Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data her Department holds on the number of people in (a) the West Midlands, (b) Coventry and (c) Coventry North East constituency who have been employed in the automotive industry in each of the last three years.

Answered by Alan Mak

According to the ONS Business Registers and Employment Survey (BRES) the estimated numbers employed in automotive manufacturing in the West Midlands, Coventry and Coventry North-East were as follows (latest published year 2022):

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the number of empty residential properties in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure empty residential properties do not fall into disrepair.

Answered by Lee Rowley

I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 24519 on 10 May 2024.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to take steps to reduce health inequalities through housing in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.

Answered by Jacob Young

The Government is committed to improving the quality of rented homes and committed in the Levelling Up White Paper to reduce the number of non-decent rented homes by 50% by 2030, building on the extensive progress made since 2010. We are introducing a Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector through the Renters (Reform) Bill, which will introduce new standards that all private rented sector homes must meet. The Social Housing (Regulation) Act introduced new measures to drive up the quality of social homes, including through a new proactive consumer regulation regime led by the Regulator of Social Housing. We are also introducing Awaab’s Law, which will set new strict timeframes for social landlords to fix health hazards in homes.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department provides to older jobseekers in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England who are looking to (i) reskill or (ii) change careers.

Answered by Jo Churchill

Eligible older jobseekers on Universal Credit benefit from Additional Work Coach Time (AWCT) and the delivery of Mid Life MOTs in Jobcentres across England which support people to review their health, wealth and skills.

77 50PLUS Champions are working in all 37 Districts across England, Wales and Scotland, and personalise support, including helping customers to reskill or change career.

At the 2023 Budget, the Chancellor announced increasing skills provision through Returnerships for those aged 50 and over which bring together three programmes to support older workers. These include Accelerated Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs).

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate her Department has made of the average amount spent on energy bills per household in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last five years.

Answered by Amanda Solloway

Data on household electricity and gas energy bills are published as part of the Quarterly Energy Prices statistical series (here). The department collects this information at the regional level and does not hold it for smaller geographies.

Average annual domestic electricity bills for England and UK regions are presented in table QEP 2.2.3 and average annual domestic gas bills for GB regions are presented in table QEP 2.3.3 (here).

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the number of small businesses in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry and (c) England that have closed in each of the last three years.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Numbers of enterprise (business) ‘deaths’ (closures) are not available at the parliamentary constituency level. Neither are they available, yet, for unitary authorities in 2023.

Numbers of enterprise ‘deaths’ are not available broken down by business size and are only available for PAYE and/or VAT registered businesses.

Data in the 2 tables below show total numbers of registered enterprise ‘deaths’ in England in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and in Coventry in 2021 and 2022.

Table 1: Counts of all enterprise ‘deaths’ in 2021 and 2022 in England and Coventry

Source: ONS business demography

Table 2: Provisional counts of all enterprise ‘deaths’ in 2023, in England

Source: ONS business demography, quarterly experimental statistics

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle educational disadvantage in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

Raising attainment for all pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, is at the heart of this government’s agenda. Evidence shows that pupils with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential.

The department has consistently taken a range of steps to give priority support and deliver programmes that help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, and providing targeted support where needed.

The Pupil Premium, worth over £2.9 billion in 2024/25 continues to support schools to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

Coventry local authority is a designated Education Investment Area, for which the department has published Trust Development Statements, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1159211/West_Midlands_Trust_Development_Statements_v2.pdf.

The Trust Development Statement for Coventry outlines the department's vision to reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils across all education phases. In order to raise education standards across Coventry, the department welcomes proposals from high-quality Multi Academy Trusts with experience in supporting communities with higher rates of deprivation.

Schools and trusts can also receive up to 15 days of support from a system leader through the department's Trust and School Improvement Offer. Colleagues within the department work closely with Coventry City Council to identify schools and trusts that may benefit this support.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support job creation schemes in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry and (c) the West Midlands.

Answered by Jo Churchill

DWP supports people across the country to move into and progress in work and is committed to reducing economic inactivity. We want everyone who can work to be able to find a job, progress, and thrive in the labour market, whoever they are and wherever they live. The Department delivers comprehensive employment support including through face-to-face time with work coaches in our Jobcentres and via more intensive contracted employment programmes.

Our Employment Advisor team are working with employers to generate employment opportunities for all residents across Coventry. By working with local stakeholders such as Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, Coventry City Council and WMCA, we are encouraging employers to think more widely in their workforce planning activity through devolution projects such as the Job Rotation Pilot and other local initiatives to help employers grow their businesses whilst recruiting through a more inclusive approach for example through Disability Confident.

Recent recruitment campaigns across the retail sector include B&M and Iceland. Particular focus is ongoing with the logistics sector including Halfords, Menzies, Co-op and Tesco.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the level of home ownership in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry in each of the last three years.

Answered by Lee Rowley

DLUHC publishes estimates of first-time buyer numbers as part of the English Housing Survey. See Chapter 3 and Annex 3.2 in: English Housing Survey2022 to 2023: headline report - GOV.UK. The Government does not hold data that is specific to (a) the Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.

The Government has a range of schemes available to help improve access to home ownership, including First Homes, Shared Ownership, Right to Buy, the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme and the Lifetime ISA. We have also doubled the threshold for Stamp Duty and expanded First Time Buyers Relief.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support first-time home buyers in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.

Answered by Lee Rowley

DLUHC publishes estimates of first-time buyer numbers as part of the English Housing Survey. See Chapter 3 and Annex 3.2 in: English Housing Survey2022 to 2023: headline report - GOV.UK. The Government does not hold data that is specific to (a) the Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.

