Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing home insulation to low-income households who have have poorly insulated homes.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government considers energy efficiency as the best way to tackle fuel poverty, contributing to the long-term reduction of energy bills as well as reducing carbon emissions in line with Net Zero. There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures to low income and fuel poor households. Schemes include the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), the Great British Insulation Scheme and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to (a) increase availability of and (b) reduce waiting times for dental appointments.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 7 February, we published Our Plan to Recover and Reform National Health Service Dentistry. The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments.
The Plan sets out a number of actions which will improve access for patients, by helping the sector to recover activity more quickly, including the introduction of a New Patient Payment Premium of up to £50 for each new patient. This is on top of the funding dental practices already receive for delivering that care.
We will further incentivise dentists to do more NHS work by raising the minimum Units of Dental Activity (UDA) rate to £28.
From 1 April 2023 responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the oral contribution of the Prime Minister at Prime Minister's Questions on 24 January 2024, Official Report, column 296, what plans his Department has to improve Preston railway station; and what his planned timeline is for those improvements.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Following the Network North announcement, work is underway to consider potential upgrades to the West Coast Main Line, including improvements to Preston station, to support the introduction of High-Speed Services and improve journeys between London, the West Midlands, the North-West and Scotland. My officials are working with industry partners to review options.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of proposed rail fares for 2024-25; and if he will take steps to ensure fares do not rise further.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is continuing to support passengers with cost-of-living pressures with another significant intervention on rail fares, capping increases at 4.9 per cent, significantly below the July 2023 Retail Prices Index (RPI) figure of 9 per cent, which has historically been used to calculate fares changes.
The lower fare cap comes after the Government delivered its target to halve inflation by the end of the year.
This year’s increase builds on last year’s unprecedented intervention, which saw the Government cap the increase for 2023 at 6.4 percentage points lower than the 2022 July RPI figure. This means the Government will have helped keep ticket prices more than 9 per cent lower than what passengers would have paid if rises matched the RPI benchmark in the last two years.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there is a cost implication to (a) his Department and (b) Serco of biometric residence permit cards being issued with errors.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This information is not publicly available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his (a) US counterpart and (b) the UK's international allies on (a) diplomatic, (b) humanitarian and (c) military support for Ukraine.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK plays a leading role in driving international support for Ukraine. We are in constant contact with our international partners to ensure that Ukraine receives the diplomatic, military and humanitarian support it needs. The Foreign Secretary held talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reaffirm international cooperation and support for Ukraine during his visit to Washington on 6-7 December last year. The Foreign Secretary also set out the high level of UK ambition recently at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, as well as during December and January travel to Paris, Rome, Amman, Cairo and Istanbul.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department takes to (a) mitigate delays in producing and (b) ensure the correct (i) names and (ii) bate of births are printed on newly issued biometric residence permits.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Home Office colleagues are working closely together to improve our processes and ensure Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are issued as quickly as possible.
Caseworkers must ensure that the individual’s name, nationality and date of birth are correct and correspond to caseworking system records.
We are improving address data accuracy and ensuring that updated address data flows into the main case working system more efficiently. This will maintain the integrity of the system so that the BRP card is issued to the correct address and help reduce delays in the system.
BRP production is an automated function on our caseworking systems. However, delays can arise due to process errors. We have introduced a dedicated support function to work at speed to resolve user/process issues and to drive BRP process improvements across the end-to-end system.
Where customers encounter a delay in the receipt of their BRP, we offer a range of services to allow customers to report the delay, and we aim to resolve the problem within five working days of notification. Employers and landlords can use the Employer Checking Service and the Landlord Checking Service to verify a right to work or rent in the absence of a BRP, while Government departments and public bodies can verify status in the absence of a BRP through the Status Verification and Enquiries Checking (SVEC) team.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to assess the potential impact of delays in the production of biometric residence permits on the people affected.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Home Office colleagues are working closely together to improve our processes and ensure Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are issued as quickly as possible.
Caseworkers must ensure that the individual’s name, nationality and date of birth are correct and correspond to caseworking system records.
We are improving address data accuracy and ensuring that updated address data flows into the main case working system more efficiently. This will maintain the integrity of the system so that the BRP card is issued to the correct address and help reduce delays in the system.
BRP production is an automated function on our caseworking systems. However, delays can arise due to process errors. We have introduced a dedicated support function to work at speed to resolve user/process issues and to drive BRP process improvements across the end-to-end system.
Where customers encounter a delay in the receipt of their BRP, we offer a range of services to allow customers to report the delay, and we aim to resolve the problem within five working days of notification. Employers and landlords can use the Employer Checking Service and the Landlord Checking Service to verify a right to work or rent in the absence of a BRP, while Government departments and public bodies can verify status in the absence of a BRP through the Status Verification and Enquiries Checking (SVEC) team.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many newly issued biometric residence permits have been returned due to clerical errors in their production in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on the safety of (a) staff, (b) patients and (c) displaced people in hospitals in Gaza.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas, in line with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). We want to see Israel take greater care to limit its operations to military targets and avoid harming civilians. The Prime Minister has made this clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu and has been in close contact throughout. We are currently supporting NGO and UN partners to deliver medical aid and care in the Gaza Strip. This includes support for primary healthcare, trauma and emergency care services, disease surveillance and outbreak response, and deployment of Emergency Medical Teams.