Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether it is the Government's policy to enable local authorities to retain business rates collected.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
In 2020/21 the Government aims to increase local government’s retention of business rates from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.
Increasing the level of business rates retention to 100 per cent remains the Government’s long-term ambition.
That is why, this year we are operating 100 per cent business rates retention pilots in 16 areas across the country. Next year we will also pilot 75 per cent business rates retention to aid understanding of how we transition into the proposed new system in 2020/21. Moving to greater rates retention will give local authorities more control of the money they raise locally.
The current 50 per cent business rates retention scheme is yielding strong results with local authorities estimating that in 2018/19 they will keep around £2.4 billion in business rates growth.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the (a) planned and (b) current expenditure for drug and alcohol treatment services.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Figures on local authority expenditure on public health services, are collected on the Revenue Outturn (RO3) form. The latest figures for 2016-17 are available from:
Budget estimates of local authority expenditure on public health for the financial year April 2018 to March 2019 are available from
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, by what date he plans for public health to be fully funded from local authority business rate retention.
Answered by Marcus Jones
On 15 February 2017, the Government announced that the delivery of public health services will be funded through retained business rates; replacing the Public Health Grant. The Government’s intention is to implement the 100 per cent business rates retention system from 1 April 2019.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether there is a memorandum of understanding between the Government and Surrey County Council regarding the funding of social care.
Answered by Marcus Jones
No.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of officials of his Department resigned in each of the last six years.
Answered by Mark Francois - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The number of a) resignations and b) proportion of officials resigning in my department in each of the last 6 years was as follows:
2010-11
a) 53
b) 2.7%
2011-12
a) 39
b) 2.1%
2012-13
a) 37
b) 2.1%
2013-14
a) 44
b) 2.6%
2014-15
a) 42
b) 2.5%
2015-16
a) 44
b) 2.6%
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of officials of his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in each of the last five years; and what proportion of total sick leave that leave was in each such year.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
These statistics relate to absences recorded as “Mental Disorders” under the World Health Organisation categories of absence, which includes non-stress related absences such as depression. The figures therefore should not be read as being fully related to stress caused absence and it should also be noted that non-work related stress absences would also be recorded here.
Sickness absence due to mental health absences, in the Department were as follows:
Year | Number of Officials Absent due to ‘Mental Disorders’ (Headcount) | Proportion of Total Officials (Headcount) | Absences due to ‘Mental Disorders’ as a Proportion of Total Working Days Lost |
2011 | 109 | 4.0% | 18.3% |
2012 | 92 | 4.2% | 25.0% |
2013 | 104 | 5.2% | 24.3% |
2014 | 98 | 4.8% | 20.1% |
2015 | 113 | 5.3% | 32.8% |
Back in the Summer of 2014 DCLG paid for two staff to become mental health first aid Instructors so that a programme of mental health first aid could be rolled out across the Department. 32 staff have since become mental health ambassadors. The increase in the level of absences due to mental disorders in 2015 is likely to reflect more honest and open reporting of absence by staff following the work done by our Mental Health First Aiders to reduce the stigma that is sometimes felt by sufferers of poor mental health.
For the 12 month period ending December 2015, the Department’s overall absence rate was 6.5 average working days lost per member of staff. This is lower than the Civil Service average of 7.4 days, the public services average of 8.4 days and private sector services average of 8.2 days (figures from the October 2015 CIPD annual absence management survey).
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many consultants' contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
DCLG has not terminated any consultancy contracts early in the past six years.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The cost of Employment Tribunals can be found within the HM Courts & Tribunals Service annual accounts published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433948/hmcts-annual-report-accounts-2014-15.pdf
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department already publishes spend on overtime on a monthly basis as part of wider transparency publications. The Department's workforce management publications can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/workforce-management
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many civil law suits have been brought against his Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The information requested is not held centrally.