Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to help increase business investment in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Department for Business and Trade works with partners to promote investment opportunities across the North West to overseas investors and provide support for businesses wishing to be based within the region.
The Government is investing £80 million in the Liverpool City Region Freeport and £320 million in Investment Zones in the Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester creating new jobs and attracting new businesses. Both the Investment Zone and Freeport have key locations in St Helens.
The Government also supports a range of programmes dedicated to helping businesses to grow. In March this year, we launched the second-generation Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, with £660 million committed to support debt and equity finance for businesses across the North of England. Since its launch in 2012, the Start Up Loans programme has provided over £121 million of loans to new entrepreneurs across the North West region, as of 13 September 2023.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of pharmacy closures on the quality of primary care in St Helens constituency since 2019.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 31 December 2023, there were 18 pharmacies in St Helens North constituency. Between 31 March 2019 and 31 December 2023, no pharmacies closed in St Helens North, and no new pharmacies opened. This year, there has been one closure in February 2024, as a result consolidation. Consolidation is a merger of two pharmacy businesses, and does not create a gap in the provision of pharmaceutical services.
Access to pharmaceutical services remains good, with 95% of the population of St Helens North living within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy. This exceeds the national average of 80%. Residents of St Helens North can also access services from distance selling pharmacies that operate nationally.
It is the role of local authorities in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards (ICBs) have regard to those assessments when commissioning services, and where a pharmacy closure impacts the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 5.140 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, when plans to publish details of funding for Newton-Le-Willows.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Prime Minister’s Long Term Plan for Towns will see up to £20 million of funding and support from the Government for Newton-Le-Willows over the next decade. I wrote to the Member for St Helen’s North and the Leader and Chief Executive of St Helen’s Borough Council on 19 March 2024 setting out next steps for developing the Long Term Plan for their town. This included details of the funding that will be provided for Newton-Le-Willows.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as aiding the retention of foster carers already in place.
St Helens North is participating in this programme, working in a regional cluster group, ‘Foster4’, which is led by Warrington.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is increasing the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to advance the work of the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding her Department has provided to research projects based in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In the 12 months leading to the start of January 2024, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) awarded:
These figures include a range of investments made via UKRI’s Research Councils and Innovate UK, but the figure excludes formula-based block grants deployed through universities which will also have gone to research projects in this region.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress his Department has made on implementing recommendations of the first interim report of the Infected Blood Inquiry.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Inquiry’s first interim report contained the recommendation that an interim payment of no less than £100,000 be paid to all those infected and bereaved partners registered with existing support schemes. The Government made these payments in October 2022, and these payments continue to be made to eligible beneficiaries upon being accepted onto the schemes.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of how many people in St Helens North constituency have been affected by the infected blood scandal.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not made an estimate of the number of people who were treated with contaminated blood products and given contaminated blood transfusions by the National Health Service in St Helens North constituency.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West she expects to offer A-Levels in modern foreign languages in the next five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not produce projections of future trends of the number of students taking specific qualifications or future trends in the number of schools or colleges offering specific qualifications.
The department recognises the importance of the study of languages in Britain and is taking steps to increase the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE level and beyond. This is particularly important given that languages became non-mandatory at GCSE in 2004. The recently launched Language Hubs programme is comprised of 15 lead hub schools from across England, including a hub based in the North West. The lead hub schools will work with other schools in their areas to improve standards of language teaching, in line with recommendations of the Teaching Schools Council’s 2016 ‘Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review’.
Managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education, the programme provides high-quality teacher Continuing Professional Development and includes improving transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3, increasing opportunities among disadvantaged pupils to study languages, and increasing the access to home, heritage, and community languages.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for Casement Park.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
My Department is engaging with the Department for Communities, which is responsible for the procurement process for the redevelopment of Casement Park, including direct engagement with local partners on their funding contribution. I wrote to the Northern Ireland Minister for Communities on 27 February to say that it is vital to understand what the most recent costs associated with the redevelopment of Casement Park are.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps his Department is taking to ensure Northern Ireland can host Euro 2028 games alongside the rest of the UK and Ireland.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Department for Communities is responsible for the redevelopment of Casement Park, including direct engagement with local partners on their funding contribution.
The UK Government will need to receive confirmation of the updated cost of the Casement Park project from the Department for Communities before detailed consideration can be given to allocating taxpayers' money, particularly given wider public sector funding challenges. This has yet to be received. The Northern Ireland Minister for Communities has written to me on this matter and I replied on 27 February 2024 to say that it is vital to understand what the most recent costs associated with the redevelopment of Casement Park are.