Thérèse Coffey

The figures below reflect the spend on traffic marshals for each financial year (April to March) from 2019 to 2024.

The figures include use of traffic marshals to manage the movement of traffic and/or pedestrians (a) in the Palace and along the spine road, (b) in and out of the underground car park, and (c) on laundry road in the Northern Estate. The figures are all excluding VAT.

The figures below do not include costs where it has not been possible to extrapolate the cost of marshal provision from the overall contract for works.

Financial years 2019 to 2023

2019–2020 £176,069

2020–2021 £199,471

2021–2022 £257,534

2022–2023 £598,534

Financial year 2023–2024

The costs for the 2023–2024 financial year are not comparable to the previous years.

Prior to 2023–24 the cost of the traffic marshals for the underground car park, required to facilitate the works in New Palace Yard, was covered by the contractor, as part of the project costs, and not included above. These costs are now covered by the House directly as efficiencies had been identified.

The underground car park requires 24/7 cover due to the closure of one of the ramps into the car park necessary to facilitate the works in the New Palace Yard. The costs include unsociable working hours, bank holidays and weekends.

For the 2023–2024 financial year, the cost for traffic marshals, excluding underground car park marshals, is forecast to be £647,763.

For the same period, the cost for the underground car park marshals is forecast to be £1,271,966.

It is not possible to give a fair and accurate number spent on the (a) purchase and (b) installation of all fire doors in the Palace of Westminster since 2010. This is because fire doors are routinely refurbished or replaced as part of wider projects, and information recorded on building and maintenance projects does not specifically identify which involved installing new fire doors.

There was a fire door and compartmentation project that took place from 2016–2020. This project focused on the refurbishment and conservation of doors, rather than the installation of new doors. The team worked on 721 doors across the Palace of Westminster, only a handful of which were purchased and installed as new. The total cost of the project amounted to £5.2 million, which covered not only the work on the doors but out of hours working (so as not to disrupt the business of the House) and work to replace glazed panels or large bespoke doors.

It would not be possible to break down the cost by door nor the cost to install the small number of new doors that were purchased as part of this particular project.

As a member of the Parliamentary Fire Safety Committee, I would be happy to take forward any concerns from the right hon. Member for Suffolk Coastal and ensure they are promptly addressed.

The House Service manages a contract with Banner for the provision of both general and bespoke stationery for Members and staff of both Houses. It monitors Banner’s service through regular performance meetings and by reviewing performance metrics provided by Banner. The contract includes a dedicated account manager and a customer care hotline.

Members can purchase stationery from other providers. The contract with Banner enables them to charge any purchases from Banner to their IPSA funded account.

The contract with Banner was procured from the Cabinet Office’s agency, Crown Commercial Service (CCS), during 2021 and will be due for re-tendering during 2024.

In my capacity as a Commissioner, I shall make representations to the House Administration asking that it looks at Banner’s service delivery, when the House returns from the Christmas recess.

The Department for Business and Trade works with local stakeholders to promote investment opportunities in the region to potential overseas investors and provide support for foreign investors wishing to set up in the area. The Government works closely with clients to understand their requirements and to reduce any barriers which may inform the client’s decision to locate in the region.

The Government is also backing the Freeport East to create new jobs and attract new businesses in high growth sectors such as advanced manufacturing and engineering.

The Government supports a range of programmes dedicated to supporting small and medium businesses to grow. This includes free access to the Business Support Helpline, Help to Grow, Growth Hubs, UK Export Academy, International Trade Advisors, and the Export Digital Enquiry Service. Government funded support is also available through the British Business Bank.

As of January 2024, a total of 110,699 Start Up Loans have been issued since 2012 with an aggregate value of £1,075,873,213.

The attached table contains a breakdown of Start Up Loans issued by year, from 2012-13 to Jan 2024.

In November, Ofgem announced a review into standing charges, exploring how it is applied to energy bills and potential alternatives. The review had now closed and Ofgem is currently analysing the input it has received. Ofgem will publish its response in due course.

The variance in standing charge is mainly due to regional differences in energy distribution costs. These costs reflect the expenses of maintaining a live supply in a specific area, and the number of consumers those costs are spread across.

On 30 March, I wrote to Ofgem, highlighting the importance of keeping standing charges as low as possible.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme opened to applications in May 2022. Up to the end of February 2024, there were 106 grants paid for installations in properties in the constituency of Suffolk Coastal.

The Government is allocating around £20 billion over this Parliament and next improving energy efficiency and low carbon heating of homes, reducing reliance on fossil fuel heating and reducing household energy bills for low income households in Suffolk Coastal constituency as well as other constituencies.

The Government will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through Social Housing Decarbonisation, Home Upgrade Grant Schemes and Energy Company Obligation Schemes.

