Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department is giving to Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure sufficient covid-19 vaccine centres are located around the county to meet demand and without overcrowding.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Guidance was supplied to all clinical commissioning groups (CCG), including Kent and Medway CCG, on 13 December in 2021 in response to the national expansion of the COVID-19 booster programme. The guidance is available at the following link:
This guidance highlighted the priority for all CCGs to ensure additional capacity to maximise throughput and efficiency at existing sites, opening additional vaccination sites and extending opening times. NHS England and NHS Improvement provided 71 vaccination sites in Kent and Medway in mid-December 2021. A static vaccination site opened in Sovereign Way Car Park, Tonbridge from 1 December 2021 and a second mobile trailer for the Bat and Ball area in Sevenoaks opened in early February 2022. Community pharmacy provision was increased by 50% in Kent and Medway.
As of 13 February 2022, over 1.4 million people in Kent and Medway CCG have received their first dose, over 1.2 million people have received their second dose, and over one million people aged 18 years old and over have received either their booster, third primary dose or fourth dose as a booster.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether electrification of the Uckfield Line will form part of projects to be implemented, as part of the Williams-Shapps plan for rail.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Department for Transport is in the process of considering how the recently concluded Spending Review 2021 will impact on a range of rail projects, including the proposed electrification of the line between Hurst Green and Uckfield. A decision as to whether the scheme will progress further will be made in due course.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking under the Technical and Further Education Act 2017 and other statutory provisions to help ensure accountability and transparency of public expenditure in relation to Hadlow College.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
All public expenditure in relation to the education administration of Hadlow College (and the related West Kent & Ashford College) have, and continue to be subject to, the highest levels of accountability and transparency.
All expenditure has been approved by the Financial Cases Committee (FCC) in the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which is an independent committee. The FCC includes Her Majesty's Treasury, external independent experts, legal, commercial and the Further Education Commissioner, and subsequently ministers and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, as required by delegations.
The Technical and Further Education Act 2017 provides that the education administrators are officers of the court which approves their fee requests. The education administrators' hourly rates are based on a commercial procurement framework which offers material savings to their rates charged in normal insolvencies. The spending of the education administrators is fully disclosed through their six monthly reports to creditors, which are publicly available at Companies House.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department plans to announce further details on (a) dates and (b) contract values for Project Gigabit; and what assessment he has made of the broadband needs of people in Tonbridge and Malling constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government is committed to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband to everyone in the UK. Our plan - to stimulate investment, bust barriers and drive competition - is working. We're on track for one of the fastest rollouts in Europe and for 60% of all households to have access to gigabit capable speeds by the end of the year. It is a huge leap forward from 2019, when it was just 9%.
The government will announce the next areas to be connected via Project Gigabit shortly as it pushes ahead with efforts to connect at least 85 per cent of the UK to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025.
The telecoms market is thriving with new entrants and investments changing the picture on the ground. Project Gigabit is designed to be responsive to this and the ordering and timing of the procurement pipeline will remain dynamic with quarterly updates to the plan.
Kent is Phase 2 of Project Gigabit’s procurement plans. There will be a procurement process for a supplier to provide gigabit coverage to all premises within the area which are not scheduled to get coverage through any other route (subject to a cost cap for the very hard to reach premises).
Both the new voucher scheme and the procurements are part of Project Gigabit, which we are supporting with funding of £5 billion so hard to reach communities are not left out - starting to level up now, not waiting for the end of the commercial rollout, and adding to the half a million rural homes and businesses already given coverage through our support
To provide immediate support across the UK we are funding up to £210 million worth of vouchers over the next three years to help with the costs of installing gigabit capable networks to people’s doorsteps and up to £110 million to connect up to 7,000 rural public buildings such as GP surgeries, libraries and schools.
Currently 93.64% of the constituency of Tonbridge and Malling have access to Superfast broadband, which is slightly lower than the national average of 96.84%. Tonbridge and Malling has seen 292 voucher connections with a value of over £447,805. There are also a further 312 vouchers that are pending connection, totalling £982,778.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to bring forward legislative proposals to give home owners the ability to apply to the Lands Chamber for the modification or discharge of positive covenants affecting their homes.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is reviewing large parts of property law affecting homeowners as part of its leasehold and commonhold reform agenda. As part of this we are working with the Law Commission to understand the implications of their 2011 report on easements, covenants and profits à prendre, “Making Land Work.” The Making Land Work recommendations would provide a route for challenging future positive land obligations created under the new regime.
