) received and (b) responded to within the statutory limit in the last five years.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department has received 45 Subject Access requests and responded to 100% within the statutory limit in the last 5 calendar years.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to allow the seizure of assets of sanctioned Russian individuals.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is taking action against the billions of pounds worth UK property accumulated by the Russian state-linked individuals and companies. We have already frozen the assets of those individuals on the sanctions list. The new legislation in the Economic Crime Act will mean the Government can move more quickly to impose sanctions against oligarchs already designated by our allies, as well as intensifying our sanctions enforcement. These measures form part of a wider package of legislative proposals to tackle illicit finance which will be introduced in Parliament in the coming months. We will set out details in due course.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
How the Government allocates resources between local authorities.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
In England, the Government generally allocates funding to local authorities in line with their relative need. For example, since the start of the pandemic, we have allocated an additional £3.7 billion un-ringfenced funding to local authorities in England, and have taken into account population, deprivation and how service delivery costs vary across the country in distributing this money.
Local authority allocations in Wales are a fully devolved matter.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 2.30 of the Summer Budget 2015, how much funding has been assigned to the Coastal Communities Fund in each fiscal year to 2020-21.
Answered by Mark Francois
No detailed decisions have been taken yet on the annual budget allocations for the £90 million extension of the Coastal Community Fund to 2020-21. Future funding arrangements will be considered as part of the 2015 Spending Review.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he and other Ministers in his Department have visited a foodbank.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Whilst my Department does not have policy responsibility for food banks, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State (Eric Pickles), my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning (Brandon Lewis) and myself have visited local food banks.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to put in place a planning process for fracking which diverges from existing planning rules.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We have already made a number of changes to the local planning system in England to ensure that it is suitable in respect to unconventional hydrocarbons.
The National Planning Policy Framework, published in March 2012, sets out the policy framework for minerals, including unconventional hydrocarbons. We have also updated the supporting planning guidance to provide clarity on the role of the planning system in respect to unconventional hydrocarbons, and published this in a web-based format in March 2014.
Further, we introduced in early 2014 a streamlined common application form and amended regulations on notification requirements and fees for the winning and working of oil and natural gas (including exploratory drilling).