Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate how much his Department has spent in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in each year since 2007-08.
Answered by Jo Swinson
This information cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost as the Department does not report how much spending it makes within individual Counties.
My hon Friend may wish to know that the range of activities undertaken by the Department includes direct and indirect support, advice and information all of which has associated cost. However, since May 2010 the Department has routinely published details of all expenditure. This includes the name of the supplier/recipient, the postcode, amount and purpose. This information can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bis-spending-totals
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate how much her Department has spent in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in each year since 2007-08.
Answered by David Laws
Information in the form requested is not held centrally and cannot be compiled without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has provided to Cornwall Council to help tackle rogue landlords since 2010.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department published guidance in 2012 for all local housing authorities on tackling rogue landlords in the private rented sector and this can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7575/2206919.pdf
Revised guidance will be published in due course. In addition to advice on dealing with the small minority of bad landlords in the sector, it will also include guidance on improving the sector more generally, including prosecuting landlords for breaches of housing and planning legislation, pressing for the maximum penalties where landlords are convicted of an offence and the responsibilities of letting agents.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made in securing the return of Agung Mantra to the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The onus is normally on the individual to provide all the necessary evidence to support their visa application. Mr Mantra failed to provide the necessary evidence to support his initial application. The Home Office worked with him to conduct the necessary checks in order to establish his claim to hold Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK. His application was reconsidered and granted.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what humanitarian and medical support the Government is providing to the population of Gaza.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK is one of the biggest donors to the Gaza crisis, providing more than £17million in emergency assistance since the beginning of the crisis. DFID is providing essential supplies to thousands of families, helping to repair water infrastructure, deliver emergency medical services, protect the civilian population and deal with food shortages.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding has been allocated to support rural bus routes in Cornwall in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is for individual local authorities to determine how much of the block grant funding they receive is allocated to supporting bus services. Local authorities in England outside London spend over £340m in direct subsidy to bus services in this way. The latest out-turn figures, for 2012/13, show that Cornwall County Council has an annual budget of £5.2m for this purpose.
The Department also provides direct support to bus services each year through Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG). Details of BSOG funding paid to bus operators in the last three financial years is available online. It is not possible to provide this data broken down by region. The data are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-service-operators-grant-payments-to-english-operators-up-to-31-march-2013. Following changes to BSOG announced in 2013, the BSOG previously paid to operators in respect of local authority supported bus services has now been devolved to authorities. Cornwall County Council recently received£191,280 covering the period 1 January to 31 March 2014 and a further £765,118 covering the 2014/15 financial year.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress has been made on Cornwall's additional European social funding.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government has asked Local Enterprise Partnerships to work with local partners on a strategy for how the European Social Fund (2014-20) should be spent in their area. The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership has developed a comprehensive strategy, the themes of which the Government has incorporated into the draft Operational Programme which will be submitted to the European Commission this month to being the negotiating process.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the annual cost to the public purse is of processing applications for free social care in England.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Access to State financial support for adult social care in England is means-tested and is not generally provided free of charge. In this way, individuals are expected to pay towards the cost of their care and support based on what they can afford.
Adults with less than £23,250 in capital can seek help with the cost of social care from their local authority. Local authorities carry out a financial assessment to decide what an individual can afford to pay. Local authorities must take account of an individual's capital assets and income, including income from Benefits and the State Pension.
Information on the cost to local authorities of carrying out financial assessments is not collected centrally.
In its 2011 report, the independent Palliative Care Funding Review recommended the provision of free social care at the end of life. A series of palliative care funding pilots were established to test the review's recommendations, and these completed their work in March 2014. NHS England is currently analysing the financial data collected from the pilots. Once this analysis has been completed, a decision will be made on the issue of free social care at the end of life, taking into account this analysis and wider policy and financial considerations.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many applications for free social care were (a) approved and (b) rejected in England in (i) 2012 and (ii) 2013.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Access to State financial support for adult social care in England is means-tested and is not generally provided free of charge. In this way, individuals are expected to pay towards the cost of their care and support based on what they can afford.
Adults with less than £23,250 in capital can seek help with the cost of social care from their local authority. Local authorities carry out a financial assessment to decide what an individual can afford to pay. Local authorities must take account of an individual's capital assets and income, including income from Benefits and the State Pension.
Information on the cost to local authorities of carrying out financial assessments is not collected centrally.
In its 2011 report, the independent Palliative Care Funding Review recommended the provision of free social care at the end of life. A series of palliative care funding pilots were established to test the review's recommendations, and these completed their work in March 2014. NHS England is currently analysing the financial data collected from the pilots. Once this analysis has been completed, a decision will be made on the issue of free social care at the end of life, taking into account this analysis and wider policy and financial considerations.
Asked by: Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent estimate his Department has made of the cost of administering the social care means test in England.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Access to State financial support for adult social care in England is means-tested and is not generally provided free of charge. In this way, individuals are expected to pay towards the cost of their care and support based on what they can afford.
Adults with less than £23,250 in capital can seek help with the cost of social care from their local authority. Local authorities carry out a financial assessment to decide what an individual can afford to pay. Local authorities must take account of an individual's capital assets and income, including income from Benefits and the State Pension.
Information on the cost to local authorities of carrying out financial assessments is not collected centrally.
In its 2011 report, the independent Palliative Care Funding Review recommended the provision of free social care at the end of life. A series of palliative care funding pilots were established to test the review's recommendations, and these completed their work in March 2014. NHS England is currently analysing the financial data collected from the pilots. Once this analysis has been completed, a decision will be made on the issue of free social care at the end of life, taking into account this analysis and wider policy and financial considerations.