Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure the Climate Change Committee assesses the upcoming sixth carbon budget plan before it is published.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We value the CCC’s independent advice and expertise on progress against our targets. We will deliver an updated plan that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all the sectors in due course. This will outline the policies and proposals needed to deliver Carbon Budgets 4-6 and our NDC commitments on a pathway to net zero. Government will consider CCC’s already published independent advice on Carbon Budgets as well as annual progress reports to Government ahead of publishing the new Plan.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of making the adoption and special guardianship support fund permanent.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 1 April, it was announced that the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) would continue into 2025/26, with a budget of £50 million.
All future decisions regarding the ASGSF will be considered as part of the next spending review.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for the Government’s Clean Power 2030 target of limiting the supply of solar and battery storage projects as a result of the 2035 regional technology capacities.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Clean Power Action Plan (CPAP) sets out regional capacities for solar and battery storage required to achieve Clean Power by 2030. Regional capacities out to 2035 are also included to provide a 10-year time horizon for connections offers.
2035 capacities are based on the top of the range of NESO's Future Energy Scenarios. NESO analysis suggests that projects allocated to the 2031-35 period may be able to connect pre-2030 where there is spare network capacity or if needed to deal with attrition. However, the reformed queue to 2030 will already contain additional capacity beyond the amount needed to achieve Clean Power by 2030.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of schools that receive charitable funding to cover essential costs.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department collects information on the total income that academy trusts and maintained schools receive from private and charitable sources, beyond their core budgets, but does not hold information on what proportion of this was charitable or how money raised through charitable funding is spent in academy trusts and maintained schools. There is no expectation that educational resources should be paid for through charity and we are working closely with schools to understand their financial pressures.
Overall core revenue funding for schools in the 2024/25 financial year totals almost £61.6 billion. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to the 2024/25 financial year. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.
These increases, against the backdrop of a challenging fiscal picture, demonstrate the government’s commitment to enabling every child to achieve and thrive through delivery of the Opportunity Mission.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to provide additional support for owners of listed buildings.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In terms of financial support, the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s current 10 year strategy, Heritage 2033, increased the maximum funding available to owners from £100,000 to £250,000 to support designated assets, such as listed buildings. Owners must demonstrate that the public benefit of their project outweighs any private gain.
Historic England also offers repair grants to owners of listed buildings, which in total amounts to between £8.5 - £9 million per year. Historic England also offers various guidance and resources which may be useful to owners and occupiers of listed buildings, as well as the heritage sector more broadly, such as the guidance on Adapting Historic Buildings for Energy and Carbon Efficiency, published July 2024.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that GPs are able to access their pension information.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Pension Scheme members, including general practitioners (GPs), can access information about their pension via My NHS Pension, an online portal from the NHS Pension Service, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/my-nhs-pension
To provide accurate pension information for practitioners, the NHS Business Services Authority needs a fully up to date record in respect of their NHS Pension Scheme membership. This means practitioners must submit their Annual Certificate(s) of Pensionable Profits to Primary Care Support England (PCSE), so that PCSE can keep their record updated.
PCSE launched the PCSE Online GP Pensions system in 2021 to provide GPs and practices with greater convenience, and more transparency and security when it comes to their pension contributions data. Supporting GPs to accurately submit current and historic Type 1 or Type 2 annual certificates remains a priority for NHS England and PCSE. Since the PCSE Online solution for submitting Type 1 and Type 2 certificates electronically went live in 2021, PCSE have developed user guides and held webinars to educate GPs on how to complete forms accurately.