Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to intervene in the agency market of social care recruitment to (a) prevent money going out of the system to recruitment agencies and (b) support with staffing levels in that sector.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who make their own recruitment decisions, independent of central government. It is, therefore, the responsibility of individual providers to make decisions on the use of recruitment agencies to support with capacity.
To support the sector with workforce capacity, we are supporting recruitment at home and at abroad - investing £15 million to boost the international recruitment of care workers and launching our domestic National Recruitment Campaign in early November.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy not to increase foreign aid contributions during the period of increased cost of living in the UK.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government understands that people across the UK are worried about the cost of living; that is why we announced £37 billion of support for the cost of living this financial year.
We have taken decisive action to support millions of households and business with rising energy costs this winter through the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. We are continuing to keep the situation under review and focus support on the most vulnerable whilst ensuring we act in a fiscally responsible way.
In July 2021 the former Chancellor set out the fiscal circumstances under which the UK will make the return to spending 0.7% of its GNI on ODA. This is set out in detail in a written ministerial statement, here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-12/hcws172.
Each year, the Government will continue to monitor future forecasts closely and will review and confirm, in accordance with the Act, whether a return to spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA is possible against the latest fiscal forecasts.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the viability of (a) light rail and (b) tram services of permitting those services to operate in the same concessionary fare system as buses.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age to ensure that no older or disabled person in England need be prevented from bus travel by cost alone.
Funding for this is provided through the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Settlement Funding Assessment: a Grant that supports a wide range of activities to ensure that each local transport authority receives the funding that they need. This funding is not ringfenced to enable local authorities to make spending decisions that more closely align with local needs and circumstances. There are currently no further plans to directly extend the concessionary fares for buses to light rail or tram systems.
In addition, local authorities have the powers to provide further discretionary concessions in addition to ENCTS, through local resources such as Council Tax.
All Travel Concession Authorities that have light rail or tram systems in England, including Nottingham City Council, choose to fund travel on their systems as a discretionary concession.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make it her policy to extend recent support to maintain the viability of bus routes to also support local tram networks.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government has provided over £2 billion in emergency and recovery grants to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the bus and light rail sector and continues to discuss with the sector what further support might be appropriate.
Pandemic-related funding for English Light Rail systems outside London ended on 4 October 2022. This funding had represented exceptional subsidy for light rail systems as their operation and financial sustainability are largely devolved.
The Local Transport Fund, which provided funding until October 2022, helped local authorities with Light Rail systems to adjust to post-pandemic travel patterns.
Furthermore, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme will help reduce the financial pressure on light rail systems caused by higher energy prices this winter. This support is expected to be worth millions of pounds to the sector.
The Department continues to engage with key stakeholders in the Light Rail sector to understand the financial pressures on systems, including regarding energy prices.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to reintroduce funding for small transport projects, similar to the previous Pinch Points Fund that was announced prior to the pandemic but not completed.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
In 2020 the government announced a £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund (LUF) to invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities, including local transport schemes across the UK. LUF superseded previous local growth funding streams in England and any local authority, including local highway authorities, Combined Authorities, and those in the Devolved nations, may bid into the fund.
In Round 1 of LUF, in October 2021, bids to the value of £1.69 billion were successful. The next round of grants are due to be awarded in autumn 2022. Further information on the Government’s plans for public spending will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she will take to ensure restrictions on placement promotions for foods high in fat, salt and sugar do not increase the cost of goods for consumers experiencing the rising cost of living.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
We recognise the need to balance implications costs and benefits to businesses individuals, society and the National Health Service. Following consultation, a number of exemptions were made to ease the impact on businesses where appropriate. The restrictions only apply to products that are high in fat, salt or sugar and are assessed as ‘less healthy’, retailers are free to promote products that are healthier and that are not deemed in scope of the policy.
The location restrictions on promotions which came into force on 1 October are expected to accrue health benefits of over £57 billion and provide NHS savings of over £4 billion, over the next 25 years. In light of the unprecedented global economic situation, we have delayed the implementation of the volume price promotions by 12-months. These restrictions will come into force in October 2023.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to help ensure that the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulation 2021 does not have a negative impact on businesses.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
We recognise the need to balance implications costs and benefits to businesses individuals, society and the National Health Service. Following consultation, a number of exemptions were made to ease the impact on businesses where appropriate. The restrictions only apply to products that are high in fat, salt or sugar and are assessed as ‘less healthy’, retailers are free to promote products that are healthier and that are not deemed in scope of the policy.
The location restrictions on promotions which came into force on 1 October are expected to accrue health benefits of over £57 billion and provide NHS savings of over £4 billion, over the next 25 years. In light of the unprecedented global economic situation, we have delayed the implementation of the volume price promotions by 12-months. These restrictions will come into force in October 2023.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to (a) intervene in the market for agency care workers and (b) reduce the cost of employing care staff.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no plans to do so. The majority of care workers, including agency care workers, are employed by private sector providers who set their pay, independently of central Government. Local authorities work with care providers to determine fee rates, which should take account of wage costs based on local market conditions.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department will take steps to increase the levels of recruitment of male primary school teachers.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department wants to attract and retain diverse, talented teachers from all backgrounds, and this includes recruiting male teachers.
The recruitment of primary school teachers remains strong. In 2021/22, 136% of the Postgraduate Initial Teacher Training target was achieved in primary. This target has been exceeded in four of the last five years.
In 2021, the Department’s new application service for initial teacher training (ITT) in England, ‘Apply for teacher training’, was rolled out nationally. It has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible and has been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants to ensure it helps remove barriers to great teachers applying for ITT courses.
The Department’s recruitment campaigns are targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates, and potential career changers, regardless of their identity or background. We take every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials used.
Since September 2020, all courses offered by ITT providers have been aligned to a mandatory core content framework, published in November 2019. The framework sets out a minimum entitlement for all trainee teachers.
In September 2021, the early career framework was implemented, entitling early career teachers to a further 2 years of development support and training.
Moreover, the reforms outlined in the Government’s response to the ITT market review will help us meet the commitment made in the teacher recruitment and retention strategy to create a world-class teacher development system by transforming the training and support teachers receive at every stage of their career.
To ensure that all children and young people get the very best education, it is essential that the Department has a workforce of well-trained and well-supported teachers, with the expertise needed to deliver great teaching every day.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to support deregulation on food manufacturing businesses specialising in products high in fat, salt and sugar, to encourage investment from those businesses in the UK.
Answered by Dean Russell
This is not a matter for BEIS, it is for individual departments to assess the merits of deregulation in their own sectors.