Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the payment of compensation to sub-postmasters in Wales affected by issues with the Horizon system.
Answered by David T C Davies
The Government has already paid out over £153 million to over 2,700 victims. In the overturned convictions scheme, 95 convictions have been overturned, with 31 claimants agreeing full and final settlements. Over £33 million has been paid out to those with overturned convictions, which includes interim payments and partial settlements.
Of the original trailblazing postmasters in the “GLO” group who took the Post Office to court and exposed the Horizon Scandal, £27 million has been paid out to 477 claimants. The original 2,417 postmasters who claimed through the original Horizon Shortfall Scheme have now all had offers of compensation. Offers have totalled over £107m and over £93 million has been paid out in this scheme, with Post Office now dealing with late applications and with those cases where the initial offer was not accepted.
In the coming weeks, we will introduce new primary legislation to quash all convictions that were reliant on erroneous Horizon evidence. Once this legislation is passed, and convictions have been overturned, they will be entitled to at least £600,000 in compensation to rebuild their lives.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Wales and (b) her Japanese counterpart on the geographical indication status of Welsh food and drink products in Japan.
Answered by Greg Hands
The department is working closely with Japanese officials to agree a date for entry into force of the necessary amendments to the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, at which point the first tranche of British products will join the seven Geographical Indications (GIs) already in our agreement in receiving protected status. The Secretary of State discussed this process with her counterpart at the Joint Committee in Japan in October 2023.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) the Secretary of State for Transport and (b) Network Rail on the potential impact of Control Period 7 funding on (i) rail services and (ii) the condition of rail infrastructure in Wales.
Answered by David T C Davies
My officials and I have regular discussions with counterparts in the Department for Transport and Network Rail on a wide range of transport matters in Wales.
Between 2024 and 2029, the UK Government will be providing a record £44.1 billion settlement for Network Rail in Control Period 7 across England and Wales. This £44.1 billion settlement is roughly a 4% increase in real terms when compared to the previous control period.
The UK Government is committed to improving rail infrastructure in Wales and has allocated £1 billion to electrify the North Wales Mainline, delivered the £76 million electrification of the Severn Tunnel, contributed £144 million to the upgrade of the Core Valley Lines and provided £77.7 million for improvements to Cardiff Central Station.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, when the Tata Steel/ Port Talbot Transition Board will next meet.
Answered by David T C Davies
The Tata Steel/Port Talbot Transition Board plan to next meet on 1 February 2024.
I chair the Transition Board which was set up to support people, businesses and communities affected by Tata Steel’s decarbonisation transition. The Transition Board will have access to up to £100 million to invest in skills and regeneration programmes for the local area.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) the Secretary of State for Transport, (b) Network Rail and (c) the Welsh government on the electrification of the North Wales Main Line.
Answered by David T C Davies
My officials and I have regular discussions with counterparts in the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the Welsh Government on a wide range of transport matters across Wales.
The UK Government is committed to providing £1 billion to fund the electrification of the North Wales Main Line. This investment will have a transformative impact for the many residents, commuters and tourists who use the North Wales Main Line, driving economic growth across the region.
The Department for Transport is working closely with Network Rail and industry partners to develop and deliver on the Government priorities outlined in the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement, including electrification of the North Wales Main Line. The Government is currently considering next steps, including delivery timelines, and will share further information when this work is complete. All schemes will be subject to the development and approval of business cases and will undergo all formal governance, in line with relevant fiscal and legal duties.
The UK Government is already providing significant investment to improve rail infrastructure and travel in Wales, including £144 million for the Core Valley Lines, delivering the £76 million electrification of the Severn Tunnel and £77.7 million for improvements to Cardiff Central Station.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate has been made of the average length of time between submission of a PIP mandatory reconsideration and the decision.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The monthly average clearance time of a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) can be found in the latest PIP quarterly release: Personal Independence Payment statistics to October 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
In particular, the figures on MR average clearance times can be found in Table 4A in the Customer Journey Excel.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the total cost of the electrification of the North Wales mainline.
Answered by Huw Merriman
As part of the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement, the Government committed an unprecedented £1 billion investment to fund the electrification of the North Wales Main Line. We continue to work through the next steps for developing and delivering the scheme.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum applications from applicants in Newport East constituency that were submitted before June 2022 are awaiting a final decision.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on applications awaiting a decision is published in table Asy_10a of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that this information is not broken down by local authority, nor the date by which the application was submitted.
The Home Office publishes data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement local authority data’ detailed datasets. Information on asylum seekers who are not claiming support is not available by local authority. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. Additionally, the data shows a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2023. Data as at 31 December 2023 will be published on 29 February 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress his Department has made in resolving the technical issues affecting the issuing of Biometric Residence Permit cards.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Incidences of technical issues preventing BRP card production are extremely low, and no systemic issues have been identified.
Where individual card requests do fail, operational case working teams and IT Support endeavour to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
For any case that cannot be resolved immediately, the Employer Checking and Landlord Checking Services are available to provide support to customers to verify their immigration status and permission to work and rent properties in the UK.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applicants have been waiting more than 28 days for a biometric residence permit.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
BRPs are produced at the secure delivery facility within 48 hours of the production request being made and are collected by our secure delivery partner the same day. Our secure delivery partner aims to attempt to deliver the BRPs within 48 hours of receipt of the BRPs. This equates to a minimum of 5 working days from the date of the production request being made to delivery of the BRP. We have added an additional 2 working days to the timeline advised to applicants to allow us to resolve any production issues.
During 2023, 99.6% of BRPs were produced within 24 hours of the production request and 100% within 48 hours. In 2023, our Secure Delivery Partner attempted to deliver over 99% of BRPs within 48 hours.