Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent assessment his Department has had made of the adequacy of the economic support available for Welsh businesses during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Hart - Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)
The UK Government is focused on supporting Welsh businesses and jobs through the Covid-19 outbreak. We have provided over £1.3 billion in Bounce Back Loans, £374 million in Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans, £523 million through the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, as well as £20 million through the Future Fund.
The UK Government has also protected over 400,000 Welsh jobs through the Job Retention Scheme, introduced VAT deferrals and VAT cuts for the tourism industry, provided an additional £9.3 billion to the welfare system across the UK, and created new innovative schemes such as ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ from which Wales has benefitted to the value of £13 million.
On top of this direct support we have provided the Welsh Government with a £5.2 billion funding guarantee for the current financial year to help tackle coronavirus. The Welsh Government will also receive an additional £1.3 billion next year, including £770 million for tackling the pandemic.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional nurses have been recruited to (a) Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and (b) Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust since December 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.
It is usual to provide year-on-year figures due to changes in the number of doctors throughout the year being linked to the recruitment and training cycles. The following table shows the change in the number of nurses and health visitors employed in Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust from both September and December 2019 to September 2020, full-time equivalent.
Nurse and health visitors | Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust |
Change since December 2019 | 66 (4.4%) | 24 (1.9%) |
Change since September 2019 | 106 (7.2%) | 36 (3.0%) |
Source: NHS Digital NHS HCHS workforce statistics
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional doctors have been recruited to (a) Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and (b) Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust since December 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.
Year-on-year figures are usually provided due to changes in the number of doctors throughout the year being linked to the recruitment and training cycles. The following table shows the change in the number of doctors employed in Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust from both September 2019 and December 2019 to September 2020, full-time equivalent.
HCHS doctors | Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust |
Change since December 2019 | 45 (6.1%) | 4 (6.2%) |
Change since September 2019 | 60 (8.4%) | 4 (6.7%) |
Source: NHS Digital NHS HCHS workforce statistics
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many additional police officers have been recruited to Sussex Police since December 2019.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are delivering on the people’s priorities by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023.
Police Uplift data is published quarterly and the latest release covers recruitment data from the start of the Programme in October 2019 to September 2020.
At 30 September 2020, Sussex Police had recruited 129 additional officers through the Police Uplift Programme and has therefore met its year one uplift allocation. The force also recruited 40 additional officers through other means during this period.
I am extremely grateful to those brave men and women who have signed up to join the police and keep our communities safe.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve rural communities' access to healthcare in West Sussex.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the specific challenges that rural areas face and the potential for certain health inequalities to develop. We recognise that across West Sussex there are areas of significant rurality, which present particular healthcare challenges, including physical access to services, access to specialist services, social isolation and loneliness, and distance challenges for staff.
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a legal duty on clinical commissioning groups to tackle health inequalities. NHS West Sussex is committed to working with its partners, including West Sussex County Council and the district and borough councils across the county, to ensure healthcare is commissioned to address these challenges.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department is making on delivering gigabit-speed broadband to rural homes and business throughout (a) Sussex and (b) Arundel and South Downs constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
We currently split Sussex into East and West when collecting data. According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000011), 97.3% of premises in East Sussex could access superfast speeds and 13.2% had access to gigabit capable speeds, which is up from 0.5% in 2016. Only 0.8% of premises have access to less than 10Mbps, which makes them eligible for the Universal Service obligation (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/uso). Fast, reliable broadband has been instrumental in helping businesses and communities cope with the pressures caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency. It has enabled businesses to continue trading, diversify their offer and assist residents to work from home by allowing everyday activities to become digital.
In East Sussex, the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme has issued vouchers worth £562,272 to deliver gigabit-speed broadband to 852 premises. Many more projects are in the pipeline to receive DCMS support.
DCMS continues to work with Sussex Local Bodies to deliver gigabit-capable broadband solutions through its other programme such as the Superfast programme, which has been delivering gigabit speeds for several years.
West Sussex is similar with 97.2% of premises with access to Superfast and 14% with access to gigabit capable speeds. 0.9% are eligible for the USO (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000032)
West Sussex is committed to its rural digital agenda and has been working with DCMS and suppliers to accelerate coverage in some of the hardest to reach areas of the county.
The DCMS Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, which West Sussex is “topping up” to support rural communities, has attracted great interest. So far 28 community projects have registered with DCMS meaning around 2000 premises are able to benefit from the scheme with £1.1m being profiled to date and a further 26 community projects are seeking quotes.
Arundel and South Downs constituency (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14000534) currently has 93% of premises with the ability to access superfast speeds which is up from 7% in 1012. Currently 8% can access gigabit speeds.
Mid Sussex also has an ongoing Local Full Fibre Network Programme (LFFN) with an investment of £2.2m. The project focuses on developing new fibre and ducting for a scaffold ring in Burgess Hill and a connection to the Brighton Digital Exchange and the creation of a new Digital Exchange in Burgess Hill.
Mid Sussex District Council has also been successful in securing £3.2M of funding through the Getting Britain Building fund from MHCLG. This is to build a Rural Connectivity Full Fibre Network between Burgess Hill and Brighton, across the South Downs.
This project will complement and leverage the DCMS Local Full Fibre Network Programme investment across Burgess Hill. The gigabit capable network will connect 7 rural towns and is within 200m of over 20,000 rural households. The network will be completed by March 2022.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) value of loans provided through the Business Interruption Loans Scheme to businesses in (i) West Sussex and (ii) Arundel and South Downs constituency since the introduction of that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
In the Chichester (West Sussex) constituency as of 15 November, 118 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £24,286,975. In the same constituency, 2106 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £63,038,524.
In the Arundel and South Downs constituency as of 15 November, 127 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £22,734,238. In the same constituency, 2089 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £61,589,232.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) value of loans provided through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme to businesses in (i) West Sussex and (ii) Arundel and South Downs constituency since the introduction of that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
In the Chichester (West Sussex) constituency as of 15 November, 118 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £24,286,975. In the same constituency, 2106 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £63,038,524.
In the Arundel and South Downs constituency as of 15 November, 127 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £22,734,238. In the same constituency, 2089 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £61,589,232.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) total value of grants provided through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to employees in (i) West Sussex and (ii) Arundel and South Downs constituency since the introduction of that scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC have published statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The statistics can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-coronavirus-covid-19-statistics.
For the period July to October 2020, the CJRS was closed to claims for employments not already furloughed and supported by the scheme except in certain exceptional circumstances. The total number of employments supported by the scheme up to that point was published in August and can be found on GOV.UK at the link provided below. The total number of employments at any time between March and June in West Sussex is 133,000. The equivalent figure for Arundel and South Downs constituency is 14,100. These figures are based on each employee’s residential address.
These statistics can be found here in full: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-august-2020
The value of claims split by Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency is not available. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme provides funds to PAYE schemes to support employers to pay a proportion of the wages of furloughed staff. The registered address for PAYE schemes can be in a different area to that where their employees live and work. In addition, for PAYE schemes claiming for between 1 and 99 employments there was no requirement to specify the amount claimed for each employment. As a consequence it is not possible to provide reliable figures for the monetary value of the support provided by geographical area.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve access at railway stations for disabled people in (a) Sussex and (b) Arundel and South Downs constituency.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We remain committed to improving accessibility at stations and £383m has been allocated to extend the Access for All programme until 2024. Since 2012 nine stations in Sussex have benefitted from the programme, including tactile paving for visually impaired passengers and platform humps to reduce the stepping distance to the train. Hassocks also received two lifts to provide step free access at the station.