Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
If she will take steps to improve rural connectivity in (a) Kettering constituency, (b) North Northamptonshire and (c) England.
Answered by John Whittingdale - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
I am pleased that 89 percent of premises in the Kettering constituency and 85 percent of premises in North Northamptonshire can access gigabit-capable broadband. To improve this further, we have launched a £52 million procurement as part of Project Gigabit, to deliver gigabit-capable connections to rural premises across Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes. We aim to award a contract to the successful supplier by the end of this year. In April, we published a 10-point action plan to improve rural connectivity. We are already delivering on that plan through the appointment of Simon Fell MP as Rural Connectivity Champion.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to reduce the processing time of business case approvals for New Hospitals Programme bids.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is committed to building 40 new hospitals by 2030 - backed by an expected over £20 billion of investment in hospital infrastructure
We are working with all trusts, including Kettering, on what the certainty this funding confirmation represents and how it will benefit staff and patients
Our new standardisation approach to hospital design and construction, Hospital 2.0, means the process to review and agree business cases will be more streamlined, delivering results more quickly and almost halving the average time to develop and build hospitals.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much covid-19 business grant funding was provided through local authorities in (a) Kettering constituency, (b) north Northamptonshire and (c) England.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
During the pandemic, the Government delivered an unprecedented package of support for business. In total, over £22.6 billion was provided to businesses via Local Authorities throughout England, for Business Grant Support.
In the constituency of Kettering, over 5,000 covid-19 business grants were issued, amounting to £24.6 million.
North Northamptonshire Council has delivered £29.9 million to local businesses through covid-19 business grant schemes since its formation in 2021.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that Government departments and agencies answer telephones within an adequate period of time.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I refer my Hon. friend to the answers given to PQ 113291-113292 on 13 January 2023.
Departmental helplines are not managed or run centrally. Therefore, each department is responsible for their own helpline, as well as response and waiting times.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on ensuring sufficient focus on men and boys who are victims of sexual violence, domestic abuse and other forms of interpersonal violence.
Answered by Sarah Dines
We recognise that men and boys can be victims of these crimes and are committed to providing them with the support they need. In March 2022 we published our supporting male victims policy document, which contains commitments to strengthen our response to male victims. This financial year, we are also providing up to £200,000 funding to Respect to help run the Men’s Advice Line, who supported over 10,000 calls last financial year.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims on the basis of modern slavery were made by migrants (a) from Albania, (b) from Eritrea and (c) in total who crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The next quarterly statistics release on irregular migration to the UK, published on 23 February, will include data on modern slavery claims from small boats arrivals.
New measures to strengthen our National Referral Mechanism against misuse came into force last week. New legislation will ensure we only support genuine victims; not those who seek to abuse our laws to stop their removal.
In the first three quarters of 2022 (Jan to Sept) the number of NRM referrals for potential victims of modern slavery for certain nationalities were:
3,432 Albanian
897 Eritrean
In the first two quarters of 2022 (Jan to June) based on FOI data obtained by Migration Watch UK, there were 1,156 individuals who crossed the channel who made NRM referrals.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which three departments had the lowest proportion of staff attending the office in January 2023.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Data on Civil Service headquarters occupancy is published weekly on Gov.uk. The data is split out by individual departments. The data can be access at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-headquarters-occupancy-data
The recently published statistics taken from the above source show that the number of civil servants working from offices is increasing across Whitehall. Many departments have seen occupancy rates rise to pre pandemic levels for several months now. The Government believes colleagues learn, develop and collaborate together best in an office setting.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department provides funding to the Centre for Information Resilience.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The FCDO provides funding to the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR). We work with them on human rights and countering disinformation. They are experts on tracking disinformation narratives that our adversaries are using to undermine social cohesion and norms around the world, as well as using open-source investigation methods to identify and verify digital content showing abuse of human rights. Following the coup in Myanmar, we established and funded the Myanmar Witness programme, run by CIR, to collect and verify evidence of serious human rights violations and abuses. This evidence could be used in any future legal proceedings.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to deliver full-fibre and gigabit-capable broadband by 2025 in (a) Kettering constituency, (b) north Northamptonshire and (c) England.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
88 percent of premises in the Kettering constituency and 83 percent of premises in North Northamptonshire are able to access gigabit-capable broadband.
The Government has now launched market engagement exercises in all Project Gigabit intervention areas in England and are making excellent progress on our Project Gigabit procurements covering premises in Kettering and North Northamptonshire, with contracts expected to be awarded next year.
More immediate support for premises in rural areas is also available through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, if he will make an estimate of the proportion of global (a) GDP and (b) emissions generated by countries that have net zero commitments.
Answered by Lord Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
When the UK took on the role of organising COP26 less than 30% of the global economy was covered by Net Zero targets.
As a result of the work the UK did with partners, by the time we got to COP26 over 90% of the world's economy was covered by Net Zero targets.