Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the impact of the tuition fee-based funding model on the financial stability of the higher education sector.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
As autonomous organisations, higher education (HE) providers have a high degree of financial independence and it is for them to make appropriate and necessary decisions around income, funding, spending and borrowing which ensure their continued financial viability and sustainability.
The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The Office for Students (OfS), as the regulator of HE in England, is responsible for monitoring the financial sustainability of registered HE providers. The department continues to work closely with the OfS and other parties including providers, mission groups and other government departments to understand the ongoing impacts and changing landscape of financial sustainability across the sector.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports of alleged settler violence in the village of Um al-Khair in the southern West Bank.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK continues to take a strong stance against settler violence. Extremist settlers, by targeting and attacking Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians.
On 12 February, the Foreign Secretary announced new sanctions against four extremist Israeli settlers who have violently attacked Palestinians in the West Bank. These measures are part of wider UK efforts to support a more stable West Bank, which is vital for the peace and security of both Palestinians and Israelis.
We continue to urge Israel to take stronger action to stop settler violence and hold the perpetrators accountable. We will consider additional actions, including further sanctions, as necessary. The UK continues to work with allies and partners, including across the region, to find a path towards a sustainable ceasefire and permanent peace.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has placed a ban on all inter-year transfers to St Leonard's Catholic School in City of Durham.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Secretary of State for Education would not have powers to place a ban on inter-year transfers to St Leonard's Catholic School in the City of Durham.
Parents can apply for a place for their child at any school at any time. An application after the start of the school year for a place in the normal year of entry (usually Year 7 in a secondary school), or for any other year group, is called an “in-year” application. The School Admissions Code sets out requirements in relation to in-year admissions.
Where an application is received for a year which is not the normal year of entry, the admission authority can only refuse if the admission of another child would “prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources”.
Where in-year applications are received for the normal year of entry, the admission authority must admit children up to the Published Admission Number (PAN).
If an admission authority (in this case, Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Academy Trust) wishes to change the PAN for Year 7, they would need to submit a request to vary the published admission arrangements (which include the PAN) to the Secretary of State for Education.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 9 of the document entitled SEND and alternative provision improvement plan, published on 2 March 2023, when her Department plans to publish guidance to support effective transitions between (a) all stages of education and (b) into employment and adult services.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, outlines the government’s mission to establish a single, national SEND and AP system. Alongside this, the department published a roadmap which summarises the actions set out in the Improvement Plan to improve the SEND and AP system in England. The SEND and AP improvement plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan. The roadmap can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan/send-and-alternative-provision-roadmap.
As part of this roadmap, the department committed to publishing this guidance by the end of 2025.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will undertake a review of the effectiveness of the (a) Social Housing Act 2023 and (b) Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 in relation to (i) the protection of and (ii) the provision of opportunities for recourse to action for residents living on local authority-owned Gypsy and Traveller sites that are in need of repair.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Responsibility for the provision, repairs and maintenance of traveller sites is with local authorities.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to allow for mitigating circumstances for pupils whose education has been disrupted due to the presence of RAAC.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Ofqual is the independent regulator of examinations and qualifications in England, and its statutory objectives are set out in Section 128 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. These include securing that ’regulated qualifications give a reliable indication of knowledge, skills and understanding’, and that ’regulated qualifications indicate a consistent level of attainment (including over time) between comparable regulated qualifications’.
It is important to ensure that all students taking comparable exams and assessments are assessed to the same standard in order to maintain qualification standards and public confidence in qualifications. If different standards are applied for different groups of students, then the qualification will cease to provide a reliable indication of the knowledge, skills and understanding that it is intended to measure.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what is the minimum acceptable distance between a leachate treatment plant and housing developments.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
National planning policy is clear that local plans and decisions should prevent new and existing development from contributing to, being put at unacceptable risk from, or being adversely affected by, unacceptable levels of soil, air, water or noise pollution.
Owners of industrial, trade and business premises are expected to use the best practicable means available to reduce odours, effluvia and other potential sources of statutory nuisance emanating from their place of work in the first place. If this is not happening, then local authorities have powers through the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to investigate and issue abatement notices to stop the problem from re-occurring if they determine a statutory nuisance exists.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of waiting times for gynaecological care and treatment in (a) the North East and (b) England as of 21 February 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not prioritise specialties, but the NHS continues to focus on reducing the longest waits, providing high levels of support and scrutiny, targeted at the trusts which have the highest number of patients waiting the longest for elective treatment.
To support this plan and tackle waiting lists, including those in gynaecology, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity. We are also increasing capacity, including for gynaecological surgery, through our surgical hubs, delivered by the Getting It Right First Time ‘High Volume Low Complexity’ programme.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce waiting times for a hysterectomy in (a) County Durham and (b) England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not prioritise specialties or certain interventions, but the NHS continues to focus on reducing the longest waiting times and providing high levels of support and scrutiny, targeted at the trusts which have the highest number of patients waiting the longest time, for elective treatment.
To support this plan and tackle waiting lists, including those in gynaecology, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity. We are also increasing capacity, including for gynaecological surgery, through our surgical hubs, delivered by the Getting It Right First Time’s High Volume Low Complexity programme.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the time taken to process (a) online and (b) paper probate applications.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during July to September 2023.
During the same period the average mean length of time take for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required is (a) 10.1 weeks digital and (b) 21.8 weeks paper.
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.
As a result, the number of grants issued for recent months has been at record levels, with over 15,500 more grants issued than applications received during the last four months (September to December) using more recent management information published by HMCTS (which does not go through the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly).
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to September 2023.