Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of his Department’s (a) advertising and (b) marketing expenditure was on (i) local newspapers in print and online, (ii) national newspapers in print and online, (iii) social media, (iv) search engines, (v) broadcast and on-demand television and (vi) other channels in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
A full departmental response could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Full advertising and marketing costs for the department are not held centrally. The majority of advertising and marketing expenditure is accounted for by advertising for the Royal Navy, Army, RAF and Ministry of Defence Police to aid recruitment and was provided recently via the PQ answer below.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-02-29/16378
Expenditure for specific categories i to vi is not held centrally and could also not be extracted without incurring cost.
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, how many audits conducted by his Department from April 2023 to March 2024 under the Developer Self Remediation Terms have required the developer to undertake corrective action in relation to (a) Building and (b) Post-remediation Qualifying Assessments.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Publicly available data on the developer contract can be found here.
The Department encourages developers to discuss challenges and successes with the oversight team. Best practice examples are shared with other developers as appropriate.
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, how many audits his Department has conducted under the Developer Self Remediation Terms in relation to (a) building assessments and (b) post-remediation qualifying assessments between April 2023 and March 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Publicly available data on the developer contract can be found here.
The Department encourages developers to discuss challenges and successes with the oversight team. Best practice examples are shared with other developers as appropriate.
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, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that signatories of the developer remediation contract are taking responsibility for buildings where they are a contractor.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Publicly available data on the developer contract can be found here.
The Department encourages developers to discuss challenges and successes with the oversight team. Best practice examples are shared with other developers as appropriate.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 29 January and (b) 4 March 2024 from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare relating to haggis exports.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A reply to the hon. Member is being prepared and will be issued in due course. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.
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, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of weeks to obtain planning permission for building safety remediation works following the transition to a new Building Safety Regulator on 6 April 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Building regulations approval is separate from planning permission.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether Armed Forces Recruiting Offices allow for walk-ins by potential new recruits.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Armed Forces Career Offices do allow for walk-ins by potential new recruits during office hours. Alternatively, people interested in a career in the Armed Forces can access online recruitment portals at any time.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of rape trials that have been postponed within 24 hours' notice in each year since 2010.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The data held centrally by the Ministry of Justice on ineffective trials does not specifically identify those that have been postponed within 24 hours' notice. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
The Government is committed to improving the Criminal Justice System’s response to adult rape. This includes the significant progress we have made in delivering our Rape Review Action Plan. Within this plan, we set ourselves stretching ambitions to return the volumes of police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), CPS charges and Crown Court receipts for adult rape to 2016 levels. In practice, this means more than doubling the number of cases reaching court since the Rape Review was commissioned in 2019. We are pleased to say we have already exceeded these ambitions.
We also recognise that lengthy waiting times can be particularly difficult for victims of rape and other serious sexual offences who wish to see justice done and move on with their lives. The Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales has recently announced that all rape cases outstanding for more than two years will be listed by the end of July 2024, providing certainty to those victims that their cases will be prioritised and heard as soon as possible.
Alongside the SPJ’s efforts, we continue to make sure we do more than ever to improve timeliness at court. This includes delivering over 107,000 additional sitting days in Crown Courts; opening two permanent ‘super courtrooms’ in Manchester and Loughborough; increasing criminal legal aid spending by £141 million per year; investing over £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of court buildings (up to March 2025); and investing further in judicial recruitment and retention.
We know that support services play a critical role in supporting victims including those engaging with the Criminal Justice System. This is why we are quadrupling funding for victims and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. The funding will allow us to increase the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors to around 1,000 by 2025.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vessels between 10 and 15 metres in length are eligible for the pollack compensation scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
According to the most up to date Marine Management Organisation (MMO) landings data for 2023, there are three vessels between 10 and 15 metres in length eligible for the compensation scheme. As there is finite funding available, the pollack compensation scheme is focused on providing funding to vessel owners whose income is mainly derived from pollack and who made at least 30% of their reported landings income in 2023 from pollack. The MMO are currently verifying data and will reach out to eligible vessel owners in the coming days. Fishers who believe they meet the requirements of this scheme but have not heard from MMO by Monday 29th April 2024 should contact MMO by sending an email to UKFisheriesSupport@marinemanagement.org.uk.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vessels between eight and ten metres in length are eligible for the pollack compensation scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
According to the most up to date MMO landings data for 2023, there are 11 vessels between eight and ten metres in length eligible for the compensation scheme. As there is finite funding available, the pollack compensation scheme is focused on providing funding to vessel owners whose income is mainly derived from pollack and who made at least 30% of their reported landings income in 2023 from pollack. The MMO are currently verifying data and will reach out to eligible vessel owners in the coming days. Fishers who believe they meet the requirements of this scheme but have not heard from MMO by Monday 29th April 2024 should contact MMO by sending an email to UKFisheriesSupport@marinemanagement.org.uk.