Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on what the average monthly mortgage payment was in Warwick and Leamington constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
There is a wide variety of data and statistics about the mortgage market in the UK available from the Bank of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics), the Financial Conduct Authority (https://www.fca.org.uk/data) and UK Finance (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data).
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the impact of trends in the level of interest rates on homeowners in Warwick and Leamington constituency.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The pricing and availability of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. However, the Government recognises this is a concerning time for mortgage borrowers.
Rising interest rates are in part driven by Bank Rate. Monetary policy is the responsibility of the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England. The MPC continues to have the Government’s full support as it takes action to return inflation to target through its independent monetary policy decisions.
The average offered mortgage rates on 2-year and 5-year fixed rates have now fallen from their peak in the Summer.
The Government has taken steps to limit the impact of rising interest rates on mortgage holders, through the Mortgage Charter. This Charter sets out the standards that signatory lenders – who represent over 90% of the UK mortgage market – will adopt when helping their customers.
We have also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), and Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans. Accordingly, arrears and repossessions remain low by historical standards, despite the rise in interest costs.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the impact of sewage overflows into rivers and waterways in Warwick and Leamington constituency on groups who use the water for recreational activities.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is clear that the volume of sewage being discharged into our waters in unacceptable. That is why our Plan for Water sets out more investment, stronger regulation, and tougher enforcement to tackle pollution and clean up our water.
Alongside this, our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan sets clear and specific targets for water companies to reduce sewage discharges, and will drive the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £60 billion capital investment over 25 years
The rivers in the vicinity of Warwick and Leamington (River Avon and River Leam) are not designated Bathing Waters. Monitoring undertaken by the Environment Agency is primarily focussed on its statutory duties to monitor and report environmental quality.
We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network: in 2010 only 7% were monitored, and now 100% are being monitored.
Nationally, the Environment Agency has directed water companies to make significant improvements through the PR19 Water Industry National Environment Plan and water company business plans, including upgrading over 8,000 storm overflows in successive price reviews since 1989. This has resulted in water companies investing £3.1 billion to improve storm overflows between 2020 and 2025.
Locally, Severn Trent Water, as part of their Green Recovery Programme, are carrying out a trial to improve a stretch of the River Leam near Warwick & Leamington Spa with the aim of making the river safer to swim in a location where bathing is known to occur. This trial includes river monitoring and improvements to some of Severn Trent’s sewer network, infrastructure and discharges.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time for an ambulance was in (a) Coventry and (b) Warwickshire in each winter since 2010-2011.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested.
Ambulance response times are measured by response time category down to regional ambulance trust level. Coventry and Warwickshire are both served by the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS).
The current ambulance response time standards were introduced in 2017 following extensive clinical trials and include average response times by response time category. Prior to this average response times were not centrally collected.
The following table shows average ambulance response times for WMAS in December, January and February between 2017 and 2023.
Year | Month | Category 1 mean | Category 2 mean | Category 3 mean | Category 4 mean |
2017/18 | December | 00:07:03 | 00:13:12 | 0:39:49 | 1:04:30 |
| January | 00:06:48 | 00:12:22 | 0:35:20 | 0:57:11 |
| February | 00:07:03 | 00:13:14 | 0:41:35 | 1:00:51 |
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2018/19 | December | 0:06:48 | 0:12:29 | 0:36:14 | 0:51:31 |
| January | 0:06:44 | 0:12:11 | 0:35:17 | 0:51:40 |
| February | 0:06:46 | 0:12:32 | 0:38:22 | 0:51:10 |
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2019/20 | December | 0:07:02 | 0:14:56 | 1:01:08 | 1:16:39 |
| January | 0:06:59 | 0:12:29 | 0:32:47 | 0:48:36 |
| February | 0:07:09 | 0:13:06 | 0:41:16 | 0:56:45 |
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2020/21 | December | 0:06:57 | 0:14:46 | 0:47:41 | 1:01:10 |
| January | 0:06:51 | 0:14:48 | 0:51:45 | 1:03:04 |
| February | 0:06:35 | 0:12:01 | 0:25:06 | 0:35:28 |
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2021/22 | December | 0:08:19 | 0:48:19 | 3:20:50 | 3:46:03 |
| January | 0:08:10 | 0:34:44 | 2:35:07 | 2:54:24 |
| February | 0:08:11 | 0:33:36 | 2:26:14 | 3:15:26 |
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2022/23 | December | 0:09:14 | 1:31:10 | 4:48:31 | 4:33:46 |
| January | 0:08:11 | 0:27:21 | 1:39:18 | 1:51:52 |
| February | 0:08:18 | 0:25:49 | 1:54:42 | 2:37:55 |
Source: NHS England Ambulance Quality Indicators.
Note: The national standards for Category 3 and 4 incidents are 90th percentile response times, rather than mean response.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of universities the (a) Chairman and (b) Chief Executive of the Office for Students has visited since (i) 1 January 2018, (ii) 3 March 2023 and (iii) 5 September 2023.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department does not hold this information as visits to universities by the Chair and Chief Executive of the Office for Students are a matter for that organisation as an independent arms-length body.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children have had an appointment with a NHS dentist in Warwick and Leamington constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This data is not published at constituency level. We have therefore presented the data which is available at ICB level in the following table.
For Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB):
Year | Number of children seen in previous 12 months to June of each year | Number of children seen as a proportion of total population of children |
2016 | 109,691 | 59% |
2017 | 112,120 | 60% |
2018 | 114,960 | 55% |
2019 | 117,002 | 61% |
2020 | 107,114 | 55% |
2021 | 68,697 | 35% |
2022 | 99,569 | 50% |
2023 | 113,822 | 57% |
Source: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics
Note: The methodology to count how many children have been seen changed in 2016. We therefore have not included figures for the years before 2016 as they are not comparable.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to mental health services in Warwickshire in each year since 2010.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is for individual local commissioners to allocate funding to mental health services to meet the needs of their local populations and this information is not collected centrally. Integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year.
Spending on NHS mental health services in England continues to increase each year from almost £11 billion in 2015/16 to almost £16 billion in 2022/23.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department allocates (a) personnel and (b) financial resources to monitoring the political views of educationalists.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As part of government business, the department works with a wide range of educationalists in order to inform effective policymaking. The department recognises it is important to listen to and consider a wide variety of views and perspectives.
The department does not allocate specific personnel or financial resources to monitor the political views of educationalists.
As is standard practice in most organisations, the department does carry out due diligence before engaging experts and speakers on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the recent technical issue with the processing and issuing of Biometric Resident Permits has been; what steps his Department is taking to resolve that issue; and what estimate he has made of when that work will be complete.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Incidences of technical issues preventing BRP card production are extremely low, and no systemic issues have been identified.
Where individual card requests do fail, operational case working teams and IT Support endeavour to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
For any case that cannot be resolved immediately, the Employer Checking and Landlord Checking Services are available to provide support to customers to verify their immigration status and permission to work and rent properties in the UK.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times she has met the Director of Free Speech of the Office for Students since his appointment.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Secretary of State met with Susan Lapworth, CEO of the Office for Students (OfS), and Lord Wharton, Chair of the OfS on 25 January 2023.
In my capacity as the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, I have also met with the CEO once, and Chair of the OfS twice, in 2023. My noble friend Baroness Barran has also met with the CEO once.
My Right hon. Friend, The Secretary of State for Education has not met with Arif Ahmed, Director of Free Speech and Academic Freedom of the OfS, since his appointment in June 2023. The Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP, the previous Minister responsible for freedom of speech in the department, met with Arif Ahmed once in 2023 following his appointment.