Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will introduce a low interest deposit scheme for people seeking entry-level rental accommodation in the private sector.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government does not have plans to introduce a low interest deposit scheme for the private rented sector. Local authorities may offer deposit guarantee or bond schemes to people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness.
Councils can choose to use Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) or Homelessness Prevention Grant funding to provide rent deposits for people in financial difficulties.
Since 2011 the government has provided almost £1.7 billion in DHP funding to local authorities and is investing over £1 billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years (2023-2025) including a £109 million top up for 2023/2024.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he has had discussions with the Commonwealth secretariat on the potential merits of observing the upcoming general election in Pakistan.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Commonwealth Secretariat's observation missions are important for supporting resilient democratic institutions across the Commonwealth, in line with the values of the Commonwealth Charter. We work with Commonwealth partners and our network of overseas posts to ensure missions have the support they need to carry out their work successfully.
The Secretariat has supported Pakistan in recent years to improve its election management, including increasing women's participation. We would support a decision of the Secretariat to deploy a Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) ahead of the election in Pakistan.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help patients see their preferred doctor at GP surgeries.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of the relationship between patients and their general practitioners (GPs). However, in some cases patients may prefer to see another professional from the wider general practice workforce instead of a specific GP.
All patients must be assigned a named GP, and practices must endeavour to comply with all reasonable requests of patients to see a particular GP or other healthcare professional for an appointment. The 2023/24 GP Contract promotes the use of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Continuity of Care toolkit via the Quality and Outcomes Framework Quality Improvement module.
We are building a diverse workforce of professionals in general practice teams who play an important role in providing and enabling continuity of care for patients.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce the number of secondary schools teachers retiring early.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There are now over 468,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the school workforce census began in 2010.
The department is taking action to support teachers to stay in the profession and thrive. The department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders, meaning teachers and leaders in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years.
The department has also launched a new and updated suite of national professional qualifications for teachers and school leaders at all levels to help teachers to continuously develop their expertise throughout their careers so that every child, in every classroom, and in every school gets the best start in life.
Staff wellbeing is crucial to the department’s commitment to recruit and retain more teachers and support teacher quality. The department has made available a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing including launching the education staff wellbeing charter, which the department are encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. Further information on the charter is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.
The department has also convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how the department can go further to support trust and school leaders to minimise workload for teachers and leaders.
The department are also looking at how flexible working opportunities can be expanded and promoted in schools to help recruit, retain and motivate teachers and leaders. The department has worked with school leaders and other sector experts to publish non-statutory guidance, case studies, and a flexible working toolkit. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.
These measures are aimed not only at helping more teachers to remain in the classroom, but for them to thrive in their careers.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to (a) make older people aware of Gigabit vouchers and (b) enable older people to access Gigabit vouchers.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s Digital Strategy published in 2022 is clear that HMG has a “vision to enable everyone, from every industry and across the UK, to benefit from all that digital innovation can offer”.
The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is led by broadband suppliers, who are encouraged to communicate directly with communities to increase local awareness of the voucher scheme and develop potential projects. Suppliers are then responsible for communicating with beneficiaries as any project progresses.
An address checker is available for all consumers to find out whether they are eligible for a voucher at: https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will issue guidance to local authorities on the potential fire risks of battery energy storage sites in close proximity to (a) residential and (b) commercial buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In August of this year the Government updated its Planning Practice Guidance to encourage battery storage developers to engage with Local Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) before submitting a planning application, so that issues of the siting and location of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are dealt with before the application is made.
The guidance also encourages local planning authorities to refer to the guidance on BESS published by the National Fire Chiefs Council for consideration when determining applications and to consult with FRSs before issuing decisions.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of GDPR rules for sharing data between local authorities on the (a) services provided to and (b) risks faced by vulnerable people (i) during and (ii) since the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Authorities are responsible for managing their own data and taking the relevant actions to protect information securely. The Information Commissioner provides guidance for public bodies.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, if the Church will have discussions with the Dioceses of (a) Hereford and (b) Lichfield on support with energy costs.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Church Commissioners are in regular contact with the Dioceses of Hereford and Lichfield. During the winter of 2022-23, due to dramatic increases in energy costs, £3million of Church Commissioners’ funding was made available through the Archbishops’ Council to support additional ministry hardship funding for clergy and lay workers, and a further £15million was similarly made available in energy cost support funding for dioceses to allocate primarily to Parochial Church Councils. This money was in addition to the dioceses' own ministry hardship funding and discretionary funding.
There is no plan to offer a similar scheme this year over and above the money already available through diocesean discretionary and hardship funds.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce the length of time between the (a) date that armed services personnel are informed by a medical board that they are unfit for service and (b) date of discharge.
Answered by James Heappey
The date that a Service person is due to be discharged is calculated on an individual basis, taking into consideration a number of factors, including entitlements to any remaining individual leave allowance, Resettlement Leave, Invaliding leave and Terminal Leave. If there are additional considerations, such as an extension to attend a recovery course, then a decision will be taken on a case-by-case basis.
There are no current plans to reduce the time between the date that a Service person is informed by a medical board that they are unfit for service, and the date of their discharge.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will take steps to increase the number of hours of training for armed forces personnel on the security risks of using private social media.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence does not have any plans to update military law regarding the use of social media by Armed Forces personnel.
Policy and guidance on the use of social media is set out in the MOD’s Acceptable Use Policy (JSP 740), which is available to all armed forces personnel. The MOD recognises the importance of educating personnel on the security risks of social media and runs both security awareness campaigns and online learning programs. The MOD has recently introduced new cyber security training for all personnel that includes a module on social media and will continue to use different communication means to reinforce the message.