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Written Question
Retail Trade: Crimes of Violence
Monday 27th November 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle retail crime and violence against shop workers.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Violent and abusive behaviour towards any worker, particularly those who provide a valuable service to the public, is never acceptable. We have taken significant steps to tackle retail crime, including publication of the police-led Retail Crime Action plan which details clear police response commitments and guidance for retailers.


Written Question
Carbon Capture and Storage
Tuesday 7th March 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress he has made on the Track 1 Power Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage selection process.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government launched the power BECCS project submission process on 22nd August 2022. This was for power BECCS projects seeking to join Track-1. The Government will provide an update on the outcome of the power BECCS project submission process in due course.

Deployment of power BECCS will be contingent on the availability of relevant CO2 Transport and Storage infrastructure and an assessment of affordability and value for money before any decision to award business model support.


Written Question
Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage
Wednesday 1st March 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when the (a) guidance on, (b) timeline for and (c) selection criteria for track 2 of the CCUS Cluster Sequencing Programme will be published.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is committed to supporting four CCUS clusters to deployment by 2030. Track-2 of the Cluster Sequencing Programme will add further clusters to fulfil this commitment and deliver an additional capture and storage capacity of at least 10Mtpa. The Government is continuing to develop the Track-2 process, building on our experience of sequencing the Track-1 clusters. Further details will be set out in the Spring.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Young Offenders
Friday 3rd February 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there is a standardised procedure for ensuring that young offenders are assessed for an EHCP.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 Years (2015), sets out that local authorities must promote the education of each child and young person while they are in custody and on their release, whether they have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or not.

Each child or young person entering custody will undergo an educational assessment, including an assessment of literacy, numeracy and, where necessary, a screening to identify whether further assessments to identify special educational needs (SEN) are required. If the child or young person already has an EHC plan, the home local authority must send it to the Youth Offending Team, the person in charge of the relevant youth accommodation, and the child or young person’s health commissioner, within five working days of becoming aware of the detention.

Where a child or young person does not already have an EHC plan, the parent, young person or the person in charge of the relevant youth accommodation can request an assessment of the child or young person’s post-detention EHC needs from the home local authority.

Anyone else, including Youth Offending Teams and the education provider in custody, has a right to bring the child or young person to the notice of the home local authority as someone who may have SEN and the local authority must consider whether an assessment of their post-detention EHC needs is necessary.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Complaints
Friday 3rd February 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local councils have had intervention from the Government to ensure that they provide effective complaints procedures regarding their local offer.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Part Three of the Children and Families Act 2014, imposes a range of duties on local authorities in England in relation to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in their areas, or for whom they are otherwise responsible. These include:

  • The identification of children and young people with SEND
  • The integration of educational provision and training provision with health care provision and social care provision
  • The joint commissioning of education, health and care provision for children and young people with SEND
  • Cooperation with their local partners over the authorities’ functions under the 2014 Act in relation to SEND, with reciprocal duties on their partners
  • Publishing and then keeping under review SEND Local Offers, which set out the provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people with SEND
  • Making arrangements for children and young people and their parents to be provided with advice and information about matters relating to the special educational needs or disability of the children or young people concerned

The 2014 Act requires my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to issue a code of practice giving guidance to local authorities, and others, about the exercise of their functions under Part Three of the Act, to which they must have regard. This statutory guidance is the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (2015), which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.

Local authorities must publish a summary of comments at least annually. All local areas are subject to robust SEND inspections, and Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have just commenced a strengthened local inspection framework, which does include judgements about the Local Offer where appropriate. Where a local area’s Local Offer is identified as a significant weakness by Ofsted/CQC, the department provides intervention and support to secure improvement.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Friday 3rd February 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has given to local authorities on ensuring the education, health and social care services work together to provide services with young people with special educational needs.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Part Three of the Children and Families Act 2014, imposes a range of duties on local authorities in England in relation to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in their areas, or for whom they are otherwise responsible. These include:

  • The identification of children and young people with SEND
  • The integration of educational provision and training provision with health care provision and social care provision
  • The joint commissioning of education, health and care provision for children and young people with SEND
  • Cooperation with their local partners over the authorities’ functions under the 2014 Act in relation to SEND, with reciprocal duties on their partners
  • Publishing and then keeping under review SEND Local Offers, which set out the provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people with SEND
  • Making arrangements for children and young people and their parents to be provided with advice and information about matters relating to the special educational needs or disability of the children or young people concerned

The 2014 Act requires my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to issue a code of practice giving guidance to local authorities, and others, about the exercise of their functions under Part Three of the Act, to which they must have regard. This statutory guidance is the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (2015), which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.

