Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough)
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 plans to take to help reduce the risk of flooding in Northamptonshire.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For the current financial year 2024/25, the Environment Agency has an allocation of £1,293,000 for flood defence maintenance work in Northamptonshire. This includes items such as weed cutting, grass cutting, fish and eel pass maintenance, mechanical and electrical maintenance work to assets, electricity and general operational costs. The Environment Agency will prioritise its statutory duties and those works which provide the highest benefit for reducing flood risk.
In Northamptonshire, over the period 2023/24 to 2029/30, the Environment Agency is forecasting to better protect 486 homes from flood risk via a capital investment of £18.4 million total spend. This represents the current consented Flood and Coastal Risk Management investment programme, which was approved in February 2024. We will continue to work with the Risk Management Authorities and communities to develop and progress identified projects.
Following the flooding experienced during the winter of 2023/2024, we will continue to work with partner Risk Management Authorities and communities to identify any needs for additional flood risk management work – either capital or revenue. We are currently engaging with a variety of communities (directly and with other partners) that experienced flooding to assist them in understanding their flood risk and working to develop community resilience so that these communities are more prepared and can recover faster following future flooding.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled Record number of new bathing sites get the go ahead, published on 13 May 2024, whether the new wild swimming spots will be safe to swim in 365 days a year.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The current Bathing Water Regulations 2013 aim to drive improvement to water quality at sites where people swim, by putting in place duties on the Environment Agency, local authorities, sewerage undertakers and others to investigate pollution incidents at bathing water sites so that remedial measures can be put in place, and by encouraging collaboration around these issues.
This year, Defra will consult on reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations 2013. The proposed changes will drive work to improve bathing water quality, enhance monitoring, and enable more flexibility around the dates of the bathing water monitoring season – the current bathing water monitoring offer will be maintained as a minimum. These changes will allow us to increase monitoring outside of the bathing water season in the future, to better embed water quality improvements within processes and to prevent automatic de-designation of existing bathing water sites.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps their Department is taking to support the Disability Confident scheme; how many officials in their Department work directly on supporting that scheme; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that work in supporting the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of disabled people in their Department; and what further steps they are taking to support their Department’s recruitment and retention of disabled people.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is a committed Disability Confident employer and takes several steps to support this initiative. Not one single individual works solely on this area of work, with the remit spread across individuals within HR (including Recruitment, Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Talent, and Culture and Inclusion), as well as line managers and staff networks.
All recruiting managers are provided with information on applying the Disability Confident scheme during recruitment, and our dedicated recruitment team ensures compliance with Civil Service Recruitment Principles and centrally approved schemes like Disability Confident. We regularly monitor data to ensure the scheme's effective application and measure its impact. Prospective candidates are informed about reasonable adjustments available during the recruitment process, in line with our legal obligations, to ensure fairness and inclusivity.
DSIT achieved Disability Confident Leader (DCL) (Level 3) status in February 2024, validated by an independent organisation, and our efforts include making workplace adjustments, providing disability awareness training, and encouraging open discussions about disabilities. The effectiveness of our efforts is assessed through continuous monitoring and feedback, inclusive recruitment practices, and engagement with the Voluntary Reporting Framework. We will look to review the effectiveness of our efforts periodically following the achievement of DCL status.
Future steps involve enhancing policies and practices based on best practices and stakeholder feedback and strengthening our engagement with the Voluntary Reporting Framework to better monitor and report on disability inclusion, mental health, and wellbeing.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps their Department is taking to support the Disability Confident scheme; how many officials in their Department work directly on supporting that scheme; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that work in supporting the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of disabled people in their Department; and what further steps they are taking to support their Department’s recruitment and retention of disabled people.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The enablement of the Disability Confident scheme is embedded throughout the employee lifecycle, and the teams that support the employee lifecycle. This is in line with the Ministry of Justice’s new HR operating model whereby strategic Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) activity is mainstreamed into the department’s HQ People Function. This approach assures that any related Ministry of Justice workforce activity is aligned to Civil Service reform priorities and the strategic objectives of the Civil Service People Plan and Civil Service D&I Strategy, including recent, updated Ministerial guidance on EDI activity in the Civil Service.
The Ministry of Justice’s approach to the delivery of the Civil Service People Plan and Civil Service D&I Strategy includes the ongoing assessment of work to support recruitment and retention of disabled staff. The Ministry of Justice has been taken part in the Disability Confident scheme since 2017.
Further steps to recruit and retain disabled staff that are aligned to the Disability Confident scheme include:
Information in job adverts about the Disability Confident scheme, how to request a reasonable adjustment to the application process and the Disability Confident interview scheme, which provides candidates with an option to “opt-in” to be considered for an interview as a disabled candidate if they meet the minimum criteria for the role.
The Ministry of Justice provides individual focused support to ensure our disabled staff have workplace adjustments they require, including an in-house workplace adjustment service. The department seeks to continually review the effectiveness of this offer.
