Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to establish a public warning system using mobile phone technology that includes native language options for residents and people visiting from overseas.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is reviewing the opportunities of a mobile alerting capability to issue alerts to mobile devices. The Government recognises the need for messages to be easily understood by everyone receiving them.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in the Folkestone and Hythe local authority area are in receipt of school food vouchers; and what the cost to the public purse is per month of providing that scheme in that area.
Answered by Vicky Ford
During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals at home by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. Schools have continued to receive all their funding for benefits-related and universal infant free school meals. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.
Schools are best placed to make decisions about the most appropriate arrangements for eligible pupils, and this can include food parcel arrangements, alternative voucher arrangements or provision through the national voucher scheme.
Edenred has reported that over £154 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by schools and families through the national voucher scheme as of Monday 15 June. Edenred has also reported that over 17,500 schools had placed orders for the scheme as of Tuesday 26 May. We do not collect data on the scheme at pupil level.
The number and proportion of students who qualify for free school meals is published in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication and its underlying data files. We do not collect data at constituency level.
The 2019 publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2019.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether car repair garages are eligible for funding from Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support for businesses to help with their ongoing business costs in recognition of the disruption caused by COVID-19. This package of support includes the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF).
Businesses in England that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount (which covers retail, hospitality and leisure) on 11 March?with?a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be eligible for a RHLGF cash grant per property of either £10,000 or £25,000 depending on the rateable value of the property.
Guidance on the types of businesses covered by the Expanded Retail Discount can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-rates-retail-discount-guidance. It is for individual local billing authorities to adopt a local scheme and determine in each individual case when, having regard to this guidance, to grant relief. Any enquiries on eligibility for the Expanded Retail Discount and thus the RHLGF should be directed to the relevant local authority.
For more information on the RHLGF please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-youre-eligible-for-the-coronavirus-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-grant-fund
In addition, on?1 May,?the Government announced that up to £617 million is being made available to local authorities?in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants. The?Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs but are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs.
Businesses already in receipt of a Small Business grant or a Retail, Hospitality and Leisure grant are not eligible for this fund. Businesses who are eligible for or in receipt of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) are now eligible to apply for this scheme.
Guidance, intended to support local authorities in administering the Discretionary Grants Fund, was published 13 May and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding. Local authorities are responsible for developing their local scheme, having regard to this guidance, and decisions about which businesses to support, and the level of grant to award, are for local authorities to take.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June to Question 48387, for what reason the contract between NHS England and Palantir relating to the NHS data store has not yet been published.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The contract was released on 5 June 2020 and will be formally published in due course.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to lay before Parliament the Age Appropriate Design Code for online services.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Age Appropriate Design Code will play an important role in protecting children’s personal data online. The Data Protection Act requires that the Code is laid in Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable. Ministers are taking the necessary steps to lay the Code as soon as possible.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the terms of reference of the (a) current and (b) former contracts between his Department or it's executive agencies and (i) Palantir and (ii) connected or subsidiary businesses of Palantir.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England will be publishing the contract for the NHS Data Store with Palantir in due course.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data has been made available by his Department to Palantir in relation to that company's contract with the NHS; and (a) where and (b) by whom that data is processed.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England is the data controller for data processed in the NHS Data Store. Palantir is engaged by NHS England under contract as a data processor. As a data processor, the organisation only processes data under instruction from NHS England.
The NHS Data Store data list is found at the following link:
https://data.england.nhs.uk/covid-19/.
Data is Processed on the Foundry Platform which is hosted in the UK Region of Amazon Web Services.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the statement of works from the contract between the NHS and Palantir.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The statement of work between NHS England and Palantir for the NHS Data Store is noted in a section of the full contract, which will be published in due course.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what rights the Government has granted to Palantir through its contract with the NHS to (a) access the NHS's application programming interface (API), (b) access and use systems, programmes or software made available through that API, and (c) use, copy, cache, store and make backup and archival copies of tools and documentation related to that API.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England has not made any application programming interfaces available to Palantir.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHSx will develop the functionality of the NHS covid-19 contact tracing app to allow users to order the deletion of the information they have submitted to the database, once the app itself is no longer required to tackle covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
App users can delete the National Health Service COVID-19 app whenever they want. If users delete the app, all data stored on the phone and not already shared with the NHS would be deleted. If users do not opt to share their data, it will automatically be deleted on a continuous 28-day cycle within the app, on the phone.
Data shared with the NHS, either proactively or as part of requesting a test, may be retained in accordance with necessary legislation, and may be used in the future for research in the public interest, or by the NHS for planning and delivering services, subject to the necessary approvals required by law.