Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on launching an inquiry into the events at Orgreave during the miners strike.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary and the Minister of State for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention have met with the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, and the Home Office is developing plans to deliver on the Government’s manifesto commitment to ensure, through an investigation or inquiry, that the truth about the events at Orgreave comes to light.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she expects the Marine Accident Investigation Branch to publish its report into the loss of a crew member on the Liberian flagged drill rig jack up vessel Valaris 121 on 22 January 2023.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Liberian registered Valaris 121, a mobile drilling rig, was under tow outside United Kingdom territorial waters when the accident took place. In line with the International Maritime Organization’s Casualty Investigation Code (the Code), as the flag State of the vessel, the Liberian Registry’s Marine Investigations Department has commenced an investigation.
As this accident involved a UK national, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch has declared itself a substantially interested state under the Code and has provided assistance to the Liberian investigation where required. Once their investigation is complete the Liberian authorities will publish a report into the accident.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the document entitled UKCS Decommissioning Cost and Performance Update 2024, published on 16 June 2024, whether the estimates of the annual cost of decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure are net of annual relief on corporation tax granted for decommissioning expenditure in the oil and gas sector.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The decommissioning cost estimates referred to, which are published by the North Sea Transition Authority, are pre-tax. Any annual relief on corporation tax granted for decommissioning expenditure in the oil and gas sector has not been applied.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate his Department has made of the number of jobs in the decommissioning sector of the offshore oil and gas industry in each financial year from 2013-14 and 2024-25.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
No such estimates have been made. The planning and delivery of decommissioning is often integrated into the organisational capabilities of upstream oil and gas operators and supply chain companies. It is therefore difficult to determine how many of this workforce are, or have been, focused on decommissioning activities over the last 10 years.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will list the oil and gas fields that qualified for relief from corporation tax on decommissioning expenditure in the offshore oil and gas sector in each financial year between 2013-14 and 2024-25.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
It is a long-standing convention that the government does not discuss individual taxpayers, and so the government cannot discuss the tax history of individual oil and gas fields.
Companies operating oil and gas fields in the UK and on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) are required to decommission the wells and infrastructure at the end of a field’s life. Tax relief is a normal part of a corporate tax system where there are genuine costs to companies, and so providing tax relief on decommissioning recognises the heavy “end of life” cost for oil and gas projects.
Estimates of the cost of tax reliefs used by oil and gas companies under the Ring Fence Corporation Tax (RFCT) and Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT) regimes, including the costs of RFCT and PRT decommissioning tax reliefs, are published at tax relief statistics gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statistics). This publication contains non-disclosive estimates of number of claimants for each relief, where relevant data are available.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she expects the Health and Safety Executive to publish its report into the loss of a crew member on the Liberian flagged drill rig jack up vessel Valaris 121 on 22 January 2023.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive Energy Division, having completed their investigation, on 20 November 2024 submitted a report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Once the Procurator Fiscal has reviewed the report and due process has been followed, the factual findings around the incident will be available.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to announce the ten pilot areas for the Kinship Care Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children, and the role local authorities have in supporting them.
The government has recently announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance in up to ten local authorities, to test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of supporting the child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends.
The department will share further details on the process for selecting local authorities in due course.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the number of cases in which location data for out-of-area placements made while discharging a homelessness duty is (a) not recorded or (b) unknown, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, especially children. Too many families are spending years in temporary accommodation, at a point in a child’s life when they need space to play and develop, nutritious food to thrive and access to education.
We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness once and for all. This includes a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, bringing together ministers from across government.
More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament. The government is also abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.
We are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. As announced at the Budget, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). This increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings total spend to nearly £1 billion in 25/26. Allocations for individual local authorities in England will be set out later in December.
The department regularly collects homelessness data, including on out of area placements, which can be found here in table TA 1 and are published quarterly: Statutory homelessness in England: April to June 2024 - GOV.UK. Records on the location of accommodation where accommodation is secured to end the prevention or relief duties, including where that accommodation is out of area, are published annually and can be found in tables P4 and R4 here: Detailed_LA_20232024.xlsx.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the non-standard occupation groups in his Department are.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Ministry of Defence (MOD) Non-Standard Occupational Groups (NSOG) are groups of staff for whom some aspects of their terms and conditions of service are different from the MOD broader-banded grade structure as aligned to civil service standard grades i.e. the core civilian workforce in Defence. NSOG groups are distinguished because they have an analogue link to an outside counterpart and their pay and other terms and conditions of service are either directly linked or influenced by their outside public sector comparator grade.
The MOD has five main NSOG groups:
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 11 November 2024 to Question12278 on Rolling Stock, whether a rolling stock strategy will be published before the establishment of Great British Railways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport is developing a Rolling Stock Strategy. This will align with the wider objectives of the industry in ending the current variability in production rates and ensuring a stable pipeline of work for the rolling stock supply chain.
Once established, Great British Railways will take the strategy forward providing a long-term approach to future rolling stock needs and helping to secure better value from the private rolling stock market.