Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to page 61 of the Autumn Statement 2023 and page 64 of the connections action plan, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including in the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) (a) the development of an offshore grid covering offshore wind farms off the coast of the East of England and (b) a reassessment of proposals from National Grid for the Norwich to Tilbury Great Grid Upgrade.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan will determine the optimal scale and location of energy infrastructure needed to transition to homegrown energy. This will inform the delivery of the Central Strategic Network Plan, which will consider what network and other infrastructure is needed to link new energy generation with end users.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to (a) page 61 of the Autumn Statement 2023 and (b) the connections action plan, when she plans to publish eligibility criteria for community benefits.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 22 November, the Government published its community benefits for transmission network infrastructure government response. Within this we confirmed our intention for eligibility for wider community benefits to be agreed on a project-by-project basis. For electricity bill discounts, we will work up further proposals on eligibility, including on proximity, and will provide an update in 2024.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, what funding will be provided to each local authority in the 2024-25 financial year for the Household Support Fund; and what his planned timetable is for (a) informing local authorities of their allocations and (b) providing guidance on the use of that funding.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer given to PQ3412.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department's policy is on providing support to householders who believe that actions taken by the Environment Agency have caused flooding to their properties.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) take flood risk incredibly seriously and have a long-term plan to upgrade and invest in flood defences across England to benefit local communities. When building flood defences there is a legal requirement that they cannot increase the flood risk of communities either upstream or downstream.
Creating climate resilient places lies at the heart of the EA’s National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (FCERM Strategy) and Roadmap to 2026. The EA’s role in flood and coastal erosion risk management is outlined here. The EA is also a Category 1 responder set out by The Civil Contingency Act (2004).
The EA are in the third year of the current 6-year £5.2billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. The funding can be spent on projects that better protect properties in England as well as the development of future projects.
At the end of March 2023, the EA estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with over 200 flood risk schemes completed.
Around 60,000 properties have benefited from better protection since the start of the current 6-year programme (between April 2021 to March 2023). This takes the total number of properties protected to 374,000 since 2015.
During Storms Babet and Ciarán around 2,400 properties sadly flooded but defences protected a further 110,000.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what financial support his Department provides to National Plant Collection holders who have suffered (a) flood and (b) storm damage.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government acknowledges the terrible impact Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán have had on householders and businesses and sympathises with those affected. There is no specific funding for National Plant Collection holders however, the Government has triggered the Flood Recovery Framework, to provide funding for affected households and businesses as a result of severe flooding caused by the storms.
In addition, the Government will be activating the Defra Property Flood Resilience Repair Grant Scheme for areas affected by Storm Babet. Eligible flood-hit property owners will be able to apply for up to £5,000 to help make their homes and businesses more resilient to future flooding.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled '£200 million to boost NHS resilience and care this winter', published 14 September 2023, if he will provide additional resources to local authorities to support hospital discharge and reablement services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is investing an additional £600 million this year, and £1 billion next year through the Discharge Fund. This funding will enable the National Health Service and local authorities to reduce discharge delays, including by commissioning additional packages of care and support for rehabilitation and reablement.
In September, alongside the £200 million to boost resilience in the NHS, we announced a £40 million fund, targeted at local authorities in the most challenged NHS systems. This fund will strengthen urgent and emergency care resilience and performance this winter by preventing avoidable admissions or by reducing discharge delays.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Leader of the House on parliamentary time for legislation prohibiting the sale of peat in the horticultural retail trade.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It remains our policy that we intend to legislate to restrict, and ultimately ban, the sale of peat and peat containing products when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints he has received about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The attached table shows the number of complaints about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.
HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
HMCTS does not collate the management information on how many errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The attached table shows the number of complaints about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.
HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
HMCTS does not collate the management information on how many errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to inspect multi academy trusts.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Academy trusts are held to high standards of governance and transparency, as companies, charities, and public sector bodies.
Ofsted inspection takes place at the level of each individual school within a trust, which provides accountability and transparency for parents around the education their child receives. At the trust level, the department has a broader framework of accountability, which both looks at the performance of their schools, and focuses on high standards of governance and financial management, while also recognising that trusts operate on very different models and in different contexts.
In July, the department published a new framework for commissioning multi-academy trusts. The framework provides descriptions of what the department expects of high-quality trusts and sets out the evidence Regional Directors will use when making decisions to place a school with a trust. It represents an ambitious vision for the academies sector, and a driver of high standards.
The department’s regional directors and their teams, together with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), provide robust educational and financial oversight of all academy trusts.
Where non-financial or financial non-compliance or governance failure is identified, Regions Group or the ESFA respectively will intervene, in a way that is proportionate to the risk and preserves education provision. This can include issuing a trust with a notice to improve or, in the most serious cases, termination of the funding agreement.