Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of delays to train services in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department meets regularly with West Midlands Trains to discuss, amongst other issues, train performance. In addition, we have recently required the franchise to deliver a plan to improve train performance. We anticipate receiving this plan by the end of November and this will detail how performance will improve and return to the levels required under the Franchise Agreement.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the salaries of executives of academy schools earning more than £150,000 a year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Academy trusts must exercise effective control over the use of public funding. That is why the Department has taken sustained action over the last two years to ensure executive pay is proportionate and justifiable.
Academy trusts are free to set their own salaries. Therefore, our challenge, and the consideration of the justification of any high executive salaries, takes into account factors including: educational performance, financial performance, the strength of the trust’s governance and the number of pupils being educated by the trust.
To date, the Department has challenged 278 academy trusts, both those paying a salary over £150,000 and those paying two or more over £100,000. The names of all these trusts are available on GOV.UK, along with guidance on the setting of executive pay. Since the Department commenced the challenge, 51 trusts have reduced salaries.
Most recently, the Department has strengthened the criteria for next year’s Condition Improvement Fund, which will incentivise academies and trusts to improve finances and governance. Bids will be assessed on a points based criteria and applicants outside of London will get a four-point deduction (a one-point deduction for trusts and academies in the greater London area) if they pay one salary over £150,000 or two or more salaries in excess of £100,000 and have failed to take appropriate action in response to our high pay challenge.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase awareness among staff at heritage sites of invisible disabilities such as autism.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The heritage sector is working to increase awareness among staff at heritage sites of invisible disabilities such as autism. English Heritage is committed to enabling everyone to experience the historic places in its care. Their ‘welcome all’ approach highlights to staff and volunteers that disability is not always obvious and that a best practice approach to access must look at a wide range of special needs. For example, English Heritage is part of the dementia-friendly heritage network, has held touch-tours for partially sighted visitors, and is currently considering ways to introduce quiet times and spaces at some of its properties.
In the museums part of the heritage sector, there is increasing activity supporting children and adults with autism to access culture. A number of DCMS-sponsored museums run ‘quiet openings’ where families with children with autism can explore the museum in a relaxed and quiet environment. Kids in Museums, an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation, has partnered with Autism in Museums to deliver training days for museums around the country.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that children with special needs are able to enjoy and access all parts of heritage sites.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Historic England, Government’s adviser on the historic environment, has published guidance on improving access to historic buildings for people with disabilities. The guidelines explain how to make a range of positive changes to historic places, while at the same time working within the wider principles of conservation.
Similarly, English Heritage is committed to enabling everyone to experience the historic places in its care. English Heritage offers free education visits at sites to a wide range of learners, including groups of children, young people or adults with special learning needs or disabilities. English Heritage operates a “carer gets in free” policy at all its properties.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve rail infrastructure to ensure that services are not cancelled during adverse weather.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
We are spending a record £48 billion on the railway over Control Period 6 with a focus on making Britain’s railway more reliable and focused on passengers’ needs. The plans cover the five years from 1 April 2019. This represents a 17% increase in renewals spend from CP5 which will help cut delays caused by infrastructure failures, such as track defects.
This will allow Network Rail to be prepared for extreme weather and plan ahead to effectively minimise disruption. This will be achieved through a range of actions, including performing drainage work to reduce flood risk and working with specialist forecasters to keep Network Rail informed of severe weather risks and allow controllers to act.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to prevent job losses in the retail industry.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Retail remains a high employment sector – approximately 3 million jobs in the UK. More people are involved in retailing than in any other single industry in the country.
There were 84,000 vacancies in the retail sector as of August 2019.
In 2018, Government established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring Government and industry together to boost the sector’s productivity and economic health. The Council has agreed its six priority work areas with four already underway. These are: Costs to Business, Skills and Lifelong Learning, Industrial Strategy and Employment workstreams.
As part of wider Government efforts to support adult training, we are also investing £100m to develop The National Retraining Scheme, which will help prepare adults for future changes to the economy, including those brought about by automation, and help them retrain into better jobs. This funding has allowed us to start delivering the first part of the service, Get Help to Retrain, whilst developing and evaluating as we build-up the scheme.
We have introduced Get Help to Retrain to 6 areas of England and we will be rolling it out across England in 2020. The digital service helps adults understand their existing skills and explore alternative occupations, and training opportunities to develop new skills.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department is taking to support discussions between local governments and the retail industry to help ensure a joint approach to draw consumers to the high street.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government is committed to helping communities adapt to market processes and we are taking action to help the high street evolve. In July 2019, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a £3.6 billion Towns Fund to re-energise local economies so that everyone can share in a new era of prosperity. This included £1 billion for the Future High Streets Fund, which will support local areas in England to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future sustainability.
We are also supporting local leadership with a High Streets Task Force, giving high streets and town centres expert advice to adapt and thrive. This will provide hands-on support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts. The Task Force will also provide training and help to improve coordination between different groups working to improve their high streets which includes retailers.
The Government has also established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring Government and industry together to boost the sector's productivity and economic health. The Council has established its six priority workstreams which includes the Industrial Strategy with a focus on place. The Council has identified high streets as an important area to be considered on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to interpreter and translation services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
In cases where an interpreter or translator is needed families are provided with a list of translators that are compiled by our British embassies, high commissions and consulates abroad. Although we are unable to recommend translators our aim is to provide British nationals with relevant information to make informed decisions. This list is also published on the GOV.UK website.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides funding to the Victim Support National Homicide Service who can also help families with translation of key documents where a murder or manslaughter occurred.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whats steps he is taking to improve public awareness and understanding of sepsis.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis, through initiatives like Public Health England (PHE)’s national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme, which targets parents of children under five-years-old; leaflets, posters and a content-rich social media toolkit for partners to use on their own channels are available for them to raise awareness at a community level. PHE has also worked in partnership with Mumsnet, a leading digital platform for parents, to raise awareness through editorial and social media promotion.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to introduce needle and syringe exchanges for drugs users.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Needle exchange and syringe services have played a vital role in harm reduction since the 1980s, reducing the number of drug-related deaths and blood-borne virus infections, particularly hepatitis C and HIV. They are commissioned by local authorities and are supported in this by Public Health England. The United Kingdom’s drug treatment clinical guidelines published in 2017 includes guidance on needle and syringe programmes and is available at the following link: