Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the steps taken to support children and young people from Ukraine adapt to UK schools; and whether her Department has any plans to review the requirement for Ukrainian pupils to take English and Maths’ GCSE exams if they cannot show physical proof of having passed previous similar exams.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is clear that the best place for all children to be educated is in school and that attending school will help newly arrived Ukrainian children integrate into the communities in which they are living. It is the experience and skill of local authorities and schools that provides the support and care necessary for these children as they adjust to their new lives in the UK.
Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding which qualifications they enter pupils for, based on what is in their best interests. Schools will want to carefully consider the individual circumstances of the students before deciding the appropriateness of an exam entry. Exam centres should make these decisions carefully on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What progress he has made on enabling housing association tenants to purchase their homes.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Our overall priority as a government is to ensure that more people become home owners, and more people live in secure and safe accommodation whatever their tenancy.
Right to Buy has helped over 2 million tenants buy homes since 1980. We will be working closely with the Housing Associating sector on the approach to these schemes and will announce any developments in due course.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect Marine Conservation Zones.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Marine Protected Areas are an integral part of how we will protect 30% of our land and sea by 2030. Our seas play a critical role in biodiversity and regulating the Earth’s climate. The ocean absorbs over 90% of all excess heat in the Earth’s system and also provides a home to up to 80% of all life on the planet.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on moving adult claimants on Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner.
We originally introduced a pause for most Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment activity as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic on 23 March 2020; the exception being for DLA claimants who reported a change in needs.
We are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of new claims to PIP. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service.
To ensure we have the capacity in place to prioritise new claims and changes in circumstances, we are continuing to pause activity to randomly invite eligible adult DLA claimants to claim PIP. However, we are still continuing to invite DLA claimants to make a claim if they fall into one of the following categories:
Additionally, current DLA claimants who wish to move to claim PIP can do so. DLA claimants who claim PIP in these circumstances continue to receive their DLA while their PIP claim is being assessed.
This action, combined with improvements we have made to the claimant journey, has meant we are seeing a gradual improvement in new claim clearance times and the latest statistics show that the average end-to-end journey has steadily reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 18 weeks at the end of July 2022.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on Winter Fuel Payments to those who move to Australia; and whether the Government plans to review the list of eligible countries for that payment.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Winter fuel payments are not payable in Australia. There are no plans to review this policy.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2022 to Question 59831 on Fuel Oil: Prices, what mechanism will be used to provide the additional payment of £100; whether this will be paid as (a) a lump sum or (b) in instalments; what his planned timetable is for making the payment; whether his Department has up to date records of whether households are (i) on the gas grid and (ii) use gas and electricity companies; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure these eligible households will receive this support.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Households in Britain eligible for these payments will receive £100 as a credit on their electricity bill this winter. Households that are eligible for, but who do not receive, the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP) or the £100 heat network payment, will receive the £100 via the AFP Alternative Fund, which will be provided by a designated body. The Government will confirm details shortly.
The Government is working with suppliers and stakeholders to establish how to identify households that are eligible for a payment. If for any reason people are not able to receive the payment automatically, an alternative approach will be established.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
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 support care home workers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
I would like to recognise the enormous contribution care home workers, and all the care workforce, make to this country.
In our People at the Heart of Care White Paper, we set out a landmark investment of £500 million to develop and support the workforce.
This a five-fold increase in public spending on workforce training, creating hundreds of thousands of training places with clear pathways for development and progression.
These measures will make a real difference to the support that care workers get to develop and progress their career.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support horse riding schools.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra remains in close contact with the industry and meets regularly with the British Horse Council as well as other equine stakeholders including the British Horse Society to understand issues that are affecting the sector, including for riding schools.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to support women who have a miscarriage.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Every pregnancy loss is a tragedy, and ensuring grieving families have access to the support they need is one of my highest priorities. Mental health services around England are being expanded to include new mental health “hubs” for new, expectant or bereaved mothers. These will offer physical health checks and psychological therapy in one building. We have funded SANDs, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support the roll-out of a National Bereavement Care Pathway to reduce the variation in the quality of bereavement care provided by the NHS.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing fuel duty paid on red diesel.
Answered by Simon Clarke
At Spring Statement 2022 in response to fuel prices reaching record levels, the government announced a temporary 12-month cut to the full rate of duty on petrol and diesel of 5p per litre and an equivalent percentage cut on the rates for rebated fuels. Overall, this is the largest cash-terms cut across all fuel duty rates at once, ever, and is only the second time in 20 years that main rates of petrol and diesel have been cut. This cut represents savings for households and businesses, including those that use red diesel, worth around £2.4 billion in 2022-23.
All taxes, including fuel duty, remain under review and any changes are considered and announced by the Chancellor.