The Government has spent over £2 billion to support transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), focusing on reducing barriers to adopting ZEVs, including offsetting higher upfront cost, and accelerating rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.

The Draft Strategy and Policy Statement for Energy Policy will be debated in a Delegated Legislation Committee tomorrow.

The Offshore Coordination Support Scheme initially received five applications, three of which were removed by developers at the Down-Selection Point where more than one application had been submitted for the same project. Following an in-depth Value for Money and eligibility assessment, the Government allocated funding to a consortium of North Falls Offshore Wind Farm, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm and Sea Link (National Grid Electricity Transmission).

The Met Office provides public site-specific weather forecasts for numerous locations in the UK, which are available on the Met Office website and app. The nearest site-specific forecast is for Suffolk Ski Centre, which is adjacent to Orwell Bridge. The Met Office has a network of weather observing stations around the UK and the latest observations are available on the Met Office website. The Met Office does not have a weather observing station at Orwell Bridge. The nearest is at Wattisham. The Met Office provides a commercial forecasting service to national highways to aid decision making on speed limits and closure of Orwell Bridge due to high winds, to help keep bridge users safe.

UK Research and Innovation spend in Suffolk in financial year 2020-21 (the latest available data) was £1.71 million, of which £1.6 million was from Innovate UK (IUK).

In December 2023, in collaboration with New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, IUK launched the New Anglia Local Action Plan to give Norfolk and Suffolk innovators and entrepreneurs improved access to expertise, tools and support to help them grow. For example, Haverhill-based Keronite has used an IUK grant to develop a highly efficient, low-impact solution to water treatment.

This Government is taking steps to improve both 4G and 5G coverage across the country.

In the East of England our £1bn agreement with the industry to deliver the Shared Rural Network programme (SRN) will see 4G coverage from all four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) rise to 93% of the geographic landmass, up from 90% when the programme began in 2020.

In Suffolk Coastal, 4G coverage already stands at 81% geographic coverage from all four MNOs and almost 100% from at least one MNO. While the SRN is focused on areas with poorer coverage, it is not the only focus for infrastructure investment for mobile connectivity. In addition, the MNOs independently invest around £2 billion annually across the UK in enhancing and improving their networks.

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report, basic, non-standalone, 5G is available outside 74% of premises in the Suffolk Coastal constituency from at least one MNO. In the Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, published in April 2023, we announced a new ambition for nationwide coverage of higher quality standalone 5G in all populated areas by 2030. The strategy includes a series of measures to help the private sector invest in 5G networks by supporting investment and driving the take-up of innovative, 5G-enabled tech by businesses and the public sector.

The Department provides extensive guidance for local authorities and operators to help facilitate broadband and mobile deployment through the Digital Connectivity Portal. We have also taken steps to make it easier and cheaper for operators to deploy 4G and 5G. This includes reforming the planning system in England. Alongside this, measures within the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, will support the deployment of wireless infrastructure, including 4G and 5G.

According to Ofcom’s December 2023 Connected Nations report, over 95% of premises in the Suffolk Coastal constituency have access to a superfast connection, with 37% having access to a gigabit-capable connection. Only 2% of premises are unable to access a decent fixed broadband connection and may be able to get an improved connection through the Broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO).

The Broadband USO gives individuals the right to request a decent broadband connection. Consumers are deemed not to have a decent broadband connection if their current connection falls below 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload; the cost of accessing a decent broadband connection is higher than £56.20 per month and they are not due to be connected by an existing government scheme within the next 12 months.

Consumers whose connections would cost more than the reasonable cost threshold covered by the USO (of £3,400), can choose to pay the excess cost (with crowdfunding options available).

The Government is rolling out Project Gigabit, a £5 billion mission to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to 99% of UK premises by 2030. This constituency is included in the Project Gigabit contract for Suffolk that was signed by the supplier CityFibre in June 2023.

According to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com, 98% of premises in the county of Suffolk can access a superfast broadband connection. Furthermore, over 68% of premises are able to access a gigabit-capable connection, up from just 4% in December 2019.

In June 2023 we announced that a Project Gigabit contract had been awarded to the supplier CityFibre. This contract has a value of over £100 million, covering 79,500 hard-to-reach premises in Suffolk that would otherwise miss out on a gigabit-capable connection. The supplier has completed the initial planning and survey work for this contract and the first connections are expected to be made this summer. We expect the contract to be completed by December 2028.

The department is investing over £36 million this Parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers we have.

Suffolk County Council is participating in this programme and is working in a regional cluster group, ‘Foster East’, which is led by Norfolk.

Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/25, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.

In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year, as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.

The department will also build on its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, which is an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.

