Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many items of correspondence relating to the British Council her Department has received since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Regarding items of correspondence, the requested information could only be accurately collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the value of the Government grant-in-aid to the British Council was in each financial year from 2004–05 to 2024–25; and what assessment she has made of the real-terms change in value over that period.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The level of grant funding provided in each financial year from 2004-05 to 2024-25 can most readily be found in the British Council's archive of annual reports and accounts. No assessment is currently available of the real-terms change in the value of those grants over the period in question.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure transitional arrangements in post-16 qualification options before V-levels are fully implemented.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We have recently closed a consultation on Post-16 Level 3 and Below Pathways. As part of this, we are considering transition arrangements to reach the new qualifications landscape set out in the Post-16 Skills White Paper, and will set out plans in due course.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We have published our transformative VAWG Strategy, which sets out an ambitious cross-government vision and concrete commitments to halve VAWG in a decade. I chair a cross-government ministerial Board with Minister Davies-Jones to oversee the implementation of these commitments. We have already delivered a pilot for the Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in five forces and £13.1 million of funding for the National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection to improve the policing response to these crimes. We have also appointed Richard Wright KC to lead the Stalking Legislation Review ensuring the criminal law on stalking is fit for purpose.Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people in Blackpool receiving Personal Independence Payments due to a psychiatric disorder are adequately supported.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) provides a contribution towards the extra costs that may arise from a long-term disability or health condition. Entitlement to PIP focuses on the functional impacts of a person’s health condition or disability on their daily life, including the impacts from mental health disorders, and is assessed on the basis of needs arising and not on the condition itself. PIP is non-contributory, non-means-tested and can be worth up to £9,747.40 a year, tax free. Individuals can choose how to use the benefit, in the light of their individual needs and preferences.
The benefit can also be paid in addition to any other financial or practical support someone may be entitled to such as Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, NHS services, free prescriptions, help with travel costs to appointments. It can also act as a passport to additional support such as premiums and additional amounts paid within certain benefits, Carer’s Allowance for an informal carer or the Blue Badge scheme. The benefit has been consistently uprated in line with inflation since it was introduced and was last increased by 1.7% from 7 April 2025.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the NHS budget was spent on primary care dentistry net of patient charge revenue in each year since 2010-11.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prior to 2023/24, there was no specific dental budget allocation and dentistry formed part of a wider budget including community pharmacy and optometry. NHS England accounts show the total spend on General Dental Service (GDS) and Personal Dental Service (PDS) contracts, and the income from patient charges. Some community care is delivered through PDS contracts but in general this figure is a proxy for primary dental spend.
The following table shows GDS and PDS spending, less patient charge revenue, in each year since 2014/15 for which accounts have been published, as a proportion of the total National Health Service budget:
Financial Year | GDS and PDS spending as percentage of total NHS budget |
2014/15 | 2.39% |
2015/16 | 2.47% |
2016/17 | 1.95% |
2017/18 | 1.89% |
2018/19 | 1.76% |
2019/20 | 1.78% |
2020/21 | 1.83% |
2021/22 | 1.61% |
2022/23 | 1.41% |
2023/24 | 1.36% |
Source: NHS England
Note: The timeseries of the NHS budget is not comparable prior to 2014/15 so earlier years have not been provided.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many bathing waters were classified as poor in each of the last ten years, and what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact on domestic tourism trends.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The following table shows the number of bathing waters classified as poor over the previous 10 years.
Year | Number of bathing waters classified as poor and notes. |
2015 | 12 |
2016 | 6 |
2017 | 7 |
2018 | 9 |
2019 | 7 |
2020 | Classifications were not produced in 2020 due to the pandemic |
2021 | 4 |
2022 | 12 |
2023 | 18 |
2024 | 37 |
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to collaborate with (a) VisitBritain, (b) local authorities and (c) tourism boards to measure the impact of water quality on destination attractiveness.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has reset the water sector; we are stopping the sewage scandal and transforming the water industry from one of decline to one of opportunity. The Government has frequent discussions with a wide variety of stakeholders on its policies. For example, various Local Authorities and local tourist office responded to the consultation process for the Reform of the Bathing Waters Regulations 2013. Our bathing waters bring important social and health benefits to the local communities surrounding them, and help coastal towns prosper by attracting tourists from across the UK and the world.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that school food standards contribute to reducing childhood obesity levels.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for children, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance and the Standards support strategies around health.
The department is looking at the impact of the School Food Standards on obesity levels amongst children. More widely, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) provides robust school age health and inequalities data to assess and monitor the impact of polices and plan services at a local level. NCMP data on child obesity prevalence in Blackpool is not available at Parliamentary Constituency level but is available at the local authority level.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of school food standards on obesity levels among children in Blackpool South constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for children, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance and the Standards support strategies around health.
The department is looking at the impact of the School Food Standards on obesity levels amongst children. More widely, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) provides robust school age health and inequalities data to assess and monitor the impact of polices and plan services at a local level. NCMP data on child obesity prevalence in Blackpool is not available at Parliamentary Constituency level but is available at the local authority level.