Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent guidance his Department has provided to hospitals affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service conducts regular surveys of its estate to assess the state of the building fabric. These surveys cover a wide range of structural assessments. With particular reference to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), the National Health Service has been surveying sites and undertaking RAAC mitigation work since 2019 and has had an active national remediation programme since 2021 to mitigate and monitor the risks posed by RAAC across the NHS estate.
NHS England has also issued guidance for trusts nationally on how to establish the presence of RAAC in their estate. There is ongoing engagement with trusts on a national and regional level to ensure RAAC is identified across the NHS estate. Where structural surveys identify RAAC in their estate, trusts are inducted into the national remediation programme.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the value was of asset disposals made by his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
This information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of financial support available to kinship carers.
Answered by David Johnston
On 2 February 2023, the department published the children’s social care implementation strategy and consultation ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which set out how we will achieve broad, system-wide transformation.
Through this strategy we have made a commitment to implement or explore each of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care recommendations on kinship care.
The department will publish our kinship strategy later this year which will set out a range of policies designed to support kinship families in England.
Financial support is a vital element of enabling children to remain within their family and friends’ network and we are considering how we can further support carers beyond the existing support local authorities provide for kinship carers.
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, if she will discuss with Ofgem the potential merits of reviewing variations in energy providers' (a) gas and (b) electricity standing charges.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The setting of standing charge is a commercial matter for suppliers. Standing charges are capped under the energy price cap which is set by Ofgem to protect customers on default tariffs.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are minimum notice period requirements for dentists to stop providing NHS dental services.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In accordance with the National Health Service (General Dental Services Contracts) Regulations 2005, the Contractor must provide three months’ notice if they wish to terminate their contract with the National Health Service.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many gliding hours were made available to air cadets in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
No 2 Flying School provide glider training to the Royal Air Force Air Cadets (RAFAC). The total number of flying hours completed since 2020 is shown in the table below:
Year | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Total number of gliding hours | 568 | 1,890 | 2,457 | 2,504 |
Data has been produced by calendar year and is correct as at 10 September 2023 and includes both RAFAC cadets and adults who may be receiving instructor training. It is currently not possible to provide data for Air Cadets only. 2023 data is year to date and data for 2020 is significantly lower due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Gliding flight times for Air Cadets usually range from a minimum of 6 minutes to a maximum of 20 minutes, depending on thermals and the exercises being flown.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many referrals he has made to the Parole Board for eligible Imprisonment for Public Protection offenders; and how many such offenders have been released in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
In the period between 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023, which is the latest 12 months period with published information, the Secretary of State for Justice has made 1550 referrals to the Parole Board for offenders serving indeterminate sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). In that same period, a total of 610 IPP offenders were released (including those being re-released) from custody in accordance with a direction by the Parole Board.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact of changes in the level of road closure fees on the number of Remembrance Service parades.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Road closure fees are not a Defence matter and are the responsibility of Local Authorities. It is for Local Authorities when setting the level of their fees to consider what impact this will have on requests by their communities for road closures, including for Remembrance parades.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to her Department's transparency data on Outcome of unduly lenient sentence referrals updated on 5 September 2023, for what reason ULS reference 461 2023 is listed as application withdrawn.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
Under the ULS scheme, the Law Officers may apply to the Court of Appeal to refer to it a sentence which appears unduly lenient. The decision to make such an application is kept under continual review.
Where an application to the Court has been made and further information changes their analysis as to whether the sentence should be referred, the application is withdrawn.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of fuel prices on the competitiveness of the haulage industry.
Answered by Richard Holden
The Department for Transport (DfT) does not hold a formal assessment of specific impacts on haulage industry competitiveness.