Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to support businesses that had applications for grant funding during the covid-19 outbreak declined because (a) their business rates are included in their rent or (b) they have a rateable value of over £51,000.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
a) The Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund have been designed to support the smallest businesses, and smaller businesses in the some of the sectors which have been hit hardest by measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The two schemes have been tied to the business rates system and rating assessments, which together provide a framework for Local Authorities to make payments as quickly as possible. Businesses in the business rates system are also likely to face particularly high fixed costs, such as fixed rents.
In some shared spaces, individual users have their own rating assessments and may therefore be eligible for the grants schemes. In these cases, Local Authorities are urging landlords and management agents to support them in ensuring that the grants reach the correct ratepayers.
b) This Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund has been designed to support small businesses in some of the sectors hit hardest by the measures taken to prevent the spread of covid-19. In order to ensure that payments can be made quickly and efficiently to businesses which are facing particularly high fixed costs, the scheme is tied to the business rates system. Under the business rates system, small businesses are defined as those with a rateable value below £51,000. The Government continues to review the economic situation and consider what support businesses need. However, there are currently no plans to extend the grants scheme above the £51,000 limit.
Businesses which are not eligible for the grants schemes should still be able to benefit from other measures in the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business, including:
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What steps he is taking to ensure that victims of child sexual exploitation have confidence in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Child sexual exploitation is an abhorrent crime and it is essential that specialist support is available to help victims of abuse through the criminal justice system to ensure victims have confidence to come forward. Independent Sexual Violence Advisors provide an important link between support services and criminal justice agencies and may support a victim when attending court and giving evidence. This is why we are an investing an additional £1m in recruiting more.
There are a range of special measures to help victims give their best evidence, for example from behind a screen or remotely. A Victim Personal Statement gives victims a voice in the criminal justice process by helping others to understand how the crime has affected them.
We’re also determined to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice, which is why we’re recruiting 20,000 more police officers, investing £85m in more prosecutors and building 10,000 extra prison places.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on its research on the profiling of the perpetrators of child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office has considered evidence from a range of sources including existing research, published and unpublished data, and insight from investigators and safeguarding professionals to better understand the characteristics of group-based child sexual offending. These include the nature and modus operandi of the networks involved, the backgrounds and motivations of individual offenders, and the characteristics of victims. Emerging findings have been shared with relevant partners in law enforcement agencies.
In early 2020 the Government will publish a national strategy, the first of its kind, to tackle all forms of child sexual abuse.
Our new strategy will set out our whole system response to tackling child sexual abuse, including group-based sexual offending drawing on this internal work. It will set out how we will work across government, law enforcement, safeguarding partners and industry to root out offending, protect victims and help victims and survivors rebuild their lives. We will work tirelessly to tackle all forms of sexual abuse; there will be no no-go areas.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to stop downwards phasing of transitional relief in the business rates system to support high streets in Telford constituency, the north of England and the Midlands and (b) if he will include this in the next Budget.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The current transitional relief scheme runs until the next business rates revaluation. Details of the scheme for the next revaluation will be confirmed before that revaluation.
The Government is committed to conducting a fundamental review of business rates. Further information will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans he has to reform the Apprenticeship Levy to enable levy funds to be accessed by businesses for other forms of accredited training.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The apprenticeship levy underpins our reforms to raise apprenticeship quality and supports employers to make long-term, sustainable investments in the skills that they need. Income from the levy is used to fund apprenticeships in all employers (both those who pay the levy and those who do not pay the levy).
In response to employers, we have already introduced the flexibility for levy-payers to transfer up to 25% of their funds, enabling them to support apprenticeship starts in their supply chains or to meet local skills needs. In January, we extended the use of transfers to cover the full cost of training for 16 to 18 year olds and eligible 19 to 24 year olds in employers with fewer than 50 employees.
We have listened to the concerns of businesses about the apprenticeship levy. We are committed to improving the apprenticeship programme to ensure that it continues to deliver the skilled workforce that employers need.
We will set out further detail on this in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to undertake a public consultation on proposals to reform the Apprenticeship Levy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The apprenticeship levy underpins our reforms to raise apprenticeship quality and supports employers to make long-term, sustainable investments in the skills that they need. Income from the levy is used to fund apprenticeships in all employers (both those who pay the levy and those who do not pay the levy).
In response to employers, we have already introduced the flexibility for levy-payers to transfer up to 25% of their funds, enabling them to support apprenticeship starts in their supply chains or to meet local skills needs. In January, we extended the use of transfers to cover the full cost of training for 16 to 18 year olds and eligible 19 to 24 year olds in employers with fewer than 50 employees.
We have listened to the concerns of businesses about the apprenticeship levy. We are committed to improving the apprenticeship programme to ensure that it continues to deliver the skilled workforce that employers need.
We will set out further detail on this in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he made of the change in the number of children entering the care system since 2010.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We monitor the number of children entering the care system on an ongoing basis and information showing the change in the number of children entering the care system for the period since 2010 is provided in the table attached.
Further breakdowns of children who started to be looked after can be found in Table C1 of the statistical first release 'Children Looked After in England including Adoption: 2016 to 2017' at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.
We set out our vision for delivering excellent children’s social care in ‘Putting Children First’. This outlines our reform programme which seeks to: improve the quality of social work practice; create systems and environments where great social work can flourish; promote learning and multi-agency working where all involved in supporting children and families can work together; and support children who both enter and leave the care system. The reforms are designed to ensure that all vulnerable children and families receive the highest-quality care and support. We have invested over £200 million through the Innovation Programme to test and develop better practice, including testing approaches to help vulnerable children to remain safely at home.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the number of degree apprenticeships available in the Telford constituency.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government has created a £10 million Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund to support the development and take up of degree apprenticeships across England. Harper Adams University is the closest university to Telford to receive money from this fund - followed by Staffordshire University, University of Keele, Birmingham City University and Aston University.
Degree level apprenticeships have grown year on year with over 6,600 starts since their introduction, including over 4,000 starts this academic year (2017/18) with over 100 higher education institutions registered to deliver apprenticeships, including several in the West Midlands. In Telford constituency there were 1,300 apprenticeship starts across all levels. Of these, 90 were higher level apprenticeships, which includes degree-level starts. The National Apprenticeship Service and UCAS have created a degree apprenticeship vacancy listing to highlight opportunities available across all areas of the country - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-and-degree-apprenticeship-vacancies.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Takeover Code following the take over of GKN by Melrose.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Takeover Code is administered by the Takeover Panel, an independent organisation. The Code was strengthened earlier this year to give companies more time to respond to a bid and to require bidding companies to provide more information on their intention earlier in the takeover process.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has commissioned research on the motivations of the perpetrators of gang-grooming crimes against young girls; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Improving our understanding of the scale and nature of all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse, including that involving gangs and groups, is a priority for this Government.
We have invested £7.5m in a new centre of expertise on child sexual abuse which will identify, generate, and share high quality evidence of what works to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/E).
At present, ‘types’ or ‘models’ of CSA/E offending are understood differently by the agencies, professionals and academics responding. This hampers efforts to understand, prevent and disrupt offending. The Centre of Expertise is addressing this by developing a typology of offending. This will involve identifying the characteristics and patterns of offender behaviour within different models, which will in turn support a more targeted response by the police and other agencies.
While this is underway, we will continue work to enhance our understanding of organised models of exploitation. This includes working with police and law enforcement agencies to identify characteristics associated with group-based CSA/E cases, so that best practice in preventing and tackling these forms of abuse can be identified and shared.