Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will launch a nationwide review of neonatal (a) mortality rates and (b) unexplained deaths.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no current plans to launch a nationwide review of neonatal mortality rates and unexplained deaths. Professor Lord Darzi’s report on his independent investigation of the National Health Service in England has shone a light on the critical condition of the NHS, and the Government will continue to work closely with NHS England to ensure that women and babies receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care.
Neonatal mortality and neonatal unexplained deaths are measured by both the Office for National Statistics and the National Child Mortality Database. Since 2010, the neonatal mortality rate in England has decreased by 25% for babies with at least 24 weeks completed gestation. Since 2010, the number of babies who died unexpectedly in their first 28 days of life in England and Wales decreased from 40 to 29.
The NHS is working to further improve outcomes for babies and is rolling out the third version of the Saving Babies' Lives Care Bundle to all trusts. This provides maternity units with guidance and interventions to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of the prisoners released under the early release scheme (a) are foreign nationals and (b) will be deported.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are unable to provide the requested prisoner release figures at this time, as they form a subset of prisoner releases data scheduled for future publication. Numbers of custodial releases for the period covering July 2024 to September 2024 will be published on 30 January 2025, here: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
All foreign national offenders in receipt of custodial sentences are referred to the Home Office to be considered for deportation. The Home Office make all final decisions relating to deportation, taking into account individual circumstances in each case, meaning it is not possible to predict future deportation numbers.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will list (a) each of the variables and (b) the source of data for each variable used in the new Automated Valuation Model for the Valuation Office Agency's council tax revaluation in Wales.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The variables used in the AVM model include property attributes, locations, and sales details. While much of this data is sourced from VOA records, the VOA supplement this with data available across Government and through the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement, including from the Office for National Statistics, HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of reported incidents of anti-social behaviour in (a) Aldershot constituency and (b) Hampshire.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. We understand that anti-social behaviour causes great harm and misery to our communities, and, if left unchecked, can lead to more serious offending.
We will crack down on the adults making neighbourhoods feel unsafe and unwelcoming by introducing new powers, such as Respect Orders with tough sanctions and penalties, to tackle repeat offending.
The Office for National Statistics annually publishes anti-social behaviour incidents reported to the police by Police Force Area. The latest available data covering year to March 2024 can be found here: Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). Data is also published at the Community Safety Partnership level. The latest available data covering year to March 2024 can be found here: Recorded crime data by Community Safety Partnership area - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Monthly Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) police recorded incidents of anti-social behaviour are available through police.uk. The latest data covering incidents to end of July 2024 can be found here: Data downloads | data.police.uk
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the last Valuation Office Agency business rates revaluation on critical national infrastructure, including airports and power stations.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The last business rates revaluation, which came into effect in England and Wales on 1 April 2023, resulted in a fall in the total rateable values for each of the sectors shown below. Using the examples provided, the figures below demonstrate the overall change in total rateable value (RV) for civil airports and fossil fuel power stations, between the 2017 and 2023 rating lists.
Civil airports.
2017 RV: £392,425,000
2023 RV: £390,997,000
Fossil fuel power stations.
2017 RV: £164,653,000
2023 RV: £138,420,000
For transparency the VOA publishes official statistics for each property class, which show the change in RV. These can be found on the Non-domestic Rating Stock of Properties statistics pages for 2023 and 2024.
The VOA carried out a revaluation of around 2.1 million non-domestic properties in England and Wales to produce the 2023 rating list. The new RVs came into force on 1 April 2023, with the 2023 RV reflecting changes in rental values between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2021.
The government is committed to a fairer business rates system. In our manifesto, we pledged to level the playing field between the high street and online giants, as well as to take steps to incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse was of the winter fuel allowance in 2022/23; what estimate she has made of the savings to the public purse of only paying the winter fuel allowance o people claiming pension credit; how many excess winter deaths there were in each of the last three years; and what estimate she has made of the annual cost of administering a means-tested winter fuel allowance.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In 2022/23, 11.4 million people in 8.4 million households in Great Britain received a Winter Fuel Payment, at a total cost of £2 billion. The Government estimates that linking entitlement to receipt of Pension Credit and other relevant DWP income-related benefits will reduce expenditure by around £1.4 billion in 2024/25 and £1.5bn in 2025/26.
In terms of administrative costs, in 2022/23 the Department for Work and Pensions spent £2.6m on the administration of Winter Fuel Payments. It is currently assessing the delivery costs for future years. Details of excess winter deaths in England and Wales can be found at: Winter mortality in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
The Government is determined to ensure that the poorest pensioners get the support they need. As part of the Pension Credit Week of Action, we joined forces with national charities, broadcasters and local authorities to encourage pensioners to check their eligibility and make a claim.
From 16 September, we will be running a national marketing campaign on a range of channels. The campaign will target potential pension-age customers, as well as friends and family who can encourage and support them to apply.
Our future campaign messaging will also focus on encouraging pensioners to apply for Pension Credit before the 21 December 2024, which is the last date for making a successful backdated claim for Pension Credit in order to receive a Winter Fuel Payment.
We will work with external partners, local authorities and the Devolved Governments to boost the take-up of Pension Credit.
Our continued commitment to the triple lock means the full new state pension is forecast to increase by a further £1,700 over this course of the parliament.
We are also providing support through our Warm Homes Plan which pensioners will benefit from. This will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating – upgrading millions of homes over this Parliament. Our long-term plan will protect billpayers permanently, reduce fuel poverty, and get the UK back on track to meet our climate goals.
Our other steps include cutting waiting times in the NHS which will help many pensioners currently waiting in pain and discomfort for treatment, and delivering the economic stability which is so crucial for pensioners.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who were not in education, employment or training in Mid Cheshire constituency in the last five years had (a) previously been identified in the SEN Support category and (b) an education, health and care plan.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data for 16 to 24 year olds not in education employment or training (NEET) is not available by constituency nor by special educational needs. National figures for overall proportions of 16 to 24 year olds NEET in England are sourced from the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that her Department collects (a) comprehensive, (b) comparable and (c) disaggregated data on (i) violence against women and girls, (ii) the protected characteristics of (A) victims and (B) perpetrators and (iii) their relationship.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes a wide range of statistics collected across government on offences disproportionately experienced by women and girls. This includes data on the demographic characteristics of victims and their relationships with perpetrators.
The department is working with ONS and other government departments to improve and expand data collections in this area to provide a stronger evidence base to inform the Government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of foreign nationals who receive a custodial prison sentence are deported on completion of their sentence.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office regularly publishes statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily.
Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.
We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation and they will be swiftly removed from the country.
In order to reduce the FNO prison population and support the MoJ in alleviating current prison capacity issues, we are focussing resources on those cases currently serving custodial sentences and maximising returns directly from prison.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data on unfilled school capacity by 2024 parliamentary constituency she plans to publish before the Finance Bill is introduced.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes annual statistics on the capacity and pupils on roll in schools, including unfilled places, each spring. This is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. Statistics publications are pre-announced on the GOV.UK website, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=department-for-education&order=updated-newest. This is done in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code), which can be found here: https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/. The department currently has no plan to change this publication schedule. The scheduling ensures that statistics are released as soon as they are ready while abiding by standards set by the Code in terms of trustworthiness, quality and value. Where statistics were published prior to the changes in parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in March 2025 for school capacity statistics.
School capacity data is published at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency. GIAS currently reflects the changes made following the general election parliamentary constituency changes, and can be accessed using the following link: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. Updates to geographical data are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics.