Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the trends in the (a) quantity and (b) frequency of bus services in (i) Jarrow Constituency (ii) South Tyneside and (iii) Tyne and Wear since 2010.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The department does not hold any data on the quantity and frequency of bus services for Jarrow Constituency and South Tyneside, the lowest level geography available is upper tier local authority, in this instance Tyne and Wear.
Data on vehicle miles on local bus services by local authority including Tyne and Wear is available for the years 2013/14 to 2016/17 in the data table BUS0208 in the Annual Bus Statistics for each respective year at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-statistics#published-in-2018 .
Bus operators must register their services with a traffic commissioner in the traffic area in which the service operates. The Traffic Commissioners’ annual reports provide information on the number of live local bus registrations in the North Western Traffic Area as at 31 March of each year; this information can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/traffic-commissioners-annual-reports. The report for the year ending March 2010 can be found here: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20131113220328/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioners-annual-reports
Local authorities are best placed to manage changes in their local bus network. The Bus Services Act 2017 gives them additional powers to do so through partnership working with commercial operators. It also gives Mayoral Combined authorities the automatic right to franchise their bus network and the Department for Transport can also grant these powers to other local authorities who make a satisfactory business case. The Department is also developing regulations to require bus operators and local transport authorities to provide data, in open formats, about local bus services including routes and timetable data; fares and ticket data; and real time information. We are working closely with industry to develop the regulations and it is intended the requirements will be phased in over the next few years.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his department has spent on bus services in (a) Jarrow Constituency (b) South Tyneside and (c) Tyne and Wear in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. We are therefore unable to provide figures for this period. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. Details of the amounts paid to local authorities each year can be found on the “Payments to Local Authorities” tab of the relevant spreadsheets published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to Nexus for (a) commercial bus services and (b) supported bus services in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. We are therefore unable to provide figures for this period. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. Details of the amounts paid to local authorities each year can be found on the “Payments to Local Authorities” tab of the relevant spreadsheets published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to Nexus in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department has provided Nexus Metro with significant funding every year. The specific amounts covering capital and revenue funding are:
2010/2011 | £ 60,641,372 |
2011/2012 | £ 59,594,546 |
2012/2013 | £ 57,787,939 |
2013/2014 | £ 57,222,753 |
2014/2015 | £ 52,423,624 |
2015/2016 | £ 57,057,851 |
2016/2017 | £ 56,771,798 |
2017/2018 | £ 49,311,586 |
2018/2019 * | £ 49,248,356 |
* Grant claimed based upon estimated figure
Note that the grant payable since 2010/11 has been subject to indexation and taking account of expected efficiencies.
Furthermore, in the 2017 Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced a £337m direct grant to deliver a new fleet of trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress his Department has made on procuring (a) Type 31e frigates and (b) fleet support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary; and if they will be built at UK shipyards.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
For the position on the Type 31e frigate programme, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for North Durham (Kevan Jones) on 5 September 2018 to Questions 167940, 167941, 167942 and 167945 and to the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) to Question 167315.
For the position on the Fleet Solid Support ships, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister for Defence Procurement (Guto Bebb) on 9 July 2018 to Question 906314 from the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens).
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish what information his Department holds on overall public spending per capita in (a) Jarrow Constituency (b) South Tyneside and (c) Tyne and Wear and (d) the North East since 2010.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
With regard to parts (a), (b) and (c) of the question, the government does not hold information on overall expenditure within these constituencies. However, per capita expenditure for the North East is shown in the table below as sourced from the Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis (PESA) command paper.
Total identifiable expenditure on services in the North East, per head 2010-11 to 2016-17 | |
Financial year | £ per head |
2010-11 | 9330 |
2011-12 | 9245 |
2012-13 | 9284 |
2013-14 | 9377 |
2014-15 | 9451 |
2015-16 | 9585 |
2016-17 | 9680 |
Source 2010-11: PESA 2016 | |
Source 2011-12: PESA 2017 | |
Source 2012-13 to 2016-17: PESA 2018 | |
A link to the latest edition of PESA is provided below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-2018
Table 9.2 will be of interest as it shows total identifiable expenditure on services by country and region, per head between 2012-13 and 2016-17.
Table 9.2 data for earlier years can be found in past editions of PESA. For example data back to 2011-12 is available in the 2017 edition of PESA, whilst data for 2010-11 is available in the 2016 edition. A link to a webpage collecting past and present editions of PESA is provided below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-pesa
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle any disparities in education and skill levels in North East England compared to other regions of the UK.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department is aware of the specific education, skills and employment challenges faced by some areas in the North East.
We consider this when designing education programmes. For example, we have launched two Maths Hubs in the North East, these school-led centres of excellence in mathematics teaching seek to boost teaching for children from primary school age up to 18-year olds.
Our technical education reforms, along with the work of Skills Advisory Panels, will give local areas the capability and tools to produce high-quality skills needs analysis to evidence their Local Industrial Strategies, and for providers to work closely with local employers to better meet local skills needs. The government announced on 24 July the next wave of Local Industrial Strategies including Tees Valley and North of Tyne.
We are on track to devolve adult education budgets from the 2019/20 academic year to mayoral combined authorities, including the Tees Valley. This will give local areas the opportunity to provide adult education that serves the needs of the local economy and local people. We will also be working with the North of Tyne area as they prepare for devolution from 2020.
We will work closely with combined authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and councils on future ways of working which support the successful delivery of both local and national adult education provision.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside and (iii) the North East.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has made a significant extra investment of £1.3 billion in the core schools budget across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. This means that funding will be maintained in real terms per pupil.
The national funding formula, supported by this extra investment, has allocated up to 3% more funding per pupil for underfunded schools and it will allocate further gains of up to 3% per pupil in 2019-20. Under the formula, every school attracted at least 0.5% for every pupil in 2018-19 and will attract at least 1% more funding for every pupil by 2019-20, compared to the 2017-18 baselines.
The Department has also introduced minimum per pupil funding levels in recognition of the challenges faced by the lowest funded schools. Under the national formula, in 2019-20 all secondary schools will attract at least £4,800 per pupil, and all primary schools will attract at least £3,500 per pupil. In 2018-19, as a step towards these minimum funding levels, secondary schools attracted at least £4,600, and primary schools £3,300. The minimum per pupil funding levels are not subject to the gains cap, and so allocate faster gains to the very lowest funded schools.
The Department has published information about the impact of the national funding formulae at school and local authority level at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the increase in the level of reported crime in South Tyneside between April 2017 and March 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Police recorded crime figures for England and Wales are published quarterly by the Home Office.
Total crime recorded (excluding fraud) in South Tyneside Community Service Partnership has increased by 21% in the year to March 2018 compared to year to March 2017.
Nationally total police recorded crime (including fraud) increased by 11% in the year ending March 2018 compared with the previous year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) points to improvements to recording practices by forces, expanded offence coverage, an increased willingness of victims to come forward and report certain crimes like sexual offences and domestic abuse to the police and genuine increases in some crime categories, especially in those that are well recorded, as important factors in explaining trends in police recorded crime.
Overall crime (excluding fraud) measured by the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales are down by 35% since 2010.
The most recent national crime figures are published by the Office for National Statistic in ‘Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2018’ (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018).
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve mental health support for (a) veterans and (b) serving Military personnel in North East England.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 13 March 2018, to Question 130845.
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/ 2018-03-05/130845/