Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of adequacy of capital allocations to new hospital projects.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Government has committed £3.9bn of new capital investment by 2022/23 to transform and modernise NHS buildings.
Of this, £2.6bn of capital funding has been allocated to 153 STP transformation schemes – the single biggest injection of its kind in the NHS in over a decade. Over £240m of this will help the NHS to meet local demand in the East of England, through new emergency departments and additional bed capacity.
In the last two years, the government has agreed to fund four large hospital schemes and has committed to invest in at least one large hospital per year. This includes funding for a £118m project to provide a new Children’s Hospital in Cambridge, in the East of England.
As part of the NHS Long-Term Plan, the government has also committed to consider proposals from the NHS for a multi-year capital plan to support transformation. These discussions will form part of the 2019 Spending Review.
The government is increasing NHS spending by £33.9bn in cash terms by 2023/24 – reflecting that the NHS is this government’s top spending priority.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health on new hospital projects in the East of England.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Government has committed £3.9bn of new capital investment by 2022/23 to transform and modernise NHS buildings.
Of this, £2.6bn of capital funding has been allocated to 153 STP transformation schemes – the single biggest injection of its kind in the NHS in over a decade. Over £240m of this will help the NHS to meet local demand in the East of England, through new emergency departments and additional bed capacity.
In the last two years, the government has agreed to fund four large hospital schemes and has committed to invest in at least one large hospital per year. This includes funding for a £118m project to provide a new Children’s Hospital in Cambridge, in the East of England.
As part of the NHS Long-Term Plan, the government has also committed to consider proposals from the NHS for a multi-year capital plan to support transformation. These discussions will form part of the 2019 Spending Review.
The government is increasing NHS spending by £33.9bn in cash terms by 2023/24 – reflecting that the NHS is this government’s top spending priority.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of capital funding allocations for new hospital projects costing more than £100 million.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Government has committed £3.9bn of new capital investment by 2022/23 to transform and modernise NHS buildings.
Of this, £2.6bn of capital funding has been allocated to 153 STP transformation schemes – the single biggest injection of its kind in the NHS in over a decade. Over £240m of this will help the NHS to meet local demand in the East of England, through new emergency departments and additional bed capacity.
In the last two years, the government has agreed to fund four large hospital schemes and has committed to invest in at least one large hospital per year. This includes funding for a £118m project to provide a new Children’s Hospital in Cambridge, in the East of England.
As part of the NHS Long-Term Plan, the government has also committed to consider proposals from the NHS for a multi-year capital plan to support transformation. These discussions will form part of the 2019 Spending Review.
The government is increasing NHS spending by £33.9bn in cash terms by 2023/24 – reflecting that the NHS is this government’s top spending priority.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what proportion of apprentices currently employed by the House of Commons are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Answered by Tom Brake
The House launched the first apprenticeship scheme in 2012. Since then 10 apprentices have been employed per year. We have extended this to 12 apprentices for 2019.
Apprentices are asked to submit diversity data. This does not include if they consider themselves to be from a disadvantaged background. Therefore, the House does not hold this information. We work closely with both our providers and the House of Commons recruitment team to ensure vacancies are published to as broad an audience as possible.
As it would be possible to identify the ethnicity of some of the apprentices – the intake comprising too few individuals to ensure confidentiality – we are unable to answer the question as to what proportion of apprentices currently employed by the House of Commons are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what plans the Commission has to broaden the range of apprenticeships offered by the House of Commons.
Answered by Tom Brake
The Learning and Development team offer apprentices support with all their training throughout their apprenticeships, including matching the apprentices with a team buddy who can support them during their apprenticeship. We look to match internal training available to modules of their apprenticeship, so they can take part in additional sessions to enrich the apprenticeship learning. We have also run mock interviews to prepare them for their next career steps.
All apprentices are offered career coaching with one of the House’s coaches. Part of their coaching includes helping them to prepare for applying for jobs. They are also offered the opportunity to participate in mock interviews, and ‘how to get that job’ training sessions.
