Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of households in Suffolk Coastal constituency had access to broadband speeds of over (a) 10 mbps and (b) 30mbps in (i) 2010 and (ii) the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
30 Mbps coverage: According to Thinkbroadband, as of May 2024, almost 98% of premises in the Suffolk Coastal constituency have access to broadband speeds greater than 30 Mbps. This is much higher than the 17.5% coverage reported in 2010.
10 Mbps coverage: According to Ofcom’s Spring 2024 Connected Nations report, based on data as of January 2024, over 98% of premises in the Suffolk Coastal constituency have access to broadband speeds greater than 10 Mbps. This is higher than the 90% coverage reported in June 2016. We do not have earlier breakdown data for 10 Mbps coverage.
Gigabit coverage: According to Thinkbroadband, as of May 2024, almost 59% of premises in the Suffolk Coastal constituency have gigabit connectivity. This is much higher than the 1% coverage reported in 2010.
To extend gigabit-capable coverage further, in June 2023 we announced that a Project Gigabit contract had been awarded to the supplier CityFibre. This contract has a value of over £100 million, covering 79,500 hard-to-reach premises in Suffolk that would otherwise miss out on a gigabit-capable connection. The first connections are expected to be made this summer and we expect the contract to be completed by December 2028.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 22724 on Parliamentary Estate: Security, if the Commission will publish a breakdown of the (a) 4,132 staff and (b) 4,236 contractors with valid security passes by (i) profession and (ii) Department.
Answered by Charles Walker
It is not possible to breakdown passholder data by profession, but we are able to segregate the data by Department at the time of application. The pass issuing system is not an HR system so the data will never accurately reflect payroll due to the frequency of staff moving between Departments.
It should be noted that not all staff and contractors who hold passes work on the Parliamentary Estate full time, and that contractors in particular may only hold a pass for a limited time period and/or for limited buildings in accordance with business need.
The following data is a snapshot of staff of both Houses and contractors broken down by Department, from 30 April 2024:
Commons and Bicameral Staff | Pass Count |
Chamber and Participation | 570 |
Parliamentary Digital Service | 537 |
Security | 491 |
Customer Experience and Service Delivery | 416 |
Select Committee Team | 298 |
Strategic Estates | 308 |
Research and Information | 219 |
Parliamentary Maintenance Department | 159 |
Finance Portfolio and Performance | 124 |
People and Culture | 113 |
Office of the Executive | 73 |
Governance Office | 38 |
Restoration and Renewal Client Team | 24 |
Speakers Office | 23 |
Independent Complaints and Grievance | 11 |
Grand Total | 3404 |
House of Lords | Pass Count |
Staff | 705 |
Contractors | 89 |
Grand Total | 794 |
Detailed data for the House of Lords Administration has not been included as it is a separate organisation.
Delivery Authority | Pass Count |
Staff* | 184 |
Contractors | 256 |
Grand Total | 440 |
*Listed in Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 22724 under category ‘(g) any other category’
All other contractors
Sponsor | Pass Count |
Strategic Estates | 2500 |
Parliamentary Maintenance Department | 710 |
Customer Experience and Service Delivery | 285 |
Parliamentary Digital Service | 133 |
Chamber and Participation | 113 |
Outside Organisations | 87 |
Security | 65 |
People and Culture | 65 |
Research and Information | 47 |
Select Committee Team | 14 |
Restoration and Renewal Client Team | 11 |
Finance Portfolio and Performance | 8 |
Governance Office | 7 |
Office of the Executive | Fewer than five* |
Independent Complaints and Grievance | Fewer than five |
Speaker’s Office** | Fewer than five |
Grand Total | 4051 |
* Some numbers have been withheld owing to the low numbers of individuals involved (fewer than five), and disclosing this data may make it possible for individuals to be identified.
** The Speaker directly sponsors passes for Members of the Armed Forces doing secondments and UK representatives of overseas territories. These positions are not funded by the House of Commons and total 18 passes.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 22727 on Darwin Plus: Finance, if he will list the (a) funding and (b) recipient of the funding for each project per territory.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Pursuant to the Answer of 26 April to Question 22727, Darwin Plus projects awarded funding since 2019 for each Territory can be found in the attached table. The table includes grants from all Darwin Plus schemes: Main, Fellowships (recently rebranded as People & Skills), Covid 19 Rapid Response (A time-limited scheme for 2021), and two new schemes introduced in 2023, Local and Strategic.
Further information about active and completed Darwin Plus projects can be found on the Darwin Plus website, which will soon be updated to include the latest projects awarded in 2024.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 April 2024 to Question 21014 on Minibuses: Driving Licences, if he will publish a breakdown of the £3 million per year Bus Service Operators Grant by operator in receipt of the grant.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Details on which community transport operators have received BSOG funding are published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-service-operators-grant-payments-to-english-operators-from-2010-onwards.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many people are employed by (a) the House of Commons and (b) any joint body with the House of Lords (i) in total and (ii) in full time equivalent roles.
Answered by Charles Walker
The headcount of (a) the House of Commons (i) in total is 3,470 and (ii) in full-time equivalent roles, including PDS, is 3,013.
