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 |
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.
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 |
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the (a) locations and (b) number of places per location of all planned prison places.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To date, we have delivered c.5,900 places. This includes our two new prisons HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way. By the end of 2025, we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total. This will include our third new prison, HMP Millsike, delivering c.1,500 places, new houseblocks at HMPs Stocken and Rye Hill, as well as hundreds more Rapid Deployment Cells.
Under current plans, we are scheduled to deliver at the following sites from 21 March 2024:
Programme | Site | Places |
New Prisons | HMP Millsike | 1,468 |
Garth Wymott 2* | 1,715 | |
Gartree 2 | 1,715 | |
Grendon 2 | 1,468 | |
HMP Gartree Houseblock ** | 247 | |
HMP Fosse Way Houseblock | 245 | |
Private prisons – houseblock | HMP Rye Hill | 458 |
HMP Parc** | 320 | |
Houseblocks | HMP Bullingdon | 247 |
HMP Channings Wood | 494 | |
HMP Elmley | 247 | |
HMP Hindley | 494 | |
HMP Highpoint | 741 | |
HMP Wayland | 121 | |
HMP Guys Marsh | 180 | |
HMP Stocken | 214 | |
Refurbishments | HMP Birmingham | 301 |
HMP Norwich | 171 | |
HMP Liverpool | 350*** | |
Rapid Deployment Cells | HMP Erlestoke | 40 |
HMP Foston Hall | 40 | |
HMP The Verne | 40 | |
HMP Northumberland | 60 | |
HMP Springhill | 40 | |
HMP Kirklevington Grange | 153 | |
HMP Prescoed | 80 | |
Category D | HMP Hatfield | 60 |
HMP Leyhill ** | 240 | |
HMP Springhill ** | 180 | |
HMP Sudbury | 120 | |
HMP Ford ** | 420 | |
HMP Standford Hill ** | 240 | |
Small Secure Houseblocks | HMP Brinsford | 120 |
HMP Humber | 120 | |
HMP Lancaster Farms | 240 | |
HMP Morton Hall | 60 | |
HMP Northumberland | 240 | |
HMP Onley | 180 | |
HMP Ranby | 120 | |
HMP Erlestoke | 180 |
* This site is subject to an ongoing planning appeal.
** Delivery at these sites is subject to planning permission.
*** A wing-by-wing refurbishment is ongoing, with some places already delivered.
Any additional sites not listed here are commercially sensitive and information released about these would prejudice the department’s negotiating position and ability to achieve value for money in these developments.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of the working age population are disabled in the North East; and how many and what proportion were disabled in 2010.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the table below.
The definition of disability changed in 2013 therefore estimates for 2010 and 2022 are not directly comparable.
Number and percentage of disabled people aged 16 to 64 by country/region
Country/ region | 2010 | 2022 | ||
Number of disabled people | Percentage of disabled people | Number of disabled people | Percentage of disabled people | |
United Kingdom | 8,257,200 | 20.5 | 9,311,800 | 22.4 |
North East | 399,400 | 24.0 | 429,500 | 26.4 |
North West | 1,012,200 | 22.5 | 1,111,300 | 24.7 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 738,500 | 21.9 | 818,200 | 24.2 |
East Midlands | 629,200 | 21.8 | 712,500 | 24.1 |
West Midlands | 720,900 | 20.5 | 819,300 | 22.6 |
East | 729,400 | 19.9 | 790,200 | 20.8 |
London | 935,500 | 16.9 | 1,092,600 | 17.7 |
South East | 992,100 | 18.3 | 1,144,800 | 20.4 |
South West | 653,600 | 20.0 | 766,900 | 22.9 |
Wales | 469,200 | 24.4 | 506,600 | 26.5 |
Scotland | 746,500 | 21.9 | 861,200 | 25.0 |
Northern Ireland | 230,700 | 19.9 | 258,700 | 22.1 |
Source: Annual Population Survey (APS) -Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk)
Notes:
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the total cost to the public purse of (a) repairing, (b) refurbishing and (c) rebuilding school buildings in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Well-maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the department to support a high-quality education for all children. The department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion in the 2023/24 financial year. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme is transforming poor condition buildings at over 500 schools.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools, such as academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools based on local knowledge of their estates. They decide how to use annual funding provided, or when to apply to central programmes. Where there are serious issues with buildings that cannot be managed independently, the department provides additional support on a case-by-case basis.
This government introduced the Condition Data Collection (CDC), the first ever comprehensive survey of the school estate and one of the largest data collection programmes of its kind in Europe. The department’s evidence-led approach, following the James Review of Capital in 2011, has enabled the department to use consistent data on the condition of the school estate to inform capital allocations and funding policy. This means that the department targets more funding to where it is needed most, with schools in relatively poorer condition attracting more funding for their responsible body.
Almost all government funded schools in England were visited as part of the Condition Data Collection 1 (CDC1) programme between 2017 and 2019. Surveyors and engineers assessed the condition of multiple components of the schools' buildings and land within twelve primary building elements using an A-D rating. Key findings, including regional breakdowns, from the CDC1 can be found in the report, ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’, which is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60af7cbbe90e071b54214c82/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Significant capital investment has been provided since the CDC1 was carried out, and Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) is now in progress to provide updated information and will be completed by 2026. Early indications from the CDC2 data collection to date, and feedback from responsible bodies, showed that in almost every case where a D grade component was identified in the CDC1 report, it has since been addressed.
