East Midlands - Written Answers

Written Question

Leisure Centres and Swimming Pools: East Midlands

Monday 22nd April 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many grants her Department has made to (a) leisure centres and (b) swimming pools in (i) Lincolnshire and (ii) the East Midlands since 2010; and what the total value was of those grants.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to swimming pools, as swimming is a core life skill and a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing access to leisure facilities lies at Local Authority level, and the Government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support swimming facilities.

In 2023/24, the Government provided over £60 million to Local Authorities in additional funding to support operating costs and help improve energy efficiency of facilities through the Swimming Pool Support Fund, delivered via Sport England. In total, the Swimming Pool Support Fund (£60 million Exchequer, £20 million of Sport England National Lottery funding) will fund 442 individual facilities and 788 individual pools across 269 Local Authorities by March 2025.

As part of the Swimming Pool Support Fund:

Over £3 million has been awarded to 11 individual facilities (21 individual pools) across 7 Local Authorities in Lincolnshire. Included in the £3 million awarded across Lincolnshire are two facilities that received Sport England National Lottery funding - Wragby Swimming Pool and Jubilee Park Woodhall Spa LTD.
Over £9.5 million has been awarded to 47 individual facilities (84 individual pools) across 33 Local Authorities in the East Midlands region by March 2025.

Further details of local authorities and swimming pools/leisure centres awarded funding from Phase I and Phase II of the Swimming Pool Support Fund are available on Sport England’s website at:

We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s length body, Sport England - which receives £323 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. Sport England publishes data on all grant recipients as part of its register of grants awards, which is updated on a quarterly basis with awards dating back to 2009. Between 2009 - 2023, in addition to the Swimming Pool Support Fund, Sport England provided over £2.1 million of funding to Lincolnshire and over £15 million to the East Midlands to support leisure centres and swimming pools. Across the East Midlands, just over £7 million of this is related to the Sport England Covid-19 Leisure Recovery Fund. There is more detail on Sport England’s website at: https://www.sportengland.org/about-us.

Written Question

Prison Officers: Vacancies

Monday 22nd April 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many vacancies for band (a) three, (b) four and (c) five prison officers there are as of 16 April 2024, by (i) prison and (ii) region.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are doing more than ever to attract and retain the best staff, including boosting salaries and launching our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign. These efforts are working - we have over 4,800 FTE additional officers between March 2017 and December 2023 and retention rates for prison staff are improving.

Our latest published HMPPS workforce statistics present data up to 31 December 2023. While you have asked for data as at 16 April 2024, we are unable to provide data for periods following December 2023 as this could pre-empt the next set of published Staff in Post data, which will be released on Thursday 16 May 2024. Once updated staffing data have been published in May, including data up to 31 March 2024, we will then be able to consider questions related to vacancy data up to and including March 2024.

In December 2023, across the whole of the Public Sector Prison estate in England and Wales (including the Youth Custody Service) for Band 3-5 Prison Officers, Staff in Post was 63 FTE below the Target Staffing level. This figure is a combination of indicative vacancies at prisons with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level and the indicative number of surplus staff at other prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level. Where possible, prisons with surplus staff are likely to be sending those staff to work on Detached Duty at prisons with vacancies. At times, we have intentionally over-recruited in certain prisons or regions to give the system wider resilience and where prisons are not at their Target Staffing level. Use of Detached Duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison or region to support another, is also not reflected in the indicative vacancies number.

In December 2023, there were just under 790 FTE Band 3-5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies across individual Public Sector Prison establishments in England and Wales, where Staff in Post was below their Target Staffing level, and just over 720 FTE indicative number of surplus staff across individual Public Sector Prison establishments, in establishments where Staff in Post was above their Target Staffing level.

Table One (below) shows the total Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prisons England & Wales, by region, as of December 2023. Table Two attached shows total Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prisons England & Wales, by region, December 2023.

