Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of Children’s Centre places provided in (a) 2018-19 and (b) 2019-20.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on the number of funded entitlement childcare places provided in Sure Start Children’s Centres in 2018 is available in table 12 and 14 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018.
Data for 2019 is not yet available.
Since 18 September 2017, data on Sure Start children’s centres has been supplied by local authorities via the department’s 'Get information about schools' database portal at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Based on information supplied by local authorities as at 31 March 2019, there were 2,353 main Children's Centres and a further 700 additional sites (giving a total of 3,053 children’s centre sites) open to families and children providing children's centre services as part of a network.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to allocate additional resources to reduce the waiting time for a tribunal hearing for employment and support allowance in Ipswich.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In the last 12 months we have allocated 7 judges to Ipswich as primary or secondary venue, 2 medical members and 2 Disability Qualified Panel Members (DQPMs)
In Norfolk and Suffolk there is a pool of 6 staff who are deployed to clerk the SSCS hearing venues which are situated in Ipswich, Kings Lynn and Norwich. An additional member of staff will be joining this team from the 1st April 2019 to facilitate additional hearings to be held in Norfolk and Suffolk, subject to judicial availability.
The Ministry of Justice recognises there are delays in the system and it is in the process of recruiting more Judicial office holders in order to increase capacity and help to reduce waiting times for appellants. In the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) jurisdiction, 225 new medical members have already been appointed and 119 disability qualified members have recently been recruited. The SSCS jurisdiction will also benefit from the fact that 250 fee-paid judges and 100 salaried judges are being recruited across tribunals more widely. In addition, we have recently launched a new digital service to enable speedier processing of appeals and provide a better service for all parties to the proceedings. Information on the new digital service can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-online-service-launched-for-pip-appeal
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many dwellings in planning class C3 have been converted to houses of multiple occupancy class C4 without a planning application since the change to regulations on 1 October 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has no plans to remove the permitted development rights that allow for change of use between class C(3) dwelling houses and a class C(4) houses in multiple occupation. We do not hold data on the number of dwelling houses that have converted to houses in multiple occupation since 1 October 2010. Paragraph 53 of the National Planning Policy Framework confirms that the use of Article 4 directions to remove national permitted development rights should be limited to situations where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the well-being of the area.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has any plans to revert to the regulatory regime for planning consent for small houses of multiple occupancy that pertained from 6 April 2010 to 30 September 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has no plans to remove the permitted development rights that allow for change of use between class C(3) dwelling houses and a class C(4) houses in multiple occupation. We do not hold data on the number of dwelling houses that have converted to houses in multiple occupation since 1 October 2010. Paragraph 53 of the National Planning Policy Framework confirms that the use of Article 4 directions to remove national permitted development rights should be limited to situations where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the well-being of the area.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to enable and encourage local authorities to adopt article 4 directions in respect of houses of multiple occupation by making that process more efficient.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has no plans to remove the permitted development rights that allow for change of use between class C(3) dwelling houses and a class C(4) houses in multiple occupation. We do not hold data on the number of dwelling houses that have converted to houses in multiple occupation since 1 October 2010. Paragraph 53 of the National Planning Policy Framework confirms that the use of Article 4 directions to remove national permitted development rights should be limited to situations where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the well-being of the area.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the workforce implementation plan will include the level of investment required to fund proposed increases in NHS staffing levels.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
A final workforce implementation plan will be published later in the year, taking into account the outcomes of the Spending Review.
We recognise the importance of workforce training to underpin effective long-term National Health Service planning. That is why we have already made commitments in this Spending Review into the next Spending Review period – for example on medical training places. At the forthcoming Spending Review, we will consider proposals from the NHS for a multi-year funding plan for clinical training places, based on the workforce requirements of the NHS plan.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the oral contribution of 6 February 2019 by the hon. Member for Ipswich, whether the Home Office guidance in respect of the EEA E10 residence card will be altered to allow spouses of British citizens who obtained their E10 card in other EEA countries to benefit from the tenancy of properties in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Article 10 residence cards issued by other EEA member states help to demonstrate a right of entry into the UK for a third country national family member of an EEA citizen, or the family member of a British citizen who has previously been exercising EU Treaty rights in another EEA member state. However, these cards do not provide conclusive evidence that the person has a right to reside in the UK for the purpose of statutory eligibility checks within the UK, including those conducted by landlords and lettings agents. We will review our guidance to landlords and lettings agents to ensure they have clarity on how to establish the status of prospective tenants in these circumstances.
The simplest and most effective way for a non-EEA family member to demonstrate their entitlement to a wide range of services and benefits when they are resident in the UK is to apply for a UK residence card. Once a residence card application is submitted to the Home Office, a landlord or employer can confirm the person’s right to rent or work in the UK by using the Home Office Checking Service, whilst the application is pending; confirmation is provided within two working days enabling landlords or employers to comply with statutory checks required by immigration law.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the volume of disposable nappies in household waste; and what assessment he has made of the (a) environmental and (b) financial merits of the introduction of reusable nappy schemes by local authorities.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
I met Procter & Gamble who have developed a technology to recycle nappies and I understand they are in discussions with several local authorities to establish a facility in the UK. The Government is committed to eliminating all avoidable waste by 2050, and wants to encourage more recycling and to make it easier for households to recycle. We say more on how we will do this in our Resources and Waste Strategy which was published in December last year.
While reusable nappies may make a valuable contribution to reducing residual waste that has to be disposed of to landfill or incineration, the Government has not made a formal assessment of the environmental or financial merits of the introduction of reusable nappy schemes by local authorities.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to make an assessment of the effect on babies of (a) glyphosate and (b) other chemicals used in disposable nappies.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK’s product safety regimes are among the strongest in the world and we have a robust framework of chemicals regulation in place to protect human health; this includes the restriction of chemicals in certain products. General product safety is regulated by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. They apply to all products used by consumers and place a duty on producers and distributors to ensure their products are safe in normal or reasonable foreseeable use. We have also committed in our Resources and Waste Strategy to considering how we address the identification and tracking of chemicals in products across supply chains.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of fairness of the decision by the Independent Case Examiner to close individual cases related to the state pension age for women on the basis that there is a judicial review of the way in which her Department handled those changes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
When a department and independent bodies face a legal case, they have to review whether they continue to assess claims or await determination of the legal case. This has been the policy under all governments, Labour, Coalition, and Conservative, for decades.
The Independent Case Examiner (ICE) closed all live cases which concerned complaints about the state pension age for women (WASPI) when they became subject to legal proceedings, as is required under its governance contract. In the event the legal proceedings fall away or there is no determination on the matters which form the basis of the WASPI complaints, the ICE could consider reopening the cases at the request of the Department.