Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the impact of the waiting time for driving licence applications on people with long-term medical conditions in Wales.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The length of time taken to deal with an application for a driving licence where a medical condition must be investigated depends on the condition(s) involved and whether further information or clinical tests are required from medical professionals.
To reduce waiting times for customers, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has recruited more staff and opened new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham which are focused on medical applications. DVLA staff also continue to work overtime at evenings and weekends. These measures are having a positive impact and the DVLA expects to return to pre-pandemic levels for medical applications in September.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the enquiry of 7 June 2022 from the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, reference POSCMP2022/44277.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department aims to respond to Hon. Member’s correspondence within 20 working days where possible, although complex issues may mean it will take longer.
All complaints and enquiries are investigated fully. A member of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Complaints team contacted your constituency office on 14th July 2022 to provide an update and details of their investigations. They aim to provide a full response by Friday 22nd July.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on (a) UK’s trade deal with Australia and (b) safeguards for Welsh Lamb.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Wales Office ministers have regular discussions with departments across Whitehall on a range of matters, including the trade deal with Australia and safeguards for Welsh lamb. Leaving the EU has given us the ability to strike our own trade deals, creating new opportunities for UK businesses to trade internationally. The UK Government’s future trade agreements will bring further investments into Wales, with the mutual opening of markets. Trade deals mean more opportunities for businesses across the UK, including Wales.
The UK exported £438.1m worth of lamb to the world last year, and we want those numbers to grow. For sectors such as lamb, the volume of duty-free imports to the UK from Australia will be limited by Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ) and Product Specific Safeguards (PSS). TRQs will set a maximum level for tariff-free imports for up to 10 years, whilst PSSs will allow the UK to impose higher tariffs when imports exceed a certain threshold in years 10 to 15.
In addition, we also have a general bilateral safeguard mechanism that will provide a temporary safety net for industry, if it faces serious injury or threat from increased imports as a result of tariff elimination under the FTA.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the enquiry of 24 May 2022 from the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, reference POSCMP2022/40477.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP provided a telephone response to the office of Gerald Jones MP on 14 July 2022 in relation to his constituent’s enquiry and a full written response has also been issued today.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to promote the take up of pension credit to help tackle the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have already undertaken a range of actions to raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up. We are now putting all our efforts into the substantial and sustained take-up campaign, which was launched on 3 April. This has included print advertising and promotion in the national press, across social media, via internet search engines and on screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries across Great Britain. Our digital toolkit has been updated with information and resources, as well as leaflets and posters which advice organisations, charities and other stakeholders working across local communities can use to help promote Pension Credit
Most recently, on 15 June DWP held another Pension Credit day of action with broadcasters, regional and national newspapers and other partners encouraged to reach out to pensioners, as well their family and friends, through their channels. Although not all claims can be directly attributed to the campaign, early indications are that the day of action has been highly effective. Our internal management information suggests there have been over 10,000 Pension Credit claims made during the week of the media day – an increase of 275% compared to the same week in 2021, which itself was an enhanced week due to the 2021 Pension Credit Action Day.
The impact of these claim volumes on numbers of successful awards and on Pension Credit take up will take longer to establish given the usual cycle involved in producing those statistics. However, the campaign is ongoing including a particular focus on getting the private sector to drive forward efforts to enhance claims, and specific effort to reach out to communities who have traditionally not claimed Pension Credit. That work is very much ongoing.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the (a) delays at HM Passport Office and (b) impact of those delays on people in Wales.
Answered by David T C Davies - Secretary of State for Wales
We have seen unprecedented demand following the return of unrestricted international travel, with 9.5 million passport applications forecasted for 2022, an increase of roughly 35% on pre-pandemic application numbers.
Nonetheless, 98.5% of UK applications were completed within the published processing time of ten weeks between March and May, with approximately 250,000 passport applications being processed each week.
To help meet increased demand, HM Passport Office have recruited 850 additional staff since April 2021, with a further 350 arriving during this summer. Passport applications from Wales may be handled at all Passport Office processing sites throughout the UK.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities on the levelling up funding for Wales relative to other parts of the UK.
Answered by David T C Davies - Secretary of State for Wales
I have regular discussions with colleagues across Government on how local growth funding will benefit communities the length and breadth of Wales. Wales received £120 million in the first round of the Levelling Up Fund (over 7% of the total UK allocation), £46 million through the one-year UK Community Renewal Fund (23% of the total UK allocation) and £460,000 in the first round of the Community Ownership Fund (9% of the total UK allocation). For each of these funds Wales has received more than its 5% UK population share.
All of this is in addition to the £585 million Wales will receive through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (a 22.5% share of the total UK allocation).
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact of the rise in the cost of living on levels of in-work poverty; and what steps the Government is taking to mitigate that impact.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The latest available statistics for in-work poverty are for 2019/20.
The Treasury published distributional analysis which shows that the full package of measures announced on May 26th is well targeted at households on low incomes.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has provided to the British Boxing Board of Control in each year since 2017.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
My Department has not provided funding to the British Boxing Board of Control, which has been overseeing British professional boxing independently of the government since 1929.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the enquiry of 12 April 2022 from the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, reference POSCMP2022/29080.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A reply was sent to the hon. Member by the Director for Retirement Services, on behalf of the Secretary of State, on 8 June 2022.