Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of 18 year olds achieving three or more A level passes in (a) Bolsover constituency and (b) its neighbouring constituencies.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The requested data can be found in the attached table. The table shows the number and proportion of students entering at least 3 A levels, broken down by the number of A level entries in the Bolsover constituency and the bordering constituencies of Amber Valley, Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, Mansfield, North East Derbyshire, and Rother Valley.
There were zero A level students in the Bolsover constituency in the 2023/24 academic year.
Data is based on students attending schools and colleges located in, rather than those resident in, each constituency who have reached the end of 16-18 study.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage public-private collaboration in the (a) investment and (b) delivery of welfare facilities for HGV drivers.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport (DfT) and industry are jointly investing up to £43.5 million to upgrade HGV parking and driver welfare facilities across England, including at independent truck stops and motorway service areas. This is on top of up to £26 million joint investment by National Highways and industry in lorry parking facilities, including Motorway Service Areas, along the strategic road network.
This investment is supporting operators across 30 counties in England to improve security, toilets, showers and refreshment facilities and increase lorry parking spaces.
DfT also established an industry-led Task and Finish Group (TGF) on HGV facilities, which commenced in February 2024. The TFG was a 12-month, industry-led forum focused on increasing capacity for safe and secure HGV parking, and driving industry adoption of existing HGV parking standards. DfT is considering the conclusions of this group.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to support the roll out of (a) parking and (b) welfare facilities for HGV drivers at motorway service areas.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport (DfT) and industry are jointly investing up to £43.5 million to upgrade HGV parking and driver welfare facilities across England, including at independent truck stops and motorway service areas. This is on top of up to £26 million joint investment by National Highways and industry in lorry parking facilities, including Motorway Service Areas, along the strategic road network.
This investment is supporting operators across 30 counties in England to improve security, toilets, showers and refreshment facilities and increase lorry parking spaces.
DfT also established an industry-led Task and Finish Group (TGF) on HGV facilities, which commenced in February 2024. The TFG was a 12-month, industry-led forum focused on increasing capacity for safe and secure HGV parking, and driving industry adoption of existing HGV parking standards. DfT is considering the conclusions of this group.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with motorway service area operators on the renewal of leases of those areas.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government owns the freehold of 19 motorway service areas. The DfT is in discussions with the operators regarding the future of the leases, recognising that many of these expire from around 2030. The nature of these discussions means they are commercially confidential.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who reside in Bolsover and claim the health element of Universal Credit are (a) in work and (b) not in work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of claimants in the Bolsover Parliamentary Constituency with a live Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work and Work-related Activity (LCWRA) award and the percentage of these claimants who are recorded as in work.
Claimant in Work | Number of claimants | Percentage |
Yes | 260 | 8% |
No | 3,060 | 92% |
Total | 3,320 | 100% |
Source: DWP UC Computer System
The table below shows the number of claimants in the Bolsover Local Authority area with a live Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work and Work-related Activity (LCWRA) award and the percentage of these claimants who are recorded as in work.
Claimant in Work | Number of claimants | Percentage |
Yes | 200 | 8% |
No | 2,450 | 92% |
Total | 2,650 | 100% |
Source: DWP UC Computer System
Notes:
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who are claiming PIP and who reside in the Bolsover constituency are (a) in work and (b) not in work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many defence jobs (a) supported by direct expenditure by his Department and (b) in SMEs in the supply chain there are in Bolsover constituency.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The number of direct and indirect jobs supported by Ministry of Defence (MOD) expenditure with UK industry in 2022-23 by region can be found in the MOD supported employment estimates 2022/23 report on gov.uk.
This shows MOD expenditure with UK industry in the East Midlands supported 5,500 direct jobs. The MOD does not hold the information in the format required to provide a more specific breakdown.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to protect bus services in Derbyshire that travel to (a) hospitals, (b) leisure attractions and (c) other key out of town locations.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government introduced the Bus Services (No.2) Bill on 17 December as part of its ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill puts the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them right across England, including ensuring access to vital local services such as hospitals or providing links to leisure attractions. The government has committed to increasing accountability by including a measure on socially necessary services so that local authorities and bus operators have to have regard for alternatives to changing or cancelling services.
In addition, the government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities, of which East Midlands Combined County Authority has been allocated £40.5 million. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many bus routes have been registered in Derbyshire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain only publish data on a Traffic Area wide basis. The North Western Traffic Area includes the counties of Derbyshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, and the metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside and Greater Manchester. Between the 2019-20 and 2023-24 reporting years the Traffic Commissioner annual reports detail the following:
Applications Processed | ||||
| Live local bus registrations | New | Variations | Existing registrations cancelled |
2023-24 | 1665 | 541 | 1014 | 752 |
2022-23 | 2028 | 420 | 1569 | 617 |
2021-22 | 2679 | 487 | 1952 | 560 |
2020-21 | 2847 | 258 | 2393 | 254 |
2019-20 | 3177 | 548 | 1875 | 577 |
An existing registration being cancelled does not always mean a bus route was closed. For example, a registration could have been cancelled and replaced with another registration that covers much of the same route, or the route continues to be served by different operator.
It should also be noted that prior to 2019-20 the total number of live local bus service registrations included an element of double-counting as services running across multiple local authority areas were recorded multiple times, e.g. a service running between Derbyshire and Greater Manchester was presented as two services when it should have been counted as a single service. This has now been rectified.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of 18-year-olds have taken (a) three or (b) more A-levels in (i) Bolsover constituency, (ii) Derbyshire and (iii) England in each of the last five academic years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The attached table shows the number and proportion of students entering at least three A levels in England, the Bolsover constituency and the Derbyshire local authority over the past five academic years, broken down by the number of A level entries.
There were zero A level students in the Bolsover constituency in the years in question.
Data is based on students attending schools and colleges located in each geographic area who have reached the end of 16-18 study.