Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
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 merits of mandating the installation of defibrillators in all (a) visitor attractions and (b) entertainment venues in the UK that accommodate over a specified number of visitors annually.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made and there are no plans to mandate the installation of defibrillators at such locations, in light of the rapid expansion of automated external defibrillators across the United Kingdom.
There are now over 100,000 defibrillators in the UK registered on The Circuit, which represents an increase of 30,000 since September 2023. 58.6% of the over 100,000 defibrillators are accessible on a 24/7 basis.
The Circuit is operated independently by the British Heart Foundation, in partnership with the Resuscitation Council UK, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, and the National Health Service.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding for special educational needs and disabilities has been allocated to Suffolk County Council since July 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
In July 2024, the government announced that an additional core schools budget grant (CSBG) would be allocated to local authorities to help special and alternative provision (AP) schools with the costs of the 2024 teacher and support staff pay increases. Suffolk County Council was allocated a 2024/25 financial year CSBG amount of over £1.5 million.
Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Suffolk County Council is being allocated over £124 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £10.3 million on the 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 9% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.
In addition to the DSG, local authorities will also receive a separate CSBG in the 2025/26 financial year. This CSBG continues the 2024/25 CSBG and other separate grants payable in 2024/25, which were to help special and AP schools with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases and other staff pay increases, and now includes additional funding to help those schools with the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions. The department plans to publish individual local authorities’ allocations of this funding for 2025/26 in May 2025.
Decisions on funding for SEND for the years beyond 2025/26 will be taken following the forthcoming spending review.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to University of Central Lancashire's report entitled Minimising firefighters’ exposure to toxic fire effluents, published in November 2020, what steps she is taking to protect firefighters.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The University of Central Lancashire’s report was helpful in highlighting this particular issue. This must be considered alongside other relevant academic research and study in this area.
We are continuing to review the evidence around risks to firefighters posed by contaminants and will determine a policy position.
Responsibility for firefighters’ health and safety sits with fire and rescue authorities, This responsibility includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents that they attend.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to (a) improve responsible access to nature and (b) increase the right to roam.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our countryside and green spaces are a source of great national pride and boost public health and wellbeing, but too many across the country are left without access to the great outdoors. That is why the last Labour Government expanded public access by introducing the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which provided the public a right of access to large areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England.
We are continuing to increase access to nature for families to enjoy, for example through our ambitious manifesto commitments to create nine new National River Walks, plant three new National Forests, and empower communities to create new parks and green spaces in their communities with a new Community Right to Buy.
In addition, the Government has made the decision to repeal the cut-off date for the registration of historic rights of way, preventing the loss of hundreds of miles of unregistered paths. This will ensure that these paths remain available to the public for future generations.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of legislation on the inheritance of Individual Savings Account allowances from a deceased (a) spouse and (b) civil partner.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Individual Savings Account (ISA) regulations allow the surviving spouse or civil partner of a deceased ISA saver an additional ISA allowance, equal to the value of the deceased saver’s ISA holdings on their date of death, subject to certain conditions. These are referred to as ‘Additional Permitted Subscriptions’
To ensure these rules are as simple as possible, surviving spouses and civil partners can benefit from this allowance, up to 3 years after the death of the spouse or 180 days after the completion of the estate administration, whichever is later, and irrespective of who inherits the former ISA assets. This means individuals are free to make any bequests they wish in their will, for example by leaving some or all their ISA assets to children of their current or former marriage or civil partnership, without affecting the additional ISA allowance that will be available to the person who was their spouse or civil partner at the time of death.
Further detailed information on Additional Permitted Subscriptions is available at www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-additional-permitted-subscriptions-into-an-isa
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to help people in rural communities who use oil to heat their homes to transition to low carbon heating systems.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes Plan will support investment in households, including oil-heated homes, to install energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating to save families money on their bills.
The Government has committed £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency. This includes the new Warm Homes: Local Grant, which will provide support for low-income households living in privately owned EPC band D-G homes, including in rural communities, in England.
We are taking steps to make heat pumps more efficient and easier to install which includes increasing funding for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to £295 million for the 2025-26 financial year, removing outdated planning rules and consulting on product efficiency standards.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to review provisions within the Building Safety Act 2022 on removing the leasehold protection provisions for shared ownership leaseholders who staircase to 100% ownership and lose the statutory protections provided in their original lease.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Building Safety Act ensures that those who built defective buildings take responsibility for remedying them, that the industry contributes to fixing the problem, and that leaseholders are protected in law from crippling bills for historical safety defects. These leaseholder protections came into force on 28 June 2022, with new financial protections for leaseholders in relevant buildings with relevant historical safety defects.
Schedule 8, paragraph 6(5) of the Building Safety Act provides that any contributions required towards remediation costs are capped according to the share of the lease the leaseholder owned at the time the lease became qualified for the protections. This position does not change should a shared owner later increase their share by staircasing, including up to 100%. Further information on this can be found in the explanatory notes on the legislation, starting with note 1731: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/notes/division/18/index.htm.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the average time taken to receive building control decisions on applications to carry out works on higher risk buildings on the costs of those works.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Our priority with the new regime is to ensure buildings are safe and decent. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has 12 weeks to determine a building control approval application for new higher-risk buildings and 8 weeks to determine the applications for building work to existing higher-risk buildings. This is longer than had previously been the case. It is expected that dutyholders will consider and plan for any additional costs and adjust their programme of works to ensure that building work is carried out in a cost effective and efficient manner.
However, we recognise there are delays in processing building control approval applications for higher-risk building work and that these may have associated costs for developers. We are currently working to address delays within the higher-risk regime through a range of measures. The sector must also play its part in ensuring building control applications are of a good quality, extensive guidance is available on gov.uk.
As the higher-risk regime was introduced in October 2023, it is too soon to provide an impact assessment for the time it takes to get building control approval from the BSR. Under the Building Safety Act, the Secretary of State must appoint an independent person to review the effectiveness of the BSR and the higher-risk regime by 28 April 2027, which may include the cost impacts of the higher-risk regime on developers.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
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 plans to review the types of building work that can be undertaken through (a) competent person schemes and (b) third party certification schemes.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Building Safety Regulator is responsible for oversight of the competent person schemes and has committed in its Strategic Plan 2023-2026 to carry out a review of the conditions of authorisation, which must be met by all competent person schemes to ensure they are fit for purpose.
In addition, the department is always looking to improve public and building safety and intends to review the operation of competent person schemes to identify whether improvements can be made, working with the Building Safety Regulator. This will include reviewing the types of work that can be carried out under the competent person schemes. We will consider whether and how this review might touch on third party certification schemes.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
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 plans to review it's guidance on competent person schemes: conditions of authorisation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Building Safety Regulator is responsible for oversight of the competent person schemes and has committed in its Strategic Plan 2023-2026 to carry out a review of the conditions of authorisation, which must be met by all competent person schemes to ensure they are fit for purpose.
In addition, the department is always looking to improve public and building safety and intends to review the operation of competent person schemes to identify whether improvements can be made, working with the Building Safety Regulator. This will include reviewing the types of work that can be carried out under the competent person schemes. We will consider whether and how this review might touch on third party certification schemes.