Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Government has spent on protecting and restoring chalk streams in each year since 2015.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government does not record its Chalk Stream protection and restoration spend. Chalk Streams represent an important part of our national heritage, and the Government is committed to working with its stakeholders to ensure they are protected. This includes working with the Catchment Based Approach’s Chalk Stream Restoration Group to achieve the recommendations outlined in its 2021 Chalk Stream Strategy.
The Environment Agency has a £1 million annual Chalk Partnership Fund, to support projects that address water resources issues on chalk streams and contribute to the implementation of the Catchment Based Approach chalk stream restoration strategy. This may include habitat restoration and improving the monitoring of chalk streams.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many licenses or permits to abstract water from chalk streams were given to each water company in each year since 2015.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Environment Agency records indicate that a total of 2 new water company licences have been issued in chalk catchments, which are both transfer licences (non-consumptive use of water) since 2015 and 16 existing time limited licences have been renewed since 2015. The table attached provides the breakdown for the relevant water companies. New licences will only be issued if there is water available to be abstracted and may be issued with conditions to prevent or limit abstraction during periods of low flow. All new licences and renewal of time limited licences will have been assessed against environmental sustainability and justification of need criteria.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidelines are followed by HMRC when making decisions on the allocation of discretionary financial awards.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The payment of rewards by HMRC is discretionary.
The reward application must evidence the quality of the information provided, the extent and value to which the information contributed to HMRC assigned matters, and the result.
Consideration must be given to any seizure details; revenue received/recovered; arrests; penalties; and the alleged value of a case being prosecuted by HMRC should be considered, where appropriate.
When processing a reward each case will be dealt with on its own merits.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the total value of discretionary financial awards paid for by HMRC in each of the last six financial years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Rewards figures paid by HMRC are published in the annual reports and accounts on the gov.uk website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to ensure the age at which women cease to be eligible for IVF on the NHS and the number of cycles before they reach that age does not vary between Integrated Care Boards.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. We expect these organisations to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment across England.
The Women’s Health Strategy was published on 20 July 2022 and contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to National Health Service-funded fertility services.
In addition, NICE is currently reviewing its fertility guidelines and will consider whether the current recommendations for access to NHS-funded treatment and preservation are still appropriate. We expect that this review will be published in 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring (a) Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire Integrated Care Board and (b) other integrated care boards to provide fees to care homes which are (i) in line with and (ii) above inflation.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to manage their local care markets. The Care Act guidance states that they should assure themselves and have evidence that fee levels are appropriate. The Government is making available up to £7.5 billion over two years to support adult social care and discharge. The historic boost will put adult social care system on a stronger financial footing.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to assist Ukrainian refugees seeking to rent accommodation in the private sector following the end of their initial family placement under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
I refer the Hon Member to the written statement made by my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State (HCWS447) on 14 December 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to clarify IR35 guidance on whether (a) workers, (b) end clients or (c) umbrella companies are liable to pay Employer's National Insurance Contributions and the Employer's Training Levy.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Where a worker is engaged, via an intermediary, by a large- or medium-sized private or voluntary sector client or by a public body, and the off-payroll working rules apply to the engagement, it is the deemed employer who is responsible for deducting income tax and employee National Insurance contributions (NICs) from the payment to the worker’s intermediary. In this situation, the deemed employer is also responsible for paying employer NICs and Apprenticeship Levy, where applicable, on top of the payment to the worker’s intermediary. Guidance on this is available on GOV.UK.
Where a worker is employed by an umbrella company, the off-payroll working rules do not apply and the umbrella company is responsible for paying any employer NICs and Apprenticeship Levy due. HMRC has published guidance to help workers engaged by umbrella companies to understand how these arrangements work, how they can expect to be paid and how to challenge if unauthorised deductions are made.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the capability of the Pensions Ombudsman in meeting service demand within the Office's existing levels of funding.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Department works closely with TPO and so recognises the pressures increasing demand for its services has brought. This is why, as part of the 2021 Spending Review, the Department has committed additional funding of over £3 million to TPO (2022/23 to 2024/25), to enable it to improve its operating model and better manage service demand. The requirement for further additional funding will be kept under review.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to help reduce the time it takes for the Probate Office to respond to applications.
Answered by Mike Freer
Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid 19 pandemic, and the increased volume of applications that there have been seen since, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required has been maintained at between five and seven weeks – with the average responses being almost 2 weeks faster in quarter 3 of 2022 than the yearly average for 2020 and 2021.
Average waiting times for probate grants, up to September 2022, are published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 25): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022
HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.
The improvement of the online probate system remains a priority for HMCTS, to ensure more applications can be issued first time and resources can be focused on reducing waiting times.