Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) value of grants made and (b) number of recipients of funding from the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme was in (i) the UK and (ii) Hampshire since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme (EES) is a £25.5 million fund to support voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations across England to save money on energy bills. It was announced at the Spring Budget 2023 as part of the £101.5 million to support VCSE organisations struggling with cost of living pressures.
The scheme has two components:
As both components of the fund are still being delivered, details of the grants distributed (including award amounts and locations of the beneficiaries) are yet to be announced, but will be in due course.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) value of grants made and (b) number of recipients of funding from the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund was in (i) the UK and (ii) Hampshire.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund (CCLF) was a £76 million fund for critical frontline services helping low-income households in England through last winter. It was announced at the Spring Budget 2023 as part of the £101.5 million to support VCSE organisations struggling with cost of living pressures.
Details of the first 865 grants awarded through CCLF have been published on gov.uk and details of all remaining grants awarded will be announced later this summer. As of 4th December 2023, 16 organisations in Hampshire have been awarded a total of £742,433.86.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) value of grants made and (b) number of recipients of funding was from the National Citizen Service in (i) Hampshire and (ii) the UK was since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Following Covid-19 and a strategic review, in 2023 the NCS Trust launched a new delivery model for the NCS programme. The new programme consists of residential, community and digital experiences. NCS Trust provides grant-funding to local organisations across England to deliver these community experiences.
From 2023/24 the NCS Trust began issuing grants. The total spend on grant-funding so far is £21.7m with a total of 94 organisations in receipt of grant-funding across England. Three organisations operating within Hampshire have received grant-funding, namely Unloc, Oasis and Personal Best Education. These organisations have received £267,461 for the operation of their community experiences in Hampshire.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) value of grants made and (b) number of recipients of funding was from the Million Hours Fund since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Million Hours Fund is investing £22 million in youth organisations across England to enable them to deliver additional hours of positive activities for young people in areas with higher levels of anti-social behaviour.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport launched the Million Hours Fund in 2023, alongside The National Lottery Community Fund (TNCLF), who have provided match funding and are also delivering the Fund. The Fund is split into two delivery phases: Phase 1 was delivered during the summer of 2023 and Phase 2 awards are currently being finalised, with delivery planned until March 2026.
The value of grants awarded under Phase 1 is £3,776,551 and 430 organisations received funding. These figures are correct as of 16/04/2024. More details on the value and number of organisations receiving awards under Phase 2 will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support the General Dental Council increase the number of exam places for dentistry graduates who received their qualifications overseas to achieve an equivalent certification to permit them to practice in the UK.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department works closely with the General Dental Council (GDC) to support the efficient delivery of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE). The Department welcomed the GDC’s announcements on increasing the number of places available to sit the ORE. The GDC tripled the number of places available to sit the ORE Part 1, for all sittings from August 2023 to the end of 2024. The GDC also added an additional sitting of the ORE Part 2 in 2024, bringing the total number of sittings up to four. Together, these steps have created more than 1300 additional places across the two parts. These increases to capacity will enable individuals with overseas qualifications to more quickly have the opportunity to become registered dentists in the United Kingdom.
In March 2024, the GDC implemented new rules relating to the ORE which will allow it to introduce new exam fees, with a view to making the ORE self-funding. The GDC’s procurement process for new ORE providers is also underway. We anticipate that these combined measures will allow the GDC to further increase ORE exam capacity in due course.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
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 reduce waiting lists for liver transplants.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department works with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) as it continues to focus on saving the lives of those on the waiting list, and supporting safe organ transplantation from living and deceased donors. NHSBT has made changes to organ offering and allocation to maximise liver transplant opportunities for waiting list patients. They have also developed a United Kingdom wide living donor liver transplant programme to increase opportunities for patients on the waiting list to receive a living donor option. Additionally, NHSBT supports the use of liver perfusion devices across all transplant units to allow livers to be kept alive outside the body, to allow more patients to benefit. NHSBT’s marketing strategy also focuses on increasing transplantation through increased organ donor registrations. The strategy works to change the public’s perception and awareness of organ donation and inform how to register a donation preference.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department is taking steps to support people with communal boilers who are not eligible for domestic tariffs with their energy bills.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Heat network customers receive reductions in their heat price through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023, and the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS), from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. All eligible heat networks receive the baseline level of support under the EBDS, with a higher level of support available to heat networks with domestic end consumers. This higher level of support aims to ensure that domestic customers on heat networks do not face disproportionately higher bills when compared to customers in equivalent households who are supported by the Energy Price Guarantee.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
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 help strengthen alternative grounds for landlords to regain possession of properties once no-fault eviction notices are abolished.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Renters (Reform) Bill, introduced into Parliament on 17 May 2023, will deliver a fairer, more secure, and higher quality private rented sector for both tenants and landlords.
Good landlords play a vital role in providing homes for millions of people across the country. While we will deliver the manifesto commitment to end Section 21 'no fault' evictions, we will introduce comprehensive, fair and efficient grounds for possession to ensure landlords have confidence they can regain possession when it is reasonable.
We will reform possession grounds to expedite landlords' ability to evict those who disrupt neighbourhoods through anti-social behaviour and introduce a new ground for persistent rent arrears. We will also ensure landlords are able to sell or move back into their property if needed.
These improvements strike the right balance between ensuring landlords can gain possession of their property when it is right for them to do so, and improving security for tenants.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the capacity of the courts.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The outstanding Crown Court caseload has been falling since October. We have invested a significant amount of funding for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime and reduce the outstanding Crown Court caseload.
We are recruiting up to 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions in 2023/24, last year removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for the second financial year in a row, and recently announced the continued use of 24 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2023/24 financial year.
We have also significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the civil and family courts and tribunals. This includes increasing funding to Cafcass by £8.4 million last financial year to deal with more open active cases.
To help maximise our available judicial capacity, we also introduced a virtual region pilot scheme in July to support civil and family courts in London and the South East. This allows deputy district judges from outside these regions to sit virtually in London and the South East so we can hear as many cases as possible.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent diplomatic steps he has taken to help strengthen NATO unity.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Foreign Secretary regularly engages with NATO Allies, including most recently at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 3-4 April, where Finland acceded to NATO and Allies demonstrated our continued solidarity with Ukraine. The Foreign Secretary and I [Minister Docherty] will continue engaging extensively with Turkey, Hungary and Allies to ensure swift ratification of Sweden so we can meet at the Vilnius Summit at 32.