Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have an outstanding overpayment of benefits as of 15 November 2023; what the value of those overpayments is; and how many of those cases are the result of an error by his Department.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of people with outstanding benefit overpayments recoverable by DWP and the total value of those debts as at 16 November 2023 is set out below:
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| Volume of Customers | 2.765m |
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| Outstanding Debt Value | £7.060bn |
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| *The data provided has been extracted from internal DWP management information and has therefore not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. |
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As all overpayments of certain welfare benefits are recoverable in law, irrespective of how they occurred, there is no requirement to categorise departmental error in all cases and we cannot therefore provide this information.
Our latest full estimates on fraud and error can be found at Fraud and error in the benefit system Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his planned timeline is for the electrification of the north Wales coast line.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are working closely with the rail industry to develop and deliver on the Government priorities outlined in the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement. We are in the early stages of planning the next steps, including delivery timelines, for the North Wales electrification scheme and will share further information when that work is complete.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the difference is between the amount of Government revenue collected from sources in Wales and the amount of funding provided by the Government to the Welsh Government in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
All Government revenue collected from sources in Wales in the five years up to the financial year ending 2022 is set out in the Country and regional public sector finances revenue tables published by the Office for National Statistics[1].
Funding provided by the UK Government to the Welsh Government over the past five years is set out in the Block Grant Transparency publication. This publication is updated regularly and the most recent update was published in July 2023.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to her Department's National semiconductor strategy, published on 19 May 2023, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate focus on manufacturing in the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has an ambitious strategy to build on the UK’s strengths in semiconductors to grow our sector, increase our resilience and protect our security.
To deliver our strategy we are investing to £200 million over the years 2023-25 and up to £1 billion in the next decade.
At the Spring Budget, the government announced a £500 million per year package of support for R&D intensive businesses through changes to R&D tax credits. In addition, the government also announced 'Full Expensing' - a £27billion business tax cut – which means the UK now has the joint most generous capital allowance regime of any major developed economy.
We understand that the semiconductor industry faces specific challenges, so we have also committed to announcing plans by the autumn to further support the competitiveness of the semiconductor manufacturing sector that is critical to the UK tech ecosystem or the UK’s national security.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the average cost for each household of (a) taxes and (b) other levies that support net zero policies.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The energy price cap is currently set to £1,923 and is made up of different costs, for example the wholesale cost of gas and electricity, costs to supply energy on the network and VAT. This includes environmental and social costs (“green levies”) worth approximately £170 per year for the typical household.
Environmental and social costs play an important role in reducing energy costs by supporting investment in renewables and helping to reduce our exposure to global price volatility – the key driver of high energy bills.
Taxes are important in delivering our environmental policy objectives, with several taxes designed to encourage businesses and consumers to make greener choices, such as Landfill Tax and the Climate Change Levy.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what was the cost to the public purse of accommodating unprocessed asylum seekers in hotels in the most recent week for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office has a statutory obligation to house asylum seekers, who would otherwise be destitute, whilst their claim is under consideration. The cost for hotel rooms has now reached £6 million a day. The enduring solution is to stop the boats and that’s why we have brought forward the Immigration bill.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nightingale hospitals were constructed during the covid-19 pandemic; and what the total cost was of those facilities.
Answered by Will Quince
There were seven temporary Nightingale hospitals constructed during financial year 2020/21 and the total cost for the Nightingale hospital programme in that year was £362 million.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the operations, maintenance and renewal spending for the (a) network in England and Wales and (b) Wales Route was in Control Periods (i) 4, (ii) 5 and (iii) 6.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The following table sets out total spend on operations, maintenance and renewal in Control Periods 4 and 5. Control Period 6 concludes in March 2024, therefore the Control Period 6 figures are estimates.
Figures in £million | CP4 | CP5 | CP6 |
England and Wales | 31901 | 32710 | 41100 |
o/w Wales Route | 1952 | 1952 | 2400 |
Additional notes are as follows relating to the annual figures that comprise these totals:
Note for context that NR spend on the Wales and Borders route is between 4% and 5% of the GB total so far in CP6, whilst Network Rail’s Wales and Borders route makes up circa 4% of the entire GB rail network in terms of train miles in CP6.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what he expects the operations, maintenance and renewal spending for the (a) network in England and Wales and (b) Wales Route to be in Control Periods (i) 7 and (ii) 8.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Government provided £44.1 billion for rail operations, maintenance and renewals spending in England and Wales in Control Period 7. This settlement, a 4% real-terms increase on the current settlement, was published on 1 December 2022.
The quantum of funding within this that will be allocated towards spend in Wales remains subject to the completion of the independent regulator’s (the Office of Rail and Road) Final Determination, expected later this year.
The settlement for Control Period 8 will be finalised via the Periodic Review 2028 process which will commence during Control Period 7 (which begins in April 2024).
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the Rail network enhancements pipeline spending for the (a) network in England and Wales and (b) Wales Route was in Control Periods (i) 4, (ii) 5 and (iii) 6; and what he expects that spending on that network and that Route to be in Control Periods (A) 7 and (B) 8.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
For the purposes of this answer we have taken enhancements spending and Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP) spending to be the same.
The RNEP came into effect at the start of CP6 and provides a pipeline approach to enhancements investment with projects taking incremental investment decisions, moving away from the control period cycle. This reflected a change in the way both Network Rail and enhancements were funded and governed following the reclassification of Network Rail in 2014. It is therefore challenging to provide a direct comparator across all Control Periods, and data for "Wales Route" is not available in a comparable format in the time available.
Using data taken from Network Rail's Regulatory Accounts the spend on enhancements for England and Wales in CP4 (2009/10 to 2013/14) was £10.9bn (in 2013/14 prices) and in CP5 (2014/15 to 2018/19) was £14.7bn (in cash prices).
The spend to date for CP6 (2019/20 to 2022/23) is £6.16bn, again as per Network Rail's Regulatory Accounts (in cash prices). The England and Wales enhancements budget for the remaining year of CP6 2023/24 is £2.11bn.
In line with the Chancellor's Autumn Statement 2022, we anticipate that our enhancements budget for England and Wales for the first 4 years of CP7 will be set at c.£8.52bn. Budgets beyond this point have not yet been set and will be subject to future Fiscal Events. As per the RNEP, the allocation of this budget to schemes will be subject to investment decisions on a per scheme basis not yet taken.