Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure that local general practitioners are consulted ahead of the transition from clinical commissioning groups to integrated care systems.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Under the Health and Care Act 2022, 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) will be established on 1 July 2022. ICBs will take on the commissioning functions of existing clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and delegated responsibility for primary medical services.
As required by the Act, CCGs have worked with designate ICB leaders in developing the constitutions for each ICB and shared these proposals with NHS England. As a minimum, CCGs were required to consult with the relevant National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts, primary care representatives, local Healthwatch and relevant local authorities. In addition, there has been consultation where general practitioners jointly nominate one or more members of the ICB board.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) schools with a large intake of military families are adequately provisioned and (b) school roll audits are carried out termly rather than annually in those schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
State-funded schools in England that are attended by children and young people from military families (known as service children) receive additional funding in the form of the service pupil premium (SPP). This funding is currently worth £320 per annum for each pupil who is recorded as a service child at the time of the autumn school census, or who has had service child status at any point in the last six years.
Schools have flexibility over how they use the SPP to support the pastoral and academic needs that service children may have as a result of growing up in a military household. These can include needs relating to the impact of moving schools frequently during their primary and secondary education.
Schools are required in each termly school census to record information about the number of service children on roll. However, allocations of SPP funding for each financial year only draw on data from the autumn school census return. This ’lagged’ approach to funding gives schools certainty over their budgets, as they know the number of pupils for which they will receive funding in the year. Therefore, when pupil numbers fall, schools have time to respond before this starts to impact their budgets.
The department has allocated £246 million in growth and falling rolls funding to local authorities in the 2022/23 financial year. This is an increase of £12 million over the amount allocated for 2021/22. Growth funding can be used by local authorities to support schools with managing a significant growth in pupil numbers or a short-term decrease in pupil numbers, where those places are forecast to be required in future years.
The responsibility for how growth and falling rolls funding is allocated rests with local authorities. If an academy or maintained school takes on significant numbers of additional pupils because of a growing population in the area, then local authorities can provide funding from the growth pot they hold locally.
Furthermore, schools in which more than 6% of pupils joined at a non-typical date through the school year at any point in the last three years also attract funding through the mobility factor in the national funding formula. For years 1 to 11, this means the first census when the pupil was in the school was a Spring or Summer census. For the reception year, the first census is the Summer census. This year, the department allocated £44 million to local authorities through this factor. Local authorities allocate the funding they receive to schools through their local funding formula.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a National Dementia Observatory as recommended by the Alzheimer's Society in its report From diagnosis to end of life: The lived experiences of dementia care, published in October 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No formal assessment has been made. However, the National Dementia Intelligence Network has developed the Dementia Profile as a local data illustration tool which maps the dementia pathway. We will set out plans for dementia in England in the next 10 years later this year, which will focus on the specific health and care needs of people living with dementia and their carers.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a National Patient and Carer Experience Survey for dementia on the same lines as the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We will set out plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years later this year. We are considering how to engage with and gather evidence from people affected by dementia. The strategy will be informed by a range of experts, including people living with dementia and their carers.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 ensure that the £400 energy bill rebate reaches (a) those living in residential park homes or (b) in other forms of accommodation who do not pay their energy bills directly to their energy provider.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is aware that not all households have electricity provided through a domestic electricity supply contract. Households without a domestic electricity supply contract are not eligible for the Scheme and the Government are exploring options for other ways in which they might receive similar support. This was raised in our technical consultation (Energy Bills Support Scheme – Managing the impact of the energy price shock on consumer bills) which closed the 23 May. Responses to the consultation are being analysed and the Government response will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has issued guidance to local authorities on placements at independent schools for refugees who have arrived under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is currently working at pace to develop the methodology and mechanism for the allocation of funding for the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme. This education funding for children and young people will be distributed to local authorities. If the funding is used for a school place, it will be for state-funded schools only.
In general, there’s nothing that would stop a local authority from providing funding to an independent school, but this would be a decision for the individual local authority to make.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities issued guidance in March this year advising families how to apply for a school place in England. The Department for Education shared this via The Education Hub blog in April.
The Boarding Schools Association and the Independent Schools Council speak regularly to the Department for Education and the Home Office on matters relating to Ukraine and Russia.
We are grateful to those independent schools that have come forward to offer places and encourage independent schools to contact local authorities that are seeking to place children.
As school places are co-ordinated locally, schools should inform their local authorities that they are willing to offer places to Ukrainian students. It is for independent schools to determine their own criteria for creating scholarship schemes and putting local arrangements for administration in place.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue guidance to local authorities on how they can partly or wholly fund independent school places for student refugees who have arrived under the Homes for Ukraine scheme using the same per capita funding that would be spent if they were to be educated in the state sector.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is currently working at pace to develop the methodology and mechanism for the allocation of funding for the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme. This education funding for children and young people will be distributed to local authorities. If the funding is used for a school place, it will be for state-funded schools only.
In general, there’s nothing that would stop a local authority from providing funding to an independent school, but this would be a decision for the individual local authority to make.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities issued guidance in March this year advising families how to apply for a school place in England. The Department for Education shared this via The Education Hub blog in April.
The Boarding Schools Association and the Independent Schools Council speak regularly to the Department for Education and the Home Office on matters relating to Ukraine and Russia.
We are grateful to those independent schools that have come forward to offer places and encourage independent schools to contact local authorities that are seeking to place children.
As school places are co-ordinated locally, schools should inform their local authorities that they are willing to offer places to Ukrainian students. It is for independent schools to determine their own criteria for creating scholarship schemes and putting local arrangements for administration in place.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 (a) review and (b) implement the findings of the consultation on the technical proposals for the Energy Bills Support Scheme which closed on 11 April 2022; and how his Department will ensure payment of that support to people who pay their energy bills through third parties.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Energy Bills Support Scheme consultation closed on 23 May. Responses are being analysed and the government response will be published in the summer.
There will be different considerations for consumers depending on their circumstances.
All domestic electricity customers who have a direct relationship with a licensed electricity supplier will be automatically eligible for this Scheme.
The Government continues to work with consumer groups and suppliers on the delivery of the scheme to domestic electricity customers and is exploring options for other ways in which customers who do not have a domestic electricity contract might receive similar support.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to continue to support the hospitality and tourism sector in its recovery from the Omicron covid-19 variant and related disruption.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In December 2021 the government announced a £1bn package of support for businesses impacted by the Omicron variant. This included cash grants of up to £6,000 to support eligible businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors, totaling nearly £700 million, open until the end of March 2022.
This is just the latest action taken, and adds to an already comprehensive package of measures intended to support the recovery of sectors most impacted, including:
It is thanks to the Government’s decisive action to implement balanced and proportionate measures in response to the Omicron variant, that Cabinet has decided to return to Plan A in England. This means the economy will get back to operating freely and businesses, including those in the hospitality and tourism sector, can recover more quickly.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of people currently waiting more than the estimated 10 week turnaround for the renewal of their driving licence.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.
However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
On 4 February, there were 178,926 driving licence renewal applications that had taken ten weeks or more. The vast majority of these are applications where a medical condition must be investigated before a licence can be issued to ensure the required medical standards are met. In December, the Department for Health and Social Care asked the DVLA to stop sending medical questionnaires (excluding vocational applications) to NHS doctors in December and January to allow the NHS to focus all efforts on the vaccination booster programme. While referrals to doctors have now resumed, this has had an impact on turnaround times. It is important to note that the large majority of these drivers will be able to continue driving under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act while they are waiting for their application to be processed.