Table One: Total Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prisons England & Wales, by region (summed from the establishment level in Annex A), December 2023
Region	Band 3 Indicative Vacancies	Band 4 Indicative Vacancies	Band 5 Indicative Vacancies
Avon, South Dorset and Wiltshire Prisons	30	6	5
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Prisons	10	13	6
Cumbria & Lancashire Prisons	0	6	5
Devon and North Dorset Prisons	12	3	0
East Midlands Prisons	22	7	14
Greater Manchester, Merseyside & Cheshire Prisons	0	8	4
Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk Prisons	11	8	0
Kent, Surrey and Sussex Prisons	59	10	9
London Prisons	13	36	22
Long Term High Security Estate - North	12	23	7
Long Term High Security Estate - South	259	49	33
North East Prisons	0	12	10
North Midlands Prisons	0	8	7
South Central Prisons	48	25	7
West Midlands Prisons	0	10	15
Women's Prison Group	25	3	9
Yorkshire Prisons	4	4	10
Youth Custody Services*	-	-	31
Wales	36	4	1
	541	237	196

* In addition, there were 76 FTE vacancies across the Band 3 and 4 grades combined for the Youth Custody Services. In the Youth Custody Services there are a considerable number of staff employed at Band 3 grade working against the Band 4 target as they work towards becoming Band 4 Youth Justice Workers. As a result, we have merged the Band 3 and 4 grades for these five institutions.

Notes on data in this response

All data is taken from Workforce Planning Tool returns and shows the average position across the month (as of December 2023), adjusted for joiners and leavers in the month.
Data only covers Public Sector Prison establishments (including the four Young Offenders Institutions (Cookham Wood, Feltham, Werrington and Wetherby)) in England and Wales (and the Youth Custody Service) and will not reflect any Band 3 – 5 Prison Officers who are working in headquarters establishments (e.g. area offices), Public Sector Prisons in Wales or Privately Managed Prisons.
Workforce Planning Tool returns are manually completed by staff in prisons each month and, as with any manual returns, are subject to human error.
Indicative vacancies are the difference between Target Staffing levels and Staff in Post across the entire Public Sector Prison estate in England and Wales at prisons (and the Youth Custody Service) with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level. Indicative surpluses are the difference between Target Staffing levels and Staff in Post across the entire Public Sector Prison estate in England and Wales (and the Youth Custody Service) at prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level.
In Table One we have summed indicative vacancies at the Public Sector Prison establishment level to produce the table showing indicative vacancies at the regional level.
Target Staffing level is the number of staff required to run an optimal regime in each prison. This level is greater than the minimum number of staff required for a prison to operate safely, and includes allowances for staff taking leave, being off sick or being on training.
The Target Staffing Figures are set on a site-specific basis and vary in size.
Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (including specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
Target Staffing levels are established based on a 39-hour working week. Staff in Post (FTE) is set at 1.0 FTE for those on a 39-hour contract / 1.05 FTE for those on a 41-hour contract and 0.95 FTE for those on a 37-hour contract.
Target Staffing levels cannot be used to directly calculate vacancies due to the discretion governors have to change establishment level staffing requirements through Governors' Freedoms. As a result, the MoJ does not currently regularly present vacancy data and the data presented should be treated as indicative.
Staff in Post data used to calculate an indicative number of vacancies does not take into account those on long-term absences (e.g. career breaks) / loans / secondments / agency staff or other forms of overtime.
There will be some prisons in our data who appear to have a surplus of staff at the Band 3 or Band 4 grades whereas in reality some of these staff are temporarily promoted to more senior grades. Temporary promotions will not be visible in this data and so these roles will appear as vacancies.

Written Question

Regional Schools Commissioners: Finance and Staff

Tuesday 16th April 2024

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual budget is for regional schools commissioners, per commissioner per region in each financial year since 2014-15; and how many staff were employed by each commissioner on average in each financial year since 2014-15.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department has identified the costs as the workforce costs and the General Administration Expenditure for the Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) and their teams up to 2022, and for Regional Directors and their teams from 2022 onwards. RSCs were replaced in 2022 by Regional Directors with an expanded remit.

The department's policy of retaining financial records for seven years limits access to data before the 2016/17 financial year.

In 2019 the department underwent re-organisation to align its delivery work in relation to academies, free schools and school improvement, bringing together functions that were previously delivered in different parts of the department. This data for 2019/2022 is therefore not directly comparable to previous years, as the functions delivered by the RSC teams expanded.

The RSC Staff programme budget, represented in the table below, was held centrally until the 2020/2021 financial year and then was split and allocated to the individual regions from 2021/2022. This was a change in where the budget sat rather than a change in staffing levels.

