Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to increase the mobility of young people between the UK and Europe.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK remain open to negotiating new Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) arrangements with other countries and territories, including EU Member States. However, as each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal arrangement which also provides benefit to UK nationals, with the details agreed between the relevant parties, we are unable to disclose the status of negotiations as they occur.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the data analysis by Mencap on the number of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people in mental health hospitals, published on 31 March 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
‘Assuring Transformation’ data is published monthly by NHS England to monitor the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals. It is regularly reviewed and discussed by the ministerially chaired Building the Right Support Delivery Board to inform actions to drive further progress in reducing the number of autistic people and people with a learning disability in mental health inpatient settings.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his planned timetable is for providing feedback on the Full Business Case for the Birmingham Highways Maintenance and Management PFI contract, submitted to his Department by Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Highways Ltd in August 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has funded Birmingham City Council’s Highways Maintenance contract at £50.3 million a year for 13 years and will continue to do so, maintaining the current level of funding to the council at £50 million a year for the remainder of the current spending review period until 2023/24.
After this time, West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will become eligible for an additional share of the £8.3 billion as the £151 million for WMCA did not previously include an allocation for Birmingham City Council’s roads. This is part of the £2.2 billion wider funding for East Midlands and West Midlands.
This is in addition to the £1bn of CRSTS funding to WMCA up to 2026/27, and CRSTS 2 indicative funding of over £2.6billion over 5 years from 2027/28 to 2031/32.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the time taken to make a decision on the Birmingham Highways Maintenance and Management PFI contract on (a) the total funding and (b) maintenance of Birmingham Highways.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has funded Birmingham City Council’s Highways Maintenance contract at £50.3 million a year for 13 years and will continue to do so, maintaining the current level of funding to the council at £50 million a year for the remainder of the current spending review period until 2023/24.
After this time, West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will become eligible for an additional share of the £8.3 billion as the £151 million for WMCA did not previously include an allocation for Birmingham City Council’s roads. This is part of the £2.2 billion wider funding for East Midlands and West Midlands.
This is in addition to the £1bn of CRSTS funding to WMCA up to 2026/27, and CRSTS 2 indicative funding of over £2.6billion over 5 years from 2027/28 to 2031/32.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will take steps to align the UK with EU (a) standards and (b) regulations.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK government has recently announced plans to continue recognising the EU’s CE marking indefinitely for 18 manufactured goods product regulations managed by the Department for Business and Trade. This announcement followed extensive engagement with industry. We are working closely with businesses and other stakeholders to ensure our approach to regulation supports the UK economy, industry and consumers.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for an adult autism diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on the average waiting times between referral for an autism assessment and diagnosis is not held centrally. Some data is held on average length of time between referral and first care contact. NHS England analysis indicates that, as of June 2023, for people aged 18 years old and over, there were 3,730 referrals for suspected autism where the date of first care contact falls within the period April to June 2023, which is the latest quarter available. The median waiting time for these referrals was 225 days.
The autism assessment waiting times data published on 14 September 2023 showed that the number of patients aged 18 years old and over with an open referral for suspected autism was 59,099 in June 2023. The data also showed that, in June 2023, 2,906 patients, or 5.8%, aged 18 years old and over with an open suspected autism referral in the month, that has been open for at least 13 weeks, received a first appointment in 13 weeks or less. The subsequent waiting times publication is 14 December 2023.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what lessons for the protection of high streets his Department has learned from the collapse of Wilko.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Government has no role in the strategic direction or management of private companies, but we understand that the failure of a business is very difficult for all involved, especially employees.
We recognise the importance of the retail sector and its significance for employment and the economy. Government will continue to work with retail businesses, including those taking over Wilko’s assets as well as through the industry-led Retail Sector Council to determine the sector’s long-term strategic needs. We want all types of retail to thrive now and in the future.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to help support SMEs with utility costs.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Eligible Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are supported with their energy costs through the Energy Bills Discount Scheme which provides a baseline discount on high energy bills for 12 months from April 2023 until 31 March 2024. A higher level of support is also provided to some Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETIIs) that are particularly exposed to energy cost increases due to their energy and trade intensity and are therefore less able to pass these costs through to their customers due to international competition.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the longest waiting time was for people trying to contact HMRC by telephone on 5 December 2023.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publishes its performance data on a monthly and quarterly basis as below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase retention levels of experienced prison officers.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In late 2021, the Ministry of Justice launched a retention toolkit to help Senior Leaders across HMPPS including Governors/Directors to tackle the main drivers of attrition in their departments and improve retention levels. We are using the data from enhanced exit interviews to better understand why experienced Prison Officers are leaving.
We made a significant investment in pay for prison staff through the 2023/24 pay award. This delivered an increase in base pay of at least 7% for all staff between bands 2 to 5 which includes Prison Officers.
Since April 2022, we have invested in several new initiatives to increase retention of our employees including Prison Officers. These include a new peer-to-peer learning scheme, the introduction of new staff mentors to support new Prison Officers in their roles, which takes the pressure off both experienced Prison Officers and managers, and a Career Pathways framework to enable staff to identify their development needs and career aspirations. We are also running supervision pilots in two prisons alongside the introduction of new leadership training, which will contribute to supporting career development and retention of experienced officers.