Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of passenger journeys made on local bus services by (a) metropolitan area and (b) urban-rural status for 2022-23 in (i) England, (ii) Yorkshire and the Humber and (iii) Leeds.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department publishes annual National Statistics on bus passenger journeys, with the statistics for the year ending March 2023 provisionally set to be published in October 2023. The statistics do not present figures for Leeds as the data is not collected at this level of granularity, instead figures for West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority are available. All other requested breakdowns are available.
All of the Department’s annual, quarterly and compendium statistical releases for the coming year can be found on the forthcoming publication schedule on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-transport/about/statistics#see-our-forthcoming-publications
An alternative measure of bus passenger journeys for Great Britain for the year ending March 2023 is available via our Domestic Transport Usage by Mode statistics that are published monthly on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2022 to Question 13633 on Military Aid: Coronavirus, how many of the 466 Military Aid to the Civil Authorities tasks relating to covid-19 have been completed in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber and (b) East Midlands.
Answered by James Heappey
Of the 466 Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) tasks relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, 19 were completed in Yorkshire and Humber, 17 in East Midlands and two were completed across both regions as part of national tasks.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Government's Levelling Up agenda on the creation of jobs to date.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government’s levelling up agenda aims to spread opportunity and investment across every region and nation of the UK. We are delivering this pledge by boosting jobs, wages and prospects for all communities.
We are supporting jobs, businesses and public services across the whole of the UK through Covid support schemes: so far, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has protected 11.6 million jobs across the UK, including over 890,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Furthermore, the Plan for Jobs has provided unprecedented employment support for people that need it the most, including the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme that will create hundreds of thousands of new, 6 month subsidised jobs for young people across the UK. To date, over 36,000 Kickstart jobs have been started by young people.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department are taking to encourage new businesses in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government aims to make the United Kingdom the best place to start, grow and run a business. Government provides support and information for small businesses, including on starting and running a business, through our online services on GOV.UK; via the Business Support Helpline on FREEPHONE 0800 998 1098; and through the network of 38 local Growth Hubs in England.
A wide range of support and funding is available in Wakefield and across West Yorkshire for businesses at all stages, from start-ups and early-stage companies, to established businesses that are ready to expand and grow. With BEIS Growth Hub funding support, the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s Business Support Service provides a single point of access to a wide range of national and local support and funding.
Local programmes which encourage and support start-ups and young businesses include:
The Ad:Venture programme provides a full business start-up programme, with young West Yorkshire businesses benefitting from a tailored mix of practical advice, coaching, academic support, incubation work space, finance brokerage and low rate loans. Grant funding of between £1,000 and £25,000 is available to support capital growth costs. As of February 2021, 40 Wakefield businesses have benefitted from the programme, with £2.3m grant awarded to 427 businesses across the City Region.
The Business Growth Programme 2021/22 includes support for new start enterprises and assistance to established businesses to help them recover and adapt following the Covid-19 pandemic. Grants of between £5,000 and £500,000 will be available across West Yorkshire. The programme is supported by £7m from Government’s Getting Building Fund, extending services provided to March 2021 through the Local Growth Fund.
Entrepreneurship Support Package 2021 will encourage people from all communities across West Yorkshire to set up new businesses and help them tap into the wider sources of support that are available. The package will use at least £6m of investment funds provided by Government through the West Yorkshire Deal.
The British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme provides loans of up to £25,000 for those starting a new business, or for businesses which have been trading for up to 24 months. In addition to finance, loan recipients are offered a dedicated mentoring service and access to a free expert business mentor for 12 months to help them with every aspect of setting up a business. The Start Up Loans programme has delivered over 81,000 loans totalling more than £707m (as at end-Feb 2021). 92 loans have been issued in Wakefield, totalling over £727,000. 9% of loans have been issued in Yorkshire and the Humber region, totalling over £62m. The British Business Bank’s online Finance Hub also offers independent and impartial information on different finance options for businesses. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Hub has been updated to clearly signpost the financial support options available for businesses during this period of uncertainty.
