Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the growth of the life sciences sector.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Life sciences is one of the government’s priority growth sectors. In May, the Chancellor announced a bold new policy package backed by over £650m funding, reaffirming the government’s commitment to supporting a thriving life sciences industry.
This follows a number of initiatives announced at Spring Budget that will support the sector, including £10m extra funding for our medicines regulator the MHRA, full expensing of capital expenditure and reforms to R&D tax credits.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to end rough sleeping.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Last year we published our cross-government strategy 'Ending Rough Sleeping for Good', setting out how we are investing £2 billion over three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
This includes up to £500 million in funding through the Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022-25 to local authorities across England which includes a range of support, including outreach, accommodation, mental health and substance misuse support, immigration advice and help to find employment or training.
Rough sleeping levels are 35% lower in 2022 compared to the peak in 2017 and 28% lower than they were in 2019 before the pandemic. We remain steadfastly committed to our goal to end rough sleeping and we will continue to work with local authorities and partners, the voluntary and community sector and private sector to end it for good.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has for leasehold reform.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 191122 on 4 July 2023.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to protect and enhance green spaces.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is committed to protecting and enhancing the Green Belt.
The Levelling Up Parks Fund also made available £9 million for local authorities in areas which rate highly on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, to create or significantly refurbish green spaces.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State what steps his Department is taking to encourage households to redeem vouchers for the Energy Bill Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department worked with stakeholders throughout the Scheme to ensure every effort was made to reach all eligible households. A voucher day campaign was launched at the end of May that included articles in national and regional newspapers, posters in major train stations and TV and radio interviews with Ministers across the country to increase the voucher redemption rate.
As of 1 June, 98% of vouchers since EBSS launched in October had been delivered to eligible customers and 85% of these had been redeemed. Vouchers needed to be redeemed by 30 June, when the Scheme closed.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help support people aged over 50 into work.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to delivering a comprehensive package of support to help over 50s to remain and return to work.
Eligible older jobseekers on Universal Credit will receive more intensive, tailored support during the first nine months of their claim. This will give work coaches more time to spend with older job seekers who have recently become unemployed and give extra support to help tackle barriers or difficulties in finding work.
37 new full-time 50PLUS Champion are now in every Jobcentre Plus district across GB, to support and upskill Work Coaches to deliver success for older claimants, including by raising awareness of the importance of supporting older job seekers.
The Mid-life MOT is being offered to workers in their 40s and 50s to review and take stock of their finances, skills and health. This enables them to better prepare for their retirement and build financial resilience. They will be delivered to people in work in the private sector in three pilot areas, to eligible customers in the Jobcentres claiming Universal Credit and digitally. As part of the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced even more 50+ customers on Universal Credit will be able to take part in the Mid-life MOT sessions in the Jobcentre. The digital Mid-life MOT will also be expanded and improved.
Alongside this enhanced offer, for those who became unemployed, Jobcentre Plus Work Coaches have the flexibility to offer all claimants, a comprehensive menu of help, such as through Restart, Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs), the Flexible Support Fund, Mentoring circles, and 50+ job fairs, whilst also being supported by the 50 PLUS Champions.
We will introduce Returnerships, a new offer promoting existing skills interventions to the over-50s, focussing on flexibility and previous experience to reduce training length.
DWP also engages with employers to encourage positive attitudes towards older workers and the benefits of a multi-generational work force, and the adoption of suitable work practices to increase the retention, retraining and recruitment of older workers. DWP and The Business Champion for Older Workers, Andy Briggs, engage with employers to promote the benefits of older workers to business.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce the level of economic inactivity among people of working age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The UK labour market has record employment and close to record low unemployment, however we want to see even more people fulfil their potential, we are supporting employers to get the required skills for their workforce, and ensuring the economy continues to grow.
The Spring Budget set out a significant, wide-ranging package of DWP measures that represent an investment of £3.5bn over 5 years to boost workforce participation. These measures will help to break down the barriers stopping people moving into work and progressing in it. This includes investment to support disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, parents, over-50s, unemployed people and people on Universal Credit and working fewer than full-time hours.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to remove barriers to women returning to work after giving birth.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Lots of women want to work after having children. Universal Credit is designed to ensure that women get the flexible support they need to return to work. All claimants, including women returning to work after giving birth, are set requirements that take into account their circumstances and capability, including caring responsibilities.
For claimants with children aged two to four, support has also been adjusted so that these claimants are able to attend refresher training courses for up to a year, where it will improve their chance of returning to a previous occupation.
Additionally, where a claimant is caring for a pre-school age child, additional safeguards apply, as such, any work-related expectations are limited. Those expected to search for work can limit the time they can spend travelling to and from work. Lead carers are given longer to attend an interview or take up work so they can arrange childcare.
The Department is aware that for some UC claimants childcare costs can present a challenge for parents returning to work. To support parents when returning to work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month regardless of the number of hours they work.
This is up to the maximum amount of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. From Summer 2023, the Department will increase the generosity of the UC childcare costs ‘caps’ (maximum amounts) - allowing parents to claim back over £300 more for one child or over £500 for two or more children of their childcare costs per month. This will increase the caps to £950.92 for one child and £1,630.15 for two or more children. For families with two or more children, this could be worth over £19,500 a year.
By September 2025, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to when they start school will be able to get 30 hours of free childcare in England.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the security situation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by James Heappey
To tackle the diverse threats in Sub-Saharan Africa, we have developed integrated security offers to protect our interests, tackling the upstream drivers of terrorism, and working with our partners to enhance and modernise their security capacity and capabilities to ensure lasting stability in the region. Furthermore, we are increasing our efforts to support African-led multilateral initiatives, such as the Accra Initiative, to encourage African leadership in responding to security challenges. We closely align our plans with the Allies to ensure that we are burden sharing across Africa. We regularly assess our programmes of activity for impact and value for money.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen defence relationships with Japan.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK-Japan relationship is the closest it has been for decades. The Integrated review was warmly welcomed in Japan; our Indo-Pacific tilt provided reassurance that we would continue to play an active role on the international stage post-Brexit. Carrier Strike Group21 and the deployment of HMS TAMAR and SPEY have reinforced this view.
The major recent announcements on the Global Combat air Programme (GCAP) and Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 reinforce the UK's position as Japan's closest European security partner. GCAP will see us harnessing the technological and industrial strengths of all three countries for this once in a generation opportunity, which will sustain and future proof our cutting-edge Combat Air Sectors.
Once ratified by both countries in the coming months, the RAA will set out terms and conditions for UK and Japanese personnel undertaking activity in one another's countries. We will use the RAA to plan and deliver longer term, larger scale and more complex joint defence activity with Japan.