Workforce actual spend data for Regional Schools Commissioner teams 2016/2022

Workforce Actual Spend (Millions of GBP)	FY 2016/17	FY 2017-18	FY 2018/19	FY 2019/20	FY 2020/21	FY 2021/22
RSC East of England and North East London	£1.60	£1.62	£1.15	£1.07	£1.20	£1.99
RSC East Midlands and Humber	£1.90	£1.48	£1.39	£1.10	£1.33	£2.58
RSC Lancashire and West Yorkshire	£1.85	£1.91	£1.45	£1.33	£1.39	£2.86
RSC North & Opportunity North East	£1.57	£1.29	£1.16	£0.74	£0.93	£3.36
RSC North West London and South Central England	£1.89	£1.62	£1.27	£1.33	£1.51	£3.06
RSC South East and South London	£2.18	£1.66	£1.43	£1.11	£1.63	£3.40
RSD South West	£2.20	£1.98	£1.39	£1.59	£1.81	£3.55
RSC West Midlands	£1.90	£1.91	£1.15	£1.20	£1.67	£3.18
RSC Staff Programme Costs*	£4.08	£9.95	£14.68	£15.90	£16.31	£0.37

Full Time Equivalent staffing data for Regional Schools Commissioner teams 2016/2022

Full Time Equivalent Staff per Region	FY16/17	FY17/18	FY18/19	FY19/20	FY20/21	FY21/22
RSC East of England and North East London	44.01	41.46	42.6	47.4	41	41.6
RSC East Midlands and Humber	46.99	59.93	47	51.4	53	49.9
RSC Lancashire and West Yorkshire	54.16	68.71	48.6	64.2	64.1	54.5
RSC North & Opportunity North East	40.48	41.28	32.6	41.9	37.7	37.3
RSC North West London and South Central England	49.35	52.43	48.4	64.1	51.6	43
RSC South East and South London	54.19	58.52	42.4	61.7	54.8	52.3
RSC South West	54.66	55.59	53.7	67.2	59.2	58.9
RSC West Midlands	58.62	52.57	46.7	57.9	58.6	56.3

In July 2022, the creation of Regions Group within the department led to the replacement of the RSC role with Regional Directors, with a broader remit for the delivery of special educational needs and disabilities support and children’s social care improvement and interventions in their regions alongside their role in relation to academies and free schools. The regional structures were also re-organised to align with geographical boundaries of English regions. This data is therefore not directly comparable to the previous years.

Workforce actual spend data for Regional Director teams 2022/2024

Workforce Actual Spend Data for Regional Director Teams 2022 – 2024 (Millions of GBP)	Workforce Actual	Workforce Actual (at end of Feb 2024)
	FY 2022/23	FY 2023/24
Regional Directorate - East Midlands	£2.70	£3.11
Regional Directorate - East of England	£3.60	£3.58
Regional Directorate - London	£4.06	£3.68
Regional Directorate - North East	£2.47	£2.09
Regional Directorate - North West	£4.44	£4.36
Regional Directorate - South East	£4.04	£3.93
Regional Directorate - South West	£4.34	£4.13
Regional Directorate - West Midlands	£4.26	£3.91
Regional Directorate - Yorkshire and the Humber	£4.00	£3.89

Full Time Equivalent staffing data for Regional Director teams 2022/2024

Full Time Equivalent Staff per Region	FY22/23	FY23/24 (Actual FTE at end of Feb 24)
Regional Directorate - East Midlands	47.7	54.6
Regional Directorate - East of England	53.0	65.5
Regional Directorate - London	55.6	56.3
Regional Directorate - North East	38.3	33.2
Regional Directorate - North West	76.2	80.0
Regional Directorate - South East	62.8	61.2
Regional Directorate - South West	66.3	78.5
Regional Directorate - West Midlands	69.7	70.7
Regional Directorate - Yorkshire and the Humber	62.7	71.7

Written Question

Disability: East Midlands

Tuesday 16th April 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of the working age population who are disabled in (a) the East Midlands and (b) Lincolnshire.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is given in the table below.

