Mark Ferguson

The information is not available as requested. The department does not collect information on the number of kinship carers or the average number of registrations per constituency. We do collect information on the numbers of foster care placements with family or friends. The latest figures at national level were published in a statistical release 'Children looked after in England including adoptions: 2022-23', which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/168a811f-bbe6-4988-a17b-08dcfae39e23. However, information on children looked after is collected at local authority level and is not held centrally for parliamentary constituency areas.

In recent years, there have been two statistical reports on the number of kinship carers that have been produced by other government departments. In both cases, the data was only published at local authority level.

On 7 November 2024, Ofsted published official statistics on 'Fostering in England 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024', which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fostering-in-england-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024/fostering-in-england-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024#family. This set of statistics presented figures on the number of family and friends households and carers, sometimes known as kinship care. The underlying data table provided by Ofsted can be accessed at: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F6729e321541e1dfbf71e8b5c%2FFostering_in_England_underlying_data_2024_final.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.

The table indicates that there were 55 approved family and friends households in Gateshead local authority in 2023/24 compared to 45 in 2019/20.

In September 2023, the Office for National Statistics published separate data on the proportion of households with kinship care by local authority area in the data release 'Kinship care in England and Wales: Census 2021', which can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/kinshipcareinenglandandwalescensus2021. These figures were derived using older data from the 2021 national census and showed detailed characteristics of children living in households without their parents but with other relatives in the year 2021. The report also presented the geographical distribution of kinship care households (Section 6). The proportion of households with kinship care arrangements (as a proportion of households of five people or fewer containing anyone aged 17 years and under) in Gateshead local authority was reported as 2.2%.

The most recently published figures on free school meals (FSM) eligibility are from the January 2024 school census, published in June 2024 here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

The statistics are based on counts of pupils who are eligible for FSM and are known by their school to be claiming. The department does not hold information on pupils who are eligible but do not claim.

Where statistics were published prior to the changes in parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in June 2025 for schools’ and pupils’ statistics.

The constituency of Gateshead Central and Whickham is made up of elements of two old constituencies: Gateshead and Blaydon. As of January 2024, 35% of pupils at state-funded primary schools in Gateshead and 21% of pupils at state-funded primary schools in Blaydon were eligible for and claiming FSM. This compares with 24% for the whole of England.

The schools and pupils publication includes data at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency, which can be accessed here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. GIAS reflects the changes made following the general election parliamentary constituency changes. Updates to geographical data in GIAS are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics.

The table below sets out funding statistics for the North East and England in each of the last five years.

The figures represent the funding provided through the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). All of the figures in the table exclude growth funding but include premises. The figures do not include the additional grant funding that schools across the country have received to support pay and pensions increases in 2024/25.

The DSG is allocated at local authority level and, as such, the equivalent figures are not available for Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency. The allocations that schools within a constituency receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area.

The table below provides average per-pupil funding for the last five years, from the 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years:

* The data the department holds for the North East is for the North East region, as opposed to the North East Combined Authority Area.

Apprenticeship starts are published at parliamentary constituency level in the Apprenticeships official statistics, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/apprenticeships. Data for Gateshead Central and Whickham by academic year from 2018/19 to 2022/23 can be found in the dataset called ‘Geography - New Parliamentary Constituency Breakdowns’.

Life expectancy estimates for Parliamentary constituencies are not available. Life expectancy estimates for local authorities in England are produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The latest available figures from the ONS are for the three-year period 2020 to 2022. In that period, life expectancy at birth for the Gateshead local authority, which includes the constituency of Gateshead and Whickham, was 76.7 years for males, and 81.4 years for females.

Source: data is from the OHID’s Local Health profile, with further information on male and female life expectancy within the Gateshead local authority available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/local-health/data#page/3/gid/1938133185/pat/502/par/E08000037/ati/8/are/E05001067/iid/93283/age/1/sex/1/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/5/cid/4/tbm/1

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/local-health/data#page/3/gid/1938133185/pat/502/par/E08000037/ati/8/are/E05001067/iid/93283/age/1/sex/2/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/5/cid/4/tbm/1/page-options/car-do-0

The profile also provides comparable estimates for the Gateshead local authority for the five-year period, from 2016 to 2020.

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) budget for its new regulatory platform was £88.3 million. The actual cost of the regulatory platform is £92.4 million, including the utilisation of contingency, which isn’t accounted for in the budget, and so is the reason for the variance. The actual cost comprises spending on contingent labour, internal staffing, professional services, and non-pay costs. All spending during the CQC’s transformation was subject to appropriate governance, and any procurement was undertaken in line with public sector standards.

The regulatory platform was gradually delivered and implemented over a five-year period to the end of March 2024. The CQC is unable to provide a breakdown of the figures into design, development, and rollout as the regulatory platform was broken down into various services and each of these had a different design, build, test, and deploy phase. These phases overlapped due to the phased rollout.

The data provided has been sourced from NHS Digital and shows the number of open practices as of August 2024, and in August 2014 as no data is available prior to this. The data only includes main practices in the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency and does not include branch practices. Locations have been mapped to current constituency boundaries. Open and close dates for practices were identified using data from NHS Organisation Data Service.

As of August 2024, there are 15 open practices in the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency. In August 2014, there were 19 open practices in the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency.

