Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the role of the Environment Agency in ensuring that drainage ditches owned by riparian owners are maintained
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, the Environment Agency has a strategic overview of the management of all sources of flooding and coastal change and are the lead authority for managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, estuaries and the sea.
Many different public and private bodies are involved in flood and coastal erosion risk management, each accountable for different aspects of risk management. The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (copy attached) sets out the different roles and responsibilities and describes how organisations and communities can work together to tackle flood and coastal risk in a co-ordinated and effective way.
Landowners are responsible, under common law, for maintaining the bed and banks of any watercourses that run through their land in a state which avoids flooding on their neighbours’ or other land. This common law duty also extends to keeping watercourses and culverts clear of anything that could cause an obstruction, either on their own land or downstream if it is washed away.
Drainage ditches are usually ordinary watercourses rather than main rivers, so the oversight of flood risk arising from unmaintained drainage ditches sits with other Risk Management Authorities (RMAs). Lead local flood authorities (county councils and unitary authorities), district councils, internal drainage boards, highways authorities and water and sewerage companies are collectively known as RMAs.
The Environment Agency has published guidance on owning a watercourse on GOV.UK, covering riparian landowners’ responsibilities and the rules to follow and the permissions needed. By March 2024, new engagement guidance will be published, to help RMAs, Environment Agency staff and landowners have more effective conversations on this matter.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the financial situation of internal drainage boards and what plans they have to ensure that internal drainage boards can collect levies independently to that of local government.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Internal drainage boards (IDBs) are local independent public bodies responsible for managing water levels and flood risk supporting and better protecting farms and communities in predominately low-lying areas in England. IDBs are funded by the beneficiaries of their important work, farmers, who pay drainage rates, and local authorities, who pay special levies.
The Government is aware of recent impacts on IDBs, predominately from rising costs and especially rising energy costs, and is keeping in close contact with IDBs, the Association of Drainage Authorities and relevant local authorities on this.
In recognition of the rising costs and following the winter storms the government will be providing £75 million in funding to IDBs in 2024-2025, on a one-off basis, to support agricultural land drainage and continue the important work IDBs do in helping to better protect farmers and communities from flooding. This will support IDBs to accelerate asset recovery from the winter storms and will also provide opportunities to modernise and upgrade their assets. More information will be available shortly, and we will work with the sector on delivery.
In addition, DLUHC is providing £3 million to support those local authorities in 2024/25 who are experiencing the biggest pressures with IDB special levies. DLUHC will confirm the distribution of this funding in the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a register of children outside of school.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government remains committed to legislating for a local authority registration system for children not in school, as well as placing a duty on local authorities to provide support to home educating families.
My hon. Friend, the Member for Meon Valley, introduced the Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Private Members’ Bill on 11 December 2023. The Bill’s Second Reading is scheduled for 15 March 2024. The government is working with her as she progresses her Bill.
In the meantime, the department continues to work with local authorities to improve their non-statutory registers; analyse local authority data from the voluntary elective home education and children missing collection to build a more accurate picture of the landscape.
The department has also held a consultation on revising its elective home education guidance for local authorities and parents. This consultation closed on 18 January 2024 and the department will publish its response and revised guidance in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average length of time taken by HMRC to process tax payments.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The average time taken to process tax payments is two working days. This is from the date the customer makes payment to the date it is shown on the customer’s HMRC record (plus postage time if the customer pays by cheque).
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to providing additional resources to fund places for looked after children to boarding schools; and what assessment they have made, of any, of any benefits such children could gain from that process.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department launched the Broadening Educational Pathways programme in 2020 to increase the role of the independent and state-funded boarding sector in the education of looked-after children. The Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation was appointed as a delivery partner, providing a placement brokerage service to ensure children are placed in schools best suited to support their educational attainment and personal wellbeing. In the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ implementation strategy, the department committed to further expansion of the programme and has subsequently extended the contract until September 2024 to further open up educational opportunities in boarding schools to even more children in and on the edge of care.
The department will continue, over the course of the contract, to work in partnership with the Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation to understand the benefits to the children and young people placed by the programme, including the findings of formal research they have commissioned, from the University of Nottingham, on the outcomes for looked-after and vulnerable children attending boarding schools.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report by Josh MacAlister The Independent Review of Children's Social Care, published in May 2022, what is their response to the recommendation that the Department for Education "should consider investing some of the free schools capital budget into a new wave of state boarding capacity"; and whether funding will be provided for new state boarding capacity within the free schools budget.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department published bold and ambitious plans to reform children’s social care on the 2 February 2023 through ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. It sets out how the department will help families overcome challenges, keep children safe, and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life. Over the next two years, the department will address urgent issues facing children and families now and lay the foundations for whole system reform.
