Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending statutory guidance on home to school transport so that local authorities are required to consider providing free or subsidised transport from more than one parental address in cases of formally agreed 50/50 shared custody.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Education Act 1996 requires local authorities to arrange free home-to-school travel for eligible children of compulsory school age, 5 to 16. The department publishes statutory guidance to help them fulfil this duty. Neither the guidance, nor the law, expects local authorities to provide an eligible child with free travel to and from more than one address. It would not be reasonable for them to do this in every case.
The guidance does however stipulate that local authorities should make clear in their school travel policies how they will determine a child’s home address for the purposes of assessing their eligibility for travel, including in circumstances where their parents do not live together and the child spends part of the week with each parent.
There are no plans to change this, but local authorities do have a discretionary power to arrange travel for other children and may use this to arrange travel to and from more than one address if they choose to do so.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that older people entitled to Home Responsibilities Protection compensation are not excluded from claiming due to identity verification requirements.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Customers who are unable to access their Personal Tax Account can apply for Home Responsibilities Protection by completing a print and post form (CF411) which is available on GOV.UK. Alternatively, they can contact the National Insurance helpline to request a paper form.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support local authorities with the availability of larger family homes and (b) ensure that future developments reflect local demand for such housing through neighbourhood planning.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that it is for local planning authorities to assess the size, types and tenure of housing needed for different groups, including (but not limited to) families with children, and to reflect this in their planning policies.
We have already strengthened national policy to encourage the delivery of mixed tenure development and will consider what further steps we can take as part of our intent to produce a set of national policies for decision making later this year.
The government remains of the view that neighbourhood plans can play an important role in the planning system. Communities can continue to prepare neighbourhood plans where they consider that doing so is in their best interests. Neighbourhood planning works best where it builds upon the foundation of the local plan to meet the priorities, preferences, and housing needs of the community.
Government planning policy for traveller sites should be read in conjunction with the National Planning Policy Framework.