Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what support the Government is providing to housing associations conducting structural surveys for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Lee Rowley
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 197493 on 11 September 2023.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether there is a nationwide plan to survey social housing for the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Answered by Lee Rowley
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 197493 on 11 September 2023.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many residential buildings have been confirmed to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete as of 5 September 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 197493 on 11 September 2023.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information their Department holds on the level of staff retention; and what steps they are taking to improve staff retention.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Understanding the extent to which the department retains its staff is a key component of our workforce reporting offer and workforce strategy. This information is collected and analysed routinely to help us assess the Department's performance in relation to retaining and growing the right mix of skills and capabilities required to deliver the Department's objectives.
The department recognises the importance of having a healthy amount of staff retention and the benefits this brings in relation to sustaining an agile and skilled workforce. We monitor, escalate and address any risks in relation to staff retention.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Departmental performance data for the previous parliamentary session is published by the Procedure Committee here.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to (a) enhance cybersecurity and (b) protect personal data.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Being cyber secure and protecting personal data underpins everything we do in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. In accordance with the Government Cyber Security Strategy we are working to ensure that our critical functions will be significantly hardened to cyber attack.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Details of Ministerial visits and meetings are published regularly on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence, and aims to answer at least 80% of correspondence within 20 working days. Our recent performance has been significantly below this standard, so we have taken steps to improve the speed and quality of responses to Members and their constituents.
This year, the Department has expanded its central Correspondence Unit, acquired a new case management system, and made a significant reduction to the number of open cases. This has already improved the timeliness and quality of responses to Members, and we expect these to continue to improve. The Cabinet Office published data on the timeliness of responses for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence, and aims to answer at least 80% of correspondence within 20 working days. Our recent performance has been significantly below this standard, so we have taken steps to improve the speed and quality of responses to Members and their constituents.
This year, the Department has expanded its central Correspondence Unit, acquired a new case management system, and made a significant reduction to the number of open cases. This has already improved the timeliness and quality of responses to Members, and we expect these to continue to improve. The Cabinet Office published data on the timeliness of responses for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Freedom of Information statistics are published by the Cabinet Office here .