The following table shows the number of referrals for those children aged between 0 and 17 years old at the time of referral to mental health services in Gateshead local authority between 2019/20 and 2023/24:

Source: Mental Health Dataset, NHS England

Notes:

1. The definition of by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the dataset is not clear cut and also the methodology for deriving CAMHS changes over time. As such, the use of age at referral is the most reliable way of defining those referred to CAMHS.
2. The number provided includes all new referrals in each year where the person was a resident of the local authority of Gateshead. In addition, the number of referrals which have had a contact is included to provide context around the numbers of referrals which have been received and subsequently had a care contact.
3. For some referrals it may not be expected that a contact would be recorded. For example, in some circumstances, referrals are received by triage teams. These referrals are subsequently closed without a contact with a new referral opened once triaged.
4. In some scenarios, referral IDs are being re-used. For the purposes of this analysis, the care contact must take place within the same referral for the same person, as such a small number of contacts may not be included within a specific referral but this is a data quality issue.

The following table shows the number of referrals that subsequently received a first contact over six months from the referral request date from 2019/20 to 2023/24, and the number of referrals still waiting for a contact having waited at least six months, regardless of when the referral started, as of the end of March 2024, for those aged zero to 17 years old:

Source: Mental Health Dataset.

As the definition of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the dataset is not clear cut, and the methodology for deriving CAMHS changes over time, the use of age at referral is the most reliable way of defining those referred to CAMHS.

The number provided includes all new referrals in each year where the person was a resident of the local authority of Gateshead. In addition, the number of referrals which have had a contact is included to provide context around the numbers of referrals which have been received and subsequently had a care contact.

For some referrals it may not be expected that a contact would be recorded. For example, in some circumstances, referrals are received by triage teams. These referrals are subsequently closed without a contact, with a new referral opened once triaged.

In some scenarios, referral IDs are being re-used. For the purposes of this analysis, the care contact must take place within the same referral for the same person, as such a small number of contacts may not be included within a specific referral, but this is a data quality issue.

Our High Commissioner in Mozambique has raised the alleged massacre of civilians at the TotalEnergies plant in 2021 with representatives of the Government of Mozambique and local counterparts, alongside France and the US. The UK is offering continued support to Mozambique on responding to the ongoing IS-Mozambique insurgency in Cabo Delgado. This support includes programmes aimed at building local resilience to violent extremism, and security and human rights training of Mozambican Armed Forces.

The department collects data on the number of residential buildings over 18 metres in height in England with unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. In the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency, fewer than 10 such buildings have been identified, but the exact number cannot be disclosed to protect the privacy of individual buildings.

Leaseholders in buildings over 11 metres or five storeys are protected from paying for remediation of safety defects if the developer has signed the developer remediation contract. Additionally, the Government has made £5.1 billion available through the Building Safety Fund and Cladding Safety Scheme to cover cladding repairs for buildings over 18 metres where no responsible developer can be identified.

Furthermore, Remediation Contribution Orders provide leaseholders with a means to recover historical safety remediation costs from those responsible, such as developers.

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), funded by the department, offers free legal advice to leaseholders.

Developers who have signed the remediation contract are responsible for funding assessments and completing all fire safety work, including non-cladding issues, in line with PAS9980 standards for external works and relevant standards for internal works, all at their own expense.

The department collects data on the number of residential buildings over 18 metres in height in England with unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. In the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency, fewer than 10 such buildings have been identified, but the exact number cannot be disclosed to protect the privacy of individual buildings.

Leaseholders in buildings over 11 metres or five storeys are protected from paying for remediation of safety defects if the developer has signed the developer remediation contract. Additionally, the Government has made £5.1 billion available through the Building Safety Fund and Cladding Safety Scheme to cover cladding repairs for buildings over 18 metres where no responsible developer can be identified.

Furthermore, Remediation Contribution Orders provide leaseholders with a means to recover historical safety remediation costs from those responsible, such as developers.

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), funded by the department, offers free legal advice to leaseholders.

Developers who have signed the remediation contract are responsible for funding assessments and completing all fire safety work, including non-cladding issues, in line with PAS9980 standards for external works and relevant standards for internal works, all at their own expense.

The department collects data on the number of residential buildings over 18 metres in height in England with unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. In the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency, fewer than 10 such buildings have been identified, but the exact number cannot be disclosed to protect the privacy of individual buildings.

Leaseholders in buildings over 11 metres or five storeys are protected from paying for remediation of safety defects if the developer has signed the developer remediation contract. Additionally, the Government has made £5.1 billion available through the Building Safety Fund and Cladding Safety Scheme to cover cladding repairs for buildings over 18 metres where no responsible developer can be identified.

Furthermore, Remediation Contribution Orders provide leaseholders with a means to recover historical safety remediation costs from those responsible, such as developers.

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), funded by the department, offers free legal advice to leaseholders.

Developers who have signed the remediation contract are responsible for funding assessments and completing all fire safety work, including non-cladding issues, in line with PAS9980 standards for external works and relevant standards for internal works, all at their own expense.

Every year, the Government and the Judiciary agree a number of sitting days and an overall budget in what is known as the Concordat process.

In June, the Judiciary reached an agreement with the former Lord Chancellor to sit 106,000 days in the Crown Court within a total budget of £275 million.

The Lord Chancellor has since agreed to fund an additional 500 days, but it has become clear that there has been significant over-listing against this budget – with more trials scheduled than the funding allows.

As a result of that, approximately 1,600 sitting days have had to be withdrawn. The level of impact will vary across regions and is being managed closely to ensure there is minimal disruption to all involved.