The department has launched a range of new workforce initiatives to boost early years staff numbers. The department's £6.5 million-backed recruitment campaign ‘Do something BIG. Work with small children’ is raising the status of early years to boost recruitment of talented staff. The department has also launched Skills Bootcamps for Early Years, which enables learners across the country, including in Suffolk, to progress on an accelerated Level 3 Early Years Educator Apprenticeship.

On top of this, the department has launched a pilot to test whether financial incentives help to boost recruitment, and have made it easier for managers to make the most of the skills of their existing staff through changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage, including the removal of the Level 2 maths requirement for staff to count in Level 3 child to staff ratios. A link to the statutory framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, including Suffolk, about the sufficiency of childcare in their area, including their work to support Early Years (EY) workforce recruitment and retention.

The department will continue to monitor the recruitment of EY staff alongside the sufficiency of childcare provision and are committed to continuing to work with the sector to understand how the department can further support EY workforce recruitment and retention.

The department is investing over £200 million per year, until March 2025, in free holiday club places for children from low-income families, through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, with all 153 local authorities in England delivering in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.

The HAF Programme supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things, and improving socialisation.

While the Programme is targeted primarily towards children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals (FSM), local authorities also have flexibility to use up to 15% of their funding to target and support other children and families that align with the local authorities’ own priorities.

This summer, the programme reached more than 580,000 children and young people in England, including over 460,000 children eligible for FSM.

Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. The expansion of the programme year-on-year has meant a total of 5.4 million HAF days provided between Christmas 2022, Easter and summer 2023.

This year, the department has allocated over £2.2 million for the HAF programme to support children and families across Suffolk, building on the £2.2 million that was allocated to them for 2022/23.

The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.

Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.

Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.

The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.

The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.

Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.

Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.

The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.

The methodology and data we currently use on the number and proportion of people with access to greenspace is taken from Natural England’s Green Infrastructure (GI) Framework analysis.

Natural England’s analyses of the total population in England living in close proximity of greenspace are based on the GI Framework’s Accessible Greenspace Standards which use buffers (straight-line distances) between home and greenspace and include three greenspace criteria:

• People living within 200m of a doorstep greenspace of at least 0.5ha
• People living within 300m of a local natural greenspace of at least 2ha
• People living within 1km of a neighbourhood natural greenspace of at least 10ha

When considered together, these three most local Accessible Greenspace Standards buffers allow us to form a composite picture of access to different sizes of greenspace within a straight-line distance of 1km from home.

Natural England’s G3 Indicator report shows that as of October 2021, the proportions of the total population in England living within Accessible Greenspace Standards ‘criteria’ (straight line distances from the boundary of the greenspaces) are:

• 1 in 3 people live within 200 metres of a doorstep greenspace of at least 0.5 hectares.

• 1 in 4 people live within 300 metres of a local natural greenspace of at least 2 hectares.

• 1 in 2 people live within 1 km of a neighbourhood natural greenspace of at least 10 hectares.

Our Environmental Improvement Plan commitment to ensure everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space focuses on proximity to these spaces from home. Our data gathering therefore focuses on this, rather than by parliamentary constituency.

We are currently working to establish a robust baseline of walkability to green and blue space, including working with NE and with the Rivers Trust to create data on blue space access points. In August we will publish an official statistic in development on walkability within England to the nearest green space. This will use network analysis to calculate travel time/ distance rather than straight-line distances, and enhanced use of data on the rights-of-way network. For full details see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/access-to-green-space-in-england.

The methodology and data we currently use on the number and proportion of people with access to greenspace is taken from Natural England’s Green Infrastructure (GI) Framework analysis.

Natural England’s analyses of the total population in England living in close proximity of greenspace are based on the GI Framework’s Accessible Greenspace Standards which use buffers (straight-line distances) between home and greenspace and include three greenspace criteria:

• People living within 200m of a doorstep greenspace of at least 0.5ha
• People living within 300m of a local natural greenspace of at least 2ha
• People living within 1km of a neighbourhood natural greenspace of at least 10ha

When considered together, these three most local Accessible Greenspace Standards buffers allow us to form a composite picture of access to different sizes of greenspace within a straight-line distance of 1km from home.

Natural England’s G3 Indicator report shows that as of October 2021, the proportions of the total population in England living within Accessible Greenspace Standards ‘criteria’ (straight line distances from the boundary of the greenspaces) are:

• 1 in 3 people live within 200 metres of a doorstep greenspace of at least 0.5 hectares.

• 1 in 4 people live within 300 metres of a local natural greenspace of at least 2 hectares.

• 1 in 2 people live within 1 km of a neighbourhood natural greenspace of at least 10 hectares.

Our Environmental Improvement Plan commitment to ensure everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space focuses on proximity to these spaces from home. Our data gathering therefore focuses on this, rather than by parliamentary constituency.