(b) Two bicameral teams sit within the House of Lords Administration. The headcount of the two teams (the Parliamentary Archives and Parliamentary Commercial Directorate) is: (i) 78, and number of full time equivalent roles is: (ii) 76.4. These figures are inclusive of three full-time secondments.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21017 on Darwin Plus, if he will provide a breakdown of Darwin Plus fund projects funded since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Pursuant to the Answer of 18 April to Question 21017, a summary of Darwin Plus projects funded since 2019, broken down by Territory, can be found below. These figures include the latest awards from Rounds 12 of Darwin Plus Main and Fellowships, Round 1 of Darwin Plus Strategic, and Round 3 of Darwin Plus Local.
Overseas Territory | Grant Funding from 2019 - 2024 |
Anguilla | £4,818,639.72 |
Bermuda | £961,876.60 |
British Antarctic Territory | £1,368,375.75 |
British Indian Ocean Territory | £1,695,969.14 |
British Virgin Islands | £4,652,346.29 |
Cayman Islands | £4,152,086.03 |
Falkland Islands | £3,789,195.36 |
Gibraltar | £319,343.10 |
Montserrat | £2,842,585.69 |
Pitcairn, Henderson, Oeno and Ducie Islands | £423,105.00 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha | £6,486,241.84 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | £5,278,964.75 |
Sovereign Base Area of Akrotiri and Dhekelia | £1,883,252.50 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | £4,120,137.14 |
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many security passes are valid for use on the Parliamentary Estate by (a) MPs, Peers and their staff; (b) staff supporting Parliamentary activities in each House, (c) staff supporting non-Parliamentary activities, (d) security guards; (e) police officers; (f) contractors and (g) any other category.
Answered by Charles Walker
A breakdown of pass data is available, however the categories used do not match up exactly with the categories specified. This is because the House regards every member of the Administration as supporting parliamentary activities, whether directly or indirectly.
The number of passes on issue changes constantly, so the following represents a snapshot of data recorded on 17 April 2024:
(a) MPs, Peers and their staff
(b) (c) and (d) Staff in both Houses
(e) police officers
(f) contractors
(g) any other category
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21031 on Carbon Emissions: Suffolk Coastal, if her Department will provide a breakdown of funding granted through Energy Company Obligation Schemes to residents of Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The ECO scheme is not funded directly by government, rather it is funded by obligated energy suppliers who then recoup the cost from their domestic customers. Government does not hold data on the geographical distribution of ECO spending.
To end of December 2023 (the latest available data) ECO schemes have supported the installation of 2,668 measures in 2,069 homes in the Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) number and (b) value was of grants made to grassroots sport in (i) Suffolk and (ii) Suffolk Coastal constituency since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to levelling up access to community and grassroots sport - physical activity should be accessible to all, no matter a person’s background or location. As part of this commitment, the Government is delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. The total of this investment is £409 million. This includes:
£327 million to provide up to 8,000 new and improved multi-sport grassroots facilities and pitches across the whole of the UK between 2021 and 2025.
£21.9 million to renovate over 3,000 tennis courts across Scotland, England and Wales between 2022 and 2024.
Over £60 million via the Swimming Pool Support Fund in 2023/24 to support public swimming pool providers in England with immediate cost pressures, and provide investment to make facilities sustainable in the longer-term.
In total, Suffolk has received over £1.9m in funding through these programmes:
Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme: Over £1 million has been awarded through 38 grants since 2021. Over £74k has been invested into Suffolk Coastal specifically through 16 grants. All funded sites are listed on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2021-to-2025
Swimming Pool Support Fund: Over £900,000 has been awarded to 7 individual facilities across 5 Local Authorities in the Suffolk region by March 2025. All funded sites are listed here on Sport England’s website: https://www.sportengland.org/news-and-inspiration/swimming-pool-support-fund-helps-facilities-prepare-future
Funding for football and multi-sport projects awarded in England prior to 2021 were delivered by the Football Foundation, funded through Sport England. Sport England’s funding to the Football Foundation is available on their website, along with all awards made by Sport England to football clubs since 2009: https://www.sportengland.org/
Further details of local authorities and swimming pools/leisure centres awarded funding from Phase I and Phase II of the Swimming Pool Support Fund are available on Sport England’s website at:
https://www.sportengland.org/news/swimming-pool-support-fund-keeps-leisure-centres-afloat
Sport England has also invested an additional £85 million into projects which facilitate participation in grassroots football. For a breakdown of the projects funded across this period, Sport England publishes an updated register of grant awards on a quarterly basis, with awards dating back to 2009 listed in full.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) value of grants made and (b) number of recipients of funding from the National Citizen Service was in (i) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (ii) Suffolk and (iii) the UK since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Following Covid-19 and a strategic review, in 2023 the NCS Trust launched a new delivery model for the NCS programme. The new programme consists of residential, community and digital experiences. NCS Trust provides grant-funding to local organisations across England to deliver these community experiences.
In Suffolk, two organisations have received a total of £321,445 grant-funding. Volunteering Matters have received a grant to work with targeted groups of young people in Suffolk. Hear2Listen have received a grant, and are delivering programmes for young people in their local communities through Inspire Suffolk and Ipswich Town Football Club. Currently NCS Trust have not funded organisations that work exclusively in the Suffolk coastal constituency, however the grant funded organisations they work with in Suffolk cover this area in their remit.