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Written Question
Public Sector: Contracts
Tuesday 11th March 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to develop weightings for trade union (a) access and (b) recognition when (i) awarding public contracts and (ii) determining strategic suppliers.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Social Value Model has been updated to ensure that in-scope organisations can implement the government’s new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS). Procurement Policy Note 002: The Social Value Model sets out the government’s approach to social value.

Strategic suppliers are selected based on the scale, scope and criticality of the services they provide.


Written Question
Northern Trains: Rolling Stock
Thursday 6th March 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the levels of corrosion on the Class (a) 150/0, (b) 150/1, (c) 150/2, (d) 155, (e) 156 and (f) 158 vehicles operated by Northern Trains.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department does not hold information with regards to the levels of corrosion on the specified rolling stock. It is a matter for the operator, rolling stock owner and maintainer to ensure that their rolling stock remains in an appropriate condition for operation on the railway network.


Written Question
Railways: Birmingham
Thursday 6th March 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 28794 on Railways: Season Tickets, what the cost of a standard-class annual rail season ticket from (a) Longbridge, (b) Northfield and (c) Kings Norton stations to Birmingham New Street was between 03 March 2024 and 01 March 2025.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The price of the standard class annual season ticket for all these journeys was £971.


Written Question
Parliamentary Archives: Location
Tuesday 4th March 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question

To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, what recent progress has been made on the Parliamentary archives relocation programme; and whether that programme is still expected to be completed in 2025.

Answered by Nick Smith

The Archives Relocation Programme is on track to be completed in 2025.

To date 65% of the physical records have been removed from the Victoria Tower with the remaining moves scheduled to be completed by the autumn.

The partnership agreement with The National Archives is expected to be signed within the next six weeks.


Written Question
Pregnancy: Drugs
Monday 3rd March 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome there were in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following table shows the number of cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) since 2014:

Year

Token Person ID

2014

1,287

2015

1,279

2016

1,198

2017

1,184

2018

1,195

2019

1,083

2020

1,058

2021

1,163

2022

1,095

2023

1,056

2024

1,107 (provisional)

Source: NHS England

Notes:

  1. Token Person ID - for this analysis, each patient has been counted once against each year in which they were recorded as having a hospital episode with a valid diagnosis. A patient is only counted once in a given year, regardless of the number of episodes they may have had.
  2. NAS is typically identified at or shortly after birth, but there are also cases where the condition is not immediately apparent. Therefore, the data includes any patients aged less than one year old where the diagnosis was recorded to ensure that all relevant data are presented.


Written Question
Birmingham New Street Station: Air Pollution
Monday 3rd March 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps Network Rail takes to monitor air quality at Birmingham New Street station.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Network Rail monitors air quality at Birmingham New Street station as part of a £4.5 million air quality monitoring network, which is funded by the Department for Transport and managed by the Rail Safety and Standards Board.

The network, which began operating in 2022, has measured air quality at over 100 mainline stations across Great Britain, providing data on key pollutants that impact public health, such as nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5).

In addition, Network Rail conducts occupational health monitoring to assess staff exposure to diesel engine exhaust emissions at its managed stations, including Birmingham New Street.


Written Question
Health Services: Birmingham
Wednesday 26th February 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of NHS (a) operations, (b) appointments and (c) tests that took place in Birmingham between July-November (i) 2024 and (ii) 2023.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The scope of this data is limited to elective services consistent with consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times. It excludes emergency care, maternity, and mental health services. Birmingham has four trusts excluding these services, data for which has been aggregated into the table below. The following table shows the number of elective operations, outpatient appointments, and diagnostic tests, and the total of all three combined, delivered from July to November 2024 and from July to November 2023:

Time period

Elective operations

Outpatient appointments

Diagnostic tests

Total

July to November 2024

105,253

708,569

260,143

1,073,965

July to November 2023

99,795

683,685

248,683

1,032,163


In addition, the following table shows the number elective operations, outpatient appointments, and diagnostic tests, and the total of all three combined, delivered from July to November 2023, adjusted for working days, and the number of addition appointments delivered in 2024:

Elective operations

Outpatient appointments

Diagnostic tests

Total

July to November 2023 adjusted for working days

100,719

690,015

250,986

1,041,720

Additional appointments

4,534

18,554

9,157

32,245

Note: the data excludes the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.


Written Question
Multi-academy Trusts: Pay
Wednesday 26th February 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff employed by multi academy trusts were paid (a) between £150,000 and £199,999, (b) between £200,000 and £249,999 and (c) in excess of £250,000 in each of the last five years by trust.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department collates and publishes data annually in the ‘Academies sector annual report and accounts’ on the number of academy trusts with an individual staff member whose emoluments are above £100,000. The data is available in the attached spreadsheet and can also be accessed in the reports published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/academies-sector-annual-reports-and-accounts.

Emoluments include salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits received during the year. These are reported in bandings of £100,000 to £150,000 and £150,000 and above.

The department also publishes an annex alongside the academy sector accounts listing academy trusts paying one or more staff member remuneration of £150,000 in that year.

The academies sector annual report and accounts is drawn from academy trusts’ accounts data. The report for 2022/23 will be published shortly. The deadline for academy trusts to submit data for 2023/24 to the department was 28 January 2025 and this data is currently collated for publication. Academy trusts must also publish pay information in their annual audited accounts and on their website.


Written Question
Academies: Pay
Wednesday 26th February 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff employed by single academy trusts were paid (a) between £150,000 and £199,999, (b) between £200,000 and £249,999 and (c) in excess of £250,000 in each of the last five years by trust.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department collates and publishes data annually in the ‘Academies sector annual report and accounts’ on the number of academy trusts with an individual staff member whose emoluments are above £100,000. The data is available in the attached spreadsheet and can also be accessed in the reports published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/academies-sector-annual-reports-and-accounts.

Emoluments include salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits received during the year. These are reported in bandings of £100,000 to £150,000 and £150,000 and above.

The department also publishes an annex alongside the academy sector accounts listing academy trusts paying one or more staff member remuneration of £150,000 in that year.

The academies sector annual report and accounts is drawn from academy trusts’ accounts data. The report for 2022/23 will be published shortly. The deadline for academy trusts to submit data for 2023/24 to the department was 28 January 2025 and this data is currently collated for publication. Academy trusts must also publish pay information in their annual audited accounts and on their website.


Written Question
Roads: Equipment
Monday 24th February 2025

Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her Department plans to respond to the consultation entitled Enabling road use of hydrogen-powered non-road mobile machinery, published on 27 March 2024.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Following a consultation that closed in April 2024, the Department for Transport is developing an amendment to The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 to allow hydrogen-powered off-road machinery to be used on the road. Legislation is expected to be introduced alongside publication of the Government’s response to the public consultation in April.