The list of schools that have been awarded a place on the School Rebuilding Programme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
Funding for capital programmes up to the 2024/25 financial year comes from the department’s overall £19 billion capital budget set at the 2021 Spending Review. Capital budgets beyond 2024/25 will be determined through a Spending Review, in the normal way.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 publish a breakdown of spending from the flood and coastal erosion risk management investment programme by the (a) number, (b) type and (c) location of flood defences completed.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Each year the Environment Agency 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.
We are in the third year of the current 6-year £5.2 billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. At the end of March 2023, the Environment Agency estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with over 200 flood risk schemes completed and almost 60,000 properties better protected. Below is a breakdown of spending by region for the current investment programme.
ONS Region | 2021 to 2023 expenditure (£ millions) | 2021 to 2023 Properties better protected |
East Midlands | 148 | 9,620 |
East of England | 153 | 5,730 |
London | 67 | 9,730 |
North East | 29 | 240 |
North West | 203 | 6,570 |
South East | 246 | 17,490 |
South West | 191 | 4,240 |
West Midlands | 72 | 2,790 |
Yorkshire & Humber | 244 | 2,940 |
Nationally led projects | 144 | 0 |
Total | 1,496 | 59,350 |
The breakdown of the types of schemes delivered within the first two years is as follows:
Main Rivers/Sea | 140 |
Coastal Erosion | 8 |
Surface Water | 66 |
Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what performance measures his Department uses to measure the success of transitional accommodation for prison leavers.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Prison leavers without settled accommodation are almost 50 per cent more likely to re-offend compared with those with settled accommodation: a settled place to live is a key factor in reducing re-offending, cutting crime and protecting the public.
The data collected on people leaving prison for transitional accommodation, together with data on settled accommodation three months after release, can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c10b4e90b54500143e8375/Probation_Performance_Data_Tables_2022-23.xlsx.
HMPPS Community Accommodation Service (CAS) currently provides transitional accommodation via three tiers of support, each focused on a different cohort. CAS1 (Approved Premises) is used as a public protection resource to accommodate higher-risk offenders. CAS2 provides accommodation for medium-risk defendants on bail and prisoners eligible for release under home detention curfew. CAS3 is our ground-breaking new temporary accommodation service.
HMPPS launched CAS3 in July 2021, providing up to 12 weeks’ guaranteed accommodation on release for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Initially implemented in five probation regions (Yorkshire and the Humber; North West; Greater Manchester; East of England; and Kent, Surrey and Sussex), the service was rolled out to Wales in June 2022. From April 2023, the CAS3 service was operating in all probation regions in England and Wales.
Between 2019-20 and 2022-23, the proportion of prison leavers who were homeless upon release decreased by five percentage points, from 16 per cent to 11 per cent.
By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions in comparison with regions where CAS3 had yet to be implemented.
Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department collects information on how many people who leave prison for transitional accommodation leave with settled accommodation.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Prison leavers without settled accommodation are almost 50 per cent more likely to re-offend compared with those with settled accommodation: a settled place to live is a key factor in reducing re-offending, cutting crime and protecting the public.
The data collected on people leaving prison for transitional accommodation, together with data on settled accommodation three months after release, can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c10b4e90b54500143e8375/Probation_Performance_Data_Tables_2022-23.xlsx.
HMPPS Community Accommodation Service (CAS) currently provides transitional accommodation via three tiers of support, each focused on a different cohort. CAS1 (Approved Premises) is used as a public protection resource to accommodate higher-risk offenders. CAS2 provides accommodation for medium-risk defendants on bail and prisoners eligible for release under home detention curfew. CAS3 is our ground-breaking new temporary accommodation service.
HMPPS launched CAS3 in July 2021, providing up to 12 weeks’ guaranteed accommodation on release for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Initially implemented in five probation regions (Yorkshire and the Humber; North West; Greater Manchester; East of England; and Kent, Surrey and Sussex), the service was rolled out to Wales in June 2022. From April 2023, the CAS3 service was operating in all probation regions in England and Wales.
Between 2019-20 and 2022-23, the proportion of prison leavers who were homeless upon release decreased by five percentage points, from 16 per cent to 11 per cent.
By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions in comparison with regions where CAS3 had yet to be implemented.
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 in the probation service there were in each region on 1 January 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The workforce position, at 31 December 2023, was 20,806 full-time equivalent (FTE) Staff in Post working in Probation Service grades (including those working in Approved Premises). This is an increase of 1,856 FTE (9.8%) since 31 December 2022.
Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service and we have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year since 2021 to deliver more robust supervision, recruit more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.
We have recruited a record 4,039 trainee Probation Officers between 2020/21 and 2022/23 and we expect these intakes to qualify by the end of 2024 and begin to take on Probation Officer caseloads.
Trainee Probation Officers are onboarded twice annually (including this March which will not be counted in the figures below), and this can lead to fluctuations in staffing levels across the year.
We will continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions to help bolster the number of applications.
Table One: Vacancies across Probation Service Regions, December 2023, all Probation Service grades.
Probation Service Region | Vacancies (FTE) |
PS East Midlands | 21 |
PS East of England | 277 |
PS Greater Manchester | 15 |
PS Kent, Surrey & Sussex | 121 |
PS London | 463 |
PS North East | 50 |
PS North West | 128 |
PS South Central | 154 |
PS South West | 85 |
PS Wales | 0 |
PS West Midlands | 82 |
PS Yorkshire & the Humber | 45 |
PS Approved Premises | 0 |
Notes