Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, whether his Department has appointed advisers to review the potential merits of a NatWest retail share offer.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Statement 2023, the Chancellor set out that, as part of the plan to return NatWest to the private sector, the government will explore options to launch a share sale to retail investors in the next 12 months, subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money. Commercial advisers will be required to support the government’s assessment of options for a retail offer and any decisions regarding the merits of an offer will be taken by ministers in due course.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of community sentences were completed (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully due to (i) the committal of an additional offence and (ii) a breach of sentence stipulations in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit staff and to deliver better and more consistent supervision of offenders in the community. The data shows that since 2018, the proportion of successfully completed community sentences has increased from 70% to 74%. Please find the full dataset requested in the accompanying table.
Delivering public protection and cutting crime is not just about custody. There is persuasive evidence that suspended and community sentences are more effective than short custodial sentences in reducing reoffending and promoting rehabilitation. Community sentences can include a range of robust requirements to punish the offender, protect the public and deliver rehabilitation. Electronic monitoring of curfews, exclusion zones, attendance at appointments, location monitoring and alcohol bans are all available requirements which the courts can use. Courts can also impose up to 300 hours of unpaid work to make sure that offenders are visibly and publicly making reparations for their crimes. Any breach of these requirements could see them returned to court and face immediate custody.
Please note that where there is a significant risk of harm to an individual or where the offender has breached an order of the court, the courts will retain full discretion to impose a sentence of immediate custody.
Data sources and quality:
The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Source:
National Delius case management system.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department has taken on the role of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Secretary of State, after careful deliberation, concluded that the draft work of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce could be streamlined into ongoing government activity. The numerous ideas, discussions and draft recommendations will be instrumental in driving forward energy efficiency.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, by what date local authorities are required to start processing applications under the Home Upgrade Grant 2 scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Local Authorities applied for funding under Phase 2 of the Home Upgrade Grant within the bid window of September 2022 to January 2023, and were able to begin delivering installs of energy efficiency measures from April 2023. The timeframe for the assessment of homes and installation of energy efficiency measures will depend on the relevant local authority, but all projects should be completed by March 2025.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the limit on costs recoverable from an individual party in an Aarhus Convention claim.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government introduced a revised Environmental Costs Protection Regime (ECPR) in 2018, which allows certain environmental claims to be brought without prohibitive expense.
The Government is committed to conducting a review of the ECPR and will publish a call for evidence in due course.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average amount of per pupil funding in mainstream schools in (a) North West Norfolk constituency, (b) Norfolk and (c) England is (i) in the 2023-24 and (ii) planned for in the 2024-2025 financial year.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Through the schools national funding formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated up at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
In the 2023/24 financial year, through the DSG and mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG) combined, the national average per-pupil funding for mainstream schools in England is £5,839, a 5.6% increase from the previous year. Norfolk’s average per-pupil funding is £5,723, a 5.7% increase from the previous year. These are actual funding allocations. The department does not calculate the equivalent figures at constituency level as they would depend on each local authority’s own local formula.
The department has not yet published the DSG allocations for the 2024/25 financial year. However, we have published notional school level allocations through the NFF. In 2024/25, through the notional NFF allocations, the national average per-pupil funding for England will be £5,950, a 1.9% increase from this current financial year. Norfolk’s average per-pupil funding will be £5,851, a 2.2% increase from this current financial year.
North West Norfolk’s average per-pupil funding based on the notional NFF allocations will be £5,833, a 2.2% increase from this current financial year. However, final allocations for North West Norfolk will depend on the local authority’s local formula. The department does not have the equivalent per-pupil figure at constituency level for 2023/24 since it would not include the MSAG, which is paid separately from the NFF in 2023/24.
The figures above do not include the additional funding we are providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant , which is being provided on top of the DSG and the NFF in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. Nor do they include other grants, such as the pupil premium.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to extend the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing over £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), improving the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. In July 2023, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the NELI programme would continue for the academic year 2023/24.
The programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress; this is seven months for those on free school meals.
The department estimates that the programme has screened over 500,000 children in the last three years and supported 160,000 children affected by the pandemic.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing deaf athletes to access funding allocated to Olympic and Paralympic sport through UK Sport.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
UK Sport uses funding provided by the Government to support athletes with potential to achieve success in Olympic and Paralympic sports. As the Deaflympics falls outside of Olympic and Paralympic sport, UK Sport are therefore unable to fund athletes targeting this event.
This is in line with the Government’s approach to other Paralympic sports where competition is not offered in an athlete's particular classification or discipline.
Sport England has committed £1.2 million between 2022 and 2027 to UK Deaf Sport to boost deaf sport at the grassroots level and build wider participation. They have also agreed to explore a series of small-scale talent pilots for d/Deaf athletes. These pilots will see Sport England, National Governing Bodies, and UK Deaf Sport working together to explore these issues and suggest potential solutions.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what efficiency targets he has set for the top level budget areas in his Department for each of the next three years.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Department has a well-established and ambitious efficiency programme to ensure it protects key elements of its output. Each Top-Level Budget (TLB) area has an efficiency target that they are delivering as part of their overall budget settlement, set out below:
TLB Efficiencies (£million) | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | Total over next three years |
Army | 596 | 838 | 853 | 2,287 |
Air | 438 | 402 | 407 | 1,247 |
Navy | 477 | 417 | 447 | 1,341 |
UK Strat Com | 584 | 540 | 531 | 1,656 |
DNO | 270 | 324 | 254 | 847 |
DIO | 21 | 21 | 23 | 65 |
DE&S | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Head Office | 21 | 20 | 23 | 65 |
Strategic Programmes | 188 | 161 | 117 | 466 |
Total | 2,595 | 2,724 | 2,656 | 7,975 |
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 20 September 2023 to Question 199262 on Ministry of Defence: Assets, if he will take steps to require asset sales to be reported to his Department's Director General Finance.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The proceeds from the sale of property, plant, equipment, and intangible assets are reported in the Departmental Annual Report and Accounts (ARAc,) which the DG Finance reviews prior to publication, and is reviewed as part of the In-Year financial management reporting processes.