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Written Question
Domestic Abuse: Advisory Services
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of domestic abuse services in the UK in each year since 2018.

Answered by Felicity Buchan

Support for domestic abuse services is a devolved matter, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) holds data relating to England.

On 1st May 2023, according to Women’s Aid, throughout England, there were 236 domestic abuse service providers delivering a range of local services. Some providers deliver multiple services. The table below shows total number of domestic providers since 2018:

Total number of domestic abuse service providers in England

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

219

220

222

229

226

236

Since 2021 £507 million has been allocated to support local authorities across England to delivery their statutory duty under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to ensure that all victims, including children, have access to support within safe accommodation when they need it.

DLUHC has allocated over £4.2 million of funding to Warwickshire County Council to support domestic abuse victims in safe accommodation since 2021.

Further funding has been provided by the Ministry of Justice to Police and Crime Commissioners with £38 million of funding ring-fenced for Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors across England.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse: Advisory Services
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of trends in the level of funding given to domestic abuse services in Warwick and Leamington constituency since 2018.

Answered by Felicity Buchan

Support for domestic abuse services is a devolved matter, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) holds data relating to England.

On 1st May 2023, according to Women’s Aid, throughout England, there were 236 domestic abuse service providers delivering a range of local services. Some providers deliver multiple services. The table below shows total number of domestic providers since 2018:

Total number of domestic abuse service providers in England

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

219

220

222

229

226

236

Since 2021 £507 million has been allocated to support local authorities across England to delivery their statutory duty under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to ensure that all victims, including children, have access to support within safe accommodation when they need it.

DLUHC has allocated over £4.2 million of funding to Warwickshire County Council to support domestic abuse victims in safe accommodation since 2021.

Further funding has been provided by the Ministry of Justice to Police and Crime Commissioners with £38 million of funding ring-fenced for Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors across England.


Written Question
Pedestrian Crossings: Schools
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many schools were served by crossing guards in (a) 2018 and (b) 2024.

Answered by Guy Opperman

Local authorities are responsible for the provision of school crossing patrols as they are best placed to assess the needs of the local community. The Department for Transport does not collect statistics on school crossing patrols.


Written Question
Overseas Students
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made with Cabinet colleagues on implementing the International Education Strategy, published on 16 March 2019.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has been implementing a whole of government approach and working closely with Cabinet departments including the Department for Business and Trade, Home Office, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and other government departments to implement the International Education Strategy published on 16 March 2019. This includes ministerial and official attendance from across government at the Education Sector Advisory Group meetings, a valued forum that convenes three times per year and enables sector representatives to engage with the government to implement the strategy.

The department remains committed to the International Education Strategy and has published regular updates, most recently in May 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-2023-update. This sets out progress to date, including total UK revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity estimated to be £25.6 billion in 2021 and meeting the international student ambition for both 2020/21 and 2021/22.


Written Question
Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme limit to £500,000 for eligible companies.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

The government recently expanded the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) to help more UK start-ups to raise higher levels of finance. In April 2023, the amount of SEIS funding that companies can raise was increased from £150,000 to £250,000 and the annual investor limit was increased from £100,000 to £200,000. The eligibility of the SEIS was also expanded as the limit on the age of a company’s trade was increased from 2 years to 3 years and the company gross asset limit was increased from £200,000 to £350,000. These changes increase the generosity and availability of the SEIS whilst ensuring it remains appropriately targeted at those very early-stage companies that investors view as the highest risk. Companies that outgrow the SEIS can utilise the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) to raise further finance.


Written Question
Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme
Monday 29th January 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme on (a) small businesses, (b) investment and (c) job creation.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

At Autumn Statement 2023, the Government published the report of an independent evaluation of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), conducted in 2022. The full report can be found on the GOV.UK Website here: Evaluation of Venture Capital Schemes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Video Games
Thursday 11th January 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of challenges within the video games industry.

Answered by Julia Lopez

The Government is committed to the success of the UK games sector and we work closely with industry to support its future growth.

This includes the £13.4 million UK Games Fund supporting new IP and talent and generous video games tax reliefs.

However, we are also focused on building a talent pipeline through the Creative Careers Programme, T-Levels and bootcamps, and local skills improvement plans. Additionally, we have worked closely with industry to deliver guidance on loot boxes, and developed a video games research framework to inform future policy making.


Written Question
Students: Energy
Wednesday 10th January 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of increases in energy prices on university students living in private rented accommodation.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Student Income and Expenditure Survey 2021/22 suggests that a third of students live in privately rented accommodation with friends. Over the period 2022/23 to 2024/25, the government will have provided support worth £104 billion to help families throughout the UK with the cost of living including to meet increased household energy costs. This will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enabled many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.

Students in private rented accommodation who are provided energy through a commercial entity may also benefit from the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS), which provides a baseline discount on energy bills for non-domestic users locked into high fixed price tariffs. Any non-domestic user who benefits from the EBDS must ensure the benefit is passed through to the end user, such as students in private rented accommodation.

More information on students’ expenditure on housing can be found in the 2021/22 Student Income and Expenditure Survey which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/student-income-and-expenditure-survey-2021-to-2022.


Written Question
Rents: Warwick and Leamington
Wednesday 10th January 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the average monthly rent payment in Warwick and Leamington constituency was in each year since 2010.

Answered by Jacob Young

Rental data at constituency level is not held centrally.


Written Question
Mortgages: Warwick and Leamington
Monday 8th January 2024

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on what the average monthly mortgage payment was in Warwick and Leamington constituency in each year since 2010.

Answered by Bim Afolami

There is a wide variety of data and statistics about the mortgage market in the UK available from the Bank of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics), the Financial Conduct Authority (https://www.fca.org.uk/data) and UK Finance (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data).