Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a regulatory and competition authority for private carpark operators.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is aware of the concerns about the poor practice and behaviour of some parking operators and is determined to drive up standards. We are exploring ways to give motorists the best protection and support and continue to engage with both consumer groups and the two parking trade associations.
MHCLG does not hold information on the ownership of private car parks, as this is private land not managed or overseen by Government.
We will announce our plans regarding the Government code in due course. In the meantime, however, I can confirm that we will consult and assess the impacts of any new measures before those are implemented.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2025 to Question 27485 on Parking: Private Sector, if she will restrict access to DVLA records by private parking companies that consistently issue unfair parking notices.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The law permits the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to release the contact details of the registered keeper of a vehicle where the requester can demonstrate “reasonable cause” for requesting that information, and where a parking operator is a member of a trade association and adheres to sector’s code of practice.
The disclosure of keeper details to private parking companies is subject to a range of safeguards to ensure the information is requested and used appropriately. We are exploring ways to give motorists the best protection and support and continue to engage with both consumer groups, two parking trade associations and DVLA.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February to Question 27485, tabled on 29 January 2025 on Parking: Private Sector, if she will issue revised guidance on the operation and management of private parking facilities to private car park companies operating at (a) airports, (b) local authority car parks, (c) NHS sites, (d) supermarkets, (e) rail companies, (f) universities and (g) private residential areas.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is aware of the concerns about the poor practice and behaviour of some parking operators and is determined to drive up standards.
The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 places a duty on the Government to prepare a code of practice containing guidance about the operation and management of private parking facilities.
This Code will contain guidance for all off-street privately managed car parking facilities.
This government is determined to drive up standards in the private parking sector and will announce its plans for the new Code in due course.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental practices stopped accepting NHS patients in (a) Twickenham and (b) London in each year since 2019.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold data on the number of practices that have stopped accepting National Health Service patients. NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK website profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. This information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the total number of special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) in all schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
There were 20,346 special educational needs co-ordinators employed by state-funded schools in England in November 2023, which is the latest data available.
Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendations of the AQA report entitled Towards new assessments for Numeracy, Literacy and Digital Fluency, published in October 2023.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.
The review will be driven by evidence as it seeks to deliver an excellent foundation in the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics, and considers the key knowledge and skills, including digital, needed for future life.
It will also seek to deliver an assessment system that captures the strengths of every child and young person, with the right balance of assessment methods whilst maintaining the important role of examinations.
The review group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work. The final report with recommendations will be published this autumn. The department will take decisions on what changes to make to assessment and qualifications in light of these recommendations.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people were in receipt of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay, (b) Statutory Paternity Pay, (c) Statutory Adoption Pay and (d) Statutory Shared Parental Pay in the (i) 2019-20 (ii) 2020-21 (iii) 2021-22 and (iv) 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data for the number of people in receipt of Statutory Maternity pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Shared Parental Pay is provided in the table below.
| 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Statutory Maternity Pay | 647,800 | 627,200 | 636,000 | 627,500 |
Statutory Paternity Pay | 208,000 | 176,400 | 204,200 | 195,300 |
Statutory Adoption Pay | 4,900 | 4,400 | 4,600 | 4,500 |
Statutory Shared Parental Pay | 13,000 | 11,200 | 13,000 | 14,200 |
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Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Claimants number has been rounded to nearest 100.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to implement a staff retention strategy in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.
This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.
We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.
The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.
No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the retention of teachers when they become parents.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.
This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.
We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.
The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.
No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention in Twickenham constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.
This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.
We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.
The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.
No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.