Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has had recent discussions with NHS England on the establishment of a National Clinical Director for Allergy of State for Health and Social Care.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
NHS England and NHS Improvement have no current plans to appoint a National Clinical Director for allergy. This is kept under review and new National Clinical Directors or Specialty Advisers are appointed as necessary. The Department hosted a roundtable meeting in January 2022, attended by NHS England and NHS Improvement and stakeholders, where the potential benefits of a National Clinical Director for Allergy was discussed.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NHS England on the establishment of a National Clinical Director for Allergies.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
NHS England and NHS Improvement have no current plans to appoint a National Clinical Director for allergy. This is kept under review and new National Clinical Directors or Specialty Advisers are appointed as necessary. The Department hosted a roundtable meeting in January 2022, attended by NHS England and NHS Improvement and stakeholders, where the potential benefits of a National Clinical Director for Allergy was discussed.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the financial effect of losing fee paying families on early years education providers during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We have spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past 3 years on our early education entitlements and the government continues to support families with their childcare costs. On 25 November 2020, we announced a £44 million investment for the 2021-22 financial year, for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. The Early Years National Funding Formula allocates our funding fairly and transparently.
Last year, when access to childcare was restricted to vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, the government block-bought early years places so that childcare providers received early entitlement funding even when children were not able to attend settings. On 1 June 2020, early years was one of the first sectors to re-open, and has been able to welcome all children to settings ever since. The government has also provided unprecedented support to businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak, through schemes such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. As a result, childcare providers have been able to furlough their staff whereby they have experienced a drop in their income from parents or government to help with staffing costs.
As with other sectors, the COVID-19 outbreak has been an uncertain time for childcare providers, with many reporting concerns about long term viability of their settings as a result. Our policy is to ensure that there are sufficient childcare places to meet demand from parents. Despite the level of uncertainty faced by providers over the COVID-19 outbreak, Ofsted data shows that as of 31 March 2021, the number of childcare places for providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015. This is in the context of declining birth rate (in 2019 there was a 12.2% decrease in live births since the most recent peak in 2012).
A recent survey by Ipsos MORI in March 2021 found that nearly nine in ten (88%) parents of 0 to 4 year olds whose child used formal childcare before COVID-19 reported that their child was using formal childcare at the time of the survey.
We liaise regularly with local authorities and they have not reported to us a significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, this term or since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020. Where parents have been unable to temporarily secure a childcare place (for example, due to their usual setting being temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak), this has been able to be quickly resolved locally, and local authorities are not reporting significant sufficiency of supply issues. We continue to work with local authorities and the sector to ensure there is sufficient, safe and affordable childcare for those who need it most.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the cost for providers of delivering the Government's tax-free childcare scheme during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Steve Barclay
Tax Free Childcare (TFC) is delivered by the Childcare Service via GOV.UK. Parents and childcare providers manage their accounts via the Service.
There is not a cost to parents or providers in managing their accounts. A small number of providers may incur set up costs to ensure their processes are compatible with the online system. HM Revenue & Customs, who administer TFC, do not hold this information.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2020 to Question 49601, when he plans to publish data on the number of additional households claiming local Council Tax Support as a result of covid-19 and the subsequent economic downturn.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Department publishes quarterly official statistics recording the number of local council tax support claimants, at the following address: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/910192/LCTS_claimants_2020-21_Q1.xlsx . The next release covering the second quarter of 2020/21 is planned for 25 November.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will commission independent research into the additional costs to local authority council tax support schemes of covid-19 and the subsequent economic downturn.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Department publishes annual revenue budget and outturn data on local authority revenue expenditure and financing. These include council tax revenue foregone under local council tax support schemes. Outturn data for 2020-21 are scheduled for publication by Autumn 2021. These will capture costs to local authorities of providing local council tax support during the pandemic and will be available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing#2020-to-2021 .
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2020 to Question 49601 on Council Tax Reduction Schemes: Coronavirus, how many local authorities have responded to his Department’s financial monitoring survey on numbers of claimants; and how many local authorities have yet to respond.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Department collects monthly monitoring returns on the financial impact of Covid-19 on local authorities, including data on the number of local council tax support claimants. In the most recent round, returns were received from 310 out of 314 billing authorities surveyed.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of additional households that may claim council tax support in 2020-21 as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
My Department is working with local authorities to collate data on the impacts of Covid-19 through a financial monitoring survey. The survey includes questions on changes in the number of households claiming council tax support in 2020-21 and about support provided through the £500 million Council Tax Hardship Fund which was announced at the Budget.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2020 to Question 12851, on Council Tax Reduction Schemes, how much income was forgone as a result of providing council tax support for working age and pensioner households in each London borough in 2019-20.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Council tax expected to be forgone in 2019-20 as a result of providing council tax support for working age and pensioner households was published as part of the Council Taxbase 2019 statistical release: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-taxbase-2019-in-england.
The amount of council tax expected to be forgone is included in the CT Support section of the local authority level dropdown.
Asked by: Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2020 to Question 12853, on Council Tax Benefits, if he will provide details of the steps his Department has taken to tackle the findings in the Institute of Fiscal Studies research, published in January 2019, on the effect of the abolition of council tax benefit on low-income households.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government considers views from a wide range of organisations, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and takes account of them as part of its ongoing management of council tax policy. Local authorities are responsible for the design of schemes that provide council tax support to low-income households in their area.