Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether integrated care boards (ICBs) have been informed of the details of the Children’s Hospice Grant for children’s palliative care, including (1) the amounts awarded to each ICB, and (2) the distribution method to be used.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Last year, NHS England confirmed that it will be renewing the funding for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million of funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This prevalence-based approach ensures funding matches local need. Funding will be distributed via integrated care boards (ICBs) in line with National Health Service devolution.
All ICBs in England, including those in the West Midlands, were notified of the amount of funding that each ICB will receive during week commencing 19 February 2024. Additionally, all ICBs in England, including those in the West Midlands, will be notified of the distribution method to be used very shortly.
The Department and NHS England hope to be able to provide the greater clarity that the sector is seeking on this important funding stream to children’s hospices in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when integrated care boards (ICB) in the West Midlands can expect to be informed of the details of the Children’s Hospice Grant for children’s palliative care, including (1) the amounts to each ICB, and (2) the distribution method to be used.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Last year, NHS England confirmed that it will be renewing the funding for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million of funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This prevalence-based approach ensures funding matches local need. Funding will be distributed via integrated care boards (ICBs) in line with National Health Service devolution.
All ICBs in England, including those in the West Midlands, were notified of the amount of funding that each ICB will receive during week commencing 19 February 2024. Additionally, all ICBs in England, including those in the West Midlands, will be notified of the distribution method to be used very shortly.
The Department and NHS England hope to be able to provide the greater clarity that the sector is seeking on this important funding stream to children’s hospices in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of providing additional funding to the devolved Administrations to help support young people with (a) bulimia, (b) anorexia and (c) other eating disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are currently no plans for such an assessment. As health is a predominantly devolved matter, and funding through the Barnett formula is not ringfenced for specific uses, it is for the devolved administrations to determine how much of their funding they allocate to specific healthcare services, including eating disorder services, in their nations.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Scottish Government since it projected a potential £1 billion resource spending gap in 2024–25, rising to £1.9 billion by 2027–28.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury engages regularly with the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance to discuss matters relating to Scottish Government funding. They met most recently in Edinburgh on 25 January at the Finance: Interministerial Standing Committee.
The UK Government is providing the Scottish Government with a record block grant settlement of £41 billion per year over this Spending Review. On top of this, the Scottish Government is receiving over £2 billion in additional funding through the Barnett formula over 2023-24 and 2024-25 as a result of decisions taken at fiscal events.
In August 2023, the UK and Scottish Government reached agreement on an updated Fiscal Framework for the Scottish Government. This included provision to maintain the Scottish Government’s preferred block grant adjustment methodology to account for tax and welfare devolution, remove drawdown limits from the Scotland Reserve and increase the Scottish Government’s borrowing and reserve limits in line with inflation each year.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the consultation outcome entitled Review of electricity market arrangements, published on 7 March 2023, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of energy infrastructure in the Scottish Highlands.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK has a secure and diverse energy system. Whilst energy policy is a matter reserved to the UK Government under the devolution settlement, planning, including energy infrastructure planning, is devolved to the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government published National Planning Framework 4 in February 2023 which has sections on energy and climate change. This is therefore a matter for the Scottish Government.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people claiming disability benefits cited mental health issues as a reason for claiming those benefits in 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) can be found on Stat-Xplore. In particular, the requested data can be found in ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement’ dataset by going to ‘Disability’ and choosing ‘Psychiatric disorders’ from the drop-down list. The same can be done to ‘DLA: Cases with entitlement - Data from May 2018’ and ‘AA: Cases with entitlement - Data from May 2018’ dataset by going to ‘Main Disability Condition’ and choosing the mental health conditions you are interested in from the drop-down list.
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP, DLA, and AA computer systems. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics.
You may also wish to filter for “DWP policy ownership” under Geography due to the devolution of some disability benefits to Scotland.
You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the auditing arrangements for combined authorities.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
All combined authorities are legally required to have an audit committee. The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016, and the Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information Audit Committees) Order 2017, set the requirements for audit committees in combined authorities. These arrangements ensure that there is independent assurance of combined authorities governance, internal control and risk management arrangements, as well as the statutory financial reporting process.
Separately, combined authorities, in line with the requirements on all local authorities, are required to publish audited annual financial accounts. Combined authorities are not immune to the cross-system challenges currently facing the local audit market. The government working with system partners has developed proposals to tackle the exceptional circumstance of the current backlog and ensure a return to timely delivery of high-quality financial reporting and external audit in local bodies. We will consult on these imminently.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, whether he has made an estimate of the potential costs of (a) a mayoral election and (b) the annual running of a mayoral office including staffing.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the Hull East Yorkshire Level 3 Devolution Deal we have agreed with local leaders will bring with it a £400 million Mayoral Investment Fund over the next 30 years, and a significant transfer of powers from Westminster to Yorkshire.
The cost of an election, as with any local election, is borne locally by the authority. By ensuring the election is first past the post we have reduced potential costs. In addition, my department, as part of the deal will provide £2 million Mayoral Capacity Funding over the next three years, to support the establishment of the new mayoral combined authority (MCA).
A new mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire is able to charge a precept, but is not required to. For example the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has chosen not to charge a precept. Any precept can be subject to the council tax referendum principles.
The costs associated with scrutiny and audit committees would be met by the new MCA. We believe such scrutiny is necessary to ensure value for money for the taxpayer, when devolving significant powers.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, whether he has made an assessment of the cost of the Mayoral Combined Authority's (a) Overview and Scrutiny Committee and (b) Audit Committee.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the Hull East Yorkshire Level 3 Devolution Deal we have agreed with local leaders will bring with it a £400 million Mayoral Investment Fund over the next 30 years, and a significant transfer of powers from Westminster to Yorkshire.
The cost of an election, as with any local election, is borne locally by the authority. By ensuring the election is first past the post we have reduced potential costs. In addition, my department, as part of the deal will provide £2 million Mayoral Capacity Funding over the next three years, to support the establishment of the new mayoral combined authority (MCA).
A new mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire is able to charge a precept, but is not required to. For example the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has chosen not to charge a precept. Any precept can be subject to the council tax referendum principles.
The costs associated with scrutiny and audit committees would be met by the new MCA. We believe such scrutiny is necessary to ensure value for money for the taxpayer, when devolving significant powers.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, what the maximum level is projected to be for the mayoral precept.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the Hull East Yorkshire Level 3 Devolution Deal we have agreed with local leaders will bring with it a £400 million Mayoral Investment Fund over the next 30 years, and a significant transfer of powers from Westminster to Yorkshire.
The cost of an election, as with any local election, is borne locally by the authority. By ensuring the election is first past the post we have reduced potential costs. In addition, my department, as part of the deal will provide £2 million Mayoral Capacity Funding over the next three years, to support the establishment of the new mayoral combined authority (MCA).
A new mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire is able to charge a precept, but is not required to. For example the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has chosen not to charge a precept. Any precept can be subject to the council tax referendum principles.
The costs associated with scrutiny and audit committees would be met by the new MCA. We believe such scrutiny is necessary to ensure value for money for the taxpayer, when devolving significant powers.