Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that Ukrainian refugees have access to public transport in rural Hertfordshire.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Ukrainian nationals coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme, or extending their stay in the UK using the Ukraine Extension Scheme, are given access to work, benefits and public services as laid down in Appendix Ukraine to the Immigration Rules, details of which can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-ukraine-scheme
They can access Universal Credit and job support immediately.
Ukrainians here under our schemes will also be eligible for Housing Benefit, Pension Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Child Disability Living Allowance and Carers Allowance, and Attendance Allowance. Contributions-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) are also available for those Ukrainians who meet the criteria.
We recognise the importance of having reliable public transport for all members of the community. That is why the former Transport Secretary announced on 3rd September that the Government will provide up to £60 million from January to March next year (2023), to help bus operators in England to cap single adult fares at £2 per journey. Buses across England will also benefit from up to £130 million of Government support from October 2022 to March 2023, ensuring services keep running and millions of passengers can continue using affordable transport.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect rural communities from (a) crime and (b) anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
This Government is committed to driving down crime everywhere, including in rural communities. The Beating Crime plan sets out how we will deliver this including the largest increase in officer numbers in decades; 20,000 by March 2023. It also sets out how we will protect local communities through targeted interventions including our flagship Safer Streets Fund. Round Four of this fund has allocated £50 million to crime prevention projects across England and Wales, including in rural areas. Many of these projects aim to tackle anti-social behaviour as a primary focus.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for a GP appointment in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce these waiting times.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. However, we are investing least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce to improve access to general practice appointments and reduce waiting times.
Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) has made tailored support visits to local practices to identify solutions to specific challenges and devise action plans where improvement is needed. More than 70 practices in Hertfordshire and West Essex have been approved for additional funds to upgrade telephone lines to a ‘cloud-based’ system, which has the capability to offer call backs, queue management and to increase the number of lines available if needed. These new systems also enable call volumes and waiting times to be monitored to allow practices to adjust the number of staff taking calls according to the demand.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to help support GPs to offer face-to-face appointments in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
In July 2022. 66.4% of general practice appointments were conducted face-to-face in the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System area, compared to 54.7% in 2021. Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) has confirmed that all practices in this area have been providing appointments face-to-face, by phone and video, as clinically necessary. The ICB provide a flexible ‘pool’ of locums to relieve some of the immediate pressure on individual general practitioners (GPs) who may be covering for temporary or long-term absence in their practices.
The Government made £520 million available during the pandemic to increase general practice capacity, including for providing face-to-face appointments. NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations. Patients’ input into consultation type should be sought and practices should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take through the Financial Markets and Services Bill to protect access to in-person banking services for rural communities such as Harpenden.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking services.
As part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022, the Government has introduced legislation to protect access to cash. The Bill protects access to cash by establishing the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator and providing it with appropriate powers to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities.
More broadly against the background of changing technology, decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial decision for banks and building societies. However, the Government recognises that in-person access to banking services continues to be important for some customers. FCA Guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements.
For consumers and SMEs wishing to access over-the-counter services, the Post Office Banking Framework allows 99% of personal banking and 95% of business banking customers to carry out their everyday banking at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.
Firms are also working together through the Cash Action Group to develop new initiatives to provide shared services including Bank Hubs. The Government welcomes the direction set by industry’s commitments and looks forward to seeing what results they deliver in protecting facilities for local communities across the UK.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of including rural areas in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency in an extension of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The power to consider areas for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation lies with Natural England (NE), which then makes an order to be confirmed by the Secretary of State. NE announced its current designation programme in 2021, which includes considering a variation to extend the boundary of the existing Chilterns AONB.
The Area of Search which is being assessed for potential designation includes an area in the Hitchen and Harpenden Area. Some areas of Hitchin are already included in the current Chilterns AONB.
The designation process will include a detailed assessment of the natural beauty of the area proposed for designation, and the desirability of designating the area.
In its assessment of the proposed extension, Natural England will work collaboratively with local partners to ensure there are good engagement and consultation opportunities during the process including statutory bodies, stakeholder organisations, landowners, farmers and the public.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when his Department plans to open the third round of applications for the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
Bidding for the second round of the Fund closed on 2 August, and we hope to announce successful bids to this round of the Fund in the Autumn.
We are determined to learn all the lessons we can in continuing to improve our support for local places. Given we will have an opportunity to evaluate the success of the first round before spring 2023, we are not yet committing to the timing or format of future rounds.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
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 planning to take to help encourage (a) tree planting, (b) re-wilding and (c) wider planting in rural communities, including in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Our England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), published in May 2021, sets out the long-term, generational vision for trees and forestry to 2050. It recognises the vital contribution trees can make, including to nature recovery, Net Zero, and health and wellbeing.
ETAP details how we will treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, contributing to 30,000 hectares of new trees per year across the UK by 2025. The Plan is supported by the £675 million Nature for Climate Fund.
This includes launching the England Woodland Creation Offer with over £15 million available in this year alone to support woodland creation from as little as 1 hectare, in blocks of 0.1 hectares. The Offer includes funding for natural colonisation, which allows trees to seed and grow naturally next to existing trees.
The Government is continuing to support the creation and enhancement of wilder landscapes as part of our broader approach to nature recovery including, where appropriate, species reintroductions. However, we recognise that as an approach, rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and is not the only means of delivering the Government’s environmental goals.
Locally we have supported a variety of tree planting and establishment projects including over £25 million for our Woodland Creation Partnerships this year, establishing three new Community Forests with over 1,000 hectares of new woodland being planted across the total 13 Community Forests since 2020, up to £4.4 million available to rural communities through the Local Authority Treescapes Fund, and launched the ground-breaking Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund, which will have a total value of just under £8 million to provide financial support to local authorities to increase their capacity and specialist skills.
The Forestry Commission estimates that there were at least 400,000 newly planted trees with Government support in woodland in the 12 years 3 months from 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2022, in the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of granting bathing water designation to the River Lea in Harpenden and Wheathampstead.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Bathing waters are designated through an application process and Defra welcomes applications for designation for both coastal and inland waters such as rivers. Local authorities, groups and individuals can apply for sites to be designated. Defra encourages this by writing to the Chief Executive of every local authority in England and other key stakeholders such as swimming associations. It is these local authorities and stakeholders who will best know which popular bathing areas may be suitable for designation.
For further information, please visit our web page on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bathing-waters-apply-for-designation-or-de-designation
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support the education of students with special educational needs.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department has increased high needs funding by £1.65 billion over two years, bringing total high needs funding to over £9.7 billion by the 2023/24 financial year. We are providing additional support to local authorities through our Safety Valve and Delivering Better Value in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) programmes. These programmes will help local authorities provide effective and sustainable services that will support children and young people with SEND to achieve better outcomes.
Alongside this, the department is investing up to £18 million in supported internships over the next three years, aiming to double the number of supported internships by 2025. This will help more young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans have the skills they need to secure and sustain paid employment.
Later this year, the department will publish a National Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) improvement plan, setting out our response to the SEND and AP Green Paper consultation and the next steps for implementation of system reform.