The Government has a range of schemes available to help improve access to home ownership, including First Homes, Shared Ownership, Right to Buy, the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme and the Lifetime ISA. We have also doubled the threshold for Stamp Duty and expanded First Time Buyers Relief.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of trends in childhood obesity levels in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last three years.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) collects data on children aged four to five years old, who would be in reception, and 10 to 11 years old, who would be in year 6. It provides detailed trend data on children’s weight status, including childhood obesity. While data is not available at a constituency level, it is available at a local authority, regional, and national level. The following table shows the obesity prevalence from the NCMP in Coventry, the West Midlands, and England, for 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23:

Note: the data for 2019/20 was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data shows that the prevalence of obesity in children aged four to five years old has decreased since the increase seen in 2020/21, during the COVID-19 pandemic. For children aged 10 to 11 years old, prevalence has decreased, but it still remains higher in 2022/23 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019/20, for the West Midlands and England. For Coventry, however, prevalence in 2022/23 is similar to pre-pandemic levels in 2019/20.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has provided for transport projects in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Coventry in each of the last three years.

Answered by Guy Opperman

The Government has spent £8.4 billion on transport in the West Midlands region over the last three years, improving connectivity, shortening journey times, reducing congestion, and transporting people and goods.

Figures are not available at the level of individual local authorities. However, in Coventry, recent Government investment includes;

• £27.5m Local Growth Fund towards the completed North South Rail & Coventry Station Masterplan delivering improved capacity and accessibility at the station. Opened March '22.
• West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) awarded £50m for Coventry to become the UK's first All Electric Bus City, with all buses – replaced with electric buses, plus charging infrastructure.

Coventry also stands to benefit from allocations to West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) including

• An additional £2.5m for road surfacing as part of Network North.
• £1.05bn City Regional Sustainable Transport (CRST) Settlement 5-year allocation.
• £104m for 2022-25 to deliver bus improvements through their Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).
• £30m (March 2022) Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) funding towards hydrogen buses and infrastructure across the region.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the take-up rate was for breast cancer screening in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in each of the last two years.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson

NHS Breast Screening Programme statistics are available at the NHS Digital website's Breast Screening Programme page:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/breast-screening-programme

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number of people in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England who have unmet care needs; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure those care needs are met.

Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

Local authorities are responsible for assessing individuals’ care and support needs and, where eligible, for meeting those needs. Where individuals do not meet the eligibility threshold, they can get support from their local authorities in making their own arrangements for care services, as set out in the Care Act 2014.

We recognise that some people still experience challenges in accessing the care and support they need, when they need it. That is why ensuring that people find adult social care fair and accessible is one of the three main objectives of our 10-year reform vision for adult social care. To achieve this vision, we are supporting local authorities to address workforce pressures, drive improvements in their local area, and better streamline their assessment processes.

To support this, the Government has made available up to £8.6 billion in additional funding over the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25, to support adult social care and discharge. This includes up to £1.5 billion of additional grant funding for adult social care for 2024/25, compared to 2023/24, alongside a 2% increase to the adult social care precept for local authorities with social care responsibilities, uptake of which will generate a further £609 million in 2024/25. In addition, the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund, worth almost £2 billion over two years, is designed to support increased adult social care capacity, improve market sustainability, and enable local authorities to make improvements to adult social care services.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England (i) receive the basic state pension, (ii) receive pension credit and (iii) are eligible for pension credit but do not claim it; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all pensioners receive their full entitlement to pension credit.

Answered by Paul Maynard

Caseload statistics are routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. The figures below show the Pension Credit and Basic State Pension caseloads in each area:

The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). These statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.

We continue to promote Pension Credit through our national awareness campaign, which has been ongoing since April 2022 and has included advertising on national TV, newspapers, broadcast radio, on social media and via internet search engines as well as on screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries.

At the start of 2024 - as in previous years - the DWP wrote to over 11 million pensioners as part of the annual State Pension up-rating exercise. The accompanying leaflet included prominent messaging promoting Pension Credit using the 'call to action' messaging from the communication campaign, including how Pension Credit opens the door to other financial help such as housing costs, Council Tax and heating bills.

There is a strong indication that the campaign has had a positive impact. The latest available figures covering the 3 months to November 2023 show that there were over 28 thousand more households in receipt the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit than in May 2022.

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Found: Michael Fabricant Sir Greg Knight Dame Maria Miller Giles Watling Apologies : John Cryer, Colleen

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Found: Pauline Latham Dame Maria Miller Navendu Mishra Giles Watling Apologies: Marion Fellows, Colleen

Found: Marion Fellows Sir Greg Knight Mrs Pauline Latham Dame Maria Miller Mark Tami Apologies: Colleen

Found: Members present: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) Sir Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Colleen

Found: Committee Room 6 [ ND12] Members present: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) John Cryer Colleen

Found: Greg Knight Mrs Pauline Latham Dame Maria Mi ller Giles Watling Apologies: Marion Fellows, Colleen

Found: John Cryer Sir Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Navendu Mishra Giles Watling Apologies : Colleen

Found: Mrs Pauline Latham Dame Maria Miller Mark Tami Giles Watling Apologies: Marion Fellows, Colleen

Found: present: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) John Cryer Sir Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Colleen

Found: Room 6 [ND08] Members present: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) Sir Michael Fabricant Colleen

Found: present: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) John Cryer Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Colleen

Found: Parliamentary Under -Secretary of State for the Home Department) Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con) Colleen

Found: Jenkyns Fiona Bruce Robin Millar Sally-Ann Hart George Galloway Bob Blackman Neil O'Brien Colleen

Found: Jenkyns Fiona Bruce Robin Millar Sally-Ann Hart George Galloway Bob Blackman Neil O'Brien Colleen

Found: Parliamentary Under -Secretary of State for the Home Department) Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con) Colleen