Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people diagnosed with autism requested but were not granted reasonable adjustments as defined within the Equal Treatment Bench Book in the last year.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) considers each reasonable adjustment request it receives on an individual needs basis. HMCTS does not require that people going through the court or tribunal system tell them if they are diagnosed with autism. It is for the requestor to decide whether they tell HMCTS about a diagnosis of autism. If the requestor tells HMCTS they have autism, the agency does not necessarily document that a diagnosis of autism has been given when recording details of requests for reasonable adjustments. The information requested is not, therefore recorded centrally.
HMCTS will refer any requests from users with disabilities for reasonable adjustments in the hearing to the judge to consider in their independent judicial capacity. The judge will consider such requests in accordance with the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he intends to publish the HS2 Local Growth Action Plan; and whether that plan will be extended to include places that will host stations for Phase 2b of HS2 and the infrastructure they will require.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government continues to develop the HS2 Local Growth Action Plan. The Department has taken more time to develop the plan and allow for cross-governmental input, and it will be published this year. In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that the Government remains committed to delivering HS2 to Manchester. The action plan will set out how we will continue to work closely with places that will host stations, including those on the Phase 2b route, to support their local growth ambitions and help to implement lessons learnt across the HS2 programme.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason the Government has not published the HS2 Local Growth Action Plan.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government continues to develop the HS2 Local Growth Action Plan. The Department has taken more time to develop the plan and allow for cross-governmental input, and it will be published this year. In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that the Government remains committed to delivering HS2 to Manchester. The action plan will set out how we will continue to work closely with places that will host stations, including those on the Phase 2b route, to support their local growth ambitions and help to implement lessons learnt across the HS2 programme.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress on the rollout of superfast broadband in Tatton constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Over 95 per cent of premises in the constituency of Tatton are already able to access a superfast connection. Further non-superfast premises are gaining access to gigabit-capable connections through continued delivery under the Connecting Cheshire programme.
Later this year we will launch a Project Gigabit procurement in Cheshire, covering an estimated 74,000 premises, including those that still do not have access to superfast broadband.
More immediate support for premises in rural areas is also available through our Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he will take to take to support remote rural businesses in 2023 to help assist those organisations with financial planning for 2024.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
At the Autumn Statement, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs.
The Government is providing a range of support to help small and medium-sized businesses across the UK with rising costs, including those in rural communities. Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials.
The ‘Help to Grow’ schemes help SME businesses learn new skills, reach more customers and boost profits. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) provides a price reduction to ensure that all businesses and other non-domestic customers are protected from high energy bills.
Furthermore, the British Business Bank’s Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, Midlands Engine Investment Fund and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund all work with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), combined authorities and Growth Hubs, as well as local accountants, fund managers and banks, to provide a mixture of debt and equity capital to SMEs across their entire regions, including in rural locations.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to amend the Seasonal Workers visa scheme to help increase the potential supply of labour in the agricultural sector.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Seasonal Worker route was extended into this year, with 38,000 visas available, to support our farmers growing fruit and vegetables as they adapt to changes in the UK labour market. The Government is keeping the position under close review and I hope to say more on this matter in due course.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has taken recent steps to help support ornamental horticulture nurseries to access the workforce they need to meet (a) market demand and (b) environmental targets.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the importance of the domestic ornamental horticulture sector in promoting people’s health and wellbeing, as well as to the economy – UK ornamental production being worth £1.6 billion in 2021. Our highly skilled growers enable us to grow a wide range of top-quality fresh flowers and plants for much of the year. Defra regularly meets with the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group, who last year published their ‘Unlocking green growth: A plan from the ornamental horticulture & landscaping industry’, an action plan which explores opportunities to accelerate the sector's growth and sets out the industry’s potential contributions to the environmental challenges facing the UK. Where Government can help, we will support the opportunities outlined in the plan.
On 24th December 2021, HM Government announced that the Seasonal Worker visa route has been extended until 2024 to allow overseas workers to come to the United Kingdom for up to six months to harvest both edible and ornamental crops.
As announced in the Government Food Strategy in June, an extra 10,000 visas have been released for the Seasonal Worker visa route, with 8,000 of these going to the horticulture sector and 2,000 to the poultry sector. This brings the total number of visas for the horticulture sector, including ornamentals, to 38,000 for 2022. The new Government is carefully considering the position on visa quotas for 2023 and we will say more in due course.
During 2021, Defra undertook a review of automation in horticulture, covering both the edible and ornamental sectors in England. We published the Review on 27 July 2022 and a response from HM Government to the Review’s recommendations will follow soon. The government response will work alongside the extended and expanded Seasonal Worker visa route and Defra’s efforts to attract more residents of the United Kingdom into agricultural work – to support the overall aim of reducing the sector’s dependency on seasonal migrant labour.
All ornamental horticultural businesses are encouraged to advertise roles through the Department for Work & Pensions’ (DWP’s) Find A Job website, where they can upload and manage their vacancies. DWP do not charge for this service and it is available across the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Seasonal Workers visa scheme does not include ornamental crop growers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Seasonal Worker route already enables growers in the UK ornamental horticulture sector to recruit seasonal workers. This provision was implemented on 1 January 2022.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to (a) reinstate and (b) compensate the care staff who left their jobs due to the legal requirement for those staff to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between 11 November 2021 and 15 March 2022, care homes were legally required to only deploy vaccinated or exempt staff. The matter of reinstating or compensating care staff who have been dismissed or resigned because of the regulations is a matter for individual employers.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support she is planning to provide for adults recently diagnosed with ADHD.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessment has been made. There is currently no single established dataset which can be used to monitor the number of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses nationally. NHS Digital is working to improve the quality of relevant datasets, such as the Mental Health Services Dataset and the Community Services dataset.
It is the responsibility of local commissioners to ensure appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of the local population. Integrated care boards and National Health Service trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline ‘Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management’. The guideline aims to improve the diagnosis of ADHD, recognising that there may be under-diagnosis in women and girls and to improve the quality of care and support for people of all ages who are diagnosed with ADHD.