Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of cost of living support has been accounted for by spending in Folkestone and Hythe constituency in each year since 2019.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Since 2022, the Government has taken significant action to support struggling families with the high cost of living in all constituencies. This includes the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS), the £150 Council Tax rebate, fuel and alcohol duty cuts and successive extensions of the Household Support fund, Cost of Living Payments and benefit uprating to millions of the most vulnerable. Taken together, total support over 2022-2025 to help households with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been provided by (a) Sport England and (b) the Arts Council for projects in the Folkestone and Hythe district in each year since 2010; and which projects in the district have received such funding.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The table below provides a summary of the investments made by Sport England and Arts Council England (“ACE”) in the Folkestone and Hythe Constituency since 2010.
YEAR | SPORT ENGLAND | ACE |
2010 | £19,980 | £642,678 |
2011 | £174,060 | £98,621 |
2012 | £185,448 | £111,071 |
2013 | £70,513 | £912,581 |
2014 | £37,949 | £229,440 |
2015 | £154,039 | £880,023 |
2016 | £36,187 | £1,365,762 |
2017 | £108,966 | £1,934,965 |
2018 | £140,065 | £851,837 |
2019 | £382,364 | £459,254 |
2020 | £239,443 | £1,252,013 |
2021 | £53,428 | £1,616,286 |
2022 | £106,155 | £987,956 |
2023 | £48,601 | £819,229 |
TOTAL 2010-23: | £1,757,198 | £12,161,716 |
For a breakdown of the projects funded across this period, Sport England publishes an updated register of grant awards on a quarterly basis, with awards dating back to 2009 listed in full.
Due to a change in Arts Council England's (ACE) grant management system in 2016, data from before that date is not as high quality and not reliably comparable with more recent data. Noting this caveat we have provided the figures nonetheless for completeness.
Grants awarded from ACE's main funding streams within the last 5 financial years (2023/2024 inclusive) are published online and provide details of all organisations that receive funding.They are available in the following locations:
National Lottery Project Grants
Developing Your Creative Practice
Investment Programme (2018-2022 NPO)
Investment Programme (2023-2026 NPO)
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 13 March 2022 and (b) 7 June 2022 from the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe on Dr Stephen Coles and Mr Heenmunne Arachchige Chathuranga Kumara.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 6 July 2022
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent discussions she has had with her US counterpart on reducing market barriers with the United States.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
During the Dialogues in Baltimore and Aberdeen, Ambassador Tai and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade agreed to work together to develop an ambitious roadmap for further bilateral collaboration over the coming weeks, including further collaboration on reducing market barriers.
Last month we signed our first state-level trade and economic development Memorandum of Understanding with Indiana, creating a framework to help remove barriers to trade and investment. We hope to sign more MOUs this year.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) plans to disclose their relevant records to Mr Paul Cleeland, as promised by the chief executive of HMPPS in her letter to the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe dated 20 December 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HM Prison and Probation Service attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from MPs, either directly or on behalf of their constituents.
The delay in responding to the Hon. member and his constituent is due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the team dealing with the request. I have asked for the records to be made available as soon as possible. The team expect to complete the review and disclose the records by the end of March 2022.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many Afghan journalists the UK has evacuated from Afghanistan since 1 August 2021.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We do not collect comprehensive data on the profession of those relocated, so the following figures are estimates only.
The UK will continue to relocate eligible individuals under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). The ACRS commenced on 6 January and will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendation of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom to introduce a new emergency visa for journalists at risk.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We maintained a regular dialogue with the FCDO in response to the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom’s recommendations, including meeting with the report’s author. The Foreign Secretary wrote to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 2 February 2022 with our full response.
The Home Secretary’s existing discretion to grant leave as outlined in the New Plan for Immigration and ability to use this – for example in exceptional humanitarian circumstances – is sufficient to respond to such individuals. We have already seen discretion used in the context of the Afghanistan crisis.
In August 2021, we offered granted over 70 journalists and other employees of UK media organisations, including employees from BBC World Service, the Guardian, and The Times, leave to enter the UK outside the rules.
Further, journalists are eligible to apply under the skilled worker route of the Points-Based system, providing they meet the specified requirements.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan journalists have received UK visas and been resettled in the UK since 1 August 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government responded swiftly to the fast-moving and challenging events in Afghanistan, including supporting the largest and fastest evacuation in recent history. We can be proud as a country that we helped over 15,000 people to safety from Afghanistan in August 2021 and we continue to do all we can to enable those who are eligible to relocate to the UK.
There have been approximately 100 Afghan journalists who have been evacuated and brought to safety since 1 August 2021. Those who entered were granted Leave Outside the Rules (LOTR) for 6 months, this status is not a bar to them being permanently housed or to starting their life in the UK.
The Home Office is currently supporting those here in the UK to assist them to obtain Indefinite Leave to Remain status.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools in receipt of funding from the Turing Scheme for the 2021-22 academic year will have flexibility to schedule their projects beyond August 2022 in the context of those projects having been affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Schools have the flexibility to change both the destination and the timing of their projects within the 2021/22 academic year and should consider running placements later in the current academic year if they find their planned dates are impeded by COVID-19.
The funding period for Turing Scheme projects for the 2021/22 academic year ends on 31 August 2022. The Turing Scheme was allocated funding as part of the Spending Review 2020 to be distributed to Turing Scheme beneficiaries for the delivery of mobilities during the 2021/22 academic year. In line with government spending requirements, any government funding must be used within the period that it has been allocated for.
The Turing Scheme has had funding confirmed for the next three years as part of the Spending Review 2021, and providers that could not deliver their mobilities in academic year 2021/22 are encouraged to apply again if they wish to run their activity in academic year 2022/23.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to publish the Government’s response to the consultation on a new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Answered by Paul Scully
The consultation closed in October. We are carefully considering the responses we received and will publish our response in due course.