Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to prevent hunger among children whose families are subject to the two-child benefit cap during the school summer holidays.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is providing over £200 million of funding per year for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which provides food and activities for disadvantaged children in England for four weeks during summer, and one week each at Christmas and Easter. The programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and education. Over summer 2022, the HAF programme reached around 600,000 children across England, including 475,000 children eligible for free school meals across England. As in previous years, Local Authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children who are not in receipt of benefits related free school meals but who the Local Authority believe could benefit from the HAF programme, such as other vulnerable children. This could include, where appropriate, providing places at HAF clubs that support working families.
For those who require extra support, the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including the Barnett formula impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is in addition to funding already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which Local Authorities will use to help households with the cost of essentials.
Overall, the Government is providing total support of over £94 billion over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children on free school meals receive free meals during the summer holidays.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Free school meals (FSM) are an educational entitlement intended to support children while they are being taught. Pupils do not receive FSM when they are not receiving education, including during school holidays.
The latest published statistics show that over 2 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 23.8% of all pupils, up from 22.5% in 2022. Together with almost 1.3 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy, over one third of pupils receive a free meal in school. This is an increase from the one in six that received a free meal in 2010. Overall, two million more pupils now receive a free meal at school, compared to 2010. This is due to the introduction of UIFSM and generous transitional protections.
The Department is providing over £200 million per year in the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. HAF supplies food and activities for disadvantaged children in England for four weeks over summer and one week at Christmas and Easter each. The programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and readiness to be taught.
For those who require extra support, the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett formula, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is on top of what the Government has provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England, this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund, backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities use to help households with the cost of essentials.
Overall, the Government is providing total support of over £94 billion over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the increase in the price of baby formula.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have seen food price inflation continue to rise to 19.2% in March 2023, up from 18.2% in February 2023, the highest rate seen in 45 years.
We recognise the impact high food prices are having on household budgets and tackling inflation is this Government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year.
The Government is providing significant support over this year and next – worth on average £3,500 per household – which includes direct cash payments to the most vulnerable households, as well as uprating benefits and the state pension by 10% in April.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £600 million apprenticeship levy returned to his Department due to the decrease of apprenticeship starts has been allocated to Birmingham City Council.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The apprenticeship levy is an important part of the government’s reforms to create a high-quality, employer-led apprenticeships system, and it supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training.
The government, via HM Revenue and Customs, collects the apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with a payroll of more than £3 million. From this, HM Treasury (HMT) sets an English apprenticeships budget for the Department for Education, and the devolved governments receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula. The department has seen some underspends in the apprenticeships budget in previous years, and these are set out in the department’s annual report and accounts. However, this was not the case in the 2021/22 financial year, when the total spend on apprenticeships in England was £2,455 million, against the budget of £2,466 million, meaning that 99.6% of the apprenticeships budget was spent.
Any underspends in overall departmental budgets by the end of the financial year are first returned to HMT, as per the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance. As employers choose which apprenticeships they offer and when, annual spend of the apprenticeship budget is subject to employer demand.
The apprenticeship system is employer-led, with apprenticeship funding available for both levy-paying employers and smaller employers who do not pay the levy. Apprenticeship funding is, therefore, not allocated to organisations, such as Birmingham City Council, sectors or regions, nor to particular groups of apprentices.
The government is increasing apprenticeship funding to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support apprenticeships growth. The department has also created flexible training models, like flexi-job and accelerated apprenticeships, to make apprenticeships accessible. The BBC are one of our Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agencies and have launched a training hub in Birmingham to support new apprenticeship starts in the creative sector in the West Midlands. We have also improved the transfer system to make it easier for levy paying employers to find other employers who wish to take on new apprentices with transferred funds.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Disability Cost of Living Payment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further, decisive action to support them providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023-24 to help households and individuals, including disabled people, with the rising cost of living.
The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs in addition to other cost of living support delivered last year, which includes:
For those who require additional support the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula.
The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for Local Authorities for this next iteration has now been published and can be found here: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund guidance for county councils and unitary authorities in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
This month we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels are also increasing by the same amount.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. The first payment is due to be paid to eligible households from tomorrow (25th May). A separate £300 payment will be made to pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee will be extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £3,000 per year in Great Britain.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including sickle cell patients in the support package for households to deal with the increase in living costs.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
No one is excluded from the Government’s cost of living support as a consequence of a health condition or disability. Those with needs arising from such a condition may be entitled to the full range of support depending on their circumstances, including access to an extra costs disability benefit such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
The Government understands the pressures people, including disabled people, are facing with the cost of living, and has taken further, decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs in addition to other cost of living support delivered last year, which includes:
For those who require additional support, the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula.
