Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many arms export licences have been issued for (a) equipment and (b) parts of equipment for American built F16 aircraft in the last 10 years.
Answered by Greg Hands
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics. This covers all requested data up until 30 June 2023.
This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the study entitled Stepping Off the Road to Nowhere, published by Create Streets and Sustrans on 19 December 2023, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of adapting the funding model for new homes to incorporate gentle density and sustainable transport principles.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government is committed to supporting the development of high quality, well designed and sustainable communities through the construction of new homes and, where appropriate, the regeneration of towns and cities across the country.
Homes England’s Strategic Plan has a Strategic Objective focused on promoting the creation of high-quality homes in well-designed places. The Agency uses Building for a Healthy Life, a design toolkit for neighbourhoods, streets, homes and public spaces, which covers twelve different considerations including density and sustainable transport.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of making not-for-profit organisations that provide welfare services VAT exempt.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.
Welfare services provided by local authorities and similar bodies and charities are exempt from VAT, meaning no VAT is charged to the final consumer.
Welfare services provided by state regulated private welfare organisations are also exempt from VAT. State regulated suppliers are those that are registered with the Care Quality Commission, and are eligible for the VAT exemption where they are providing services that are state regulated.
The regulation requirement ensures that VAT relief is limited to providers certified as offering safe and high-quality welfare services. This is a long-standing requirement, and there are no plans to make changes to these rules.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what (a) investigative powers and (b) sanctions are available to the Strategic Investment Board to tackle any reported misuse of Strategic Development Funding.
Answered by Andrew Selous
All awards of Strategic Development Funding are granted under a formal funding agreement made between the Archbishops’ Council and the recipient of the funding. The Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board is able, on behalf of the Archbishops’ Council, to commission any necessary investigations into reported misuse, or misuse identified through various accountability processes, of Strategic Development Funding. Under the funding agreement, the Archbishops’ Council has the right to withhold a grant or require repayment if any part of the grant is misused. No report of misuse of funds has ever been received.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what oversight is available to (a) the Strategic Investment Board and (b) others to monitor the use of Strategic Development Funding once distributed at diocesan level.
Answered by Andrew Selous
a) The Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board reviews the progress of programmes supported by Strategic Development Funding at every meeting.
b) The progress of all programmes supported by Strategic Development Funding is regularly monitored by national Church staff, including through attendance at Programme Boards and annual reviews. Monies for projects supported by Strategic Development Funding are released in instalments across the funding period, with payments authorised by national Church staff after rigorous checks and against evidence of spend.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what proportion of funds allocated to projects by the Strategic Investment Board have been assigned to supporting (a) new and (b) established churches which (i) belong to and (ii) are associated with the Church Revitalisation Trust since 2020.
Answered by Andrew Selous
Strategic Development Funding (which ran from 2014-22) was awarded to dioceses. It is for dioceses to decide which churches, activities and networks they support, in line with their strategies. We do not routinely capture data on the proportion of funding directed to particular networks. Most projects work with a number of different parishes and Fresh Expressions of Church (e.g. across a town).
Out of a total of £285m of national Church funding awarded between 2020 and 2023 by the Strategic Investment Board or by its successor, the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, we estimate that £13m (4%) of funding has been awarded to dioceses for projects where all churches worked with the Church Revitalisation Trust (now known as The Revitalise Trust) and £34m (12%) has been allocated to programmes where at least one church out of many include a Church Revitalisation Trust element.
This funding comprises support both for new and established churches.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what processes there are for complaints against senior staff of the National Church Institutions.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The National Church Institutions have an external NCIs Complaints Policy, which can be found on the Church of England website at: National Church Institutions | The Church of England. A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction with the service offered by the NCIs to an individual or organisation, which could include an issue with the standard of service, a specific action taken (or not taken) or the behaviour of individuals working within or on behalf of the NCIs, in their interactions with the complainant. This could include the behaviour of NCI senior staff.
Complaints may come from any individual, volunteer or organisation directly involved with a specific matter being handled by the NCIs, including the general public, members of the clergy and staff in a church body.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to paragraphs 577 to 579 of the Review of the Independent Safeguarding Board, dated 30 November 2023, whether the commissioners have had recent discussions with the Archbishops' Council on the potential for lessons to be learned from the handling of the announcement.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The Church Commissioners have not held such discussions with the Archbishops’ Council.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the terms of reference for the Defending Democracy Taskforce, how many times the Minister for Security has met the engagement forum for elected representatives.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
There is no single engagement forum for the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which uses a number of channels for engaging elected representatives. As Taskforce Chair I jointly ran, with the Speakers of both Houses, roundtable events for representatives of the main parties in Summer 2023. Follow up roundtables are currently being planned, these take place alongside direct engagement with individual Parliamentarians on specific issues and engagement with local and devolved governments officials.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the commissioners have had discussions with the Archbishops' Council on the potential impact of recommendations from case reviews commissioned by the interim commissioner of independent reviews on earlier cases.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The Archbishops' Council commissioned the Interim Commissioner of Independent Reviews to undertake discussions with survivors who had been promised reviews by the former Independent Safeguarding Board, about the terms of reference for reviewing their cases. At the request of survivors, the number in discussion with the Interim Commissioner will be kept confidential, given that the number of survivors promised a review by the ISB is relatively small and there is a possibility of identifying individuals.
At present no reviews have been commissioned, though some are in the final stages of consideration. The timetable will depend on the terms of reference and agreements with individual survivors, and the Interim Commissioner is taking care to ensure that each review is adequate to the particular circumstances of the case.
The recent review into the events leading to the termination of contracts of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Board – the Wilkinson Report – identified lessons learned on how recommendations from all case reviews are taken forward, which will be discussed at the forthcoming February meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England.