Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits for the levelling up agenda of implementing the recommendations of the (a) Early Years Healthy Development Review and (b) Vision for the Best Start for Life.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
My Right Honourable friend is an extraordinary champion on these issues and has long campaigned for babies and children to get the best start in life. This government recognises the importance of the 1001 critical days.
Investing over £300 million to transform Start for Life and Family Hub services, in 75 local authorities in England, with high levels of deprivation, directly supports the levelling up agenda.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support individuals on shared energy meters with the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support to help households with the cost of living crisis, including support of £400 for energy bills for those who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an energy supplier, such as heat network consumers on a private wire system.
The Government is working with a range of organisations to finalise the details of the Alternative Funding and have the process up and running for applications this winter.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support people who rely on heating oil for domestic use.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Households reliant on oil to heat their homes will receive the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP).
Households eligible for these payments in Great Britain will receive £100 as a credit on their electricity bill this winter. Households who are eligible but do not have a relationship with an electricity supplier will receive the £100 via the AFP Alternative Fund. These payments will limit the average user's heating cost increase to a similar percentage to those using on grid gas.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help maintain local bus services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government has provided nearly £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding since March 2020 to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on bus services. On 19 August the Government announced a further £130 million, six-month extension to the Bus Recovery Grant to continue to support services until March 2023. Department for Transport Ministers made a written statement to Parliament on this issue on 5 September.
The Department is considering what additional support may be required from April 2023.
The Government also provides support to the sector through the Bus Service Operators Grant every year. Around £200 million is provided annually to bus operators to help them maintain an extensive network and keep fares down, and a further £42 million is provided to Local Transport Authorities every year to subsidise socially necessary bus services
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce NHS waiting times; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service will increase bed capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds to improve patient flows through hospitals and reduce waiting times. A £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund has been established to reduce delayed discharge and we have allocated an additional £150 million to ambulance services to increase response times and £20 million to upgrade the ambulance fleet.
The target to eliminate waiting times of two years or more for elective procedures was met in July 2022 and we aim to eliminate waiting time of eighteen months or more by April 2023. This will be achieved through increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector and engaging with patients to understand choices made regarding their care.
We have set an expectation that patients who need an appointment with a general practitioner practice within two weeks should receive one and patients with urgent needs should be seen on the same day. ‘Our plan for patients’ includes measures to assist patients to book general practice appointments and diversify general practice teams to deliver over a million additional appointments. The NHS Long Term Plan commits a further £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services by 2023/24 and enable an additional two million people to be treated by NHS mental health services. We also provided £500 million in 2021/22 to accelerate these plans and address waiting times for mental health services.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support people whose cancer treatment was affected by covid-19.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The majority of cancer services were maintained throughout the pandemic. From March 2020 to August 2022, 758,000 people commenced cancer treatment, with 94% of those starting treatment within 31 days. The National Health Service continues to prioritise cancer and rescheduled diagnostic procedures or treatment where care has been affected by the pandemic, supported by local cancer teams.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help support small business switch from fixed rate to variable rate energy contracts without penalties; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Small businesses who have energy supply contracts with a fixed-rate (agreed on or after 1 April 2022 irrespective if the contract has commenced before 1st October 2022) or a standard variable rate will receive support through the government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Charges for switching tariffs are a commercial matter between suppliers and their business customers.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help mitigate the potential economic impact of staff shortages in the hospitality sector in the short-term.
Answered by Paul Scully
I recognise that staff shortages remain an issue, and we are supporting the sector to understand what more we can do domestically. We want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad. The Government encourage all sectors to make employment more attractive to UK domestic workers by offering training, career options, wage increases, and investment. This Department’s Hospitality Strategy focuses on domestic solutions to support the sector’s recovery. I intend to publish an update shortly to set out the progress made against the Strategy so far and proposed next steps.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that stocks of weapons used by the British Army do not deplete as a result of exports of arms to Ukraine.
Answered by James Heappey
Defence continually manages and reviews its stocks of weapons and munitions. This analysis informs the numbers of munitions granted in kind to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There are regular strategic supplier conversations throughout Defence and the Department is fully engaged with industry, allies and partners to ensure that all equipment and munitions granted in kind are replaced as expeditiously as possible.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help ensure that energy suppliers' environmental and social obligation costs are distributed effectively to help households on lower incomes.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Environmental and social obligations on energy suppliers fund vital support schemes and energy efficiency measures which benefit low income and vulnerable households.
Suppliers are free (but not obliged) to pass the cost of these obligations through to consumers. Preventing suppliers from passing on costs to certain groups of consumers could lead to suppliers being disincentivised from attracting these groups of consumers through beneficial services and increased costs to non-exempt groups.
In order to support low-income households struggling with energy bills there are a range of schemes offering support, for example the Warm Homes Discount and the recently expanded Energy Bills Support Scheme