Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many outstanding cases there are at (a) Dudley, (b) Walsall and (c) Wolverhampton Magistrates Court.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As of the end of June 2023 the number of outstanding cases at Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Courts are as follows:
a) Dudley Magistrates' Court: 1,017
b) Walsall Magistrates' Court: 779
c) Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court: 935
This is a further breakdown of published data that can be found in the criminal court statistics quarterly publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2023.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are housed in (a) Sandwell and (b) each of the other local authorities in the West Midlands as of 13 October 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Published statistics of where asylum seekers are accommodated can be viewed under the Local Authority Dataset Asy-D11 at:
Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how many staff are employed by IPSA; and how many and what proportion of those staff were working in the office at least (a) two and (b) three days a week in the last 12 months.
Answered by Charles Walker
As of today, IPSA has 101 employees. IPSA is unable to provide data on how many staff were working in the office at least (a) two and (b) three days a week in the last twelve months, as this information is not recorded.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his Canadian counterparts on the potential implications for (a) the UK and (b) its Sikh residents of the statement by the Canadian Government on the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minster spoke to Prime Minister Trudeau on 6 October about the serious allegations raised in the Canadian Parliament and the Foreign Secretary is in regular contact with his Canadian counterpart. All countries should respect sovereignty and the rule of law. It is important Canada's investigation runs its course, with the perpetrators brought to justice. We have raised this matter with the Government of India and we encourage them to cooperate fully with the investigation.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department made of the potential prevalence of RAAC in buildings (a) owned and (b) occupied by (i) military and (ii) other departmental staff.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property.
Surveys are currently being conducted to identify buildings which may have been constructed with RAAC on Ministry of Defence (MOD) land.
We take safety extremely seriously and, based on our current information, RAAC has not traditionally been used by the MOD in the construction of domestic structure, and it is therefore highly unlikely that any Service Family Accommodation is affected. The majority of Single Living Accommodation was not constructed during the review period.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the number of (a) vacancies for HGV drivers, (b) HGV drivers undergoing training and (c) HGV drivers expected to retire from the industry in the next five years.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
It is not possible to estimate the total number of HGV drivers currently undergoing training. This is because some haulage companies have in-house training programmes and private sector training companies also train new drivers. The Government has also invested in training for new drivers for example, £34m to train up to 11,000 HGV drivers through Skills Bootcamps and the LGV Driver and Urban Driver Apprenticeships which receive funding of up to £8,000 and £5,000 respectively. In the financial year FY21-22 there were 4,740 learner starts in HGV Skills Bootcamps and 3,247 LGV Driver and Urban Driver Apprenticeship starts.
The Office for National Statistics Annual Population Survey estimated in the year April 2022 to March 2023 34% of HGV drivers were aged 56 or older. However, it is not possible to estimate how many drivers will retire in the next 5 years as HGV drivers that continue to meet the licensing requirements, including the driver medicals, can continue to drive beyond the state pension age.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are currently awaiting trial in magistrates courts.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The volume of outstanding ‘for trial’ cases at the magistrates’ courts is published as part of the National Statistics series ‘Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly’.
The latest published data is available to March 2023 and can be found in Table M1 which is accessible at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2023.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help Councils to tackle (a) aggressive begging and (b) anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
In March 2023, we launched the Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) Action plan backed by £160 million of funding, to crack down on ASB, restoring people's confidence that these crimes will be quickly and visibly punished. The plan outlines Government's intention to ensure begging can be addressed where it is causing a nuisance. We continue to engage with stakeholders on the detail of the replacement proposals following our consultation last year before separate legislation is brought forward at the earliest parliamentary opportunity.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential prevalence of RAAC in buildings (a) owned and (b) occupied by departmental staff; and whether he has had discussions with local authorities on the potential prevalence of RAAC in local authority- (i) owned and (ii) occupied buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Individual building owners and managers continue to be responsible for health and safety, including responding to safety alerts such as RAAC.
Building owners must address safety risks of all kinds in their buildings through a risk-based, proportionate and evidence-based approach. On the 1 May 2019, the Standing Committee on Structural Safety issued a safety alert on the failure of RAAC planks. Local authorities, like other building owners, are advised to follow available professional guidance.
The Local Government Association has advised members to check whether any buildings in their estates have RAAC, to ensure it can be identified, assessed, and responded to accordingly. This is accessible on the LGA website and in line with the guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers. If further buildings are identified as having suspected or confirmed RAAC, building owners and managers should follow the guidance to put appropriate mitigation in place.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many student visas were issued to students at (a) Oxford and (b) Cambridge University in 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We do not routinely publish the number of student visas for individual sponsors. For details of our published data on student visas, this can be found in the available Migration Statistics on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-june-2023/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-to-study