Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many service sector apprenticeships were available in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes and in all sectors, including the service sector, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
The department has removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium sized enterprises can take on and have cut by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme, supported by £3.2 million of investment each year. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is also promoting apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, which offer great opportunities for those leaving full-time education. In addition, students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) hub and later this year they will be able to apply for apprenticeships on UCAS.
Apprenticeship starts by sector are published as part of the department’s apprenticeship statistics releases. The statistics released also show the number of apprenticeship vacancies published on the department’s Find an Apprenticeship service. These statistics are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support service sector apprenticeships.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes and in all sectors, including the service sector, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
The department has removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium sized enterprises can take on and have cut by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme, supported by £3.2 million of investment each year. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is also promoting apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, which offer great opportunities for those leaving full-time education. In addition, students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) hub and later this year they will be able to apply for apprenticeships on UCAS.
Apprenticeship starts by sector are published as part of the department’s apprenticeship statistics releases. The statistics released also show the number of apprenticeship vacancies published on the department’s Find an Apprenticeship service. These statistics are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to make medicinal cannabis more accessible to those who need it.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Licensed cannabis-based medicines are routinely available on the National Health Service. However, clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) demonstrate a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed cannabis-based medicines.
The Government continues to call on manufacturers to invest in research and clinical trials to prove if their products are safe and effective and offers scientific and research advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NICE.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the Israeli government's policy on a two-state solution.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We support a two-state solution that guarantees security and stability for both the Israeli and Palestinian people; Gaza is Occupied Palestinian Territory and will be part of a future Palestinian state, and the Palestinian Authority has an important long-term role to play. We must work with our allies to provide serious, practical and enduring support needed to bolster the Palestinian Authority.
We want to see an end to the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible and are calling for an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.
There are five vital steps:
- A political horizon which provides a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.
- The formation of a new Palestinian Government for the West Bank and Gaza, accompanied by an international support package.
- Removing Hamas's capacity to launch attacks against Israel.
- The release of all Israeli hostages.
- Hamas no longer in charge of Gaza.
The Foreign Secretary has reiterated these messages with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli political leaders, including during his visit to Israel on 24 January.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what due diligence checks the Honours committee conducted before Paula Vennells received an award in the 2019 New Year Honours list.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Names of honours committee members are published within the Government’s reports on the operation of the honours system, and are a matter of public record.
The process relating to individual honours nominations are conducted in confidence. There is an expectation that this remains so, in order to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the honours system. The Government has previously published information relating to routine checks carried out prior to the awarding of honours, which is available online.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will list the members of the Honours committee that approved the CBE for Paula Vennells in the 2019 New Year Honours list.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Names of honours committee members are published within the Government’s reports on the operation of the honours system, and are a matter of public record.
The process relating to individual honours nominations are conducted in confidence. There is an expectation that this remains so, in order to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the honours system. The Government has previously published information relating to routine checks carried out prior to the awarding of honours, which is available online.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers had their accommodation support withdrawn after a rejected asylum application in (a) the UK and (b) Liverpool City council local authority area in (i) 2017-18, (ii) 2018-19, (iii) 2019-20 and (iv) 2022-23.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab). Data is published on a quarterly basis. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation by local authority, and figures on the number of discontinuations of asylum support are not available in a readily reportable format.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what personal information on (a) vehicle owners and (b) registered keepers can be provided to private parking enforcement companies through the KADOE system.
Answered by Richard Holden
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) records the details of UK vehicles and their registered keepers. The DVLA does not record owners of vehicles.
In response to requests from private parking companies received via the keeper at date of event service, the DVLA provides the name and address of the registered keeper. The vehicle registration number is also quoted back to the requestor.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much revenue the DVLA accumulated through fulfilling KADOE requests for private parking enforcement companies in financial years (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22.
Answered by Richard Holden
The fee for vehicle keeper data requests is set at £2.50 per enquiry. This sum covers the cost of releasing the information.
The total income for all data requests is as follows:
2019-20 | £23.29m |
2020-21 | £13.18m |
2021-22 | £23.90m |
The revenue received solely from dealing with requests from private parking companies cannot be separately identified from the wider range of requests for vehicle keeper details for other lawful purposes.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what charge the DVLA levies on private parking enforcement companies for fulfilling requests for information on (a) vehicle owners and (b) registered keepers through the KADOE system.
Answered by Richard Holden
The fee for vehicle keeper data requests is set at £2.50 per enquiry. This sum covers the cost of releasing the information.
The total income for all data requests is as follows:
2019-20 | £23.29m |
2020-21 | £13.18m |
2021-22 | £23.90m |
The revenue received solely from dealing with requests from private parking companies cannot be separately identified from the wider range of requests for vehicle keeper details for other lawful purposes.