Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the annual cost of Police and Deputy Police Commissioners for each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold information on the annual cost of Police and Crime Commissioners which includes pay, employer pension and national insurance contributions and expenses. However, the total basic pay cost of PCCs annually is approximately £3m. PCCs are under a duty to publish information relating to their salary, allowances, the composition of their office and the salaries of their senior staff on an annual basis.
The Home Office does not hold information on the annual cost of Deputy Police and Crime Commissioners. The appointment, pay and other arrangements for Deputy Police and Crime Commissioners is a matter for each Police and Crime Commissioner. As the locally elected representative for policing, they are ultimately responsible for balancing their budget and making decisions about the size and composition of their offices.
Police and Crime Commissioners are required to seek the views of their local Police and Crime Panel before appointing a Deputy, and other senior staff, as set out in Schedule 1 to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the collection of data for the Electoral Commission by polling staff at this year's local elections will be publicly available; and if so, whether it will include (1) not only the number of electors who had no approved ID, but also those who arrived to vote with ID which is not approved, and (2) those who did not have ID or the correct ID, but returned later with the correct ID to vote.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
With regards to the query on data recorded at polling station, I refer to the response given on 14th March to PQ 162192 .
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what role they expect to play in the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel now that it is meeting.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel will provide reports to the Secretary of State, which will be published. The Panel is supported by officials from DLUHC and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. A wide range of stakeholders across the Liverpool City Region, including the Commissioners to Liverpool City Council, will be consulted as the Panel develops plans. Further to the answer of Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 23 March 2023, the Panel will meet monthly in private.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what other costs (i.e. travel, hotel costs etc.) have been incurred to date by the Commissioners sent to Liverpool.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
On 8 November 2022, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities updated the House on the additional appointment of a finance Commissioner and the expansion of the intervention in Liverpool City Council to cover finance, governance, and recruitment, along with updated Directions of the intervention. Following on from the answer of Lord Greenhalgh, on 5 April 2022, the Commissioners' pay arrangements were set out in paragraph 45 of the updated Explanatory Memorandum to the Directions made under section 15(5) and (6) of the Local Government Act 1999. The Directions provide that the Commissioners' reasonable expenses and such fees as the Secretary of State determines are to be paid to them by the Authority.
A full breakdown of the Commissioners' invoiced fees and expenses are published periodically on Liverpool City Council's website.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total financial cost to date of the Commissioners sent to Liverpool.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
On 8 November 2022, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities updated the House on the additional appointment of a finance Commissioner and the expansion of the intervention in Liverpool City Council to cover finance, governance, and recruitment, along with updated Directions of the intervention. Following on from the answer of Lord Greenhalgh, on 5 April 2022, the Commissioners' pay arrangements were set out in paragraph 45 of the updated Explanatory Memorandum to the Directions made under section 15(5) and (6) of the Local Government Act 1999. The Directions provide that the Commissioners' reasonable expenses and such fees as the Secretary of State determines are to be paid to them by the Authority.
A full breakdown of the Commissioners' invoiced fees and expenses are published periodically on Liverpool City Council's website.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the papers and minutes of the meetings of the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel will be published.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel will provide reports to the Secretary of State, which will be published. The Panel is supported by officials from DLUHC and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. A wide range of stakeholders across the Liverpool City Region, including the Commissioners to Liverpool City Council, will be consulted as the Panel develops plans. Further to the answer of Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 23 March 2023, the Panel will meet monthly in private.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel is supported by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has appointed the Mayor of Liverpool Combined Authority, Steve Rotheram, to Chair the Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel, which is supported by Baroness Judith Blake and Sir Howard Bernstein. It will work with place leaders and stakeholders from across the city region. Officials at DLUHC are providing coordination and analytical support to the Panel during its evidence collection and diagnostic phase.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many new trees have been planted as part of the Northern Forest project in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Northern Forest is an ambitious landscape scale partnership that aims to establish at least 50 million new trees by 2043 in and around the cities of Liverpool, Chester, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull. The government supports the Northern Forest as a contributor to levelling up by supporting new and existing jobs, rural economies, fighting climate change, facilitating nature recovery, and encouraging greater private investment in trees and woodlands. So far, the core partnership of the Woodland Trust, Mersey Forest, Manchester City of Trees, White Rose Forest and Humber Forest have established over 5 million new trees since 2018.
The Forestry Commission publishes information on new tree planting annually, including in the Northern Forest. These figures can be obtained from its Headline Key Performance Indicators reports, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forestry-commission-corporate-plan-performance-indicators. The most recent published provisional statistics are shown below (and is attached):
Year | Hectares Planted | Equivalent in number of trees |
21/22 | 150 | 168,000 |
20/21 | 69 | 159,000 |
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government which countries international students studying in the UK have come from in each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on higher education (HE) at UK HE providers. Latest statistics refer to the 2021/22 academic year, and can be found at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-11.
Table 11 of the HESA’s Student Data includes the number of Non-UK HE enrolments broken down by country of domicile between academic years 2014/15 to 2021/22. Domicile refers to the permanent home address of the student prior to entry of the course.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the reasons for the delay in the publication of the Public Health Grant Allocation for 2023/24; and what assessment they have made of the impact of this delay on councils and their ability to plan effectively for the new financial year.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local Authority Public Health Grant allocations are not required to be published by a specific date. The Public Health Grant allocations for 2023/24 were published on 14 March 2023. Publication dates for allocations in the three previous years were 17 March 2020, 16 March 2021, and 7 February 2022.
In recognition of the need to offer local authorities as much certainty as possible, we have also published the indicative allocations for 2024/25 and aim to confirm these by the end of the calendar year.