Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many cases the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information is investigating that relate to deaths of (a) armed forces personnel and (b) police officers.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The website of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery sets out details of current cases, including those relating to the killings of armed forces personnel and police officers. It is noted that those details do not reflect every case that is being investigated, rather they reflect those which Requesting Individuals have agreed can be made public and which the Commission has assessed likewise.
This information can be found at:
https://icrir.independent-inquiry.uk/live-investigations-in-information-recovery/.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to take steps to enable (a) constituents and (b) businesses in South Ribble constituency to become eligible Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As part of Project Gigabit, Building Digital UK (BDUK) identifies the most appropriate intervention to deliver gigabit-capable broadband in areas that are unlikely to be reached by suppliers’ commercial rollout. For most homes and businesses in the South Ribble constituency, this will be through the Project Gigabit contract being delivered by Openreach across Lancashire.
BDUK is currently exploring if additional premises can be added to the scope of this contract. For any homes or businesses that cannot be added, and remain outside of commercial plans, BDUK will consider alternative interventions, which may include the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department has alternative plans for reaching (a) premises and (b) communities that are deemed too expensive to reach through Project Gigabit.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The vast majority of premises will be covered by commercial activity or Project Gigabit, but it will remain too expensive to build a gigabit capable connection to a very small proportion of premises on either a commercial or subsidised basis. The government is exploring options for the kind of support that might be required and appropriate to ensure sufficient, affordable and reliable connectivity in these cases.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance her Department has issued on whether Magistrates Courts in England and Wales can revert back to a conditional offer of £100 Fine and 3 Penalty Points rather than using the Sentencing Guidelines (Speeding Offences) when (a) mitigation is taken into account and (b) such a reversion is justified.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In the case of a driver who breaks the speed limit, they may be given a fixed penalty notice with a £100 fine and three penalty points on their licence, or they may be summoned to Court.
If the person wants to plead not guilty, they will have to go to court to contest the charge, at which point the sentencing guidelines will apply. If the driver is then found guilty in court, they may have to pay a higher fine (depending on what the speed limit was and how much over the limit they were driving). They can also be disqualified from driving or have their licence suspended.
Sentencing guidelines provide courts with guidance on factors that should be considered, which may affect the sentence given. The Council is independent of Parliament and Government. As an independent body, the Council decides on its own priorities and work plan for producing guidelines.
All sentencing courts in England and Wales must follow any sentencing guidelines which are relevant to the offender’s case unless it is in the interest of justice not to do so. Courts must give reason when departing from the guidelines.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in South Ribble constituency are in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP); how those payments are broken down between the (a) daily living and (b) mobility component; and how many of those people did not score a four or above on the assessment criteria.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of January 2025, there are 5,340 people currently in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in the South Ribble Parliamentary Constituency. Of these claimants, 2,530 scored fewer than 4 points in the 10 Daily Living activities. The breakdown of award rates for Daily Living and Mobility can be found in Table 1 below.
The assessment of the Office for Budget Responsibility, published at the Spring Statement, is that most of the current claimants of PIP Daily Living who did not score four points in any of the activities at their last assessment will, nevertheless, because of behaviour changes, be awarded PIP Daily Living again after the proposed eligibility changes take effect.
There will be no immediate changes. We want to reassure anyone concerned that the changes to PIP eligibility and rebalancing of UC aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval.
We will also guarantee that for those on UC, individuals with the most severe, life-long conditions, which mean a person cannot and will never work, will not need to be reassessed in future.
Our intention is that the PIP changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. If you are getting PIP now and could be affected by the changes we plan to make to eligibility, the changes will only apply at your next award review. The average award review is about three years. At your next review, you will be seen by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, and assessed on your individual needs and circumstance.
For those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, we are consulting on how best to support this group, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on your condition, it is based on the functional disability as the result of one or more conditions and it is the additional costs of sum of that disability that PIP is awarded for.
We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment led by the Minister for Social Security and Disability, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.
Table 1: the volume of claimants in the South Ribble constituency split by award rate for Daily Living and Mobility components of PIP
Daily Living | Mobility | |||
| Enhanced | Standard | Nil | Total |
Enhanced | 1,940 | 580 | 250 | 2,780 |
Standard | 670 | 800 | 870 | 2,340 |
Nil | 100 | 130 | - | 230 |
Total | 2,710 | 1,520 | 1,120 | 5,340 |
Note:
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on when accessibility improvement works will commence at Chorley railway station.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Northern Trains Ltd and Network Rail took the decision to remove the previous contractor due to serious on-site safety concerns and remedial works have taken place. Urgent work is underway to consider how best to deliver accessibility improvements at Chorley station – MPs and other stakeholders will be updated once a viable strategy has been identified.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the number of road traffic accidents leading to a fatality on the M6 motorway within Lancashire since 2022.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of fatal road collisions reported to police which occurred on the M6 within Lancashire was 2 in 2022 with none in 2023. 2023 is the latest year for which figures are available.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of women impacted by the maladministration of pension communications as highlighted by the WASPI campaign in South Ribble constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
ONS population estimates suggest that in 2021 there were 6,495 females born in the 1950s resident in the South Ribble constituency, who are impacted by the equalisation of the State Pension age.
We do not know how many of these women were impacted by maladministration in the communication of state pension age changes.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding asylum applications there are for people living in South Ribble constituency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum seekers awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This table is not broken down by constituency.
Data on asylum seekers on support by local authority is published in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that not all asylum seekers awaiting a decision will be on support.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which hospices (a) have all medication supplied (i) for free and (ii) at a discounted rate and (b) do not have medication supplied by the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative and end of life care is commissioned at a local level by integrated care boards (ICBs). Consequently, neither the Department nor NHS England hold data centrally on which hospices have all medication supplied for free or at a discounted rate by the National Health Service or which hospices do not have medication supplied by the NHS.
There are no plans currently to make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the NHS to pay for all medications supplied to hospices, because medication supply to charitable hospices is dependent on local arrangements with ICBs. Hospices are advised to reach individual agreements with their ICBs, which have a broader picture of local arrangements on medication prescribing and provision within their areas.