Number and percentage of disabled people aged 16 to 64, 2022/2023

Geographical area	Number of working age disabled people	Percentage of working age people who are disabled
East Midlands	720,200	24.5%
Lincolnshire	129,300	29.7%

Source – table LMS008

Numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred and percentages to one decimal place
Numbers shown are central estimates and subject to sampling variation. The precision of these estimates will be limited by sample size.
Annual Population Survey data has not been reweighted to incorporate the latest estimates of the size and composition of the UK population.

Written Question

Community Orders: Pilot Schemes

Monday 15th April 2024

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people completed unpaid work on the Community Payback Rapid Deployment Project pilot schemes between June and December 2023; how many hours of unpaid work were completed; and how many and what proportion of those hours were attributable to schemes run in the (a) Greater Manchester, (b) East of England, (c) Wales and (d) North East Probation Service regions.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Between 19 June and 31 December 2023, a total of 8,809 community payback hours have been completed as a part of the Community Payback Rapid Deployment Project pilot scheme by 509 different people.

Probation Region	Community Payback Rapid Deployment Hours Worked	Proportion of Rapid Deployment hours worked per region	People completing Community Payback Rapid Deployment
East of England	921	10.4%	79
Greater Manchester	5,358	60.8%	193
North East Region	787	8.9%	64
Wales	596	6.8%	90
West Midlands Region	906	10.3%	54
Yorkshire and The Humber	242	2.7%	29

The data source is nDelius, the Case Management System used by the Probation Service. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the information collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. While the figures shown have been checked as far as practicable, they should be regarded as approximate and not necessarily accurate to the last whole number shown in the tables.

To note, the figures are different to those provided in parliamentary question responses in October and December 2023, due to work undertaken to improve the accuracy of the data recorded.

Written Question

Driving Tests: Waiting Lists

Monday 15th April 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time for a driving test was in (a) England and (b) East Midlands as of 25 March 2024.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The average waiting time for a car practical driving test in England, in February 2024, was 17.5 weeks.

The average waiting time for a car practical driving test in the East Midlands, in February 2024, was 17.6 weeks.

Written Question

Nurses: Schools

Thursday 4th April 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent qualified school nurses are working in a public health-commissioned (a) school nursing service, (b) zero to 19 service and (c) five to 19 healthy child programme in each local authority area.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Since April 2013, local authorities have held responsibility for commissioning public health services for school-aged children. These services may be commissioned from a range of providers both inside and outside of the National Health Service. NHS England publishes monthly workforce data which includes information on the number of school nurses directly employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations in England. This data will not represent the total number of school nurses delivering local authority commissioned services, as it will excludes places where services are commissioned outside of the NHS. It is not possible to identify the specific service or programme that these staff are working within.

While data is not available at a local authority level, the following table shows full-time equivalent (FTE) school nurses working within NHS trusts and other core organisations in England by Government Office Region, as of November 2023:

Government Office Region	FTE School Nurses
East Midlands	140
East of England	161
London	325
North East	55
North West	434
South East	291
South West	81
West Midlands	286
Yorkshire and The Humber	207

Written Question

Flood Control: Finance

Tuesday 2nd April 2024

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of the total flood and coastal risk management budget has been spent in each (a) region, (b) constituency and (c) local authority.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In March 2020, the Government doubled its investment in flood defences to a record £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. We are in the third year of this Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management investment programme.

Since April 2021, approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested in over 200 flood protection schemes, better protecting over 71,000 properties.

Below is a table which shows the actual spend between 2021 and 2023, the allocation between 2023 and 2025, and an indicative allocation from 2025 to 2027 by ONS region. An indicative range is given for 2025 to 2027 because the programme is reviewed and refreshed annually as projects progress. This allows for flexibility to manage change and introduce new schemes or urgent works if necessary.

Grant in Aid (Millions)	Actual spend		Allocation		Indicative allocation range
ONS Region	April 2021 to March 2022	April 2022 to March 2023	April 2023 to March 2024	April 2024 to March 2025	April 2025 to March 2027
East Midlands	£71.3	£76.5	£64.1	£600.3	£146 to £206
East of England	£73.7	£79.2	£107.0	£111.9	£168 to £254
London	£32.7	£34.3	£47.3	£15.5	£18 to £36
North East	£13.6	£15.5	£17.4	£32.0	£68 to £94
North West	£107.6	£95.4	£95.4	£98.8	£256 to £356
South East	£115.3	£130.8	£134.7	£108.1	£226 to £330
South West	£95.2	£95.6	£109.0	£155.9	£293 to £417
West Midlands	£37.2	£35.2	£36.1	£40.9	£67 to £99
Yorkshire	£128.7	£114.9	£104.5	£117.4	£246 to £350
Projects in more than one ONS region	£66.9	£76.8			£342 to £418*

