Asked by: Sarah Dines (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to support family life during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The clergy have continued to support families and vulnerable people throughout the pandemic, but particular attention has been given to the bereaved in this very difficult year. Recent research by the Church of England has shown six out of ten people have lost someone they know in the last year and that those aged 18 to 30 have been particularly badly affected. In addition to its support for bereaved families in communities across the country, the Church of England has continued its work preparing couples for marriage. The Church will be supporting National Marriage Week and there are lots of resources available to the parishes.
The Church is pleased to be working with the Government to implement changes to marriage registration, the new regulations will come into force from the 4th of May allowing any parent of a bride and groom to have their names entered into the official register of marriages. This reform among several others in the new regulations will specifically enable mothers to be recognised equally to fathers on the certificate. I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Dame Caroline Spelman, Tim Loughton MP and the Lord Bishop of St Albans who along with the campaigners worked so hard to change the law.
Asked by: Sarah Dines (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what fiscal steps he is taking to improve local transport infrastructure.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is committed to improving the transport links that people rely on every day.
The Budget announced a new England-wide Potholes Fund that will provide £500 million a year, resulting in a 50% increase to local road maintenance budgets in 2020-21. Alongside this, the Budget also announced the development of 15 local road upgrades across the country.
It also confirmed over £1 billion worth of allocations to shovel-ready local transport upgrades across nine city regions through the Transforming Cities Fund, and the intention is to agree long-term transport settlements with eight elected Mayors starting in 2022-23 worth £4.2bn.
These commitments build on the Prime Minister’s announcement of £5 billion for buses and cycling.
Asked by: Sarah Dines (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of police officers.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government recognises the challenges of policing in the modern age, which is why we are increasing the number of police officers across all forces.The police funding settlement for 2020/21 sets out the biggest increase in funding for the policing system since 2010.
This Government is also delivering on the people’s priorities by recruiting 20,000 additional police officers over the next three years and we are giving police forces £700 million for the recruitment of 6,000 additional officers by the end of March 2021