Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to make available audited data on the cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in the 2022/23 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Audited financial information for the Department is due to be published in November 2023 as part of the Annual Review of Accounts (ARA). Specific information related to the costs of the Healthy Start scheme may not be explicit within the ARA due to the size of the programme but will be available from that point.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2023 to Question 188559 on Healthy Start Scheme, for what reason Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
While the Department forecasts the numbers of beneficiaries on the Healthy Start scheme, the forecasts are updated frequently and are not centrally validated. As a result, these internal forecasts are not released in the public domain.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 188007 on Visas: Ukraine, if she will detail what the particular challenges are in obtaining a representative response.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There are a number of challenges in surveying this population. In particular, it is expected that those who are in relatively precarious circumstances will be less likely to respond to an online survey of this type.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2023 to Question 190584 on Apprentices: Taxation, how many students were studying at Level (a) 3 and (b) 4 and above in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The data showing apprenticeship participation for the last five academic years is shown in the table below.
| 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Advanced apprenticeship (level 3) | 372,430 | 356,150 | 338,680 | 326,380 | 330,410 |
Higher apprenticeship (level 4 and above) | 84,240 | 123,950 | 165,510 | 207,860 | 238,820 |
Notes:
(1) 2017/18 to 2021/22 figures cover full academic years volumes.
(2) Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10.
(3) Participation is the count of learners that participated at any point during the year. Learners undertaking more than one course will appear only once in the grand total.
(4) Participation at intermediate, advanced, and higher levels is a count of learners that participated at those levels at any point during the year. Learners undertaking more than one course will only appear once at each level but can appear in the count at more than one level.
Further apprenticeship statistics can be found in the ‘Apprenticeships and traineeships statistics’ publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 127773 on South Tyneside, if he can provide a breakdown of what the returned grant funding was allocated for.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The returned grant allocations were in respect of the business rates system. Following submission of outturn figures, South Tyneside made the below reconciliation repayments to DLUHC. The repayments are against funding paid to the local authority on account based on estimates they provided.
Amount | Purpose |
£92,320.00 | Adjustments to the Covid Tax Income Guarantee Scheme for 20-213 |
£6,393,896.00 | Adjustments to Business Rates Relief grants for 20-211 |
£18,130.00 | Adjustments to Business Rate Retention payments for 2019-202 |
£246,099.00 | Adjustments to Business Rate Retention payments for 2020-211 |
1 The figure can be found in the published 2020-21 NNDR3 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1104063/NNDR3_2020-21_LA_dropdown_september.xlsx
2 The figure can be found in the published 2019-20 NNDR3 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1104043/NNDR3_2019-20_LA_dropdown_september.xlsx
3 A reconciliation calculation was carried out by DLUHC based on submitted 2020-21 NNDR1 and NNDR3 figures to compensate LAs for a share of lost local tax in response to Covid. A calculator was shared with LAs to allow them to calculate their final value of this grant in advance.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of (a) current and (b) former houses owned by his Department were unoccupied in May 2023; and what was the cost to the public purse of maintaining empty houses owned by his Department in the (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 financial years.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The vast majority of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) is leased from Annington Homes Ltd (AHL). Any properties no longer required for Service personnel are handed back to AHL.
The number of unoccupied (void) SFA properties in May 2023, was 9,167 or 19.18% of the c.47,800 total SFA housing stock in the UK.
The total void maintenance costs for the four Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) accommodation contracts covering the North, Central, South East and South West regions for Financial Year 2022-23 was £5,902,941. This maintenance cost was for a total of 9,571 void properties at that time.
The Department is only able to provide the cost of maintaining void SFA for the FDIS accommodation contracts which came into force in April 2022. Under the previous National Housing Prime contract, there was no contractual requirement to record maintenance cost data by occupied and void SFA. This was rectified for the FDIS contracts.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the proportion of the Apprenticeship Levy that has been spent on people studying at (a) Level 3 and (b) level 4 and above in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The apprenticeship levy is an important part of the government’s reforms to create a high-quality, employer-led apprenticeships system, and it supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. Employers have developed over 670 apprenticeship standards, including 220 at level 3 and 315 at levels 4 and above, to build the skilled workforces they need.
There have been over 5.4 million apprenticeship starts in England since 2010.
The apprenticeships budget in England is used to fund training and assessment for new apprenticeship starts in levy and non-levy paying employers, and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers and providers. The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year, and it is encouraging to see that in the 2021/22 financial year, 99.6% of the budget was spent.
The table below shows the total apprenticeships participation spend in England at level 3 and above from the 2017/18 academic year. This is the total spend for apprenticeships by both levy-paying and non-levy paying employers and includes apprenticeships started in previous years.
Apprenticeships participation spend (£ million) | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 | Level 6 | Level 7 |
2017/18 | 622 | 746 | 68 | 55 | 33 | 11 |
2018/19 | 557 | 838 | 120 | 100 | 78 | 57 |
2019/20 | 473 | 885 | 163 | 132 | 133 | 118 |
2020/21 | 378 | 848 | 192 | 156 | 203 | 186 |
2021/22 | 421 | 953 | 222 | 160 | 290 | 216 |
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real-terms change to funding for Further Education Colleges has been in each year since 2010.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department does not hold this information, as it does not record or calculate the real terms changes to funding as requested.
There will be an extra £1.6 billion in 16-19 education by the 2024/25 financial year compared with 2021/22.
We are making a capital investment in skills over this Spending Review period of over £2.8 billion, to improve the condition of post-16 estate, provide new places in post-16 education, provide specialist equipment and facilities for T Levels, and deliver the commitment to 21 Institutes of Technology across England. This investment will ensure that colleges are able to deliver the skills that local areas need, including in key sectors like biosciences and green energy.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, what the forecasted number was of (a) beneficiaries or (b) families in percentage format of the Healthy Start Scheme for (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2022-23.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, on what timescale his Department measures forecasted uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.