Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many serving armed forces personnel were recruited from (a) Bromsgrove District, (b) Worcestershire and (c) the West Midlands in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Heappey
The requested information is provided in the following table:
Intake to UK Regular Armed Forces, by Financial Years 2015/16 to 2019/20 | ||||||
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| 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | Total |
Bromsgrove | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 100 |
Worcestershire | 140 | 130 | 120 | 110 | 150 | 640 |
West Midlands | 1,070 | 1,070 | 940 | 900 | 1,300 | 5,280 |
Notes:
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle fly tipping in (a) Bromsgrove District and (b) other semi-rural communities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fly-tipping is a crime which blights local communities and the environment, and we are committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour. The role of central Government is to enable and support local action by providing a clear legal framework of rights, responsibilities and powers and setting national standards. We continue to work with partners to tackle this crime. In recent years we have bolstered local authorities’ powers to tackle fly-tipping, such as by introducing the power to issue fixed penalty notices and to stop and seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers.
Our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy set out our strategic approach to prevent, detect and deter waste crime. We committed to strengthen sentences for fly-tipping and to develop a fly-tipping toolkit to help local authorities and others work in partnership to tackle this crime. We also committed to increasing penalties for fly-tipping in our manifesto.
Budget 2020 allocated up to £2million to support innovative solutions to tackle fly-tipping. We are exploring funding opportunities and priorities at this stage, including considering the role of digital solutions and supporting research into the drivers, deterrents, and impacts of fly-tipping in urban, suburban and rural areas.
We are also preparing a number of legislative reforms to tackle waste crime, which will help to tackle fly-tipping. We are taking forward the commitment in the Resources and Waste Strategy to develop proposals for the reform of the waste carrier, broker, and dealer regime. We are working with industry and the regulator and we intend to consult later this year. We also intend to consult on the introduction of mandatory electronic waste tracking. This will help to ensure that waste is dealt with appropriately and to reduce the incidence of waste crime and fly-tipping.
The Environment Bill also includes several measures to help tackle waste crime. The Bill will ensure agencies and authorities can work more effectively to combat waste crime through better access to evidence and improved powers of entry. These new powers will help ensure waste criminals, such as illegitimate waste operators reliant on fly-tipping for income, are held accountable for their actions.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to support green investment in public transport.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
A decarbonised transport system is at the heart of the Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, which will mobilise £12 billion of government investment to unlock three times as much private sector investment by 2030. Our upcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set out more clearly the steps we will take to deliver transport’s contribution to net zero, stimulating development and private sector investment.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure leisure services operated by district councils are supported during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be allocated in a single funding round covering the period 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function. This is in addition to the wider financial support provided to councils throughout the pandemic.
Government has worked closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible.
In addition, the Local Government Income Compensation Scheme looks to compensate authorities for eligible losses income from sales, fees and charges.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
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 improve (a) the level of medical research into Alzheimer’s disease and (b) care for people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have been implementing the Challenge on Dementia 2020 to transform care, support, awareness and research for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease by 2020. The Challenge contained the commitment to spend £300 million on dementia research over the five years to March 2020. This commitment was delivered a year early with £344 million spent on dementia research over four years. Much of this investment is in research to better understand the nature of dementia, in order to inform development of future treatments and ways to prevent the onset of the condition.
The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research, has also commissioned major research on dementia care and living well with dementia. We are currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia at all stages on the translation pathway including medical and care interventions.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeships and the organisations that support them during National Apprenticeship Week 2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The annual National Apprenticeship Week is taking place between 8 and 14 February 2021 and is a celebration of apprenticeships. The theme "Build the Future" will shine a light on the amazing work being done by employers and apprentices across the country. The week will also recognise how employers of all sizes have stepped up to the challenge during this unprecedented time.
National Apprenticeship Week brings together apprenticeship ambassadors, MPs, training providers, apprentices, parents and employers to highlight the work being done across the whole apprenticeship community and to promote apprenticeships and their impact.
