Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 19 September 2023 to Question198717 on Free School Meals, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools continue to be able to provide healthy meals; and what discussions his Department has had with schools on whether they can provide these meals within the agreed budgets.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department spends over £1 billion on the provision of free meals. Schools currently attract £480 annually through the free school meals (FSM) factor of the national funding formula, in respect of FSM-eligible pupils. This is increasing to £490 in 2024/25.
In addition to this, schools are currently plaid a meal rate of £2.53 to support the provision of Universal infant FSM.
The department continues to keep funding under review and regularly meet with stakeholders to monitor issues in this sector, including food industry representatives, school leaders and pupils.
Further to this, the department supports the provision of nutritious food in schools through ‘The Requirements for School Food Regulations’ (2014), which require schools to provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. These regulations are available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1603/contents/made.
The school food standards restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods. Compliance with the school food standards is mandatory for all maintained schools, academies and free schools.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department collects on levels of home ownership.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department’s main source of information on home ownership is the English Housing Survey. The full report with data tables is published here.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many Homes England Investment Partners for the Affordable Homes Programme have filed for insolvency.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department has not been made aware of any Investment Partners in the Affordable Homes Programme that have become insolvent.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Answer of 23 June 2023 to Question 189629 on Warm Home Discount Scheme, whether the evaluation of the reformed Warm Home Discount scheme included an impact assessment.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The evaluation of the scheme is ongoing and will span three years. It is due to conclude in Autumn 2026.
The Government produced impact assessments for the consultation in 2021 on expanding and reforming the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales and for the publication of the Government Response in 2022, which are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/warm-home-discount-better-targeted-support-from-2022
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her planned timetable is for completing the review of the (a) emission trading scheme and (b) sale of unused credits by companies that have closed down factories in the UK.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We have published the review of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme this week, available on gov.uk.
In the UK ETS, sites at risk of carbon leakage are given a proportion of their allowances for free, helping manage the risk that UK businesses’ decarbonisation efforts could be undermined by higher-carbon imports.
The scheme sets out rules around free allowances, including on their reduction and return where sites’ production and emissions levels decrease. We have published a consultation this week reviewing these rules, with proposals to ensure that surplus allowances are not retained by companies that have closed down in the UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Social Housing regulator on the timetable for setting the regulatory standards relating to (a) competence and conduct and (b) information and transparency; and whether his Department has made an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of providing assistance to (i) local authorities and (ii) social housing providers to meet those standards.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In the coming months, the Government intends to consult on directions to the Regulator of Social Housing to set standards relating to the competence and conduct of social housing staff and information and transparency. Following this, Government will direct the Regulator, who will conduct their own consultations before the standards come into force.
We will carry out full impact assessments on implementing the standards. Social landlords are responsible for providing safe and decent homes for their tenants and meeting the regulatory standards. Landlords should not be looking to Government to fund meeting these requirements.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has (a) carried out a recent review of the allocation of Flood Defence Grant in Aid funding which will be available for flood risk schemes and (b) made an assessment of the effectiveness of that funding.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government announced in March 2020 the amount invested in flood and coastal erosion schemes would be doubled in England to £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027. The Government keeps under review how funding is allocated to maximise its effectiveness.
Grant in Aid is allocated through the Government’s Partnership Funding policy to create greater partnership working between authorities and communities. Defra undertook an independent evaluation of the policy in 2018 and found it enabled more schemes to be delivered.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time to receive a response to an application to the voluntary return scheme is.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
We do not routinely publish the information requested.
The Home Office publishes statistics on all types of removals from the UK which includes voluntary departures. The latest statistics are available at: Immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Published datasets for Voluntary Returns are available at: Returns and detention datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the voluntary return scheme have been (a) received and (b) concluded since 1 January 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
We do not routinely publish the information requested.
The Home Office publishes statistics on all types of removals from the UK which includes voluntary departures. The latest statistics are available at: Immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Published datasets for Voluntary Returns are available at: Returns and detention datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's timetable is for making an assessment of the extent to which the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund has achieved its funding objectives.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund has plans in place to track progress and ensure that the Fund is achieving its objectives, both during delivery and after completion of the programme. Local authorities that receive funding from the LEVI Fund are required to provide quarterly progress reporting. Two evaluations of the fund are also planned to assess whether it has achieved its funding objectives. One will take place in 2024, with the second expected to take place later in the decade, once the majority of local authorities have completed their projects.