Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to assign to an investigator a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The rate at which complaints can be allocated to an investigator is dependent on multiple factors including the volume and complexity of complaints received, as well as available investigative resource.
ICE is a demand led service and continues to receive high complaint intake volumes. It has experienced a 37% increase in referrals since April 2022, with an 18% increase in the 2023/24 operational year. Not all referrals into ICE are accepted for investigation. ICE has experienced an 83% increase in the volume of cases it has accepted since April 2020, with a 9% increase in the 2023/24 operational year.
The ICE office continues to review its process and operating model and continuously seeks opportunities to maximise productivity, ensuring it operates with optimum investigative resource. In the past 20 months (August 2022 – March 2024) resource levels at the ICE office have increased by 18%. The unit is operating at 99.11% of its agreed headcount.
The Office has reduced the volume of cases awaiting allocation to an investigator by 49% over the 2023/24 operational year. The combined number of cases being handled by the ICE Office at the end of March 2024 was 1462, this represents a 33% reduction from March 2023 despite the high intake levels experienced.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many zero-emission buses have been allocated funding under the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme 1 as of 15 April 2024; and how many and what proportion of those buses (a) have been ordered and (b) are on the road as of that date.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government provided £270 million to Local Transport Authorities under the ZEBRA 1 programme. This funded 1,314 buses,1,053 have been ordered of which 313 are already on our roads across England.
More recently, the Government announced ZEBRA 2, with a further £142.8 million to Local Transport Authorities. This will help LTAs to purchase more zero emission buses, going further in our commitment to reduce carbon emissions in the transport sector whilst improving service quality for users.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2024 to Question 16992 on Parking: Pedestrian Areas, if his Department will publish its response to that consultation before the end of this Parliament.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Pavement Parking is a complex issue. The Department is considering the consultation findings in order to reach the best outcome for all road users. We want to take the right step for communities and ensure that local authorities have appropriate and effective tools at their disposal and will make an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Fraud strategy, published on 3 May 2023, what progress his Department has made on introducing an identity checklist outlining the steps needed to (a) recover and (b) secure a stolen identity; and what his planned timeline is for the introduction of that identity checklist.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Office published the Identity theft checklist on 5th December 2023. The checklist can be found on the Action Fraud website here: Identity fraud and identity theft | Action Fraud.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many zero emission buses had been allocated Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas funding as of 6 February 2024; and how many of those buses (a) have been ordered and (b) are on the road as of that date.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The following table presents information on the number of zero emission buses funded through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas 1 (ZEBRA 1) programme by local transport authority. The numbers in this table are not official statistics: they are based on the latest information available and are therefore indicative and subject to change.
ZEBRA 1 funding was awarded in March 2022 for local transport authorities except Oxfordshire who received funding in December 2022.
Local Transport Authority | Number of buses funded | Number of buses ordered | Number of buses in service |
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Kent County Council | 33 | 33 | 0 |
Leicester City Council | 116 | 116 | 74 |
Warrington Borough Council | 105 | 105 | 0 |
South Yorkshire Combined Authority | 27 | 27 | 0 |
Norfolk County Council | 70 | 70 | 26 |
North Yorkshire County Council | 39 | 39 | 0 |
Portsmouth City Council & Hampshire County Council | 62 | 62 | 0 |
Blackpool Council | 90 | 0 | 0 |
Nottingham City Council | 68 | 48 | 0 |
Greater Manchester Combined Authority | 170 | 170 | 0 |
Hertfordshire County Council | 27 | 0 | 0 |
West Midlands Combined Authority | 124 | 0 | 0 |
City of York Council | 53 | 53 | 27 |
West Yorkshire Combined Authority | 136 | 119 | 0 |
Oxfordshire County Council | 159 | 159 | 9 |
| 1,309 | 1,031 | 166 |
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase access to NHS-provided weight loss surgery in the Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning National Health Service specialist and bariatric weight management services. Rates of bariatric surgery fell across West Yorkshire during the pandemic as hospitals focused on surgeries that were more clinically urgent. More patients are, however, starting to receive treatment again. To speed up access to surgery, the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts, which includes the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, are working to ensure that people who have been waiting the longest times are offered the opportunity to have their surgery at an alternative hospital, if they wish.
Additionally, local areas and care providers in West Yorkshire are working together to review obesity and bariatric surgery commissioning policies and processes to ensure that they are providing care in the best and most efficient way possible, to make the most of resources and to offer treatment to more people who need it.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his department holds on the number and proportion of individuals in receipt of housing cost support at the shared accommodation rate with rent costs that (a) exceed and (b) are below the local housing allowance in each (i) rental market area and (ii) local authority area; and what estimate he has made of the median average gap between housing cost support and rent costs for individuals eligible for only the shared accommodation rate per (A) rental market area and (B) local authority area.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
The Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR) of the Local Housing Allowance applies to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit claimants who are under 35 years of age, living on their own, and renting privately, they will be entitled to the SAR regardless of the size of property that they rent. These rules reflect the housing expectations of people of a similar age not in receipt of benefits.
LHA rates are not intended to cover all rents in all areas.
For 2022/23 we are projected to have spent almost £30 billion to support renters with their housing costs.
In addition, LHA rates, including SAR will be increased from April 2024 to the 30th percentile of local market rents at a cost of £1.2 billion. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of waiting times for decisions on applications for British citizenship.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Secretary of State’s Home Department publishes data on the processing of applications for British citizenship on the Gov.UK website. This includes performance against the service standard for completing applications. The most recent Migration Transparency data published in November 2023 shows that 99.98% of straightforward applications were decided within service standard.
The link to the latest Migration Transparency Data can be found here:
Visas and citizenship data: Q3 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people resident in Wakefield constituency have been awaiting an outcome for an asylum application for longer than (a) six months, (b) nine months and (c) 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on applications awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that this information is not broken down by local authority.
The Home Office publishes data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement local authority data’ detailed datasets. Information on asylum seekers who are not claiming support is not available by local authority.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. Additionally, the data shows a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2023. Data as at 31 December 2023 will be published on 29 February 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people resident in Wakefield constituency are awaiting an outcome for an asylum application as of 10 January 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on applications awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that this information is not broken down by local authority.
The Home Office publishes data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement local authority data’ detailed datasets. Information on asylum seekers who are not claiming support is not available by local authority.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. Additionally, the data shows a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2023. Data as at 31 December 2023 will be published on 29 February 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.