Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions her Department has had with the British Academy on the work of the British Institute at Ankara, in the context of the recent Turkish general election.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government provides funding to the British Academy for eight British International Research Institutes (BIRI), including the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). The BIRIs are independent organisations, overseen by Boards of Trustees. The BIAA promotes academic collaboration between scholars based in the UK, Turkey and the wider Black Sea region, and acts as a centre of research excellence. The Government reviews funding and delivery of the British Academy and its BIRIs on an ongoing basis with regular reporting, monitoring and evaluation from the British Academy to ensure funding objectives are met.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding to the British Academy to support the British Institute at Ankara.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government provides funding to the British Academy for eight British International Research Institutes (BIRI), including the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). The BIAA has not raised the need for additional funding with the British Academy. The Government reviews funding and delivery of the British Academy and its BIRIs on an ongoing basis with regular reporting, monitoring and evaluation from the British Academy to ensure funding objectives are met.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times fire cover has been removed from Merseyside by the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority due to staffing shortfalls since 1 December 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data will be recorded by polling stations during the local elections in May 2023; how that data will be recorded; and whether his Department plans to report data on those elections to the House after the May local elections.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 162192 on 14th March 2023.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department has taken to support households which require further assistance in understanding the process to redeem energy pre-payment vouchers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has carried out extensive communications including through the Help for Households campaign, via charities and consumer groups, through community radio, translated materials and the media. This work continues alongside enhanced effort by electricity suppliers to reach customers with unused vouchers. I have raised this with a number of city region mayors and have provided resources for Local Authorities to use with their local networks. The Government will shortly be sharing these resources with Hon. Members to use within their constituencies. The Department continues to work with stakeholders to ensure every effort is made to reach all eligible households.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing a framework whereby energy suppliers directly credit the energy accounts of households in cases of un-redeemed pre-payment vouchers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
For the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS), the Government undertook extensive engagement with suppliers, assessed the available technology in place for prepayment meters and used experience from previous support schemes. This indicated that vouchers were the most effective way of reaching prepayment meter customers as they do not have accounts which can readily be credited directly by the supplier.
Customers have been widely urged to redeem their vouchers promptly. Latest figures indicate 76% have been redeemed. Expired vouchers can be reissued by the supplier but all must be redeemed by 30 June 2023.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether the Committee plans to make an assessment of the implications for the work of the Electoral Commission of the number of voters turned away at polling stations for not having acceptable ID on 4 May 2023.
Answered by Cat Smith
The Speaker's Committee does not have any plans to make an assessment of the matter referred to.
However, the Electoral Commission will publish a full report on how the May elections were delivered, including how voters found taking part, and what lessons can be learned for the future.
As part of this process, the Commission will independently examine evidence about how the new voter ID requirement was implemented. It will collect data from every local authority that held elections, including the number of voters who did not bring an accepted form of ID with them to the polling station and were therefore unable to vote.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools had at least one construction element in condition grade (a) C and (b) D in Birkenhead constituency when that data was collated; and which of those schools (i) have received and (ii) expect to receive in the next two years funding from the School Rebuilding Programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
Of the 400 so far selected, none are in Birkenhead or Brighton Kemptown constituencies.
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of bed capacity in mental health care; and what steps his Department is taking to increase that capacity.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such specific assessment has been made. It is the responsibility of commissioners to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population.
We are supporting integrated care boards to expand mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, which commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This will see a significant expansion in community and crisis mental health services to help people get quicker access to the care they need and prevent avoidable deterioration and hospital admission, so that beds are available for those who need them.
On 23 January 2023 we set out detail on how £150 million of capital investment, first announced at the 2021 Spending Review, will be used to build mental health urgent and emergency care infrastructure. This includes funding for 150 wider capital schemes to provide and improve crisis cafes, crisis houses, mental health urgent care centres, health-based places of safety and broader improvements to crisis lines and emergency departments. This will mean care can be provided in more appropriate spaces for those in need and will reduce pressure on wider parts of the system.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data his Department holds on the number of new buses registered since 2017 that did not have (a) next stop, (b) final destination and (c) audio-visual announcements installed.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Since 2018, the Department has allocated £3.55m to the Real Time Information Group to support smaller operators with the provision of audible and visible information on local bus and coach services across England, Scotland and Wales. Accessibility policy is devolved in Northern Ireland.