The Ministry of Justice values the talent of all staff, including those with a disability. The department participates in the Civil Service ‘Future Leaders Scheme’ Disability Empowers Leadership Talent (DELTA) scheme and is piloting a new in-house talent offer for disabled staff in 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) recruit, (2) train, and (3) retain, more midwives, obstetricians and anaesthetists to ensure safe levels of staffing in maternity services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of midwives has already increased by 21.5% since 2010 and by 5.8% in the past year. The Government is further increasing the number of midwives by funding an additional 160 new posts over three years to support the continued growth of the maternity and neonatal workforce.
The Government and the National Health Service are investing almost £35 million over three years to further improve maternity safety across England which will support specialist training for staff, additional numbers of midwives and support to ensure maternity services listen to and act on women’s experiences to improve care.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets an ambition to increase the number of nursing and midwifery training places to around 58,000 by 2031/32. We will work towards achieving this by increasing places to over 44,000 by 2028/29, with 20% of registered nurses qualifying through apprenticeship routes compared to the current 9% and 5% of midwives to train through an apprenticeship, compared to less than 1% currently.
The Plan also sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The Government is backing this Plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This forms part of our ambition to expand the number of midwifery training places from 3,778 in 2022, to 4,269 by 2028, providing a substantial uplift in the workforce pipeline to meet future demands.
The NHS England's nursing and midwifery retention programme aims to support organisations in assessing and implementing a set of interventions aligned with the People Promise. This initiative focuses on promoting flexible working arrangements, fostering a supportive, inclusive, and compassionate workplace environment. For 2023/24, an investment of £5.75 million is being made in neonatal nurse quality roles, funding at least 98 full-time equivalent posts to support staff retention and learning from incidents, ensuring every trust has funding for this role.
Asked by: Baroness Young of Hornsey (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure the ethical treatment of human remains in Rupert's Valley on St Helena and to protect and preserve the burial ground against present and future adverse development.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The St Helena Government is responsible for the protection and preservation of the burial grounds in Rupert's Valley. Human remains unearthed during preparatory work for St Helena Airport were reburied on 21 August 2022 on ground designated as a cemetery under St Helena's Burial Grounds Ordinance, ensuring it is now a protected site.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's press release, Government wins landmark case against freeholder owned by multibillion pound railway pension fund, published on 9 May 2024, what the (a) legal and (b) administration costs to the public purse were in relation to the five successful Remediation Orders to date.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
These cases were groundbreaking and contentious, marking the first trials under the Building Safety Act. The newness of these cases inherently introduced complexity requiring careful consideration and analysis. On average each of the five successful orders incurred legal costs of approximately £170,000 (one hundred and seventy thousand pounds). We expect that, having been tested, these cases will incur lower costs in the future.
Whilst the information of administration costs is readily available, calculating the costs for this piece of work is challenging as the team handling the cases were also engaged in other tasks concurrently. Furthermore, oversight from colleagues adds to the complexity, making it harder to gauge the time spent, specifically on this work.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department’s publication entitled Government response to Online Advertising Programme consultation, updated on 25 July 2023, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the evidence base for the (a) origin and (b) location of in-scope online advertising; and how that evidence will inform future policy decisions.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As set out in the Government’s response to the 2022 Online Advertising Programme consultation, the configuration of the market at present can mean that accessing comprehensive data on harms associated with online advertising can be challenging. We have already commissioned external research papers, conducted a call for evidence, and completed a public consultation, to seek to address this.
The Online Advertising Taskforce was established to encourage actors across the advertising industry to improve standards and build the evidence base on advertising harms and how they enter the supply chain, in advance of future legislation. As part of this work, DCMS is undertaking research on online users’ experiences of advertising harms. The Taskforce will publish a progress report on its work in the autumn.
The publication in due course of the second consultation on the Online Advertising Programme will also provide an opportunity for respondents to contribute additional evidence.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS provision for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in Suffolk.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to assessment and treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. The NICE guideline on ADHD does not recommend a maximum waiting time from referral for an assessment of ADHD to the point of assessment or diagnosis.
Whilst the Department has not made a specific assessment, Suffolk and North East Essex ICB advises that it has undertaken a review of children’s ADHD and autism services. As a result of the review, and current demand, the ICB has agreed additional funding of £3.3 million to support the services to not only reduce the time children are waiting for assessment but also increase the service provision to meet future demand. The ICB is also looking at potential new models of delivery and at the current pathways to see how it can utilise them more efficiently to ensure a smoother process for families.
In respect of adult ADHD and autism services, the ICB has worked closely with its local National Health Service provider, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, to closely monitor and respond to increases in demand. In March 2024, the ICB agreed to invest £300,000 to support those patients on the waiting list with additional advice and support.
In respect of the adequacy of ADHD service provision nationally, in December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the NHS. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the government, to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to amend Universal Credit regulations to take into account the 53-week rent year for 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit payments are designed to mirror the world of work, with calendar monthly calculations and payments reflecting the way most working people are paid.
As no calendar year contains 53 weeks, Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. The legitimacy of this approach was confirmed by the High Court having been tested via a judicial review.
All of our policies are open to review and may be subject to change in the future; however, we have no plans at present to make changes to this policy.