Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason kinship carers can only claim the lower rate of Child Benefit if they already have children for whom they claim Child Benefit; and if he will take steps to review this policy.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The higher rate of Child Benefit can only be paid for the eldest child. It is intended to help all families with children, acknowledging the impact on a family’s finances of the arrival of a child/children in the family. The arrival of a child for the first time may mean for instance that many parents have to give up work altogether or work reduced hours. When Child Benefit ends for the eldest child, the higher rate becomes payable for the next eldest child. The government keeps all policies under review in the usual way.
Financial support for kinship carers is paid at the discretion of the local authority and in accordance with their model for assessing support needs. There is no limit on the level of support, including financial support, that local authorities can provide. The local authority should have in place clear eligibility criteria in relation to the provision of support services.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average holding time was for phone calls to the probate office contact line in each year since 2019.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The average holding time (Average Speed of Answer (ASA)) for phone calls to the Probate office contact line in each year since 2019 is as follows:
2021 = 17 minutes 28 seconds
2022 = 33 minutes 23 seconds
2023 = 12 minutes 17 seconds
HMCTS does not hold ASA data prior to 2021 due to a change in system in Spring 2021.
HMCTS has recruited over 100 additional staff, between June 2022 and June 2023, to improve both telephone response times and increase the overall volume and speed of grants being issued.
In addition, HMCTS have undertaken additional staff training to ensure probate call agents can resolve more queries at the first time of contact and issue the grant wherever possible.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will have discussions with local authorities on the long-term effect of the speaking of Welsh of inter-library loan charges for Welsh language books.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities. It is for each local authority to determine operational matters such as its stock management policy, including participation in an inter-library loan service. This is a co-operative and voluntary agreement among libraries which allows books and other materials from one library to be loaned out to a user from another.
Library services providing an inter-library loan service can apply charges for all book titles requested for borrowing from other library services, and are not limited to Welsh language books.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department issues on the publication by local authorities of public notices; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to allow the publication of such notices online.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Statutory notices are an important means for ensuring that the public is kept informed of decisions by their council which may affect their quality of life, local services or amenities, or their property. The Government has no current plans to legislate on changing provisions on statutory notices.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
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 merits of requiring the refusal of applications for planning permission for solar farms in excess of 50 MW where financing has not been secured.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In deciding whether or not to grant an application for development consent for above 50MW electricity generation stations such as solar farms, the Energy Secretary of State must have regard under section 104 of the Planning Act 2008 to any relevant National Policy Statement where one has effect.
In addition to this, and also where decisions are taken where no National Policy Statement has effect, the Secretary of State must also have regard to any other matters which are both important and relevant to the decision which may, where compulsory acquisition powers are requested, include details of how the project in question is proposed to be funded.
Revised Energy National Policy Statements were designated on 24 January 2024.
Whilst I appreciate the point my Honourable Friend is making, the planning system upholds a long-standing principle of planning considerations being the lawful basis in making a determination.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that Agricultural Land Classifications cannot be amended to facilitate approval of solar farm planning applications.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Agricultural Land Classification system in England and Wales (ALC) was developed to support planning policy and protect high quality agricultural land from loss to development. Land is assessed according to the extent that its physical or chemical characteristics impose long term limitations on agricultural use, using the approved criteria. The assessment does not consider land use.
Instead, the National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the public consultation on National Highways' Strategic Road Network Initial Report for Road Investment Strategy 3.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We anticipate the Draft Road Investment Strategy will be published shortly alongside the summary of responses to our consultation on National Highways strategic road network Initial Report. I would like to thank you and your constituents for your contribution to the consultation in relation to improvements to the A1. I will ensure you are notified alongside other interested parties when the documents are published.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of HM Courts and Tribunals Service's (a) performance on probate issues and (b) speed at processing probate applications.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
HMCTS has streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
HMCTS has increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during April to June 2023.
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the time it takes for (a) sexual offences and (b) other criminal offences to reach trial.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The data on the time taken from offence to completion for all cases is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Timeliness data is available for sexual offences and other criminal offences at the link below in the ‘Crown Court timeliness tool’ and ‘End-to-end timeliness tool’: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
We remain committed to reducing the Crown Court caseload and have invested a significant amount of extra money for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime. We have introduced a raft of measures to achieve that aim, including opening extra courtrooms and funding over 100,000 sitting days last year, with plans to deliver the same again this year. We are investing £220 million for essential modernisation of our court buildings over the next two years as well as investing in judicial recruitment, so that we expect to recruit more than 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions by the end of 2023/2024.
We are working closely with the judiciary and other partners to improve the experience of court users. We have quadrupled funding for victims’ services so victims get the support they need throughout the process. Judges prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, and seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses are listed at the first available opportunity.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to reduce the number of cases of sexual offences waiting to be heard in the crown court.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We remain committed to reducing the Crown Court caseload and are working closely with the judiciary and other partners to improve the experience of court users. We have introduced a raft of measures to achieve that aim, including funding over 100,000 sitting days last year and planning to deliver the same again this year. We are investing £220 million for essential modernisation of our court buildings over the next two years as well as investing in judicial recruitment, so that we expect to recruit more than 1,000 judges by the end of 2023/2024.
We have invested a significant amount of extra money for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime. We have opened extra courtrooms, and continued hearings, alongside quadrupling funding for victims’ services so victims get the support they need throughout the process. Judges prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, and seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses are listed at the first available opportunity.
In June 2022, we announced our Specialist Sexual Violence Support (SSVS) project in three Crown Courts, to improve the support on offer in court for victims of rape and improve timeliness of cases going through the system. This includes trauma-informed training for all staff at courts who come into contact with victims, improved facilities and technology, and at least one Case Coordinator at each court.