Rachel Taylor

This Government remains committed to helping small businesses thrive and will be publishing our Small Business Strategy next year. This will set out our vision for all small businesses, from boosting scale-ups to growing the co-operative economy. Support is also available via the Business Support Service, Gov.uk and the network of local Growth Hubs across England.

ONS does not provide business demography data at the parliamentary constituency level. Therefore, the most relevant data is from two lower tier local authorities, North Warwickshire, and Nuneaton and Bedworth.

Within North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, according to data from ONS, there were 4,855 registered business births and 4,665 registered businesses which ceased to trade between 2017 and 2022. There was an overall gain of 190 businesses within this five-year period. (Source: ONS Business demography)

UKRI invested £43 million in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire in 2021-22.

This included core funding for the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), which is a centre of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. WMG is a world-leading industrial research and education group that works with companies to boost the UK’s manufacturing performance and sustainability.

Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme is also allocating up to £7.5 million for the immersive and creative industries cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire. This is supporting thirteen projects, eleven of which are with small and medium sized business, to progress their ideas toward commercialisation and contribute to local economic growth.

The Government recognises that grassroots sports facilities are at the beating heart of communities up and down the country and is acting to support more people to get active wherever they live. We are doing this via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, which will invest £123 million UK-wide throughout 2024/25.

The Government encourages local leaders to prioritise access to sport and physical activity wherever possible. Local Authorities are responsible for decisions regarding sport and leisure provision in their area.

Information on mainstream primary and secondary school places is published annually in the School Capacity publication, which is accessible here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. Time series data are not published at constituency level, which is difficult to track over time due to changing boundaries and school-reorganisations. School capacity data is published at school level and can be combined with information from ‘Get information about schools’ to identify the number of places based on the current parliamentary constituency.

The latest data at local authority level shows that between 2009/10 and 2022/23, the number of school places in Warwickshire increased by 14,143. This data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/33b1bea3-efe4-4b37-f914-08dd0adc50ad. This represents an increase of 7,634 primary and 6,509 secondary places.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) do not collect individualised data on youth centre closure. As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people in their area.

In September 2023, DCMS published updated statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing duty and how to deliver it. The statutory duty, and therefore local authorities’ responsibilities, have not changed.

Alongside this, DCMS funds a peer review programme for local authorities to learn from each other about the best approaches to youth service provision.

In 2025/26, the department will also be launching the Local Youth Transformation pilot, which will support local authorities to build back capacity in the youth space and improve local youth offers.

So far in the 2023/24 academic year from August to April there have been 1,310 apprenticeship participants in North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency, 910 in North Warwickshire local authority district and 1,890 in Nuneaton and Bedworth local authority district. In the 2022/23 full academic year there were 1,470,990 and 2,110 participants respectively.

Note:

(1) Figures for 2023/24 are provisional and cover the first three quarters (August 2023 to April 2024). All other years are final, full-year figures.

(2) Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10.

(3) Participation is the count of learners that participated at any point during the year. Learners undertaking more than one course will appear only once in the grand total.

(4) Figures are based on learner home postcode.

These figures are published in the Apprenticeships statistics publication, which can accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, to the answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 7255.

There is a dedicated HS2 Helpdesk which is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, to help with any questions or concerns anyone may have about HS2 or work being carried out. It is available via freephone, email, minicom and through the HS2 website. HS2’s Helpdesk team receive, log and track enquiries and complaints through to resolution.

HS2 Ltd defines an enquiry as a question or a request for information about the project, whereas a complaint is where a stakeholder is unhappy about anything HS2 Ltd does, or about anything another company does on their behalf. If a stakeholder makes an enquiry but is unhappy with the outcome, they can request that it is treated as a complaint by contacting the HS2 Helpdesk. If the complaint needs immediate attention (for instance, if it involves a risk to safety, HS2 will always deal with it straight away. In any case, an acknowledgement of the complaint will be issued within two working days of receiving it and HS2 Ltd aim to provide a substantive response within 20 working days.

HS2 Ltd’s complaints process which includes independent reviews from the HS2 Construction Commissioner, DfT Independent Complaints Assessors and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The full details of the HS2 complaints process are publicly available at https://www.hs2.org.uk/contact-us/how-to-complain/.

HS2 Ltd is committed to proactively communicating with communities impacted by the construction of the new railway, to keep them informed about disruptive works and to respond promptly and respectfully to concerns raised by members of the public.

