Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made recent progress on introducing a lifetime deposit for renters.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As set out in our 2022 White Paper ‘A Fairer Private Rented Sector’, the market has responded to the ambition of our manifesto commitment for a ‘lifetime deposit’.
We continue to monitor the development of commercial lifetime deposit solutions, alongside keeping deposit protection and the broader deposit market under review.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to restore the availability of data on Healthy Start uptake on the Healthy Start website.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Work and Pensions has identified an error in their data that means that the data published for Healthy Start uptake from July 2023 onwards was incorrect. It is important to state that the data used to calculate the uptake rate is not used as part of the live check to determine eligibility for individual applicants to Healthy Start, and no individual applicants or beneficiaries have been impacted, The Department for Work and Pensions has fixed the issue, and additional checks have been added to the process to ensure the issue does not occur in the future.
The incorrect data has been removed from the NHS Healthy Start website by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who run the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. Corrected and updated data for March 2024 will be published by the NHS BSA shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to restore the availability of data on the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers on the Healthy Start website.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Work and Pensions has identified an error in their data that means that the data published for Healthy Start uptake from July 2023 onwards was incorrect. It is important to state that the data used to calculate the uptake rate is not used as part of the live check to determine eligibility for individual applicants to Healthy Start, and no individual applicants or beneficiaries have been impacted, The Department for Work and Pensions has fixed the issue, and additional checks have been added to the process to ensure the issue does not occur in the future.
The incorrect data has been removed from the NHS Healthy Start website by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who run the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. Corrected and updated data for March 2024 will be published by the NHS BSA shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to recover repayments of Bounce Back Loans under £50,000.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Lenders are responsible for the recovery of these loans in line with the standards and legal obligations set out under the schemes. The Department and the British Business Bank continue to work closely with UK Finance and accredited scheme lenders to support a consistent approach to the management of outstanding loans.
Lenders’ performance is subject to a robust audit programme overseen by the British Business Bank. If lenders do not meet their obligations, the government has the right not to pay out on any guarantee claims on the loans in scope.
The Department is also working with lenders to pilot greater use of third-party debt collection specialists, and compulsory liquidation for recovery and enforcement in fraud cases.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of first time buyers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
DLUHC publishes estimates of first-time buyer numbers as part of the English Housing Survey.
See Chapter 3 and Annex 3.2 in: English Housing Survey2022 to 2023: headline report - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to legal advice given to the Law Commission in December 2019, whether his Department has received any recent advice on the compatability of the marriage value element of leasehold enfranchisement with Article 1 of the First Protocol (A1P1) to the ECHR.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Our reforms seek to make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill as introduced on 27 November 2023 is considered compatible with the ECHR, as the section 19 statement on compatibility with Convention rights has been signed.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to businesses of proposals to abolish the marriage value element of leasehold enfranchisement; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of those proposals on non-UK leaseholders.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Our reforms seek to make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill as introduced on 27 November 2023 is considered compatible with the ECHR, as the section 19 statement on compatibility with Convention rights has been signed.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it her policy to ensure that everyone has the choice to access public services offline by phone, letter or face-to-face.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it her policy to introduce funding for public bodies to ensure that they are able to provide offline options for all service users.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will publish the names of people who attended the AI Summit 2023 on behalf of (a) organisations and (b) governments.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The names of the organisations and governments who confirmed their attendance prior to the AI Safety Summit was previously published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-introduction/ai-safety-summit-confirmed-governments-and-organisations
A more detailed list of attendees is due to be published in due course. In the meantime, we have been following procedures to ensure GDPR compliance and a more detailed list of attendees is to be published in due course.