As set out in the government’s response to the Independent Review of Children's Social Care, the department has extended the Broadening Educational Pathways Programme to increase the number of children in care in independent and state boarding schools. The department will use the evidence generated from this to inform long-term ambitions for this programme.
The free schools programme is open to proposals offering boarding provision. Although no such proposals were received in the most recent round of free school applications, there are currently five open free schools that offer boarding, with at least a further three set to open in the future. Plans for future free school application rounds have not yet been developed and will be considered as part of a future spending review.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many looked after children were placed in boarding schools for the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by age.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold this information centrally. The department does hold information on the number of looked after children placed in residential schools. However, it is not possible to distinguish between boarding schools and other residential schools, such as residential special schools. Therefore, we are not able to provide the information requested overall or by age.
Figures on the overall number of looked after children in England placed in residential schools were published in the annual statistics release titled ‘Children looked after, including adoptions, 2021-22’. On 31 March 2022, there were 110 looked after children in these residential schools, which includes boarding schools and residential special schools. These annual statistics are available in the attached table.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have implemented the recommendations of the Save the Children 2016 report The Lost Boys; and if not, whether they plan to do so.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Lost Boys report recommended for the government to invest in the best early education and childcare provision.
Alongside setting high standards and requirements for all early years providers in the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, in March, the government announced the single biggest investment in childcare ever made in England, which means by 2027/28 this government expects to be spending more than £8 billion every year on the early years. This will result in an historic expansion of free childcare, with 15 free hours available for working parents of two-year-olds from April 2024, 15 free hours from nine months to the start of school available from September 2024, rising to 30 free hours from September 2025. From September, the hourly rates paid to providers to deliver free childcare for two-year-olds will increase by 30% from an average rate of £6 to £8. This represents a significant increase in funding for early years.
The government is also investing up to £180 million in workforce training, qualifications, expert guidance and targeted support for the early years sector, to support the learning and development of the youngest and most disadvantaged children. This includes the Professional Development Programme, phase 3, training up to 10,000 early years professionals and providing early years practitioners with training on communication and language, early mathematics and personal, social and emotional development.
Two-thirds of primary schools have benefitted from our investment in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, improving the speech and language skills of an estimated 90,000 children in reception classes so far. Over 320,000 primary school children have been screened to identify those with language development difficulties. These children will receive targeted language support.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, per their guidance note for completing HSA4 paper forms and guidance note for completing HSA4 electronic forms, whether or how follow-up care is provided in cases where (1) all medicine was administered in hospital or clinic, (2) one medicine was administered in hospital or clinic and one medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence or home, and (3) all medicines were administered at the patient’s usual place of residence or home, so as to ensure that proper care is provided should any complications arise, and the appropriate reporting is undertaken.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures for the approval of independent sector places for termination of pregnancy in England, which all independent abortion providers must comply with, sets out that all providers should have protocols in place to support women following an abortion procedure, whether medicines are administered in the home or other approved place.
Women should be informed as early as possible of the most common physical, emotional or psychological symptoms following an abortion, including after use of pills at home for early medical abortion. Information should also include what to do in an emergency situation as well as routine follow-up.
On discharge, women must be given a letter providing sufficient information about the procedure to allow another healthcare practitioner to manage any complications and/or ongoing care. A 24-hour dedicated support line which specialises in post-abortion support and care should be offered by the abortion provider.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, per their guidance note for completing HSA4 paper forms, which states, "You must use this section to record any complications that occurred up until the time of discharge from the place of termination", and their guidance note for completing HSA4 electronic forms, which states, “You must select any complications that occurred up until the time of discharge from the place of termination”, whether or how complications are tracked in cases where one or both medicines were administered at the patient’s usual place of residence or home, so as to ensure that proper care is provided should any complications arise and the appropriate reporting is undertaken.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Complications resulting from legal abortions in England and Wales are recorded on the HSA4 form until the patient has been discharged. For medical terminations where either both or the second stage was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence, complications are unlikely to be recorded on the HSA4 form after discharge. Complications are also recorded in other patient record systems such as Hospital Episodes Statistics, where the woman has attended a health service after being discharged.