Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of removing VAT from social care after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The provision of welfare services by certain bodies is exempt from VAT, so no VAT is charged to the final consumer. In order to qualify for this exemption, service providers either need to meet the requirements set by the Care Quality Commission or be a registered charity.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a national definition for rural crime.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Those living in rural areas can be the victim of the same crimes as those living in urban areas. However, we know that certain crimes, such as hare coursing and livestock offences, predominantly affect rural communities and that is why we supported the introduction of the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Rural
Affairs Strategy, which was published last July.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities provide adequate leisure and recreational facilities for people with learning disabilities.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government recognises that access to high-quality inclusive spaces and opportunities for sport and recreation can make an important contribution to the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities.
In 2015, the Government sport strategy, Sporting Future: A Strategy for an Active Nation placed a focus on encouraging activity amongst those less likely to be active - including people with disabilities. The Government supports efforts that aim to encourage people with all forms of disability to become active and to fulfil their sporting potential.
The Activity Alliance's ‘Inclusive Fitness Initiative’ is supporting leisure centres to become more welcoming and accessible environments to disabled people. Activity Alliance run the initiative in collaboration with Sport England and UK Active and aim to give the active leisure sector support to improve, modernise and invest in its facilities, with the ambition that every facility in the country complies with the Activity Alliance ‘Inclusive Fitness Initiative’.
In 2018-19 the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government committed over £15 million to support a robust package of new Government initiatives to support vibrant and inclusive open spaces to enable more people to participate in leisure activities. This included the Pocket Parks Plus programme which is providing funding for 198 community-led projects across England to create new or renovate existing parks. A number of the successful projects will be creating open spaces that address social inclusion - and increasing access for people with different disabilities to leisure and wellbeing activities.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What steps she is taking to promote reform of OECD Development Assistance Committee rules on aid spending.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The UK is leading efforts to modernise the international aid rules to ensure they can keep pace with new challenges and support the delivery of the Global Goals. We have secured significant progress in changing the rules, including the recent agreement on an ODA reverse-graduation mechanism.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many SMETS1 meters are estimated to not be enrolled into the Smart Data Communications Company; and what the approximate cost of their replacements with SMETS2 meters would be.
Answered by Claire Perry
First generation smart meters currently operate on energy supplier-developed systems and will be migrated to the DCC by the end of 2020 to ensure that all first generation smart meters stay smart when switching.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on (a) au pairs and (b) families using au pairs from (i) the EU and (ii) EFTA countries.
Answered by Suella Braverman
The Prime Minister has been clear that safeguarding the rights of EU citizens and citizens of the EFTA states already living in the UK is a priority for negotiations, as set out in the Withdrawal Agreement.
It will allow EU citizens living in the UK before the end of the implementation period to continue living their lives broadly as they do now. We are also in discussions with the EEA EFTA states (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland on agreements to protect the rights of UK nationals living in those countries and their nationals living in the UK.
Au pairs from the EU arriving after the end of the implementation period will need to apply under the future immigration arrangements. The Home Office will set out further details about these arrangements in due course.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending statutory maternity allowance to adopting parents.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), and Maternity Allowance (MA), are paid to women to replace earnings to help them take time off work before and after their baby is born. They are primarily paid in the interests of women and their babies’ health and wellbeing. It would not therefore be appropriate to extend maternity benefits to adopting parents.
Statutory Adoption Pay is available for employees who take time off to adopt a child. Prospective adopters and children they intend to adopt are also entitled to an assessment of their family’s needs. This includes a range of support including discretionary means-tested financial support, advice, information, counselling, and support services.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allocating policing numbers in rural areas based on geographic size instead of per head of population.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Population sparsity was one factor within the existing Police Allocation Formula. We will consider the issue of the police funding formula in the context of the next Spending Review.
It is an operational decision for Chief Constables, held to account by their democratically elected Police and Crime Commissioner, to determine the size of the police workforce and how they are deployed in line with local priorities.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the powers available to the police to recover kennelling costs for dogs seized under suspicion of being used for hare-coursing.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The police do not have the power to directly recover the kennelling costs for seized dogs used in hare coursing.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the effect on the food and farming industry of allowing imported agricultural goods produced to lower standards than is required of UK producers.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The Government has been clear that we will maintain our high standards on food safety and environmental protection as part of any future trade deals.
When it comes to products imported to the UK, quality and safety will continue to be paramount. Without exception, imports must meet all the relevant UK product rules and regulations.