Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of trends in the level of funding of Adult and Community Education since 2010 on that sector; and whether she plans to restore funding to 2010 levels.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), the Multiply programme and Skills Bootcamps.
The AEB is worth £1.34 billion in 2023/24 and approximately 60% of the AEB is devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCA) and the Greater London Authority (GLA). These authorities are now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is responsible for the remaining AEB in non-devolved areas.
In ESFA AEB areas, the department applied a 2.2% increase to the final earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision, excluding associated learner and learning support, in 2022/23 and 2023/24. The department also applied a 20% boost on top of earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision in six sector subject areas: Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Transport Operations and Maintenance, Building and Construction, ICT for Practitioners, and Mathematics and Statistics. Additionally, in 2024/25, as part of the AEB transition to the Adult Skills Fund, the department will introduce five new funding rates that will apply to the ESFA Adult Skills Fund with 78% of qualifications seeing a funding increase.
Prior to devolution, the Community Learning portion of the AEB amounted to approximately £230 million in 2018/19. The department does not collect data on what MCAs and the GLA currently spend on Community Learning.
In 2024/25, as part of the Adult Skills Fund, the term Tailored Learning brings together what was the AEB Community Learning, formula-funded AEB non-regulated learning, which was previously delivered through the adult skills, and new employer-facing innovative provision that is not qualification based.
The department is also providing up to £270 million directly to local areas in England to deliver innovative interventions to improve adult numeracy through the Multiply programme. The department is also building the evidence base on what works to improve adult numeracy, including through randomised control trials.
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview upon completion. This is supported by £550 million over the current Spending Review period as well as £170 million in grant funding to MCAs and local areas in 2024/25.
Spend by the department on further education is reported through publication of the Annual Report and Accounts. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the problem of criminal gangs intentionally crossing police force borders to exploit weaknesses in policing methods.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We know serious and organised crime (SOC) does not respect police force borders which is why all police forces in England and Wales collaborate and share resources, funding and specialist capabilities to deliver Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) to lead complex cross-border SOC investigations. There are nine ROCUs in England and Wales with equivalent capability in London.
Alongside approximately £70m in direct funding from the Home Office in 2023/24, Chief Constables, PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions have recently provided significant resource to the ROCU network by allocating 725 extra officers to ROCUs between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2023. Those officers are working in partnership now to tackle drugs supply and enablers, including firearms and criminal finances.
County lines is a major cross-cutting issue involving a range of criminality including drugs, violence, criminal gangs and child criminal exploitation, and involves the police, a wide range of Government departments, local government agencies and voluntary and community sector organisations. County lines gangs often export drugs across county borders from one police force area to another.
This Government is determined to crack down on county lines gangs which is why we are investing up to £145m over three years in our County Lines Programme to tackle the most violent and exploitative drug supply model yet seen. Through the County Lines Programme, we have established dedicated county lines taskforces in the four force areas exporting the majority of lines (MPS, Merseyside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester Police) as well as the British Transport Police to tackle the national rail network. We are also funding the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC), to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. The NCLCC has been vital in strengthening the law enforcement response, promoting best practice, and enabling police forces to work together to tackle this complex issue.
Since the County Lines Programme was launched in 2019, police activity has resulted in over 5,600 line closures, over 16,500 arrests and over 8,800 safeguarding referrals. This includes over 2,500 line closures since April 2022, surpassing the Drugs Strategy commitment of over 2,000 line closures by April 2025. Having met this target in half the time, we have now committed to close a further 1,000 lines by August 2024, bringing the total since the Drugs Strategy was launched in April 2022 to over 3,000.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of their levelling-up measures in Northern Ireland in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The UK Government is committed to levelling up across the whole of the United Kingdom to ensure that no community is left behind. We are investing £456 million in Northern Ireland to help grow the economy, create jobs, improve transport, provide skills training and support local businesses.
This includes £150 million to develop an Enhanced Investment Zone to provide targeted incentives and interventions to encourage investment and boost growth in Northern Ireland. As well as:
10 years of endowment-style funding for Coleraine & Derry/Londonderry through the Long Term Plan for Towns
£120 million from rounds 1 and 2 of the Levelling Up Fund, investing in infrastructure that improves everyday life for local residents.
