Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for publishing revised guidance for the Long-Term Plans for Town programme.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Chancellor confirmed at the Budget on 30 October that the Long-Term Plan for Towns will be retained and reformed as part of a new regeneration programme.
A revised prospectus for the programme will be published in due course, confirming the associated timelines and a new set of strategic objectives aligned to this government’s missions.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what her planned timetable is for implementing the McCloud remedy for (a) those who have retired before 23 October 2024 and (b) all outstanding cases.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The McCloud remedy took effect from 1 October 2023 and schemes are currently in the process of sending remediable service statements (RSSs) to affected members. Under the remedy, members who have already retired can make a remedy election when they receive an RSS, while active and deferred members can make that election when they retire.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for (a) issuing updated guidance and (b) releasing funding for consultation with local communities on the Long-Term Plan for Towns.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Chancellor confirmed at the Budget on 30 October that the Long-Term Plan for Towns will be retained and reformed as part of a new regeneration programme.
A revised prospectus for the programme will be published in due course, confirming the associated timelines and a new set of strategic objectives aligned to this government’s missions.
All 75 towns have now received an initial £250,000 of capacity funding. A further £200,000 of capacity funding will be issued in the 2025/26 financial year, to support the development of plans in line with our new objectives.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to issue an official apology on behalf of the Government to lesbian mothers who had their custody rights affected between the 1970s and 1990s because of their sexuality.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
I have been very saddened to hear accounts from lesbian mothers who have said that their custody rights in earlier decades were affected by their sexuality.
The government is committed to ensuring equality and fairness in today’s justice system.
The legal framework has changed in many ways over the past decades. Following the implementation of the Children Act 1989, where decisions are made about a child or their upbringing, the court’s primary consideration must be the welfare of that child and what will be in their best interests.
The UK has also developed an expansive legal framework to help ensure that LGBT+ people and families are safe, included and protected from discrimination. This includes the introduction of the Equality Act 2010, which protects people from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15335 on High Speed 2 Line: Complaints, how HS2 Ltd differentiates between enquiries and complaints; and how enquiries are escalated to complaints.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
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/.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
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.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the West Midlands.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
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.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) educational spaces for children and (b) youth centres have closed in North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency since 2010.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate funding for (a) innovation and (b) development in technology in Warwickshire.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussions with (a) banks and (b) building societies on steps to help keep high-street branches of banks and building societies open.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
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.