Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been designated powers to issue fixed penalty notices under paragraph 9 (a)(iii) of Regulation 11 of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020; how many fixed penalty notices have been issued by those people; and for what reason those powers are required.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
District councils, county councils, London borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London, in its capacity as a local authority, and the Council of the Isles of Scilly were delegated enforcement powers under the equivalent designation provisions in a number of previous Coronavirus Restrictions Regulations.
Paragraph 5 of Schedule 5 of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (the All Tiers Regulations) carries across these designations to continue under the All Tiers Regulations. The specific power in 9 (a)(iii) of (the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 has not been used to make designations to date. However, it is considered necessary to retain this option, to ensure that enforcement can remain comprehensive.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to support leisure centres in Coventry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term. A total of £100 million was available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England. Coventry City Council will be notified shortly of the outcome of their application to the scheme.
Government has worked closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure leisure services operated by district councils are supported during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be allocated in a single funding round covering the period 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function. This is in addition to the wider financial support provided to councils throughout the pandemic.
Government has worked closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible.
In addition, the Local Government Income Compensation Scheme looks to compensate authorities for eligible losses income from sales, fees and charges.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the ability of parish and town councils to apply for grant funding.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government does not have powers to offer Section 31 grants directly to parish and town councils, which are instead often funded in part through a precept collected from within the council tax paid by their residents. The Secretary of State has written to principal authorities and asked them to discuss the funding support for parish councils from within the support we have provided them. We continue to encourage parish and town councils to work with their principal authority (district or unitary council) where they are delivering vital services that have been impacted by COVID-19.
In the expectation that parish and town councils continue to show restraint when setting council tax precept levels, the Government has proposed to continue with no referendum principles for town and parish councils in 2021-22. The Government will take careful account of the increases set by parishes in 2021-22 when reviewing the matter ahead of next year’s settlement.
If a parish or town council operates a leisure facility that is outsourced to an external provider, then the parent local authority was eligible to bid to the Sports England National Leisure Recovery Fund (NLRF) on its behalf. Applications to the fund are currently being assessed and the results should be known by late February.
Parish and town councils are also not excluded from the COVID-19 business grant programme where they operate hereditaments that meet the criteria set out in guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the National Leisure Recovery Fund.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be allocated in a single funding round. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function.
Government has worked closely with the Sport England, Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible. We are currently in the process of assessing bids for the fund.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to reduce the risk of flooding for communities that have already experienced flooding in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
In the March 2020 Budget, Government provided additional funding of £120 million for 2020-21 to repair assets damaged in the 2019/2020 autumn and winter floods. In the last 12 months, the Environment Agency (EA) has completed around 20,000 inspections of flood assets that were damaged in the winter 2019/20 floods. The EA has a prioritised programme of repairs based on risk to lives and livelihoods underway. All of the flood defences damaged last year have either been repaired or have contingency plans in place to reduce the risk to their communities this winter.
The EA has continued to build and maintain flood risk management assets and is on track to better protect 300,000 properties from flooding and coastal erosion between 2015 and 2021.
The EA has continued to engage with communities during the pandemic, sharing scheme updates and consulting with local residents in a COVID secure ways with the help of new technology. The EA’s Flood Action Campaign last Autumn helped ensure communities know how to check their flood risk and are better prepared using the three-point plan to PREPARE, ACT, SURVIVE. Over 1.4 million properties are signed up to receive free flood warnings.
Following the flooding in winter 2019/2020, government announced Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants of up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes, charities and businesses become more flood resilient. The repair grants apply to those affected in district or unitary authorities that have 25 or more severely flooded properties. The most recent figures (held by Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government) show that over 47 district or unitary councils with over 7000 properties are eligible in England for the November 2019 and February 2020 PFR repair schemes.
In recognition of the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, both the 2019 and 2020 schemes have been extended by 9 months to give homeowners and businesses more time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.
Local authorities on the November scheme now have until 31 December 2021 to recover their costs whilst local authorities on the February scheme have until 1 July 2022.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what comparative assessment he has made of his Department's preparedness to respond to flooding in winter (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 in (i) Shrewsbury and (ii) other places that experienced flooding in winter 2019-20.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In recent years, investment in defences has been effective at better protecting properties and reducing the impacts of flooding on people’s lives and livelihoods. We have seen progressively fewer properties flooded following recent incidents, avoiding more damages to people, businesses, landowners and infrastructure than might otherwise have been. In England, during the winter 2019/20 approximately 4,600 properties were sadly flooded while 128,000 properties were better protected from flooding.
