Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential need for Commissioner intervention in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, in the context of the absence of senior leadership.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently temporary senior leadership arrangements in place at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust. Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and NHS England’s North East and Yorkshire Regional Team continue to provide ongoing support to the trust, ensuring that the temporary acting arrangements are successfully in place and offering any additional support that is required.
NHS England will continue to provide ongoing support to the trust and its senior leadership team to ensure that our patients and public continue to receive the highest quality of care possible across the Humber region.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 Farming Recovery Fund, if he will publish (a) the number of individual payments made by and (b) total costs of those payment to each local authority area for each year since the fund was established.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Farming Recovery Fund payments are made directly to farmers. The Farming Recovery Fund is activated by the Government of the day and has been activated in 2015, 2019, 2020 and again in 2024 depending on the scale and impacts of the flooding, these are detailed below:
- In 2015 when Storm Desmond produced 341mm of rainfall at Honister Pass in Cumbria in 24 hours.
- In 2019/2020, a flash flood in North Yorkshire affecting a single parish and the collapse of a flood embankment in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and widescale flooding across central and eastern England.
- In 2024 an expanded fund following Storms Babet, Henk and the exceptional wet weather during the six-month period October 2023 to March 2024
Each iteration of the Farming Recovery Fund is different depending on when, where and what the weather conditions were which caused the flooding. Farmers were able to apply for these funds the details of which are set out below.
Region | FRF 2015 | FRF 2019 | FRF 2020 | |||
Number | Amount | Number | Amount | Number | Amount | |
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire | 1 | £9,120.00 |
|
|
|
|
Cheshire |
|
|
|
| 1 | £3,948.94 |
Cumbria | 530 | £4,647,445.22 |
|
|
|
|
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire |
|
| 18 | £78,834.38 | 4 | £28,006.84 |
East Anglia | 1 | £1,530.00 |
|
|
|
|
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire | 8 | £34,027.49 | 2 | £5,515.78 | 1 | £1,361.30 |
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area | 1 | £2,924.20 | 1 | £21,387.50 | 35 | £241,976.01 |
Greater Manchester | 7 | £33,124.52 |
|
|
|
|
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire |
|
| 6 | £52,665.32 | 70 | £362,580.74 |
Inner London - West | 1 | £3,603.00 |
|
| 1 | £1,730.00 |
Lancashire | 129 | £978,167.39 |
|
|
|
|
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire |
|
| 1 | £5,829.50 |
|
|
Lincolnshire | 1 | £19,846.00 | 30 | £165,887.13 |
|
|
North Yorkshire | 212 | £1,507,147.20 | 36 | £266,871.18 |
|
|
Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear | 60 | £425,640.21 |
|
|
|
|
Shropshire and Staffordshire | 1 | £20,000.00 |
|
| 29 | £120,655.82 |
South Yorkshire | 1 | £514.90 | 12 | £39,280.42 |
|
|
Tees Valley and Durham | 15 | £106,270.76 |
|
|
|
|
West Yorkshire | 27 | £181,071.49 |
|
|
|
|
Total payments to English registered businesses | 995 | £7,970,432.38 | 106 | £636,271.21 | 141 | £760,259.65 |
Paid for land in England but business registered in other UK country | 4 | £31,867.98 |
|
| 3 | £7,368.36 |
Grand total | 999 | £8,002,300.36 | 106 | £636,271.21 | 144 | £767,628.01 |
We will publish data for the 2024 Farming Recovery Fund once payments have been finalised. The 2024 Farming Recovery Fund has paid around 12,700 farming businesses £57.5 million, to date.
Recovery payments were always intended as an exceptional intervention. Defra is working with the Flood Resilience Taskforce to develop a longer-term solution to the impacts of our changing climate on the agricultural sector. We are also investing in environmental land management schemes which include actions to improve flood resilience and water management on farms.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what precautions his Department is taking regarding the ongoing avian influenza outbreak to prevent its spread among (a) commercially kept birds, (b) domestically kept birds and (c) wild birds.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra’s approach to avian influenza is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Mitigation Strategy for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in England and Wales. Swift and humane culling of birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity are used to prevent disease spread.
