Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what specific steps she is taking to support (a) Post Offices and (b) convenience stores with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Our business rates package announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement will help the high streets and small businesses. This comes after the Government reversed the Health and Social Care Levy, enabling smaller firms to reduce their National Insurance bills even further by increasing the Employment Allowance.
Furthermore, on 9 January, the Government announced the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. Under the new scheme, eligible non-domestic customers receive a per-unit discount to their energy bills during the 12-month period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, subject to a threshold level of £107/MWh for gas and £302/MWh of electricity. This scheme followed the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which ensured business were protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
Additionally, in April 2023, Post Office made improvements to postmasters’ remuneration, including increasing payments for banking deposit transactions by 20%. This is in addition to improvements made by Post Office in August 2022.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department is providing to grassroots music venues in Bradford West constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We are working with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and the recent Energy Bills Support Scheme.
We will continue to engage with the sector on the impact of current pressures. As part of this engagement, I recently met the Music Venues Trust to discuss issues facing the live music sector, and how to support growth of the music sector and wider Creative Industries.
Regarding support for Bradford West specifically, across all artforms and disciplines, the Arts Council has invested £21.86 million since 2018/19 in 145 projects. This includes seven successful music specific applications, including:
Nightrain, a 400 capacity live music venue, received £11,000 in 2021 via the Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund to purchase new sound equipment, which enabled the venue to offer more opportunities to up and coming bands.
Nightrain also received two Culture Recovery Fund awards, totalling £168,500.
18 Bradford West based projects received Culture Recovery Funding totalling £3.93 million. These included producers and cultural venue The Brick Box, including The Brick Box Rooms, which are often utilised for music performances. The Brick Box received £25,000 through the Arts Council’s Emergency Response funds for organisations, £105,000 through Culture Recovery Fund and £90,000 in National Lottery Project Grants.
Another music sector organisation which received Culture Recovery Fund support was Pro Audio Systems, who received £263,000, enabling the provision of quality electronic audio equipment to venues in the region.
Lukas Hornby, Bradford-based producer, DJ, VJ, composer and musician received £2,500 from the Arts Council’s Emergency Response fund for individuals.
National Lottery Project Grant awards have also been made to grassroots community choirs the Friendship Choir (£14,000) and Millside Voices Community Choir (£15,000).
The Creative Industries have been identified by this Government as a priority growth sector. We will shortly be publishing a Creative Industries Sector Vision that will set out our ambitions, shared with industry, to support all parts of the creative sector to 2030. We look forward to working with the music industry to deliver on these objectives.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how care home providers in Bradford West constituency the Government is supporting with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are making available up to £7.5 billion of additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge, with up to £2.8 billion available in 2023/24 and up to £4.7 billion in 2024/25. We expect councils to use the additional £2.8 billion funding available for social care, a more than real terms increase in funding dedicated for social care, to go beyond meeting inflationary pressures, including those experienced in 2022/23.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets. Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to develop and build local market capacity.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has any further plans to make support available for care home providers with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are making available up to £7.5 billion of additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge, with up to £2.8 billion available in 2023/24 and up to £4.7 billion in 2024/25. We expect councils to use the additional £2.8 billion funding available for social care, a more than real terms increase in funding dedicated for social care, to go beyond meeting inflationary pressures, including those experienced in 2022/23.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets. Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to develop and build local market capacity.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
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 is taking steps to provide support to people whose property was previously eligible for a Warm Home Discount payment but is no longer eligible and has a low energy performance certificate rating.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Households not receiving rebates under the Warm Home Discount may still be able to receive assistance under the Industry Initiatives element of the scheme. This can include benefit entitlement checks, financial assistance, debt-write off, energy advice as well as energy efficiency measures. Over 327,000 households were helped under that route last winter.
For longer-lasting reductions in their energy bills, low-income households may be eligible for energy efficiency measures through government schemes including the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant. Over 39% of households in Bradford West have benefitted from energy efficiency measures installed under ECO since 2013.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
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 Warm Home Discount helpline is accessible for users with disabilities.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Ofcom requires all landline and mobile telephone communications providers to provide a number of services for customers with disabilities, including access to an approved text relay service. The Warm Home Discount helpline has operators trained in taking calls from text relay services. The helpline also has a step-by-step Interactive Voice Response interface at the beginning of calls to help users navigate the service.
In addition to the telephone service, users can write to the Warm Home Discount helpline at: 110552 Warm Home Discount Scheme, PO Box 26965, Glasgow, G1 9BW.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to hold further discussions with his Egyptian counterpart on (a) the release of and (b) access to consular support for Alaa Abd El-Fattah.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government makes regular representations about Mr Alaa Abd El Fattah's imprisonment, welfare, lack of consular access and will continue to do so until his case is resolved. The Prime Minister raised consular access with President Sisi on 7 November and the Foreign Secretary has raised the case with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry on several occasions. The Minister for the Middle East and North Africa has also raised Mr El-Fattah's case on a number of occasions, most recently on 5 December with the Egyptian Ambassador.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
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 ensure that people who do not have a direct relationship with an energy supplier benefit from the Energy Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding will provide support of £400 for energy bills for around 900,000 households without a domestic electricity supply. Those eligible for the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding will need to submit a short online form via the Government’s GOV.UK pages, with the application portal due to open this month.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is considering diplomatic sanctions against the Egyptian Government if they fail to allow consular access or release of Alaa Abd El- Fattah.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Mr Alaa Abd El-Fattah obtained British Citizenship in December 2021. The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly stated that they do not recognise Mr El-Fattah's British nationality and continue to refuse consular access, which was first requested in December 2021. There have been frequent follow-up requests, including at the highest levels with Prime Minister raising Mr El-Fattah's case and our request for consular access with President Sisi during COP27 on 7 November.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken recent steps to secure consular access to Alaa Abd El-Fattah.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Mr Alaa Abd El-Fattah obtained British Citizenship in December 2021. The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly stated that they do not recognise Mr El-Fattah's British nationality and continue to refuse consular access, which was first requested in December 2021. There have been frequent follow-up requests, including at the highest levels with Prime Minister raising Mr El-Fattah's case and our request for consular access with President Sisi during COP27 on 7 November.