For owners of freehold properties who pay estate rentcharges, we will also introduce a right to challenge the reasonableness of those charges in the same way that leaseholders can challenge service charges, and remove the statutory right for owners of rentcharges to take possession or grant a lease of the property in the event of non-payment by the homeowner.
Our reform programme has recently moved forward significantly with the introduction of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill on 12 May 2021, which we have said will be the first part of major two-part legislation in this Parliament.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
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 announcement on the covid-19 vaccine priority applicable to students planning to study abroad in the 2021-22 academic year; and if he will make it his policy that those students will be eligible to receive both doses of that vaccine prior to the start of that academic year.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are no plans to do so.
On 13 April, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published their final advice on phase two of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, which was to continue with an age-based programme. Students planning to study abroad in the 2021-22 academic year will receive their vaccinations in line with that advice when they become eligible because of their age, individual clinical risk factors, or because they are students who work as frontline health or social care workers or are unpaid carers. In line with other adults in the United Kingdom, they can expect to receive their first dose by the end of July 2021 and their second dose within 12 weeks of their first.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether learner drivers who had a driving test booked before 22 April 2021 will be given priority access following the delay in the return of car driving tests from 12 April 2020.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
In line with the Prime Minister’s road map announcement, car driving lessons will resume on 12 April providing data shows it is safe to move to step 2 of the road map. In response to a request by the Approved Driving Instructor National Associations Strategic Partnership, car driving tests have been scheduled to restart 10 days later on 22 April. This will give candidates the chance to access tuition to ensure they are properly prepared before they take their test.
There are currently over 400,000 people with a driving test booked. This includes some candidates who have had their tests cancelled and rescheduled on more than one occasion because of the pandemic. It would be unfair, and impractical, to move every one of those back to accommodate those with tests booked to take place before 22 April.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial support will be provided to venues currently operating as covid-19 vaccination sites to compensate such venues for loss of income when their normal bookings would be able to be resumed under the Government’s roadmap for easing covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Non-National Health Service vaccination sites have been secured under formal lease or licence where required. As payment of rental and other costs for the use of these sites has been agreed in each case, there is no expectation of payment for loss of income.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department plans to provide to schools for additional costs incurred when teaching staff are absent to receive covid-19 vaccines during school term time.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Matters relating to any absences by school staff, whether related to COVID-19 or not, are a matter for the individual’s employer.
To manage their staffing requirements, schools may need to alter the way in which they deploy their staff and use existing staff more flexibly, as set out in our guidance. These include making best use of teaching assistants, hosting initial teacher training, using volunteers, engaging supply staff using in-year allocated budget, and seeking support from the local authority or trust.
Schools will continue to receive their core funding allocations – as determined by the local authority for maintained schools and through the general annual grant for academies – for the 2021/22 financial year (April 2021 to March 2022 for maintained schools and until August 2022 for academies and non-maintained special schools). This will happen regardless of any periods of partial or complete closure and will ensure schools can continue to pay staff and meet other regular financial commitments.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment was completed by the Government, in advance of the publication of the Government’s roadmap for easing covid-19 restrictions, for determining that (a) swimming pools could re-open on 12 April 2021 and (b) over 18’s competitive swimming clubs cannot restart until 17 May 2021 at the earliest.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity providers and facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The roadmap outlines four steps for easing restrictions. There will be a minimum of five weeks between each step: four weeks for the data to reflect changes in restrictions; followed by seven days’ notice of the restrictions to be eased. The Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Adviser have made clear that this will give adequate time to assess the impact of each step and reduce the risk of having to re-impose restrictions at a later date.
Step 2 will take place no earlier than 12 April and as part of this indoor sports facilities including gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools will reopen for individual usage. At Step 3, no earlier than 17 May, indoor group activities including swimming clubs can resume.