Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to encourage (a) UK and (b) overseas citizens to take holidays in UK (i) seaside towns and (b) coastal communities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
VisitBritain and VisitEngland are responsible for promoting the UK as a tourist destination, which it does through a range of different initiatives and campaigns. VB sit on the Coastal Tourism Leadership Forum (run by the National Coastal Tourism Academy), helping to shape the Coastal Visitor Economy Vision and Action Plan. DCMS are observers at the forum.
One of the projects currently being supported by the £40m VisitEngland Discover England Fund is the South West Coastal Path, which is promoting the path to the Dutch and German market.
Government recently published the Tourism Sector Deal which aims to improve the sector’s productivity and ready our visitor economy for the visitors of the future.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to encourage the development of tourism in seaside towns and coastal communities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
VisitEngland administer the £40m Discover England Fund which has helped to develop a number of tourism products which celebrate our coastal communities, such as England’s Seafood Coast, the Garden Gourmet Trails of England and England’s Coast.
My colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also provide support and funding to coastal areas through the Coastal Communities Fund and the Coastal Revival Fund, much of which has a tourism focus. They have also set up Coastal Community Teams around the country to support the development of the coastal economy. An example of this investment is the Queensborough Harbour Trust Community Interest Company who received £500,000 of Coastal Communities Funding, increasing the number of moorings in the harbour, improving facilities for visitors and planning further activities and events for the future.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps is he taking to improve the regulation of Approved Inspectors in the building industry.
Answered by Esther McVey
Approved Inspectors are an important part of the future system proposed by Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of the Building Regulations and Fire Safety System. In line with Dame Judith’s recommendations, the Government will end the ability of a developer to choose which building control body oversees the construction of higher-risk buildings. We are working with the Joint Regulators Group and representatives of Approved Inspectors to identify the best way to achieve this while retaining sufficient regulatory capability and capacity under the new system. The Department will also commission a review of the future role of the Approved Inspectors under the new regime.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timeframe is for her Department to bring forward legislative proposals for severe disability premium to be available under universal credit.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department laid The Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 before Parliament on 22 July 2019. This means we can identify claimants who are potentially eligible for Severe Disability Premium transitional payments and start making these payments as soon as possible.
From 24 July 2019, eligible claimants will be considered for backdated payments covering the time since they moved to Universal Credit. We estimate that by 2024/25, approximately 45,000 of the most vulnerable claimants will benefit from this package of support, worth an estimated £600million over the next six years.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on ensuring that the seasonal agriculture workers pilot is (a) made permanent and (b) expanded to include 10,000 places this year to meet the needs of the horticulture sector.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We are seeking to evaluate the ability of the Seasonal Workers Pilot to assist in alleviating labour shortages during peak production periods.
There are currently no plans to expand the pilot as we will fully assess the pilot before taking any decisions on future arrangements. Defra and the Home Office will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the Pilot against its stated aims.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to maintain the provision of the EU Pet Travel Scheme in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.
Answered by David Rutley
While the UK remains a member state, the EU current pet travel scheme arrangements will continue to apply.
After we leave the EU, we want pet travel to continue in any scenario with the minimum of disruption whilst maintaining high biosecurity and welfare standards. As such, the Government has no immediate plans to change our pet travel arrangements following the UK’s departure from the EU (as it relates to health requirements) in any scenario.
However, we will become a third country with regards to the EU’s Pet Travel Scheme and will need to comply with the appropriate requirements for pet movements to the EU.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Education:
What recent progress his Department has made on helping families to access childcare.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
By 2020 this government will be spending £6 billion on supporting families with childcare. All 3 and 4 year olds, and the most disadvantaged 2 year olds, can access 15 hours a week of early education. From September 2017, this government doubled the childcare entitlement for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours a week.
We recognise that parents’ working patterns vary significantly and want to ensure that the free entitlements deliver childcare to meet their needs, as well as being high quality early education to support the development needs of children. We are also encouraging partnerships between providers to support flexible provision.
In particular, we want 30 hours to continue to build on the flexible provision that we were already seeing across the country with the universal 15 hours. All the free entitlements can be “stretched” by taking fewer hours per week over up to 52 weeks of the year to cover term-time and the school holidays, for example 23 hours for 48 weeks of the year, and free places can be delivered at weekends.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect of trailer registration charges on the operations of the haulage sector.
Answered by Jesse Norman
An impact assessment was carried out on the effect of introducing a trailer registration requirement and was published alongside the Trailer Registration Regulations 2018.
The cost to business and private users of large non-commercial trailers was assessed as follows:-
Familiarisation costs estimated at a one-off cost at £7 per trailer
Trailer registration fee expected to be no more than £28 (one-off cost) per trailer and since confirmed at £26
Registration plate at an average cost of £16 from private suppliers
Trailer users will benefit from avoiding enforcement costs that may otherwise be incurred during international travel. Overall the benefits of the scheme are expected to be much greater than the costs and this scheme has been broadly welcomed by industry.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2018 to Question 908852, what assessment he has made of the effect of plans for increased housing in Swale on access to primary health care in that area.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The revised National Planning Policy Framework requires local planning authorities to set clearer policy requirements for infrastructure and community facilities through plans, informed by evidence on infrastructure need and cost and viability assessments. At an early stage in the plan-making process, authorities will need to work alongside infrastructure providers, including healthcare providers, to identify requirements, and opportunities for addressing them.
It is understood that Swale Borough Council are updating their Local Plan. Once submitted, it will be examined by an independent Inspector. In testing the soundness of a plan, Inspectors assess whether sufficient provision is made for community facilities such as health infrastructure.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when employment and support allowance claimants in receipt of the severe disability premium will be able to migrate to universal credit without losing that additional entitlement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
I refer the honourable member to the answer the Minister for Employment gave on 30 January 2019 to Question 211077: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-01-22/211077/