Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress her Department has made on the Project Gigabit procurement process for work in East Devon constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Over 95% of premises in East Devon already have access to a superfast broadband connection (over 30Mbps) and over 71% have access to gigabit-capable broadband (>1000 Mbps). This is slightly below the national average of 97% for superfast coverage and 79% for gigabit coverage respectively.
As part of Project Gigabit, in September 2023 we launched a procurement to invite suppliers to bid for a contract to bring gigabit-capable broadband to the remaining premises in Mid and East Devon and West Somerset that are unlikely to be reached by broadband suppliers' commercial rollout plans. We aim to award a contract to the successful supplier in summer 2024.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing VAT charged on property repairs required as a result of damage caused by flooding.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.
Introducing new reliefs would impose additional pressure on the public finances to which VAT makes a significant contribution. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax and is forecast to raise £161 billion in 2023/24, helping to fund key spending priorities, such as the NHS, education and defence. Plus, there is no guarantee that a VAT relief would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.
That is why the government has instead put in place a comprehensive framework to support flood recovery, which is used in exceptional circumstances to support councils and communities following severe flooding.
Whilst the government keeps all taxes under review, there are no current plans to reduce VAT charged on property repairs required as a result of damage caused by flooding.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an estimate of the potential impact on (a) the apprenticeship budget and (b) apprenticeship starts of permitting levy-payers to spend (i) 25% and (ii) 50% of their apprenticeship levy accounts on non-apprenticeship training.
Answered by Robert Halfon
In the last two financial years, an average 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent. The apprenticeships budget in England is ring-fenced for apprenticeships only and is used to fund training and assessment for all employers, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. It is therefore important that the apprenticeships budget remains ring-fenced for apprenticeships to ensure continued affordability of the programme and to ensure that employers of all sizes, including small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not pay the levy, can continue to access high-quality apprenticeships training.
If employers were able to use 25% of their levy funds for non-apprenticeships training, the department estimates that this would create an additional cost of up to approximately £700 million per annum. Allowing employers to use up to 50% of their funds for non-apprenticeship training would increase this cost to up to £1.5 billion per annum. Without making additional funding available to support this flexible use of levy funds, the department estimates that this would require a significant reduction in new apprenticeship starts to approximately 140,000 per annum. This is around a 60% decrease on the 350,000 apprenticeship starts reported for the 2021/22 academic year.
The apprenticeship levy was introduced to increase employer investment in high-quality apprenticeships training, and with the intention that large employers’ levy contributions would fund access to apprenticeships for all employers. The Government wants to support SMEs across England to offer more apprenticeship opportunities and so in April we removed the restriction on the number of apprentices SMEs can recruit. The department continues to pay for 95% of the apprentice training costs for SMEs, rising to 100% for the smallest employers recruiting apprentices under the age of 19.
Employers can already choose to spend their levy funds on any of the 680 plus apprenticeship standards available, or to transfer 25% of their funds to support apprenticeships in other businesses. They can also benefit from a range of other government-funded skills programmes, including skills bootcamps, higher technical qualifications and T Level industry placements.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her timeline is for the introduction of regulation of heat networks.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bill provides powers for the Government to introduce a Heat Network Market Framework.
Subject to the passage of the Bill, the Government intends to introduce regulations implementing these powers across 2024, with initial measures coming into effect in 2025. The Market Framework will be fully operational by 2026.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what financial support is available to cricket clubs in England.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport including cricket through our Arms Length Body, Sport England - which receives over £100 million in Exchequer funding each year.
As a system partner of Sport England the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has received £11.6 million of funding covering the years 2022-2027 to grow and develop cricket across the country.
Since 2019, Sport England has invested a further £23.6 million in projects and schemes which enable participation in cricket. This includes £9,564 of support that has been provided to clubs in the East Devon constituency in response to issues such as Covid-19 and emergency funding for storm-damaged facilities.
Further information on funding options available from both the ECB and Sport England can be found on the ECB’s website- Here
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the annual cost of moving social care workers onto a single contract and set of terms and conditions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to make an estimate.
Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who set their pay and terms and conditions, independent of central Government.
In ‘Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care’, we announced our intention to launch a new Care Workforce Pathway for Adult Social Care, which will support development and provide a career structure to the workforce.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the cost of doubling (a) Magnetic resonance imaging and (b) computerised tomography scanning capacity in the NHS over a five year period.
Answered by Will Quince
No estimate has been made.
As part of the Government’s commitment to increase diagnostics services, £2.3 billion of funding has been awarded to transform diagnostic services over the next three years which will help to increase the number of community diagnostic centres up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. The remainder of the funding will increase capacity for imaging, endoscopy as well as lung and mammography screening, and improve digital diagnostics.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to increase innovation in defence technologies.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Command Paper highlighted the importance of science, innovation and technology in securing strategic advantage for our Armed Forces. Defence is investing over £6.6 billion in advanced Research and Development, and is working closely with UK industry and academia, to identify and invest in innovative technologies to ensure we have the capabilities we need to meet threats.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase pharmacist (a) training and (b) university places.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the steps the National Health Service and education providers need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The ambition is to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians.
The LTWP also commits to extend the success of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has delivered an additional 29,000 multi-professional roles in primary care. This expansion will consider the additional capacity required to staff roles across primary
TARGET DATE 18/07/2023
care, including community pharmacy. NHS England have committed to undertake and publish a review of the scheme by the end of 2023.
Overseas pharmacy professionals must meet the same standards as United Kingdom pharmacy professionals. The General Pharmaceutical Council has recently written to accredited educational providers to highlight the demand for places from overseas professionals and students, and a limited number of additional places have been created.
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal ends at the end of March 2024. We are currently consulting Community Pharmacy England on the implementation of the pharmacy proposals in the delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The funding for those proposals covers 2023/24 and 2024/25. There are regular discussions with NHS England about NHS funding. No discussions have been had with Community Pharmacy England about CPCF funding from March 2024.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with (a) NHS England and (b) the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee on funding for community pharmacies through the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework for (i) 2024-25 and (ii) 2025-26.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the steps the National Health Service and education providers need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The ambition is to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians.
The LTWP also commits to extend the success of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has delivered an additional 29,000 multi-professional roles in primary care. This expansion will consider the additional capacity required to staff roles across primary
TARGET DATE 18/07/2023
care, including community pharmacy. NHS England have committed to undertake and publish a review of the scheme by the end of 2023.
Overseas pharmacy professionals must meet the same standards as United Kingdom pharmacy professionals. The General Pharmaceutical Council has recently written to accredited educational providers to highlight the demand for places from overseas professionals and students, and a limited number of additional places have been created.
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal ends at the end of March 2024. We are currently consulting Community Pharmacy England on the implementation of the pharmacy proposals in the delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The funding for those proposals covers 2023/24 and 2024/25. There are regular discussions with NHS England about NHS funding. No discussions have been had with Community Pharmacy England about CPCF funding from March 2024.