Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide additional financial support to schools in 2023-24 to help meet demands as a result of (a) pay increases for teaching staff agreed in July 2022, (b) rising inflation and (c) the introduction of a minimum expectation for the length of the school week by September 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is prioritising further funding for schools. The 2022 Autumn Statement has provided an additional increase in the core schools budget, including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, of £2.3 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. After adjusting to take account of the removal of the compensation for employer costs of the Health and Social Care Levy, this brings the core schools budget to a total of £58.8 billion in 2024/25, £2 billion greater than published at the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021.
Schools' funding is £4 billion higher this year than last year. It will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. This means a 15% increase in funding in two years. This significant increase in funding will help schools to meet increased pay awards for both teaching and non-teaching staff, wider inflationary costs such as energy costs, and enable schools to meet their White Paper commitments, including the minimum 32.5-hour school week.
These increases will deliver significant additional support to pupils and teachers, helping to deliver on the Government’s commitment to level-up education across the country.
The Department knows that every school’s circumstances are different. If schools are in serious financial difficulty, the Department encourages them to contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency, who can provide advice and, in exceptional circumstances, financial support.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has submitted plans for a new single site hospital to his Department.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has provided both the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust with £3.7 million to develop plans for improving facilities at each Trust. The Trust has not submitted any formal plans for a single site hospital to the Department.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the 1.5 per cent increase in employer national insurance contributions on care home operators; and whether he has plans to exempt the care sector from that increase.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The increase to Employer National Insurance contributions by 1.25 percentage points is expected to raise £975 million per year from employers carrying out health and social care activities. The Government cannot break this down to show the cost to care home operators.
The Government has made the tough but responsible choice to increase taxes to fund a significant increase in permanent spending on the NHS and social care. There are no plans to exempt the care sector from the National Insurance increase.
On the 7 September the Government announced that we would be investing an additional £5.4 billion over the next three years using the funds raised by the levy to begin a comprehensive programme of reform for adult social care. Additionally, local authorities can make use of over £1 billion of additional resource specifically for social care in 2022-23. This includes £636 million more into the Social Care Grant, including funding for equalisation against the 1 per cent Adult Social Care (ASC) precept, an inflationary uplift to the improved Better Care Fund to support integrated working with the NHS, and a 1 per cent ASC precept and deferred flexibilities from last year's settlement.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what factors are assessed when deciding the fee level a local authority will pay per funded care home place; and whether he has plans to raise fee levels.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to manage local care markets. The Care Act guidance states that local authorities should assure and have evidence that fee levels are appropriate to provide the agreed quality of care and enable providers to effectively support care users and invest in staff development, innovation and improvement.
We are committing £1.36 billion to the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund over the next three years. On 24 March 2022, we published guidance which provides advice to local authorities for completing and returning cost of care exercises to the Department and templates which local authorities must use as part of an acceptable submission. These state a standard list of cost lines to assess care home providers. Where average fee rates are below the fair cost of care, we expect local authorities to use the Fund to begin to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care and to set out in the Market Sustainability Plans how this will be achieved.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to exempt care homes from paying VAT on works carried out to their premises.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to the vast majority of goods and services. While there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.
One such exception is a reduced rate of VAT at 5 per cent, subject to certain conditions, for residential renovations, such as building services and materials. This includes conversions of buildings from one residential use to another, conversions from commercial to residential use, and the renovation of properties that have been empty for two years or more prior to the renovation work.
Another exception is applied to the installation in residential accommodation, including housing association accommodation and care homes, of various energy saving materials (ESMs), such as insulation and draught stripping. At Spring Statement 2022, the Chancellor announced that installations of ESMs will now be zero rated from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2027 in Great Britain. He also announced the removal of complex qualifying criteria. Further information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-vat-treatment-of-the-installation-of-energy-saving-materials-in-in-great-britain/the-value-added-tax-installation-of-energy-saving-materials-order-2022.
Expanding the reliefs further would come at a significant cost to the public finances. For example, introducing a reduced rate of VAT on all renovations and repairs to residential properties would cost around £3.75 billion per year. Such costs would have to be balanced by increased taxes elsewhere, increased borrowing or reductions in Government spending. However, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What progress the UK Atomic Energy Authority is making in the delivery of the STEP programme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The STEP programme aims to develop and build a prototype fusion power plant in the UK by 2040. The UKAEA has made great progress and are on track to deliver a concept design by 2024, as planned.
The process to select a site for STEP is underway and there have been high levels of engagement from potential sites across the UK, including one in the constituency of my hon Friend.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the level compliance with the prohibition on the sale of menthol cigarettes under the EU Revised Tobacco Products Directive.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made. We expect the tobacco industry to comply with the requirements of The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, and this includes the recent ban on the sale of menthol flavoured cigarettes. A breach of the regulations could result in enforcement action being taken.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he is taking to support the dairy industry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Dairy farmers are crucial in ensuring that food supplies remain resilient during this difficult period. In addition to the various HM Treasury COVID-19 support packages, Defra has introduced specific measures to support the dairy industry during the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly those impacted by the loss of the food service sector. These include a dairy support scheme, easements to competition law, support for an AHDB milk promotion campaign and the opening of various intervention and storage aid schemes.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to stop political visits to schools during general elections.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
Following the announcement of the recent election, updated guidance was issued and circulated to schools on their responsibilities during the pre-election period here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-election-guidance-for-schools-and-multi-academy-trusts/pre-election-guidance-for-schools-and-multi-academy-trusts.
Any school visits conducted by parliamentary candidates are arranged through their constituency offices rather than via the Department for Education. Decisions on the use of schools or other educational/public sector property must be taken by those legally responsible for the premises concerned – for example, for schools, the Governors or the Local Education Authority or Trust Board.
Although the ultimate decision is for those legally responsible for the premises to take, they are expected to treat the candidates of all parties in an even-handed way, and ensure that there should be no disruption to services.
I look forward to visiting a school in my hon. Friend, the member for Morecambe and Lunesdale's constituency, should a suitable opportunity arise.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that community groups in receipt of large grants from administrative charities are required to comply with the political independence provisions in the Charities Act 2011.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Grant-making charities must ensure that charitable funds are used to further their charitable purposes. The Charity Commission for England and Wales publishes guidance ("Campaigning and political activity guidance for charities (CC9)") on the extent to which charities can legitimately engage in non-party political activity as part of furthering their charitable purposes.
Any concerns that charitable funds are being used inappropriately, for example for party-political activities or purposes, should be raised with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, which can investigate and if appropriate take action. There are currently no plans to bring forward legislative proposals on this subject.