To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Housing: Bexley
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many residential buildings have registered with the Cladding Safety Scheme in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency and (b) Bexley Borough as of 22 February 2024.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

As of 26 February 2024, 2 residential buildings located in the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency have registered with the Cladding Safety Scheme; and in the wider Bexley borough, a further 3 residential buildings have registered with the Cladding Safety Scheme.


Written Question
Roads: Bexley
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to Bexley Council for (a) pothole and (b) other road repairs in each year since 2015.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department has allocated a total of £1.333 million to the London Borough of Bexley for local highway maintenance since 2015, as part of one-off funding uplifts, as set out in the table below. Transport is a devolved matter in London, meaning that the Department for Transport does not routinely allocate highway maintenance funding to London boroughs.

Year

Funding Stream

Amount £

2017/18

Pothole Action Fund

80,000

2018/19

Budget 2018

703,000

2023/24

Roads Resurfacing Fund

275,000

2024/25

Roads Resurfacing Fund

275,000

Total

1,333,000

Over the period between 2023/24 - 2033/34, the London Borough of Bexley will receive a minimum of £8.345 million funding through the national Roads Resurfacing Fund, as announced within the Prime Minister’s Network North plan on 4 October 2023 and as set out on gov.uk.


Written Question

Question Link

Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to support growth in the tech sector.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DSIT’s mission is to secure the UK’s status as a world-leading science and technology superpower by 2030; with communities in every corner of the country benefitting from the bold new discoveries, strong economic growth and high-skilled, high-paid jobs this will unlock.

We are building from a position of strength. The UK was the third country in the world to build a $1 trillion tech sector, in addition to having the largest tech ecosystem in Europe, and creating 152 unicorns since 2000 (as of 23rd January 2024). In 2023, UK tech companies raised $21.3bn of investment, more than France ($9.2bn) and Germany ($8.2bn) combined.

However, we cannot rest on our laurels. That is why in January, the Secretary of State announced the new Scaleup Forum which will bring together a group of established founders and bold investors to advise the Government on what it can do unlock the growth potential of British scale-ups and ensure that the scalable businesses of today can become the tech giants of tomorrow.


Written Question
Obesity: Health Services
Thursday 18th January 2024

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS has spent on treating obesity-related diseases in each of the last five years.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

It was estimated that in 2021 obesity related ill-health cost the National Health Service £6.5 billion annually.

The NHS is committed to improving obesity care and other major causes of ill health through a preventive approach as outlined in the NHS’s Long Term Plan. It continues to offer support to the population, enabling them to take greater control of their own health and stay healthy for longer.


Written Question
Obesity: Health Education
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise public awareness of obesity-linked illnesses.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to action on obesity including raising awareness of obesity related illness. The Department’s ‘Better Health’ campaigns provide resources including free evidence-based digital tools, highlight health effects of obesity, and support people to make and sustain changes to improve their health. They include the Better Health websites, email programmes, and NHS Weight Loss, Food Scanner, Couch to 5K and Active 10 apps.

The NHS Health Check assesses the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes, including body mass index. Each year the programme engages over one million people aged between 40 and 74 years old and identifies around 317,000 people living with obesity who are made aware of the risks of developing CVD and diabetes and are then provided with advice and support to reduce their risk and referral for treatment if needed.

We have also recently published a Major Conditions Strategy case for change which highlights risk factors, such as obesity, in contributing to diseases that are collectively the greatest contributors to ill-health and early mortality. We will be publishing a final strategy next year.


Written Question
Obesity
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many obesity-related hospital admissions there were in each of the last five years.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Data for admissions related to obesity and hyperalimentation is only available from 2019 when it was first collected. The following table shows the number of these hospital admissions since 2019:

Year

Admissions

2022/2023

8,970

2021/2022

7,935

2020/2021

4,095

2019/2020

11,025

Source: NHS England


Written Question
Childcare: Bexley
Monday 4th December 2023

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase the number of childcare places in the London Borough of Bexley.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, including Bexley, about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues that they are facing.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, the department will support the local authority with any specific requirements through its childcare sufficiency support contract.

A commitment has been made to ensure that 30 hours of funded childcare is available for every child over the age of 9 months with working parents by September 2025.

More parents are going to be able to return to work while balancing childcare commitments. This is thanks to the government’s £4 billion per year expansion of childcare in England. This is the largest expansion of funded childcare ever and will remove barriers to work for nearly half a million parents with a child under three in England.

Local authorities have received £12 million of delivery support funding for this financial year to support with meeting programme and delivery costs associated with rolling out the expanded early years entitlements. Bexley will receive money from this fund. Bexley Local Authority are due to receive £716,747.72 to enable them to deliver additional wraparound places.

The department is also allocating £100 million for local areas to use to make sure childcare settings in their areas have enough physical space. This funding is anticipated to add thousands of new places across the country. More detail on the £100 million capital funding, including allocation amounts to local authorities and accompanying guidance, will be published shortly.


Written Question
Apprentices: Greater London
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts there were in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, (b) Bexley Borough and (c) Greater London in each year since 2010.

Answered by Robert Halfon

Since the 2010/11 academic year, there have been 8,480 apprenticeship starts in Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, 22,140 in Bexley and 529,370 in London reported to date. These totals include figures for the 2022/23 academic year, which are provisional and cover the first three quarters from August 2022 to April 2023. The full year figures for the 2022/23 academic year will be published on 30 November 2023.

Apprenticeship starts are recorded on the Individualised Learner Record and published by the department in the apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publication, which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.

Apprenticeship starts for the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, Bexley and London for the 2010/11 to 2022/23 academic years are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/befe0070-1c12-4f0f-6246-08dbea615343.


Written Question
Asylum: Applications
Friday 20th October 2023

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the average processing time for asylum claims.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

We have taken immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes simplifying guidance and streamlining processes and introducing shorter, focussed interviews, making the interview process more efficient and driving productivity improvements.

We have met our commitment to increase the number of asylum caseworkers to 2,500. As of the end of August 2023, provisional data shows that there are 2,510 decision makers in post.

This is more than double the number of asylum caseworkers a year ago in August 2022 and an increase of over 1,200 since December 2022.

We remain on track to clear the legacy asylum backlog by the end of 2023.


Written Question
Crimes of Violence: Greater London
Friday 22nd September 2023

Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many recorded incidents of violent crime there have been in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, (b) Bexley Borough and (c) South East London in each of the last five years.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 13 September is attached.