* Projects in more than one ONS region indicative allocation range is inclusive of April 2023 to March 2027

Investment is allocated where the flood risk is highest and the benefits of flood resilience are the greatest. A consistent methodology is used, applying a national funding formula under the partnership funding policy, to allocate funding to schemes proposed by all risk management authorities. This ensures a fair distribution of funding based on agreed priorities, principles and needs. The availability of feasible projects also influences the distribution of investment. There are therefore no specific regional investment targets.

The table attached (with data caveats) also shows the allocation and spend by local authority and constituency between 2021 and 2025.

See table attached.

Each year the Environment Agency also produces a summary of flood and coastal erosion risk management work carried out by risk management authorities in England. This is required under Section 18 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. When the current FCERM investment programme ends, after March 2027, the Environment Agency will publish a report with a breakdown of spending, similar to the report published in 2022 after the 2015-2021 investment programme.

Written Question

Flood Control: Finance

Tuesday 2nd April 2024

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of the total flood and coastal risk management budget has been allocated to each (a) region, (b) constituency and (c) local authority.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since April 2021, approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested in over 200 flood protection schemes, better protecting over 71,000 properties.

Grant in Aid (Millions)	Actual spend		Allocation		Indicative allocation range
ONS Region	April 2021 to March 2022	April 2022 to March 2023	April 2023 to March 2024	April 2024 to March 2025	April 2025 to March 2027
East Midlands	£71.3	£76.5	£64.1	£600.3	£146 to £206
East of England	£73.7	£79.2	£107.0	£111.9	£168 to £254
London	£32.7	£34.3	£47.3	£15.5	£18 to £36
North East	£13.6	£15.5	£17.4	£32.0	£68 to £94
North West	£107.6	£95.4	£95.4	£98.8	£256 to £356
South East	£115.3	£130.8	£134.7	£108.1	£226 to £330
South West	£95.2	£95.6	£109.0	£155.9	£293 to £417
West Midlands	£37.2	£35.2	£36.1	£40.9	£67 to £99
Yorkshire	£128.7	£114.9	£104.5	£117.4	£246 to £350
Projects in more than one ONS region	£66.9	£76.8			£342 to £418*

* Projects in more than one ONS region indicative allocation range is inclusive of April 2023 to March 2027

The table attached (with data caveats) also shows the allocation and spend by local authority and constituency between 2021 and 2025.

See table attached.

Written Question

Flood Control: Finance

Tuesday 2nd April 2024

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the amount and proportion of the total flood and coastal risk management budget that has been allocated but not spent in each (a) region, (b) constituency and (c) local authority.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since April 2021, approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested in over 200 flood protection schemes, better protecting over 71,000 properties.

Grant in Aid (Millions)	Actual spend		Allocation		Indicative allocation range
ONS Region	April 2021 to March 2022	April 2022 to March 2023	April 2023 to March 2024	April 2024 to March 2025	April 2025 to March 2027
East Midlands	£71.3	£76.5	£64.1	£600.3	£146 to £206
East of England	£73.7	£79.2	£107.0	£111.9	£168 to £254
London	£32.7	£34.3	£47.3	£15.5	£18 to £36
North East	£13.6	£15.5	£17.4	£32.0	£68 to £94
North West	£107.6	£95.4	£95.4	£98.8	£256 to £356
South East	£115.3	£130.8	£134.7	£108.1	£226 to £330
South West	£95.2	£95.6	£109.0	£155.9	£293 to £417
West Midlands	£37.2	£35.2	£36.1	£40.9	£67 to £99
Yorkshire	£128.7	£114.9	£104.5	£117.4	£246 to £350
Projects in more than one ONS region	£66.9	£76.8			£342 to £418*

* Projects in more than one ONS region indicative allocation range is inclusive of April 2023 to March 2027

The table attached (with data caveats) also shows the allocation and spend by local authority and constituency between 2021 and 2025.

See table attached.

«
1
2 (current)
3
4
5
6
»