The Government’s new ‘Help to Grow’ scheme will help small businesses across the UK learn new skills, reach new customers, and boost profits. Help to Grow: Management will provide intensive management skills support to 30,000 small businesses whilst Help to Grow: Digital could support 100,000 small businesses with online advice and a voucher for software costs. BEIS will be engaging with stakeholders shortly but businesses can register their interest now at https://helptogrow.campaign.gov.uk/.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of digital exclusion on the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognised that a lack of digital access posed a risk to the efficacy of remote education. In response, we invested over £400 million to support access to remote education as an injection of support to minimise digital exclusion. To date, over 1.2 million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities and further education (FE) colleges. We have also provided support to over 100,000 families to get online by providing uplifts in mobile data and 4G wireless routers.
Until 8 March, the Department expected all primary schools, secondary schools and FE colleges in England to provide remote education for the majority of their pupils and students, with the exception of vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers, who were able to attend school or FE colleges in person. Where vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers did not attend school or FE colleges, we expected schools and FE colleges to provide them with remote education.
During this period, we understood that some pupils may face difficulty engaging in remote education and may be considered to be vulnerable children and young people and therefore would have been eligible to attend on-site provision. It was for the child’s school or local authority to make this decision. The decision would have been based on the needs of the child and their family, and a range of other factors, as set out in the guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision#vulnerable-children-and-young-people.
As of 8 March, attendance is mandatory for all pupils of compulsory school age. However, schools affected by the remote education temporary continuity direction are still required to provide remote education for pupils where their attendance would be contrary to government guidance or legislation around COVID-19. This includes, for example, where such guidance means that a class, group, or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or that clinically extremely vulnerable children need to shield.
Where pupils and students continue to experience barriers to digital remote education, we expect schools and FE colleges to work to overcome these barriers. This could include distributing school or FE college-owned laptops or supplementing digital provision with different forms of remote education such as printed resources or textbooks. This should be supplemented with other forms of communication to keep pupils and students on track or answer questions about work. These expectations were also in place across the period of restricted attendance on-site.
The Department’s research on lost learning has produced interim findings based on more than 400,000 Renaissance Learning reading and maths assessments taken in the first Autumn half-term of 2020-21.
The analysis uses historic test scores to predict what each pupil would have achieved on the test in Autumn 2020 had the COVID-19 disruption not occurred, based on that pupil’s test score in the previous years. The difference between the actual Autumn 2020 score and their predicted score is an estimate of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak – presented here in terms of ‘months of progress’.
The gap between disadvantaged pupils and others, measured using the disadvantage gap index, narrowed by 13% at Key Stage 2 and 9% at Key Stage 4 between 2011 and 2019.
Through our existing grant funding partnership with Nesta, the Department launched an evaluation programme in Autumn 2020, the EdTech R&D Programme, to understand the impact of technology use in education, particularly the impact and disparity between advantaged and disadvantaged students in attainment and outcomes during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The programme includes the evaluation of six remote education tools being used in schools and colleges in England. The first evaluation cycle is underway, with iterations throughout the life of the programme. A final report with key findings on using remote education tools effectively for all students, with particular recommendations for disadvantaged students, will also be shared with the wider sector by December 2021.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Pillar 3 covid-19 tests have been carried out in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber and (b) Haltemprice and Howden constituency in each month since February 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold data in the format requested.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Pillar 1 covid-19 tests have been carried out in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber and (b) Haltemprice and Howden constituency in each month since February 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold data in the format requested.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a mass vaccination site will open in Yorkshire.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are now over 100 mass vaccination centres across the United Kingdom, including seven in Yorkshire.
Information on the location of vaccination sites is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/vaccination-sites/
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the four covid-19 mobile testing units operating in the Humber, how many members of staff working in those units have received contractual sick pay for having tested positive for covid-19 or for having to self-isolate since those units began operating in April 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally. Test sites have clear guidance for treating suspected COVID-19 cases to ensure individuals are self-isolating whenever it is necessary to do so. Our commercial partners have their own measures in place to support staff members who are ill or otherwise unable to work.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Pillar 2 covid-19 tests have been carried out in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber and (b) Haltemprice and Howden constituency in each month since February 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government does not publish this data in this format. Weekly data for pillar 2 testing in England is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-weekly-reports