HS2 Ltd has put in place a freephone helpdesk, which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and has a longstanding commitment to respond to all enquiries and complaints within 20 working days and to respond to all urgent enquiries and complaints within 2 working days.

This year so far (April to September 2024), HS2 Ltd received 17938 enquires and 576 complaints, and has maintained its performance with 100% of urgent complaints resolved within two working days, and 95% of all other complaints responded to within 20 working days or less.

The Secretary of State is committed to mitigating the environmental effects of the construction of HS2 and binding Environmental Minimum Requirements (EMRs) are in place that HS2 Ltd and its contractors must follow to limit the impacts of noise, dust and traffic impacts as far as reasonably practicable. The EMRs include a code of construction practice, which sets out a range of control measures, which shall be applied throughout the construction period to ensure effective planning and management is in place to minimise the potential impacts of construction upon communities, businesses and the natural and historic environment.

A copy of the code of construction practice is available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80104d40f0b62305b88f3b/Code_of_Construction_Practice.pdf

HS2 Ltd also provides a responsive community engagement operation which ensures that residents have quick and simple routes to raise concerns if they feel that the effects of construction are not being managed as they should be, including a 24-hour helpdesk, and quick turnaround times for addressing complaints and queries. The HS2 Construction Commissioner can also intervene if construction issues are not being properly resolved through the HS2 complaints process.

Treasury Ministers regularly meet representatives from the banking and building society sectors to discuss a wide range of issues.

The Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and high streets and is committed to championing sufficient access for all as a priority. This is why the Government is working closely with banks to roll out 350 banking hubs, which will provide individuals and businesses up and down the country with critical cash and banking services. Following a meeting with the Economic Secretary in September, the UK banking sector has committed to deliver these hubs by the end of this parliament.

The Government also recognises the value that building societies bring to their members in local communities across the country, and that they have a 28% share of the UK’s branch network.

While branch closures are commercial decisions for banks and building societies, FCA guidance expects firms to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and put in place alternatives where reasonable. This seeks to ensure that branch closures are implemented in a way that treats customers fairly. Where firms fall short of expectations, the FCA may ask for closures to be paused or other options to be put in place.

The Government does not hold this information. However, the consumer group Which? finds that the North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency has lost 71.4% of its branch network since 2015 and has four bank branches remaining.

The Government understands the impact of bank branch closures on communities and the importance of face-to-face banking. This is why the Government is working closely with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs across the UK. The UK banking sector has committed to deliver these hubs by the end of this parliament. These hubs will provide small businesses and individuals who need face-to-face support with critical cash and in-person banking services. Over 80 banking hubs are already open and Cash Access UK, who oversee banking hub rollout, expect 100 hubs to be open by Christmas.

The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered.

This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims being processed.

The Home Secretary took immediate action by restarting asylum processing and scrapping the unworkable Rwanda policy. This will save an estimated £4 billion for the taxpayer over the next two years. We are delivering a major uplift in returns to remove people with no right to be in the UK. Over the long term this will reduce our reliance on hotels and costs of accommodation.

We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers as part of this programme to reduce overall asylum costs.

The National Vehicle Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) is a national policing unit funded by industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers, to provide dedicated specialist intelligence and enforcement.

We are providing £250,000 this financial year to help support enforcement at the ports to prevent stolen vehicles and vehicle parts being shipped abroad, including additional staff and specialist equipment.

Freight crime can have significant impacts on businesses and drivers.

We are working with the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which has established a network of vehicle crime specialists, involving every police force in England and Wales, to help share information about emerging trends in vehicle crime and better tackle regional issues.

We are also continuing to work closely with Opal, the police’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime, which has multiple thematic desks, including a vehicle crime intelligence desk which covers freight crime.

The downward trend in domestic-abuse related prosecutions across England and Wales, including in Warwickshire and Bedworth, since the year ending March 2017 is deeply concerning. I am committed to working with all justice partners, including the police and the CPS, to improve this and, in doing so, provide justice to more victims and hold more offenders to account.

The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade. In our first four months in Government, we have committed to fast-track rape cases through the criminal justice system and ban the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes. Further, we have announced that we will introduce domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms from early next year and launch a pilot of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders this November to provide more protection for victims. These are just some of the first steps we are taking to tackle VAWG and improve the justice system response to domestic abuse across England and Wales.