We are currently working to establish a robust baseline of walkability to green and blue space, including working with NE and with the Rivers Trust to create data on blue space access points. In August we will publish an official statistic in development on walkability within England to the nearest green space. This will use network analysis to calculate travel time/ distance rather than straight-line distances, and enhanced use of data on the rights-of-way network. For full details see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/access-to-green-space-in-england.

The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion, including around £1.3billion for defences along the coast. This investment includes a record £5.2 billion capital investment programme, a £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP), £170 million for economic recovery from flooding and over £30 million of funding for flood incident management.

It is not always sustainable or affordable to defend every part of our coastline in the face of a changing climate which is enhancing the coastal erosion process. This is why we have allocated £36m over 6 years, for the ‘Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme’ (CTAP), as part of FCIP, to support communities in coastal areas at significant risk of erosion to adapt.

Coastal protection authorities are best placed to understand their coastline and to develop the most appropriate approaches to manage risk through Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) and their local planning policies. The Environment Agency (EA) work closely with Coastal Partnership East to monitor and deliver the Suffolk SMP to support the management of flooding and erosion on the Suffolk coast. This includes delivery by East Suffolk Council and partners of the FCIP ‘Resilient Coasts project as well as the recent completion of a £2.3 million project protecting Felixstowe Ferry. The EA are supporting the East Suffolk Water Management Board to deliver the £12.2 million Upper Alde and Ore Estuary Project, which will protect Snape and Aldeburgh, and are also working with partners to develop projects for Pakefield, Southwold and Thorpeness.

The Government is committed to improving the quality of our bathing waters. Almost 90% of bathing waters in England met the highest standards of ‘Good' or ‘Excellent’ in 2023, up from just 76% in 2010 and despite the classification standards becoming stricter in 2015. Suffolk has 7 designated bathing waters; last season 5 were classified as ‘Excellent’, 1 was classified as ‘Good’ and 1 was classified as ‘Poor’. The Environment Agency assesses what action is needed to improve water quality to meet the standards set by the Bathing Water Regulations. Action plans are in place at all ‘Poor’ bathing waters, including the River Deben Estuary, Waldringfield in Suffolk. This includes investigations into pollution sources and visits to farms and water company assets.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive has a rolling application window and as of 16 April the RPA has received 94 applications of which 91 agreements have been offered and 75 accepted for the Suffolk Coastal Constituency.

The Rural Payment Agency estimate they have made 12,617 number of payments to Farm Businesses in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency in the last five years.

The figures provided below relate to payments released within the specified financial years irrespective of the scheme year to which individual payments are related and only cover payments that are provided to farmers by the Rural Payment Agency. The volume of payments is based on a financial year and therefore a customer could have received a payment for 2 scheme years in the same financial year.

The scheduling of parliamentary business is not a matter for the Department for Transport.

The Department makes available over £3 million each year through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) to community transport operators, who are predominantly charities operating vehicles that require D1 licences. Community transport operators receive £1.60 for every £1 claimed, reflecting the increased costs faced by the sector and supporting them to continue delivering inclusive and accessible transport across the country.

I am mindful of the particular concerns of the Hon Lady on this issue, we keep it under close review, and whilst there aren’t current proposals, that does not preclude their introduction at a future date.

The Department for Transport has contracted with external delivery partners to complete a robust monitoring & evaluation of the impact of the Bus Fare Cap Grant, and as a part of this, extensive data is collected from operators including the number of ticket sales. However, the data is commercially sensitive and cannot be disaggregated by region in a way that would provide journey numbers for Suffolk or Suffolk coastal district. The Department will publish the final report evaluating the impact of the £2 fare cap in the spring of 2024.

For 21/22 and 22/23, bus passenger journeys made in Suffolk were 9.5 million and 12.2 million respectively (BUS01: Local bus passenger journeys). This 28% increase in passenger journeys will likely have been impacted by the introduction of the £2 bus fare cap from 1 January 2023, which the Government has extended until the end of 2024. This takes total Government investment in the £2 bus fare cap to nearly £600 million.

The Department for Transport's local bus fare statistics show that between September 22 and September 23, bus fares have dropped by 6.2% in England, outside London, and by 11% in non-metropolitan parts of England. In Scotland, Wales and London, where the buses are devolved, fares increased by 9.8%, 6.2% and 6.0%, respectively.

The Department publishes quarterly statistics on recipients of a wide range of benefits, including State Pension and Pension Credit, by various geographical breakdowns including Westminster parliamentary constituency, on Stat-Xplore. The latest statistics are available up to quarter ending May 2023 for State Pension, and quarter ending August 2023 for Pension Credit. The State Pension statistics were recently temporarily suspended so are currently only available to May 2023, with a progress update on their re-instatement due on 13 March 2024.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.