£127 million set aside through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, of which £76 million has so far been allocated to 30 projects in Northern Ireland.
The UK Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with a significant £3.3 billion spending settlement to stabilise its finances and protect public services. Within this a number of DLUHC funds are being made available to the Northern Ireland Executive.
The full list of the UK Government funds which are being made available to the Northern Ireland Executive was released publicly on Friday 8 March on gov.uk.
The published document confirms that £30 million from the third round of the Levelling Up Fund and £22.6 million from the Northern Ireland allocation for UKSPF have been included in the financial package to increase the spending power of the restored Executive.
We are committed to evaluating the impact of all our funding, as set out in the recently published local growth evaluation strategy.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of levelling up funding allocated to Northern Ireland has been for projects within Strangford constituency.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The UK Government is investing over £15 billion in a suite of complementary Levelling Up projects to help grow the economy, create jobs, improve transport, provide skills training and support local businesses.
Overall, Northern Ireland has received around £435 million in Levelling Up funding and Strangford constituency has benefited from this funding, through a range of funds. In addition, a number of DLUHC funds are being made available to the Northern Ireland Executive as part of the financial package, further increasing the spending power available to the Executive and allowing it to invest against its own priorities. The full list of the UK Government funds which are being made available to the Executive is at gov.uk.
Strangford constituency benefits from a share of UKSPF funding of around £104 million for Northern Ireland.
In addition, Northern Ireland has benefited from £150 million funding through the Levelling Up Fund, which includes £3.2 million for Ards and North Down Borough Council’s pedestrian and cycle Green-ways and £5.1 million towards Ulster Rugby’s Club Capital Improvement Project, as well as £30 million set aside from Round 3 towards the financial package for the restored executive.
The Community Renewal Fund has provided £12 million in funding to Northern Ireland, which includes projects within the Council areas in the Strangford constituency and projects Northern Ireland wide worth £6.75 million, where the benefits will be felt in Strangford constituency.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the schedule for, and availability of, transport provided to residents of MDP Wethersfield to leave the site.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Those living at the site are able to come and go. The process for leaving the site is the same as the rest of our asylum accommodation.
To minimise the impact on the local services, and to ensure the orderly flow of people onto and off the site, a regular transport service is in place to take asylum seekers to larger local towns to access amenities and planned voluntary and community activities off-site.
This has been developed following consultation with key stakeholders in the Multi Agency Forum (MAF).
If off-site services are needed, transport services will be available by the Home Office’s provider.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to help make bus travel cheaper on routes where the national bus fare cap scheme is not in operation.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In addition to the nearly £600 million the Government is providing to cap single bus fares at £2 on over 5,000 routes in England outside London until the end of 2024, the Government is also providing over £2 billion to local transport authorities to deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs). Every local transport authority in England outside London has been allocated BSIP funding, which can be used to support any bus service improvements that the local authority - working with bus operators - know their community needs. This could include initiatives to introduce lower bus fares.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, What discussions she has had with (a) NHS England and (b) Integrated care boards on using Community Diagnostic Centres to reduce health inequalities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has regular discussions with NHS England on the progress of the community diagnostic centre (CDC) programme, including how CDCs are delivering against the programme aims, and supporting a reduction in health inequalities.
CDCs aim to enhance diagnostic capacity in underserved communities, with NHS England prioritising their placement in areas identified through health deprivation maps to target and address disparities in life expectancy. Bids for new CDCs went through a thorough approval process assessing local diagnostic capacity, health inequalities, transport links, and cost-effectiveness. Cases were further scrutinised by clinical and diagnostic experts prior to final approval by NHS England.
Funding for CDCs has been allocated so that regions with unmet needs received more funding. This will help to tackle health inequalities by directing funding to areas of need. NHS England is working on a plan to ensure sufficient workforce capacity, including for CDCs, to enable workforce expansion with the right skills and roles, in the right locations and at the right time. This includes reliable recruitment routes to deliver the required uplift in staffing. In 2022/23, this resulted in over 4,300 new starters across the training pipeline for cancer and diagnostics.