Avian Influenza Prevention Zones (AIPZ) mandating enhanced biosecurity are in force across the UK The AIPZs apply to all bird keepers whether they have pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock. In addition, mandatory housing for kept birds is in force in England across the unitary authorities of the East Riding of Yorkshire, the unitary authority of York, the City of Kingston upon Hull and all districts in Cheshire, Herefordshire, Merseyside, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Shropshire Suffolk and Worcestershire and all areas of Northern Ireland to mitigate the risk of further outbreaks of disease occurring.
Additional biosecurity measures also apply in disease control zones in force surrounding infected premises. Certain higher risk bird gatherings have also been prohibited. Guidance for keepers on maintaining scrupulous biosecurity to protect their flocks has been published at gov.uk/bird-flu.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress his Department has made on Project Gigabit since April 2024.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since April 2024, three new Project Gigabit contracts covering Lincolnshire and East Riding, Cheshire, and North Yorkshire have been signed.
A cross regional framework agreement with Openreach, has also been signed. The first two call-off contracts under the framework have been awarded, covering large parts of Wales and rural parts of England from Devon to Staffordshire. The first Project Gigabit procurements have also been launched in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help support business investment into (a) Yorkshire and (b) northern Lincolnshire.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Department works across the UK, including Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, to showcase strong commercial investment opportunities to potential investors and support business to grow, and provides extensive support to small businesses through the network of Growth Hubs. This government is developing a modern industrial strategy to deliver the certainty and stability for business to invest and creating the National Wealth Fund to support its delivery and mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s growth industries. Through the Government owned British Business Bank, we are also investing over £1billion through their regional Investment Fund programmes, including supporting growing businesses across Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps Department is taking to help support economic growth across (a) Yorkshire and (b) northern Lincolnshire.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is developing a modern industrial strategy to deliver the certainty and stability for business to invest and creating the National Wealth Fund to support its delivery and mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s growth industries. The Government is investing in total over £2.5 billion over 30 years in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authorities to support growth and business investment. Through the Government owned British Business Bank, we are also investing over £1 billion through their regional Investment Fund programmes, including supporting growing businesses across Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to support economic growth across (a) Yorkshire and (b) northern Lincolnshire.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
At Autumn Budget 24 the government set out the first major steps in our approach to regional growth, through devolution, investment and reform.
The Government is investing in total over £2.5 billion over 30 years in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authorities to support growth and business investment.
In 26/27 we will introduce integrated settlements in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Combined Authorities, giving mayors greater control of their budgets. We are investing in transport by securing delivery of the TransPennine Route Upgrade between York and Manchester, via Leeds and Huddersfield, and have invested £1.3 billion capital through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements to unlock growth-enhancing transport projects such as the Mass Transit system in West Yorkshire.
The Government also confirmed the designation of the first customs site in the Humber Freeport, enabling the release of seed capital funding to support the Freeport to build upon the £1bn of investment it has attracted so far, with a particular focus on renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
Through the Government owned British Business Bank, we are also investing over £1billion through their regional Investment Fund programmes, including supporting growing businesses across Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help support improvements to (a) local transport links and (b) networks across (i) Yorkshire and (ii) Northern Lincolnshire.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is committed to improving local transport across the Yorkshire and Humber. The Chancellor announced in the Autumn Statement on 30 October a range of funding to support local transport, including funding that will provide for development of West Yorkshire Mass Transit and renewal of the Supertram in Sheffield. This includes an uplift to national City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) funding in 2025-26 by £200m, helping to improve the local transport in our largest city regions and drive growth and productivity across the country. This is in addition to the £570m and £830m already allocated to South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire for CRSTS1.
Additionally, the Chancellor announced over £650m of funding for local transport beyond City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements to ensure that transport connections improve in our towns, villages and rural areas as well as in our major cities. This includes funding to progress transport-related Levelling Up Fund projects through to 2025/26 including schemes such as Connecting West Leeds which will provide multi-modal enhancements to capacity, efficiency, safety and accessibility for all users of the A6120 Leeds Outer Ring Road.
Furthermore, the government has committed to delivering better bus services, and in the Budget confirmed investment of over £1 billion in 2025/26 to support and improve bus services and keep fares affordable.