The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows local authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for local authorities for this next iteration has now been published and can be found here: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund guidance for county councils and unitary authorities in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The devolved administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
In April, we are uprating benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels are also increasing by the same amount.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits, including PIP, will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee will be extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £3,000 per year in Great Britain.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department has provided for events held in Northern Ireland, in each of the last three years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport funded the £120 million UK-wide festival, UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. This comprised 10 major creative projects across the United Kingdom which delivered physical events at 107 locations as well as digital, broadcast and learning activities. Funding was allocated to the devolved administrations, including the Northern Ireland Executive, via the Barnett formula. While this funding was awarded as a block grant via the Barnett formula, the National Audit Office reported that the Northern Ireland Executive allocated £3.5 million to its strategic delivery body, which, in turn, commissioned the project.
One of the 10 UNBOXED projects, ‘Our Place In Space’, was commissioned by Belfast City Council on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive, with stagings in Londonderry and Belfast. In addition to the Barnett allocation, ‘Our Place In Space’ received £120,000 (including VAT) for research and development during the 2020/21 financial year and a further £351,000 for R&D in the 2021/22 financial year. Additional investment by the UNBOXED Company enabled the popular sculpture trail to be mounted in Cambridge and Liverpool: ~£391,000 in the 2021/22 financial year and ~£1.72 million in the 2022/23 financial year.
Four additional UK-wide UNBOXED projects took place in Northern Ireland throughout 2022, although the Department does not hold a breakdown of how much it cost to stage those commissions in each location.
During the 2021/22 financial year, DCMS also provided £40,000 to Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council to support the development of its UK City of Culture 2025 bid, alongside seven other places across the UK longlisted for the competition.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of energy prices on the (a) health and (b) wider welfare of disabled people.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
No such assessment has been made by the department.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, including disabled people, and has taken further, decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs in addition to other cost of living support delivered last year, which includes:
For those who require additional support, the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula. The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows local authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The devolved administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
In 2023/24, we are uprating all benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels are also increasing by the same amount.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments, and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee will be extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £3,000 per year in Great Britain.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to (a) help ensure that mothers have adequate supplies of formula milk where they are unable to breastfeed and (b) prevent baby milk products from being watered down in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is not aware of any availability issues with infant formula.
We continue to monitor food prices using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) inflation figures. Recent pressures have been sustained and we have seen food price inflation continue to rise to 16.9% in December 2022, up from 16.5% in November 2022.
Through regular engagement, DEFRA will continue to work with food retailers and producers to explore the range of measures they can take to ensure the availability of affordable food. For example, by maintaining value ranges, price matching and price freezing measures.
The government understands that people are worried about the cost of living. That’s why decisive action has been taken to support households across the UK, whilst remaining fiscally responsible.
This action taken by the government means that over 8 million of the most vulnerable households across the UK will continue to be supported through next winter via additional £900 Cost of Living Payments to households on means-tested benefits, with additional support for pensioner households and individuals on disability benefits. This is in addition to the Cost of Living payments already made to these households this year.
The government is continuing to provide support to all households through the Energy Price Guarantee, which will save the average UK household £500 in 2023-24. This is in addition to the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme and £150 Council Tax rebate. Moreover, the government is extending the Household Support Fund in England for a further year, with £1bn additional funding (including funding for the Devolved Administrations via the Barnett Formula). The Fund will continue to support the most vulnerable households with the cost of food, energy and other essentials.
The Healthy Start scheme helps to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies and children aged under four from low-income households. Pregnant women and children aged under four and over one each receive £4.25 every week, and children aged under one each receive £8.50 every week. Healthy Start can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried and tinned pulses, plain cow’s milk and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries are also eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins.
We are continuing to keep the situation under review and focus support on the most vulnerable whilst ensuring we act in a fiscally responsible way.
Infant formula must be prepared in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. The NHS website contains step by step guidance on making up infant formula safely which includes advice to follow the manufacturers’ instructions closely and double check that the water level is correct and that the appropriate amount of formula powder has been added.
The full guide can be viewed at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/making-up-baby-formula/
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, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of the consumption of daily Vitamin D supplements.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In 2016, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) published an assessment of the evidence on vitamin D and a range of health outcomes. The SACN’s recommendations informed the current Government advice for a daily 10 microgram supplement of vitamin D to be taken throughout autumn and winter for musculoskeletal health due to reduced sunlight.
Those at increased risk of receiving insufficient vitamin D are advised to consider taking a vitamin D supplement throughout the year: those with minimal sunshine exposure (housebound or institutionalised older people and those wearing clothes that cover most of the skin when outdoors) and population groups with dark skin (such as those with an African, African-Caribbean or south Asian background). All children aged one to four years old and babies not receiving more than 500 millilitres of infant formula a day are also advised to take a daily vitamin D supplement throughout the year.
The Government’s Healthy Start scheme helps to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies and young children under four from low-income households. Healthy Start beneficiaries are also eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins, which contain the recommended amount of vitamin D.