In 2018, The House ran a joint tender with the House of Lords and Parliamentary Digital Service to procure new apprenticeship training providers. These appointed providers were tested extensively to ensure their provision was of the highest quality. We monitor our providers and provide regular feedback informally as well as at formal quarterly feedback meetings. We take the quality of the training for apprenticeship very seriously and our appointed providers are very experienced in apprenticeship delivery, prior to the introduction of the Levy and since then.
Since the appointment of new training providers in September 2018, the House of Commons has expanded its offering of two apprenticeship courses to fourteen, with further plans to extend the offering across more levels and specialisms over the course of 2019.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money the Government has allocated to organisations and groups supporting LGBTQ+ rights in England since 2010.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The UK is recognized as a world leader on LGBT rights. Sexual orientation is one of the nine characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010, for which the Government Equalities Office (GEO) within DfID is the Government’s lead department. A wide range of government departments have spending in support of LGBT rights. For instance, in 2015, GEO ran a £2.0 million pilot fund to test approaches to effectively tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying in schools. Following the evaluation of the pilot, the Government is now providing £4.0 million worth of funds from 2016 to 2020 to tackle HBT bullying in schools. However, the information requested on broader funding allocations is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to cap the maximum sum of money people can borrow from rent to own and doorstep lenders.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government transferred the regulation of consumer credit to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2014 and has given the FCA strong powers to protect consumers. This was demonstrated by the FCA announcement in October 2017 that BrightHouse, a rent-to-own firm, would pay over £14.8 million in redress to 249,000 customers in respect of agreements which may not have been affordable, and payments which should have been refunded.
The Government has also given the FCA the power to cap the cost of all forms of credit, and the FCA can do so if it thinks it is necessary to protect consumers. The FCA’s review of the high-cost credit sector has identified concerns about the high costs of rent-to-own borrowing, as well as concerns about repeat borrowing and refinancing in the doorstep lending sector. The FCA has said that it will consult on proposed remedies in May 2018.
Treasury ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans the Government has to increase access to financial education for people on low incomes.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Government policy on financial education and capability focuses on ensuring that people have the confidence and skills they need to successfully engage with their finances. To this end the Government established the Money Advice Service (MAS), which provides free-to-use financial guidance and coordinates the UK’s Financial Capability Strategy. This is a 10-year strategy which aims to gather evidence on the most effective interventions to improve people’s financial capability, and support and coordinate initiatives that are proven to work. As part of this strategy MAS will shortly publish plans to commission projects to help working age adults manage their money, which will include a focus on households on low incomes. The plans will also focus on the financial capability needs of children and young people at home, in school, and in community settings.
Moving forward, the Government is legislating to merge the functions of MAS with those of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) and Pension Wise, to create a Single Financial Guidance Body to simplify the existing public financial guidance landscape. The government’s commitment to improving people’s financial capability is reflected in the new body’s strategic function to develop and coordinate a national strategy to improve the financial capability of members of the public, which will build on and further progress MAS’s work.
It is also particularly important that children and young adults receive financial education to help them shape their financial habits later in life. This is why financial literacy was made statutory within the national curriculum in England in 2014, as part of the curriculum for citizenship education for 11-16 year olds.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the rent-to-own and doorstep lending industry on how they target customers.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government transferred the regulation of consumer credit to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2014 and has given the FCA strong powers to protect consumers. This was demonstrated by the FCA announcement in October 2017 that BrightHouse, a rent-to-own firm, would pay over £14.8 million in redress to 249,000 customers in respect of agreements which may not have been affordable, and payments which should have been refunded.
The Government has also given the FCA the power to cap the cost of all forms of credit, and the FCA can do so if it thinks it is necessary to protect consumers. The FCA’s review of the high-cost credit sector has identified concerns about the high costs of rent-to-own borrowing, as well as concerns about repeat borrowing and refinancing in the doorstep lending sector. The FCA has said that it will consult on proposed remedies in May 2018.
Treasury ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been raised from fuel duty in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Fuel duty receipts statistics are available in HMRC’s Hydrocarbon Oils bulletin (see link below). This includes a breakdown of receipts by the main fuel types.
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Tax and Duty Bulletins/Oils0817.xls