In the last 12 months, the Environment Agency (EA) has completed around 20,000 inspections of flood assets that were damaged in the winter 2019/20 floods. The EA has a prioritised programme of repairs based on risk to lives and livelihoods underway. All of the flood defences damaged last year have either been repaired or have contingency plans in place to reduce the risk to their communities this winter.
Throughout the year, the EA has also continued to build and maintain flood risk management assets. The EA is on track to better protect 300,000 properties from flooding and coastal erosion between 2015 and 2021. Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, the EA worked with other Risk Management Authorities to complete approximately 176 flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes which helped better protect approximately 45,400 homes from flooding and 3,200 homes from coastal erosion. The EA is working through the River Severn Partnership to address long-term resilience.
During the flooding at the end of December 2020, 692 metres of demountable defences were erected across the country, 672m of which were in the West Midlands. 723 metres of temporary barriers were erected, 423 metres of which were in the West Midlands. This meant that over 9,300 properties were protected from flooding, with over 3,700 being in the West Midlands. The majority of these were within the River Severn catchment.
The EA has continued to engage virtually with communities at risk of flooding during the Coronavirus pandemic, adapting its approach by sharing scheme updates and consulting with local residents in a safe way.
The EA’s autumn Flood Action Campaign helped ensure that communities are better prepared and know how to check their flood risk with key messages around a three-point plan to PREPARE, ACT, SURVIVE. Over 1.4 million properties are signed up to receive free flood warnings.
Following the flooding in winter 2019/20 and again in February 2020 following storms Ciara and Dennis, the Government announced Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants of up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes, charities and businesses become more flood resilient. The repair grants apply to those affected in district or unitary authorities that have 25 or more severely flooded properties.
The most recent figures (held by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government) show that 18 district or unitary councils with over 2300 properties are eligible in England for the November 2019 PFR repair scheme. Over 29 districts or unitary councils (including Shropshire Council, which includes Shrewsbury) with over 5000 properties are eligible in England for the February 2020 PFR repair scheme.
In recognition of the challenges created by the Coronavirus pandemic, both the 2019 and 2020 schemes have been extended by nine months to give homeowners and businesses more time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.
Local authorities on the November scheme now have until 31 December 2021 to recover their costs while local authorities on the February scheme have until 1 July 2022.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many grants have been distributed under the Property Flood Resilience Scheme since November 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the unprecedented flooding in November 2019 and the storms which followed in winter 2019/2020, government announced Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants of up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes, charities and businesses become more flood resilient.
The repair grants apply to those affected in district or unitary authorities that have 25 or more severely flooded properties.
The Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants are administered by eligible local authorities, with Defra reimbursing local authorities for grants paid for eligible properties. The most recent figures (held by Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government) show that over 47 district or unitary councils with over 7000 properties are eligible in England for the November 2019 and February 2020 PFR repair schemes.
In recognition of the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, both the 2019 and 2020 schemes have been extended by 9 months to give homeowners and businesses more time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.
Local authorities on the November scheme now have until 31 December 2021 to recover their costs whilst local authorities on the February scheme have until 1 July 2022.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for grants under the Property Flood Resilience Scheme remain outstanding.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the unprecedented flooding in November 2019 and the storms which followed in winter 2019/2020, government announced Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants of up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes, charities and businesses become more flood resilient.
The repair grants apply to those affected in district or unitary authorities that have 25 or more severely flooded properties.
The Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants are administered by eligible local authorities, with Defra reimbursing local authorities for grants paid for eligible properties. The most recent figures (held by Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government) show that over 47 district or unitary councils with over 7000 properties are eligible in England for the November 2019 and February 2020 PFR repair schemes.
In recognition of the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, both the 2019 and 2020 schemes have been extended by 9 months to give homeowners and businesses more time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.
Local authorities on the November scheme now have until 31 December 2021 to recover their costs whilst local authorities on the February scheme have until 1 July 2022.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to the Property Flood Resilience Scheme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the unprecedented flooding in November 2019 and the storms which followed in winter 2019/2020, government announced Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants of up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes, charities and businesses become more flood resilient.
The repair grants apply to those affected in district or unitary authorities that have 25 or more severely flooded properties.
The Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants are administered by eligible local authorities, with Defra reimbursing local authorities for grants paid for eligible properties. The most recent figures (held by Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government) show that over 47 district or unitary councils with over 7000 properties are eligible in England for the November 2019 and February 2020 PFR repair schemes.
In recognition of the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, both the 2019 and 2020 schemes have been extended by 9 months to give homeowners and businesses more time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.
Local authorities on the November scheme now have until 31 December 2021 to recover their costs whilst local authorities on the February scheme have until 1 July 2022.