This investment sits alongside the measures we are already undertaking to reform the bus system, including through the introduction of the Buses Bill later in this Parliamentary session, as we seek to ensure local leaders have the powers they need to deliver the better, more reliable services that passengers deserve.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 3 April (HL6059), to list for the three Integrated Care Board chief executives of (1) Humber Coast and Vale, (2) South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, and (3) Cornwall and Isles of Scilly; and why each was judged to be of an exceptional nature and higher rates of pay were therefore supported by Ministers on the basis of each or any of (a) geographical scale and complexity, (b) stakeholder footprint and complexity, or (c) systems complexity.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The reason for approving the salary at Humber Coast and Vale was that it features a large physical geography, making it difficult to support coastal towns. It also has the additional system complexity of having two of its foundation trusts, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole, in both quality and financial special measures.
For South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, it features system complexity with Sheffield Health and Social Care Foundation Trusts due to being in quality special measures and needing to engage with five local authorities. It also contains former coalfields with considerable health needs.
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly features the geographical complexities of being a peninsula with 60% of people in settlements of under 30,000, affecting how and where services can be provided. There is also the additional complexity of having a large seasonal variation in population. Both of the two trusts within its remit required improvement as per their Care Quality Commission ratings.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) temporary and (b) permanent job centres there are at the (i) national (ii) regional and (iii) district level.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
(a) 194 Temporary Jobcentre REEP (Rapid Estate Expansion Programme), 14 REEP sites are co-sited with permanent (established) Jobcentres.
(b) 639 Permanent (established) Jobcentres
Temporary Jobcentres: Regional level
Region | # |
Central & West Scotland | 4 |
East & North Scotland | 7 |
London & Essex | 41 |
North & East Midlands | 20 |
North Central | 19 |
North East | 12 |
North West | 20 |
South East | 31 |
South West | 15 |
Wales | 6 |
West Midlands | 19 |
Grand Total | 194 |
Temporary Jobcentres: District level
District | # |
Avon, Somerset & Gloucestershire | 4 |
Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire | 6 |
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire | 7 |
Birmingham & Solihull | 5 |
Black Country | 6 |
Cheshire | 3 |
Cumbria & Lancashire | 5 |
Devon & Cornwall | 5 |
Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire & Isle of Wight | 6 |
Durham & Tees Valley | 4 |
East Anglia | 5 |
East London | 11 |
East Scotland | 3 |
Essex | 5 |
Greater Manchester | 11 |
Kent | 8 |
Leicestershire & Northampton | 4 |
Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire & Rutland | 3 |
Mercia | 8 |
Merseyside | 6 |
Midland Shires | 8 |
North & Mid Wales | 3 |
North East Scotland | 3 |
North East Yorkshire & Humber | 3 |
North London | 6 |
Northern Scotland | 1 |
Northumberland, Tyne & Wear | 5 |
South East Wales | 2 |
South London | 12 |
South West Scotland | 2 |
South West Wales | 1 |
South Yorkshire | 4 |
Surrey & Sussex | 10 |
West London | 7 |
West Scotland | 2 |
West Yorkshire | 10 |
Grand Total | 194 |
Permanent (established) Jobcentres
Region | # |
Central & West Scotland | 40 |
East & North Scotland | 44 |
London & Essex | 63 |
North & East Midlands | 87 |
North Central | 54 |
North East | 59 |
North West | 54 |
South East | 61 |
South West | 74 |
Wales | 60 |
West Midlands | 43 |
Grand Total | 639 |
District | # |
Avon, Somerset & Gloucestershire | 23 |
Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire | 13 |
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire | 14 |
Birmingham & Solihull | 13 |
Black Country | 14 |
Central Scotland | 7 |
Cheshire | 9 |
Cumbria & Lancashire | 22 |
Devon & Cornwall | 22 |
Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire & Isle of Wight | 29 |
Durham & Tees Valley | 21 |
East Anglia | 26 |
East London | 10 |
East Scotland | 22 |
Essex | 14 |
Greater Manchester | 28 |
Kent | 13 |
Leicestershire & Northampton | 14 |
Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire & Rutland | 19 |
Mercia | 16 |
Merseyside | 17 |
Midland Shires | 28 |
North & Mid Wales | 21 |
North East Scotland | 10 |
North East Yorkshire & Humber | 18 |
North London | 11 |
Northern Scotland | 12 |
Northumberland, Tyne & Wear | 20 |
South East Wales | 17 |
South London | 14 |
South West Scotland | 11 |
South West Wales | 22 |
South Yorkshire | 13 |
Surrey & Sussex | 21 |
West London | 14 |
West Scotland | 22 |
West Yorkshire | 19 |
Grand Total | 639 |