Local authorities must publish a summary of comments at least annually. All local areas are subject to robust SEND inspections, and Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have just commenced a strengthened local inspection framework, which does include judgements about the Local Offer where appropriate. Where a local area’s Local Offer is identified as a significant weakness by Ofsted/CQC, the department provides intervention and support to secure improvement.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Friday 3rd February 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has given to local authorities on informing young people regarding disability and special educational needs.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Part Three of the Children and Families Act 2014, imposes a range of duties on local authorities in England in relation to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in their areas, or for whom they are otherwise responsible. These include:

  • The identification of children and young people with SEND
  • The integration of educational provision and training provision with health care provision and social care provision
  • The joint commissioning of education, health and care provision for children and young people with SEND
  • Cooperation with their local partners over the authorities’ functions under the 2014 Act in relation to SEND, with reciprocal duties on their partners
  • Publishing and then keeping under review SEND Local Offers, which set out the provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people with SEND
  • Making arrangements for children and young people and their parents to be provided with advice and information about matters relating to the special educational needs or disability of the children or young people concerned

The 2014 Act requires my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to issue a code of practice giving guidance to local authorities, and others, about the exercise of their functions under Part Three of the Act, to which they must have regard. This statutory guidance is the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (2015), which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.

Local authorities must publish a summary of comments at least annually. All local areas are subject to robust SEND inspections, and Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have just commenced a strengthened local inspection framework, which does include judgements about the Local Offer where appropriate. Where a local area’s Local Offer is identified as a significant weakness by Ofsted/CQC, the department provides intervention and support to secure improvement.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Friday 3rd February 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has provided to local authorities on identifying young people with special educational needs.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Part Three of the Children and Families Act 2014, imposes a range of duties on local authorities in England in relation to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in their areas, or for whom they are otherwise responsible. These include:

  • The identification of children and young people with SEND
  • The integration of educational provision and training provision with health care provision and social care provision
  • The joint commissioning of education, health and care provision for children and young people with SEND
  • Cooperation with their local partners over the authorities’ functions under the 2014 Act in relation to SEND, with reciprocal duties on their partners
  • Publishing and then keeping under review SEND Local Offers, which set out the provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people with SEND
  • Making arrangements for children and young people and their parents to be provided with advice and information about matters relating to the special educational needs or disability of the children or young people concerned

The 2014 Act requires my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to issue a code of practice giving guidance to local authorities, and others, about the exercise of their functions under Part Three of the Act, to which they must have regard. This statutory guidance is the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (2015), which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.

Local authorities must publish a summary of comments at least annually. All local areas are subject to robust SEND inspections, and Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have just commenced a strengthened local inspection framework, which does include judgements about the Local Offer where appropriate. Where a local area’s Local Offer is identified as a significant weakness by Ofsted/CQC, the department provides intervention and support to secure improvement.


Written Question
Pupil Exclusions: Cleethorpes
Wednesday 1st February 2023

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many exclusions of (a) SEN and (b) other pupils there were in schools in the Cleethorpes constituency in each of the last three years.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department publishes figures from the school census on permanent exclusions and suspensions from state funded schools in England. The latest full academic year figures are for the academic year 2020/21 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england/2020-21.

The attached table provides the number of permanent exclusions and suspensions for pupils with and without special educational needs (SEN) at state funded schools in Cleethorpes constituency between 2018/19 and 2020/21.


Written Question
Railways: Freight
Wednesday 14th December 2022

Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate the impact of industrial action in December 2022 on the rail freight sector in transporting commodities over the Christmas period.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Government continues to work closely with Network Rail (NR) and Freight Operating Companies (FOCs) to ensure as much freight as possible is able to continue to move throughout the industrial action planned over the Christmas period. We are ensuring that critical freight flows are prioritised and we continue to monitor the impacts on specific sectors, through our engagement with other Government Departments.

During periods of industrial action, approximately 20% of rail freight services operate on strike days, returning to around 70% on the day after a strike.