There are record numbers of people working in the National Health Service overall, and the NHS has recently published a Long Term Workforce Plan which sets out long term workforce projections. The Government has backed the plan with over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over five years.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of staffing levels in Community Diagnostic Centres.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has regular discussions with NHS England on the progress of the community diagnostic centre (CDC) programme, including how CDCs are delivering against the programme aims, and supporting a reduction in health inequalities.
CDCs aim to enhance diagnostic capacity in underserved communities, with NHS England prioritising their placement in areas identified through health deprivation maps to target and address disparities in life expectancy. Bids for new CDCs went through a thorough approval process assessing local diagnostic capacity, health inequalities, transport links, and cost-effectiveness. Cases were further scrutinised by clinical and diagnostic experts prior to final approval by NHS England.
Funding for CDCs has been allocated so that regions with unmet needs received more funding. This will help to tackle health inequalities by directing funding to areas of need. NHS England is working on a plan to ensure sufficient workforce capacity, including for CDCs, to enable workforce expansion with the right skills and roles, in the right locations and at the right time. This includes reliable recruitment routes to deliver the required uplift in staffing. In 2022/23, this resulted in over 4,300 new starters across the training pipeline for cancer and diagnostics.
There are record numbers of people working in the National Health Service overall, and the NHS has recently published a Long Term Workforce Plan which sets out long term workforce projections. The Government has backed the plan with over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over five years.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to increase access to affordable public transport options for people aged between 16 and 24 in Newcastle.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government introduced a £2 cap on single bus fares in England outside London on 1 January 2023 to help all passengers save on their regular travel costs. The Government is investing nearly £600 million to deliver the scheme, including additional funding redirected from HS2 to keep the cap in place until the end of 2024. There are currently over 140 bus operators and more than 5,000 routes in the scheme, including routes in Newcastle.
The Government is also providing over £2 billion to help local transport authorities (LTAs) deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP). This includes the announcement by the Prime Minister in October 2023 that a further £1 billion would be redirected from HS2 to deliver better bus services in the North and the Midlands.
The North East has so far been allocated £175 million to deliver their BSIP, which can be used to support any bus service improvements that the local authority – working with local bus operators – know their community needs, including introducing local fares initiatives in addition to the Government’s £2 bus fare cap. Thanks to this funding, Transport North East has launched a £1 fare for the under 22s and a £3 daily ticket for under 22s offering unlimited travel on bus, Metro and Ferry throughout the region.
More widely, the North East is now eligible for the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement following their Devolution Deal and, upon election of a Mayor, we will work with them on their delivery plans to support local transport within the region. Up to £563m is available from their CRSTS 1 funding settlement (from 2022 – 2027). CRSTS 2 allocations were announced as part of Network North in October, with the North East indicatively allocated a further £1,849 billion from 2027/28 -2031/32.
Additionally, there are a range of discounts available to 16 to 24-year-olds to help with the cost of rail travel - in 2019 we introduced the 16-17 Saver, meaning that a 50% discount is available to children throughout their period of compulsory education and training. For those aged 16-25, the 16-25 Railcard offers a third off most rail travel.
In England, the majority of bus services outside London operate on a commercial basis, and decisions about offering reduced or discounted fares for commercial bus services are predominantly for operators to take. Many bus operators currently offer discounted travel cards for younger people. Our most recent set of statistics shows that at least one commercial operator in 71 out of 84 travel concession authority areas in England, outside London, offered some form of discounted travel for young people.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of London Luton Airport's Community Noise Monitoring Programme.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government does not set noise controls at London Luton Airport, as these are set by Luton Borough Council. We will be assessing the airport’s Noise Action Plan for 2024-2028 as per statutory requirements.
The Government encourages all airports to be transparent with communities about their noise impacts. Effective noise monitoring, both by mobile and fixed monitoring equipment, plays a key role in helping to understand such impacts. The Government also expects airports to help local communities understand these noise impacts and the performance against relevant targets.