Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What progress has been made on implementing his Department's 25 Year Environment Plan.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is already implementing commitments in the plan. We recently consulted on proposals to ban UK sales of ivory, are bringing into force rules to reduce water pollution from agriculture and are legislating to set limits on air pollutants emitted from medium sized combustion plants. Since the plan’s publication, several supermarkets and restaurants have pledged to tackle plastic packaging and single-use plastics.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much Support for Mortgage Interest has been paid in each of the last five years; and what the maximum individual payment is in any single year.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) expenditure and caseload estimates are provided in DWP Benefit expenditure and caseload tables. The table below shows the estimated expenditure on SMI in the last 5 years:
2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
£287m | £256m | £240m | £209m | £205m |
The maximum individual payment of SMI over the course of a year is currently £6,240. Within the last 5 years it has been £7,260 (2014/15) in a year.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals received Support for Mortgage Interest in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) expenditure and caseload estimates are provided in DWP Benefit expenditure and caseload tables. The table below shows the estimated SMI caseload in the last 5 years:
2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
178,000 | 159,000 | 136,000 | 128,000 | 124,000 |
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what functions Serco has been contracted to perform to support the new loan system for the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme from 5 April 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Serco have been contracted through an open competitive tendering exercise to deliver information provision to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) customers who are in receipt of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI). This provision takes the form of a telephony based Informed Discussion to ensure customers are fully aware about the upcoming change and the options available to them. At the end of the call customers are offered a loan application pack to complete and send back to the DWP. The service explicitly does not provide advice but does signpost to other organisations that can help customers who may need assistance on reaching a decision.
SMI loans will be paid by the Department in the same way as the SMI benefit is now. The registration of charges on the property and recovery arrangements will be delivered by the Department.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What plans he has to broaden routes into nursing.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Health Education England published a draft workforce strategy last week, which emphasised clearly the priority we have to increase the nursing workforce and broaden routes into nursing.
That is why, in England, we have developed the new nursing associate role and Nursing Degree Apprenticeship to open routes into the registered nursing profession for thousands of people from all backgrounds, and allow employers to grow their own workforce from within their local communities.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the level of (a) income tax and (b) National Insurance contributions paid to the public purse by people under the age of 18 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
is table contains estimates of the total amount of income tax and national insurance liabilities of individuals who are under the age of 18 at the end of the tax year.
Total Income Tax and NICs liabilities for individuals under the age of 18 (£ millions)(1)(2) | ||
| Income Tax | NIC's |
2012-13 | 22.6 | 9.2 |
2013-14 | 20.9 | 8.8 |
2014-15 | 34.9 | 12.0 |
All counts are presented in millions and rounded to the nearest hundred thousand pounds.
These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) for the years concerned.
Outturn data for the most recent two tax years (2015-16 and 2016‑17) are yet available. The latest available outturn data in this format is from the Survey of Personal Incomes for 2014‑15.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what taxpayer funded grants including EU funds have been received by the RSPB in the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
The department publishes details of all expenditure over £25,000, including grants, at https://data.gov.uk/dataset/financial-transactions-data-defra.
The majority of grants are made under the Darwin/Official Development Assistance (ODA) initiative. The RSPB also receives funding under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Details of specific grants made under CAP in the 2015 and 2016 European Community financial years (16 October – 15 October) can be found via http://cap-payments.defra.gov.uk.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on economic growth in countries where malaria is endemic.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The World Health Organisation estimates that the support provided between 2000 and 2015, including that by the UK Government, resulted in a 6.8 million reduction in deaths globally. These life expectancy gains are valued at US$2040 billion which, for comparison, equates to 3.6% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of malaria affected countries in 2015.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 11 of the RSPB's Reserves 2012 report, what information his Department holds on the population of priority bird species on RSPB reserves since 2012.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Defra does not hold information on the population of priority bird species on RSPB reserves.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hen harrier nests there were on (a) RSPB and (b) non-RSPB reserves in each of the last five years; how many of those nests failed to have any chicks fledge in each of those years; and what the known causes of each of those nest failures were.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has primary control over access to two known hen harrier breeding sites: the RSPB reserve at Geltsdale and United Utilities landholding in the Bowland Fells, a special protection area.
Table 1. Breeding data from sites primarily controlled by RSPB
Year | Area | Outcome | Likely reason for failure |
2014 | Bowland | 5 chicks fledged |
|
2014 | Bowland | 4 chicks fledged |
|
2015 | Bowland | Nest failed | Unknown - chicks dead in nest |
2015 | Bowland | 1 chick fledged |
|
2015 | Bowland | Nest failed | Male missing |
2015 | Bowland | Nest failed | Male missing |
2015 | Bowland | Nest failed | Male missing |
2015 | Bowland | Nest failed | Predation |
2015 | Geltsdale | Nest failed | Male missing |
2016 | Geltsdale | 1 chick fledged |
|
Table 2. Breeding data from sites primarily controlled by other bodies
Year | Area | Outcome | Likely Reason for failure |
2013 | County Durham | Nest failed | Female disappeared/deserted |
2013 | Northumberland | Nest failed | Abnormal eggs |
2014 | Cumbria | 2 chicks fledged |
|
2014 | Peak District | 4 chicks fledged |
|
2015 | Cumbria | 2 chicks fledged |
|
2015 | Cumbria | 3 chicks fledged |
|
2015 | Cumbria | 3 chicks fledged |
|
2015 | Northumberland | 4 chicks fledged |
|
2015 | Northumberland | 5 chicks fledged |
|
2016 | Northumberland | 2 chicks fledged |
|
2016 | Northumberland | 5 chicks fledged |
|
2017 | Northumberland | 4 chicks fledged |
|
2017 | Northumberland | 3 chicks fledged |
|
2017 | Northumberland | Nest failed | Suspected predation |
2017 | Northumberland | 3 chicks fledged |
|
2017 | Northumberland | Nest failed | Likely bad weather - chicks dead in wet nest |
2017 | Yorkshire Dales | Nest failed | Suspected predation |
2017 | Yorkshire Dales | Nest failed | Suspected predation |