Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support people who have had their driving lessons cancelled as a result of covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Following Government guidance, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has suspended practical driver testing in England until Thursday 3 December 2020. The DVSA has asked approved driving instructors to respect the national restrictions in England, reduce day-to-day contact with others, and not carry out driver training until the restrictions have been lifted. Pupils can still have private practice using their own car providing they and the supervising driver are from the same household and it is travel for work, education or for other legally permitted exemptions.
The DVSA is contacting candidates whose driving tests are affected by covid-19 restrictions to tell them what they need to do. The agency has made an additional 55,000 practical car driving tests available up to 18 April 2021 to accommodate new and re-scheduled tests. This is in addition to the 150,000 practical car tests already available in the booking system.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government plans to issue business guidance on the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown to (a) tradesmen, (b) floor-fitters and (c) similar businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
Our Other People’s Homes safer working guidance was updated on 4 November incorporating the new national restrictions for England.
This guidance can be found at www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans his Department has to support newly set up businesses during the second covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government understands this is a challenging time for businesses. To reduce the risk of fraudulent claims, eligibility for many of the Covid-19 support schemes require businesses to have been trading before the end of March.
However, newly formed businesses may be able to access the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Businesses are eligible for the CBILS if they are UK-based in their activity, with annual turnover of no more than £45m. For start-ups, or SMEs which have traded for less than 12 months, the lender should estimate turnover based upon the SME’s forecasted turnover for the first 12 months of trading. On 2 November, the Chancellor announced that the application deadline for CBILS has been further extended to 31 January 2021.
Businesses established more recently may also be able to access funds through the Local Restrictions Support Grant schemes (LRSG) and Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). To be eligible for the LRSG (Open) and LRSG (Closed) schemes at a local level, a business must have been trading on the date that local restrictions came into force. Local Authorities have been given discretion to use funds provided by the ARG as they see fit, but we encourage them to set up a discretionary grant scheme e.g. for those businesses who are affected by closures but are not legally required to close. Guidance was published on 3rd November 2020 and FAQs will shortly be issued to all Local Authorities.
Finally, newly established businesses will be able to furlough staff through the extended Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously claimed or have been claimed for under CJRS to make a claim under the extended CJRS (if other eligibility criteria are met). The employer must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.
In addition to these measures, the Government continues to support entrepreneurs through its network of 38 Local Growth Hubs and the Start-Up Loans programme, for which almost 74,000 loans have been issued since 2012.
As we head into the Winter, the Government is continuing to engage with businesses and representative groups to ensure the support provided to businesses, including those established more recently, is appropriate.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many full-time equivalent staff were employed in the (a) Foreign and Commonwealth Office's and (b) Department for International Development's human resources section in April 2020.
Answered by Nigel Adams
As of the 31st March 2020, the Department for International Development had 64.6 FTE staff employed in the Human Resources Department and 27.3 FTE officers employed in the in-house HR Operations function.
As of the 31st March 2020, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office had 116.8 FTE staff employed in the Human Resources Directorate and 57.6 FTE officers employed in the in-house HR Operations function.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent staff were employed in the Department's human resources section in April 2020.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
45.75 full-time equivalent staff were employed in the Department’s Human Resources section as of 30 April 2020. This figure includes civil servants on permanent contract, fixed term appointment and loaned in from other Government departments. Since this time the Department has expanded in size, and this has included growth in the Human Resources section.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many full-time equivalent staff were employed in his Department's human resources section in April 2020.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent HR staff at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), the Government Legal Department (GLD) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI), Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for April 2020:
Department | FTE |
AGO* | 8 |
GLD | 67.3 |
HMCPSI* | 3.6 |
CPS | 134.45 |
SFO | 10 |
*These staff also perform other non-HR duties in their roles.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many full-time equivalent staff were employed in his Department's human resources section in April 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The number of full-time equivalent staff employed within HR as of April 2020 was 117.7.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many full-time equivalent staff were employed in probate offices in March (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested as to the number of full time equivalent staff employed in probate offices can be found in the table below.
Probate FTE broken down per site between 2018-2020 1, 2
Probate | Dec.18 | Mar.19 | Mar.20 |
Courts and Tribunal Service Centre (Birmingham) | 0 | 18 | 91 |
Birmingham Registry | 10 | 7 | 0 |
Oxford Registry | 16 | 16 | 16 |
Manchester Registry | 16 | 15 | 15 |
London Registry | 13 | 12 | 13 |
Cardiff Registry | 18 | 18 | 13 |
Leeds Registry | 10 | 11 | 4 |
Liverpool Registry | 13 | 13 | 8 |
Newcastle Registry | 20 | 21 | 22 |
Winchester Registry | 12 | 12 | 9 |
Brighton Registry | 14 | 10 | 10 |
Ipswich Registry | 8 | 5 | 6 |
Bristol Registry | 3 | 3 | 5 |
Registrars | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Total | 156 | 164 | 215 |
Source: CTSC and NBC workforce management resourcing data |
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1) NBC resourcing plans did not break down per registry prior to December 2018. Table is reflective of when the data was broken down with no material change to the total FTE from March 2018 (153 FTE) - December 2018 156 FTE).
2) CTSC data only available from go live in 2019.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time taken was to process an application for probate in March (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Official statistics on the average length of time from receipt of the application to the issue of a grant of probate cover only the period from July to September 2019 onwards. HMCTS internal management information from a decommissioned case management system, which is not subject to the rigorous quality assurance processes of official statistics, has been used for the periods before that date to show the average times from receipt of an application to a grant being issued.
The introduction of a new digital case management system in 2019 changed the business process for accounting for the receipt date of applications which need to be held due to errors or missing documentation. The figures for March 2020 are therefore not directly comparable to those from March 2018 and March 2019.
Average time to grant issue for grants of representation, by grant type, England and Wales1,2 |
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March 2018 | 3 | N/A | |||
March 2019 | 3 | N/A | |||
March 2020 | 73 | 53 | |||
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Source for March 2018 and 2019 is the now decommissioned Probateman system and March 2020 data is HMCTS Core Case Data |
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1) HMCTS Core Case Data (CCD) came into effect at the end of March 2019, following a transition between data systems recording information regarding The Probate Service | ||||||||||||||||
2) The average timeliness figures are produced by calculating the time from application/document receipt (which may be from an earlier period) to the grant issued made in that period 3) Includes cases stopped and put on hold for errors or missing documentation | ||||||||||||||||
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the running costs of the Probate Office were in March (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Answer to question part:
a) The costs of the Probate jurisdiction for 2017-18 were £5.7m.
b) The costs of the Probate jurisdiction for 2018-19 were £5.9m.
c) The costs of the Probate jurisdiction for 2019-20 were £7.5m.