Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been released to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn Trust under the New Hospitals Programme.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Up to the end of 2023/24, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust has received £3.2 million in funding to support the development of the business case for their New Hospital Programme scheme.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of (a) the forecast spend on NHS dentistry by Norfolk and Waveney ICB and (b) its allocated budget for the financial year 2024-5.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Health Service in England invests £3 billion on dentistry every year. The responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. The NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB has committed to investing £6.7 million in dental services for 2024/25.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional emergency NHS dental appointments have been provided in the Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board area since 4 July 2024.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Data on the number of urgent care courses of treatment is published annually. The latest data, for 2023/24 is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Norfolk and Waveney Acute Healthcare Collaborative on its proposal to move to a group model of operation.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is aware that Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, and James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are considering the possibility of transitioning to a group model of operation from April 2025, with a single Chair and CEO across the three trusts.

The Department is not involved in approving group models. The trusts’ proposal has been made locally and the Case for Change will be subject to approval from NHS England to ensure that all appropriate planning and safeguards are in place for the change to happen.

The group model is intended to strengthen collaboration, enabling optimal efficiency, sharing of resources, a unified approach to tackling large-scale challenges, and improved patient care and outcomes.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the press notice entitled New Great British Energy partnership launched to turbocharge energy independence, published on 25 July 2024, if her Department will publish the partnership agreement between GB Energy and The Crown Estate.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The partnership between The Crown Estate and Great British Energy is subject to the passing of The Great British Energy Bill. Once that Bill passes through its legislative stages, partnership will be subject to an agreement with Great British Energy. Although the partnership agreement itself will not be published, given it will be commercially sensitive, The Crown Estate have committed to publish information relating to the partnership as part of its existing annual report. This will include a report on the activities of the Commissioners under that partnership and any effects or benefits resulting from the activities of the Commissioners under that partnership.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the rules on the taxation of double cab pickup trucks on (a) consumers and (b) rural communities.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Double Cab Pick Up vehicles (DCPUs) are currently treated as goods vehicles for tax purposes, rather than cars, meaning they benefit from more generous tax treatment. A Court of Appeal judgement in 2020 determined that they must be treated as cars for capital allowances and Benefit in Kind treatment under the existing legislation.

The government will apply this judgement, as legislating to reclassify DCPUs as goods vehicles would be a significant tax break costing hundreds of millions per year for these generally higher CO2-emitting vehicles.

The transitional arrangements mean that this will not affect the capital allowances treatment of any business that already owns a DCPU, or that purchases one before April 2025; and businesses that purchase a DCPU after this date will still be able to deduct the cost from their taxable profits at 18% or 6% per year. Under the transitional arrangements for Benefit-in-Kind, anyone who has accessed a DCPU as a company car before April 2025 will not be impacted until the sooner of disposal of the vehicle, April 2029 or when their lease expires.

In addition, there are alternatives to DCPUs (such as Single Cab Pick Ups) that still benefit from the generous treatment as goods vehicles.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increases in (a) vehicle excise duty and (b) the HGV road user levy on the logistics industry.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, from 1 April 2025, Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rates for Heavy Goods Vehicles and the Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) levy will be uprated by Retail Price Index for 2025-26. This means rates will remain unchanged in real terms for vehicle keepers.

The tax information and impact note published alongside the Budget when these changes were announced sets out the expected impact on businesses which own or sell HGVs, which is estimated to be “negligible”. The note also sets out expected economic, equalities and other impacts of the changes, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vehicle-excise-duty-rates-for-heavy-goods-vehicles-and-heavy-goods-vehicles-road-user-levy-from-1-april-2025

Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to help improve (a) public and (b) private sector productivity.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government’s growth mission is dedicated to boosting productivity growth nationwide. After fourteen years of weak productivity growth, we are reforming the economy to increase productivity in both the public and private sectors.

Public sector productivity rates in June 2024 were 8.5% below pre-pandemic levels — this is not sustainable. We have taken decisive action in the Autumn Budget to address this issue. Government departments are now required to meet a 2% target for productivity, efficiency, and savings as part of Phase 1 of the Spending Review, covering 2025-26. For the NHS, our Autumn Budget included over £2 billion of investment in technology to improve productivity and patient access, alongside over £1 billion to tackle the maintenance backlog.

We have introduced significant to improve private sector productivity. As part of the Get Britain Working package, the government is integrating health, employment, and skills services in eight trailblazer areas to help out of work individuals to rejoin the workforce. The government will invest £40 million to transform the Apprenticeship Levy into a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy to deliver new foundation apprenticeships and shorter apprenticeships. Skills England will provide a comprehensive national overview of skills gaps and strategies to address them.

The government is also protecting record levels of R&D investment, committing over £20.4bn for R&D in 2025/26 to turn cutting-edge innovation into real-world productivity gains.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much tax revenue the Digital Services Tax has raised since 2020.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The requested information is available in the statistics table published at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk

The information can be found in column S of Table 2. For ease, the relevant data has been pasted below:

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department is taking steps to promote the use of timber framing in construction.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes in this Parliament. Greater adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including timber frame, will be crucial to achieving this. We will set out further details as part of the Long-Term Housing Strategy.

Found: no.1204051) Cricket Builds Hope (reg. charity no. 1157287) The Conservative Party Spouse is James Wild