Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 187024 on Dementia: Health Services, if his Department will consider the potential merits of including community interest companies that provide social care but are not regulated by the Care Quality Commission, due to not providing personal care, in the VAT exemptions for welfare services.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The standard rate of VAT applies to most goods and services. Exceptions have always been strictly limited by legal and fiscal considerations.
Where social care is provided by a state-regulated body, including community interest companies, then the VAT exemption for welfare services applies.
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 the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the value for money of public funding in (a) active travel schemes and (b) road schemes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Transport schemes, including active travel schemes, and strategic and local authority road schemes are appraised following guidance set out in DfT’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG). Appraisals provide a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the impacts of a scheme. The economic dimension considers both impacts which can be monetised (and included in a Benefit Cost Ratio) and impacts which cannot be robustly valued but which are still assessed and reflected in the value for money assessment. Our appraisals capture impacts of transport investment across the economy, society and environment.
Schemes are assessed by the department following the 5 case business case model. Value for money is one of several factors the department considers.
A post-opening project evaluation assesses whether the benefits set out in a scheme’s business case are on track to be realised through systematically evaluating metrics in relation to impacts including traffic flows, journey times, journey time reliability, safety and the environment. Evaluation reports are published on the Government website.
The Second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2) sets out the government’s plans for developing and improving the Strategic Road Network between 2020/21 and 2024/25. The RIS2 Analysis overview published in March 2020, found that at this point of appraisal for the Investment Plan, RIS2 overall is High Value for Money (VfM) – meaning that more than £2 of benefits are generated for each £1 spent.
Local major roads schemes within the Major Roads Network programme have been estimated to have an average Benefit Cost Ratio of around 4, indicating that the programme will deliver Very High value for money. Schemes in the programme have a typical BCR range of between 1.5 and 5, with a small number of schemes having a BCR outside of this range.
Active travel investment typically has at least high value for money. The average benefit-cost ratio, weighted by scheme cost, for Active Travel Fund 4 estimated that for every £1 of investment in active travel infrastructure schemes, there would be a return £2.40 of economic, social, and environmental benefits.
Behaviour change interventions funded by the Department have been estimated by our delivery partners to have a benefit cost ratio of 2.5 in 2021/22 for the Big Bike Revival and 5.5 in 2022/23 for Walk to School Outreach programmes.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Levelling Up Fund bids have been given a design assessment by Active Travel England.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Active Travel England reviewed 31 Levelling Up Fund (LUF) bids where an active travel intervention was considered to be the majority element of the bid. Active Travel England will conduct design assessments of all active travel schemes funded by the LUF as they are being developed.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of whether his Department will meet its target of increasing the proportion of children aged 5 to 10 who usually walk to school to 55 per cent by 2025.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government’s most recent assessment of progress towards meeting its active travel goals was set out in the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) report to Parliament in July 2022, a copy of which is available in the House Libraries. The most recent National Travel Survey statistics for 2021 show that the proportion of children aged 5 to 10 who usually walk to school was 49 per cent. The latest statistics for 2022 are due to be published in September 2023 and the Government will provide a further assessment in its next report to Parliament.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
What recent progress she has made on securing the UK's association to Horizon Europe.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We are moving forward with discussions on the UK’s association to Horizon Europe. We hope negotiations will be successful, and that is our preference.
But the terms must work for UK researchers, businesses and taxpayers and reflect the lasting impact of two years of EU delays to the UK’s association.
If we are unable to associate, we will implement our bold, ambitious alternative to Horizon Europe, Pioneer.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on access to social care for people with dementia of the inclusion of community interest companies within the VAT exemptions for welfare, services and goods.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Where social care for people with dementia is provided by a state-regulated body then the VAT exemption for welfare services applies.Community interest companies qualify for the VAT exemption for welfare if the activity they provide is required to be regulated by or registered with the relevant regulatory body.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, how many parishes have a vacancy for (a) an incumbency and (b) a priest-in-charge in each diocese; and how many (i) incumbent and (ii) priest-in-charge vacancies there have been in each diocese in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Parish priest appointments are a matter for diocesan bishops. Data about the number of vacancies for incumbents and priests-in-charge per annum in parishes across the 42 dioceses of the Church of England are not held centrally by the National Church Institutions. It would incur a disproportionate cost to assemble and present the information requested.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what the average length was of vacancies for a parish (a) incumbent and (b) priest-in-charge in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Parish priest appointments are a matter for diocesan bishops. Data about the number of vacancies for incumbents and priests-in-charge per annum in parishes across the 42 dioceses of the Church of England are not held centrally by the National Church Institutions. It would incur a disproportionate cost to assemble and present the information requested
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the Answer of 22 December 2022 to Question 102787 on the Energy Costs Grant, whether the Commissioners have now gathered feedback to examine (a) how much of the Grant dioceses have allocated, (b) by what mechanism dioceses have distributed that funding and (c) what proportion of the Grant was used to supplement the Ministry Hardship Fund.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
All dioceses took up the Energy Costs Grant, and none has returned unspent sums. The National Church Institutions intend to gather detailed feedback from dioceses in the Autumn on how dioceses distributed grants to their parishes and what proportion was used to supplement the Ministry Hardship Fund.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a UK-wide target for reducing car miles driven annually in the UK in the context of reducing emissions and the fifth carbon budget.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In July 2021 the Department published its the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, which set out an ambitious and credible pathway for decarbonising the transport sector in line with carbon budgets and net zero by 2050.
In addition, the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate pursues one of the most ambitious transitions away from fossil fuels anywhere in the world, allowing the Government to effectively decarbonise transport in this country.