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 she is taking to help tackle health inequalities in the North East.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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, what (a) financial and (b) other support his Department is providing to women's refuges in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has provided £3,531,383 since 2021/22 to County Durham and have committed a further £1,216,337 for 2024/25. This funding is for County Durham to commission support for victims of domestic abuse who are residing in refuges and other types of domestic abuse safe accommodation locally.
Statutory Guidance and Regulations provide further details to local authorities on how the duties should be delivered on the ground. The Department continues to work closely with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, the domestic abuse sector and the LGA in supporting local authorities, including best practice workshops.
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, whether his Department is taking steps to financially support community and voluntary organisations that support homeless people in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government recognises that local authorities are best placed to make decisions on what services they provide and what community and voluntary organisations they commission, based on local priorities and circumstances. We are investing over £2 billion over three years in tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. Funding through the Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022-25 provides local areas and their community and voluntary partners with resources to offer accommodation, support, and a route off the streets for people sleeping rough; the City of Durham has been allocated £680,591.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's Circular 01/2013, whether it remains Government policy that a 30 mph speed limit should be the norm in villages.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
30mph remains the default speed limit in built-up areas. Unless an order has been made and the road is signed to the contrary, a 30 mph speed limit applies where there is a system of street lighting furnished by means of lamps placed not more than 200 yards apart.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many government contracts have been awarded to Fujitsu for Post Office Ltd since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Post Office operates as a commercial business at arm’s length from Government and the company is responsible for its own commercial relationships. As such, there are no Government contracts with Fujitsu relating to the Post Office.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many government contracts have been awarded to Fujitsu since 2010.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This historic information is not held centrally.
Details of central government contracts where the contract value is above £12,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps the Child Maintenance Service has taken to help recover arrears in child maintenance payments.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
In the quarter ending September 2023, of 180,000 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect and Pay service:
Depending on a Paying Parent’s employment status we use Deduction from Earnings orders or deductions from bank accounts. We have collected in excess of £16m via deduction orders in 2023. We move cases swiftly to Legal Enforcement. Securing a Liability Order (LO) for 11k cases in the courts, cases are referred to Enforcement Agents (Bailiffs) who have collected almost £5m in 2023. Where house ownership is established, charging orders and orders for sale are instigated. CMS will quickly move to taking court action for the removal of driving licence, committal to prison or removal of passport. £4.5m collected from cases at this stage.
As a result of this intense effort to increase enforcement activity £36m collected from arrears.
The planned introduction of the Administrative Liability Order in 2024 will remove the need to apply to the courts and will reduce the current average time of 20 weeks to secure an LO to 6 weeks.
The published statistics below provides data to September 2023 Section 9 Enforcement and the National tables 7.1 and 7.2.
Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to September 2023 - GOV.UK(www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Question 5041 on Pensions, with reference to the Pension Schemes Act 2015 (Transitional Provisions and Appropriate Independent Advice) 2015 Post Implementation Review, published on 4 April 2023, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the disproportionate response to low-risk pension transfers noted in the last paragraph of that Review.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Whilst conducting the statutory review of the requirement DWP determined the original intention, ensuring members are aware of the benefits they may be giving up by transferring their pension assets to schemes with flexible benefits still applies.
DWP continues to engage with His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to determine if there are alternative ways to deliver the protections that smooth the process.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if she will bring forward proposals to enable Members to directly scrutinise the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Procedure Committee is conducting an inquiry into this issue and it would not be appropriate for me to pre-empt the conclusions of that inquiry. The Government will respond to the Committee’s recommendations in the usual way once they have published their report.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on implementing the recommendations in the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published in October 2022.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is working closely with the Home Office and others on implementing the recommendations in the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. This was most recently discussed with the Home Secretary on 17 October.
With regard to recommendation six, the government accepted unequivocally the need for children and young people to have their voices heard, to feel empowered to raise concerns, and challenge any aspect of their care. The department is prioritising work to update national standards and statutory guidance for the provision of children’s advocacy services. In September the department launched a consultation on proposals, including extending the scope of the standards to apply to special residential settings and introducing a new standard on non-instructed advocacy for children who are non-verbal. This consultation closed on 18 December.
The department also remains committed to reviewing and strengthening the Independent Reviewing Officer and Regulation 44 visitors’ roles, and is continuing to engage with stakeholders on different options.