Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to increase funding to the Access for All scheme to allow more stations to be upgraded.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
We have made a further £300m available, which has been allocated to projects until 2024. If the programme continues to be delivered successfully, DfT will make submissions for further funding in due course. In the meantime, if the industry installs, replaces or renews station infrastructure this will need to comply with current accessibility standards.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Prime Minister's statement of 24 July 2019, what steps he is taking to recruit more nurses.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
There are currently over 16,700 more nurses on wards when compared to 2010. The latest data published by the University and College Admissions Service (on 11 July 2019) shows that there has been a 4.6% increase in the number of undergraduate applicants to pre-registration nursing and midwifery courses when compared to the equivalent point in 2018.
The Department has put in place a number of actions to increase nursing workforce supply, including improving staff retention, return to practice, overseas recruitment and expanding nursing associates.
The interim People Plan (published on 3 June 2019) puts staff at the heart of National Health Service policy and delivery and sets out how we will secure a capable and motivated multidisciplinary healthcare workforce, of a sufficient size, to meet population health needs. It sets out the immediate actions needed to grow the nursing workforce across all settings by over 40,000 in the next five years. A final People Plan will be published in due course.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to recalculate universal credit payments to take account of recipients who are required to make 53 rent payments in a year.
Answered by Will Quince
Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. If the claimant always pays their rent on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will get the claimant back on track.
Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.
There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to allocate additional funding to Lancashire constabulary to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It is important that the police and local agencies have the powers they need to tackle local issues quickly and effectively. That is why we reformed the tools and powers available to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
In 2019/20 Lancashire Police are receiving £285.1 million of funding, an increase of £18.4 million, on 2018/19. Funding for 2020-21 for individual forces will be announced as part of the provisional police settlement later this year. Decisions about the allocation of police resources are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to meet the needs of their local community.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to review how Clare's Law is implemented by police forces in England and Wales.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and the Government is committed to doing everything we can to tackle it.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS, also known as “Clare’s Law”) was rolled out across all 43 police forces in England and Wales in March 2014, and recent data shows that applications and disclosures made under the scheme are increasing.
In the year ending March 2018, there were a total of 5,649 disclosures made under the scheme, representing a 66% increase on the previous year. In the year ending March 2018, applications under the “Right to Know” element of the scheme increased by 47%, and “Right to Ask” applications increased by 111%.
We will continue to work with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing to ensure that the DVDS and the guidance underpinning it are being used consistently and effectively to prevent harm and to keep potential victims of domestic abuse and their families safe.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to allocate the funding for 20,000 extra police officers to local forces according to how many police officers each force has lost since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We recognise that demand on the police is changing and we are acting. We are committed to recruiting 20,000 additional police officers over the next three years to tackle the rise in crime. This is the start of a new relationship between the Government and the police, and we will work even more closely together to protect the public.
The National Policing Board has been set up to provide strong leadership and deliver on our commitment to recruit 20,000 more police officers. Following the first meeting, the government and police will move at pace to drive forward our plans to bolster the police’s ranks.
All force-level funding allocations will be set out in the usual way at the pro-visional police funding settlement in December. The Government is working with the sector through a number of important details, including on allocating officers between different functions and activities to ensure maximum value from this additional resource.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to re-establish the Metal Theft Taskforce with an extended remit to include stone theft.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We provided over £6 million of funding for the police-led Metal Theft Taskforce to help ensure the reforms to tackle metal theft introduced by the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 were embedded within the normal business of police forces and local authorities.
The Taskforce was not intended to be a long-term arrangement and disbanded in 2014 following the successful implementation of the 2013 Act.
The most recent statistics show that recorded levels of metal theft offences in March 2018 are still 73% lower compared with March 2013.
We continue to work with the police, industry, local authorities and others on this issue and on acquisitive crime more generally.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people under 21 years old have claimed housing support entitlement as part of universal credit since the ending of means testing for that component in March 2018.
Answered by Will Quince
The housing costs element, in line with all other elements in Universal Credit, has always been subject to means testing for all Universal Credit claimants.
Numbers of people under 21 years claiming housing support entitlement as part of Universal Credit since March 2018 is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to raise the pension tax allowance above the current rate of 25 per cent.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government wishes to encourage pension saving, to help ensure that people have an income, or funds on which they can draw, throughout retirement. This is why, for the majority of savers, pension contributions are tax-free. Furthermore, investment growth of assets in a pension scheme is not subject to tax. Up to 25% of the pension pot can be taken tax-free. After this, payments of pensions are subject to income tax at an individual’s marginal rate, to reflect the fact that these are a form of deferred income and have not been previously taxed.
In addition, the Government is committed to keeping taxes low to ensure people keep more of what they earn.
In April of this year, the Government met its commitment to raise the personal tax-free allowance to £12,500, one year early. This means the Government has now raised the personal allowance by over 90% in less than a decade. In 2019-20, over 32 million individuals will see their income tax bill reduced and 1.74 million people on the lowest incomes will have been taken out of income tax altogether since 2015-16. A typical basic rate taxpayer will pay £1,205 less income tax compared to 2010-11.
The Government keeps all aspects of the tax system under review and any decisions on future changes will be taken as part of the annual Budget process in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect of (a) court closures and (b) the reduction of funding for legal aid on trends in the level of access to justice.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The closure of a court is subject to public consultation and a decision to close is not taken lightly. In every case, the Lord Chancellor will only agree to close a court when satisfied that effective access to justice can be maintained.
Every person should have access to legal advice when they need it – that’s why the Legal Aid Agency keeps availability under constant review and takes urgent action whenever it has concerns. There are enough solicitors and barristers for criminal legal aid-funded cases across England and Wales and the Civil Legal Advice Telephone Service, offers legal services in a range of issues to those who need it.
We are investing £5m in innovative new technologies to help people access legal support wherever they are in England and Wales.