Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on housing benefits in the last financial year; and how much of that was spent on housing provided by (a) local authorities, (b) other social housing providers and (c) private sector landlords.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2022/23 the Department spent £28.97 billion on Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element combined.
£15.00 billion was spent on Housing Benefit and £13.97 billion was spent on Universal Credit Housing Element. The quoted Housing Benefit expenditure excludes expenditure funded by Local Authorities.
Housing Benefit expenditure by tenure in 2022/23:
Universal Credit Housing Element expenditure by tenure in 2022/23:
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions Ministers from all departments have (a) held meetings at and (b) worked from the Darlington Economic Campus since August 2021.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
With reference to your enquiry regarding the naming of the Darlington Economic Campus 'William McMullen House' I am happy to advise we will consider this suggestion, alongside other suggestions, when finalising the name of building.
Naming of all new Government Hubs and other Government buildings must go through a process whereby all options must undergo sufficient due diligence. Selection of a preferred option will need to be agreed to by the Government Property Agency (GPA), occupying departments, local leaders and authorities including the Post Office.
Naming of a new Government Hub will happen nearer to the point when the building is being delivered. In the case of Darlington Economic Campus this will be in 2025/26.
Under the current programme, and subject to planning consent being granted mid-year and approval of the Full Business Case in the last quarter of this year, works will commence in the first quarter of 2025.
Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of naming the permanent home of the Darlington Economic Campus, William McMullen House.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
With reference to your enquiry regarding the naming of the Darlington Economic Campus 'William McMullen House' I am happy to advise we will consider this suggestion, alongside other suggestions, when finalising the name of building.
Naming of all new Government Hubs and other Government buildings must go through a process whereby all options must undergo sufficient due diligence. Selection of a preferred option will need to be agreed to by the Government Property Agency (GPA), occupying departments, local leaders and authorities including the Post Office.
Naming of a new Government Hub will happen nearer to the point when the building is being delivered. In the case of Darlington Economic Campus this will be in 2025/26.
Under the current programme, and subject to planning consent being granted mid-year and approval of the Full Business Case in the last quarter of this year, works will commence in the first quarter of 2025.
Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he expects the works on the permanent site for the Darlington Economic Campus at Brunswick Street to commence.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
With reference to your enquiry regarding the naming of the Darlington Economic Campus 'William McMullen House' I am happy to advise we will consider this suggestion, alongside other suggestions, when finalising the name of building.
Naming of all new Government Hubs and other Government buildings must go through a process whereby all options must undergo sufficient due diligence. Selection of a preferred option will need to be agreed to by the Government Property Agency (GPA), occupying departments, local leaders and authorities including the Post Office.
Naming of a new Government Hub will happen nearer to the point when the building is being delivered. In the case of Darlington Economic Campus this will be in 2025/26.
Under the current programme, and subject to planning consent being granted mid-year and approval of the Full Business Case in the last quarter of this year, works will commence in the first quarter of 2025.
Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce the waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services in the Tees Esk Wear Mental Health Trust region.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year in expanding and transforming National Health Service mental health services by March 2024, compared to 2018/19. As part of this, an extra 345,000 more children and young people will be able to get the NHS-funded mental health support they need.
NHS England is working on implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services, including one for children and their families and carers to start receiving community-based mental health care within four weeks of referral.
A consultation pilot began in Teesside in October 2023, which has allowed families to be re-directed to appropriate support, and for services to be able to reinvest time back into the backlog of assessments. The trust is currently reviewing the implementation and extension of this pilot into Durham and Darlington.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to provide homes to people granted leave to remain once their funded accommodation ends; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of extending the period of time before which such accommodation needs to be vacated on the supply of social housing.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure the right asylum decision data is being shared with local authorities to enable effective planning and to lessen the impact on existing homelessness and rough sleeping pressures. Our accommodation providers are directly working with local authorities to notify them when an individual is due to have their asylum support ended.
We are working with our partners, including local authorities, to provide timely notification of key events that impact them. We are working with our SMP to facilitate regional sessions with councils and to share data.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase the uptake of the NHS email system by optometrists.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is currently considering how image sharing between community optometry and secondary care could improve access to care and patient outcomes. Secure digital communications will be critical to achieving this goal, which is why NHS England is currently testing and evaluating a number of options, including the use of National Health Service mail.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on improvements to North Road Station in Darlington ahead of the 200th Anniversaries of the Railways.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
North Road Station is currently under consideration for Northern’s ongoing platform improvement programme, designed to improve the stepping distance between the platform and the train.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was provided through the holiday activities and food programme to projects in Darlington in each year since it was introduced.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department has invested more than £200 million a year in our holiday, activities and food (HAF) programme since 2021. Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. The expansion of the programme year-on-year has meant a total of 5.4 million HAF days provided between Christmas 2022, Easter and summer 2023.
For the 2021 programme, Darlington were allocated £519,040 in total, which included £49,090 paid to them in the 2020/21 financial year to help with start-up costs, and a further £469,050 was allocated to them during the 2021/22 financial year.
For the 2022 programme, the department allocated £466,240, for 2023 the department allocated £468,150 and this year, the department has allocated a further £469,170, bringing the total to more than £1.9 million in Darlington since the programme began, ensuring thousands of children across Darlington local authority have benefitted from healthy meals and taking part in a range of enriching activities during the longer school holidays.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help support efforts to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness in Darlington constituency.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is investing nearly £2.4 billion across three years to enable local areas to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in England.
This includes over £3.8 million allocated to the North-East, including Darlington, from the Rough Sleeping Initiative over the three-year period 2022-2025, and over £600,000 from the Homelessness Prevention Grant between 2023 and 2025.