Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What recent assessment he has made of the strength of the UK’s diplomatic relations with China.
Answered by Mark Field
As my Rt Hon. Friend the Prime Minister said during her recent visit to China, in this ‘Golden Era’ of UK-China relations, our relationship is broad and deep, and delivering real benefits for both countries. We are global partners, working together to strengthen further our trade links and tackle global challenges.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Scotland benefits fully from the High Speed Two project.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Scotland stands to benefit substantially from HS2. When Phase One opens in 2026, services will run directly between London and Glasgow, bringing the journey time below 4 hours. When the full HS2 network opens in 2033, journeys between London and Glasgow and Edinburgh will be 3 hr 40 min. The Department for Transport estimates HS2 will deliver around £5bn of benefits to the Scottish economy.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assistance the Government plans to make available to communities which have no local bank on account of recent back closures; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is committed to improving access to financial services. The decision to open and close branches remains a commercial judgement for banks. However, the impact of closures on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.
The industry’s Access to Banking Standard, launched in May 2017, commits banks to ensure personal and business customers are better informed about branch closures and the reasons for them closing, along with the options they have locally to continue to access banking services, including specialist assistance for customers who need more help. The Access to Banking Standard is monitored and enforced by the independent Lending Standards Board.
99% of personal and 95% of banks’ business customers are now able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches. At Autumn Budget 2017, my predecessor wrote to the Post Office and UK Finance to ask them to raise public awareness of the banking services available at the Post Office for individuals and SMEs. I look forward to receiving their proposals later this month.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
What assessment he has made of the potential benefits of High Speed Two for the Midlands and the north.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
HS2 will help transform the UK economy, directly creating 25,000 new jobs - 70 percent of which will be outside of London. It will directly link 8 of the UK’s 10 largest cities and provide a step change in the country’s railway capacity. The Government regularly assesses the benefits of HS2 through the economic and strategic business cases.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to ensure higher standards of service and stricter key performance indicators to improve performance when the contract for work capability assessments is up for renewal in 2018.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The contract for the delivery of Work Capability Assessments expires in February 2020. As part of the two year extension agreement, we have agreed higher standards of service and improved Key Performance Indicators.
During the remaining term of our current contract both the Department and our supplier will continue its drive for continuous contractual performance improvement and even higher standards. We will review our future requirements as part of our preparations for re-contracting.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What steps he is taking to ensure that universal credit supports people to progress at work and increase their earnings.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Universal credit provides us with the opportunity to support people to progress and we are developing the evidence base about what works.
Building on our existing suite of trials, which includes a large scale Randomised Control Trial, we have committed an additional £8m to testing different approaches to supporting people to progress.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to locate Government Departments (a) outside London and (b) in Scotland after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Workforce planning is primarily the responsibility of each Government department. However, the Government’s Industrial Strategy will help create a more balanced economy by moving Arm’s Length public bodies out of London and the surrounding area and into clusters in the regions and devolved nations of the UK.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve broadband speeds in rural areas.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Superfast Broadband is now available to nearly 94% of premises in the UK and is on track to reach 95% by the end of 2017 and we recently announced £645M funding to take this further. By 2020, we will ensure universal broadband access to at least 10Mbps, so that no home or business is left behind.
The Local Full Fibre Networks programme will be available across the UK, including in rural areas. Funding from the programme is likely to deliver fibre installations in areas where the current cost of delivering fibre is not commercially viable.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has received an application to the Access for All programme for funding for platform nine at Stirling station; and if he will meet the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire the effect of lack of accessibility at that station on residents of Ochil and South Perthshire constituency.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Stirling station was included in the original Access for All programme but no solution to provide access to every platform could be found. The funding was therefore reallocated to other stations in Scotland. We are seeking new money to extend Access for All beyond 2019. If this is successful we will be asking the industry for new station nominations next year.
Asked by: Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent progress has been made on the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Deal.
Answered by David Mundell
Following my meeting with the hon Gentleman and the MP for Stirling, on 4 August I met with the Leader of Stirling Council and his officials to discuss progress with the Deal.
My officials followed up by meeting Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils on 29 August. We are keen to reach agreement on the terms of an ambitious Deal as soon as possible, recognising this will require intensive engagement by the local partners.