Throughout the week, I will be taking part in a series of virtual events, including career fairs, interviews, conferences, and roundtables. I will be meeting with apprentices and employers from a range of industries such as hospitality and financial services, and taking part in several awards ceremonies which recognise and celebrate the achievements of apprentices.
We are encouraging employers and stakeholders to promote the great work of their apprentices through virtual events and social media, whilst highlighting the many benefits apprenticeships bring to their business. These include building the skills and knowledge required for a rewarding career and showcasing how apprentices of all ages and backgrounds are helping to transform businesses across the country.
We are sharing the message about how to get involved in National Apprenticeship Week with all employers and education providers on the apprenticeship service through regular emails and webinars. We also share information via our networks of ambassadors, account management teams and through intermediary organisations which has a potential reach of over 6 million employers.
Furthermore, we have been promoting the National Apprenticeship Week 2021 toolkit since December 2020 to support the apprenticeship community with planning their activity for the week. Further information on National Apprenticeship Week and our developed toolkit can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/955827/National_Apprenticeship_Week_2021_toolkit.pdf.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to support businesses not required to close by law during the covid-19 lockdown but that are significantly affected by restrictions on the retail, hospitality and leisure industry.
Answered by Paul Scully
Local Authorities have been provided with funding via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). The ARG is a discretionary scheme aimed at supporting businesses including those that have not been mandated to close but which have had their trade adversely affected by the restrictions that have been put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. Eligibility for the ARG is set locally, and guidance makes clear that Local Authorities may use this funding for grants or for other related business support as they see fit.
My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further £500m top up to ARG in January, in addition to £1.1bn already allocated in November 2020.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional financial support his Department is allocating to schools to help with exceptional costs incurred as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has provided additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak that could not be met from their budgets. We have paid schools £102 million for all claims in the first claims window that were within the published scope of the fund, and we will shortly process claims made in the second window in December 2020.
Last term, the Department announced a COVID-19 Workforce Fund for schools and colleges, to help those with high staff absences and facing significant financial pressures to stay open. It funded the costs of teacher absences over a threshold from 1 November 2020 until the end of the autumn term. We expect the schools claims form to be launched in Spring 2021.
The Department will also fund school and colleges, which have remained open, for costs relating to COVID-19 testing. We have published a workforce planning tool which illustrates the levels of funding available. Funding will be paid to schools who have conducted testing in respect of workforce costs and other incidental costs relating to testing such as waste disposal.
The Government is delivering catch-up funding worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Alongside this, we have also announced a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils, including the National Tuition Fund for students age 16-19.
Finally, schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the outbreak, regardless of any periods of full or partial closure, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure schools can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the training of new police recruits can safely continue during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office has worked closely with policing partners to ensure the training of new police recruits can safety continue during the Covid-19 pandemic. This has included working with the College of Policing which is responsible for setting standards in policing, including those for officer training.
In response to Covid-19, in April 2020 the College of Policing issued emergency guidance to all forces on the safe deployment of newly recruited officers into accompanied frontline roles as quickly as possible to support operational resilience. These measures are currently in place until March 2021 when the College will review the ongoing Covid-19 situation.
In addition, on 7 January the Department for Education issued its latest guidance on Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and Covid. This confirms policing courses, that include an HEI component, are included in a list of courses that can continue to be delivered face to face, minimising disruption to initial training.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on delivering support for the culture and heritage sector through the Culture Recovery Fund in (a) Worcestershire and (b) Bromsgrove district.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Through the Culture Recovery Fund, 2 awards have been made in the Local Authority of Bromsgrove to date, totalling £267,948. These are:
Avoncroft Museum (£183,943)
Tardebigge Locks - Canal and River Trust (£84,005)
Across the constituencies of Worcester, West-Worcestershire, East-Worcestershire, Bromsgrove, Wyre Forest, and Redditch (which approximates Worcestershire), 22 awards have been made so far, totalling £4,132,799
Please note awards from the first round of Culture Recovery Fund are still being processed, and a second round of grant funding is currently open. Please see the website of the relevant delivery bodies for further detail (Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund/Historic England, and the British Film Institute).