Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much it costs for a business to purchase a space at the Larkhill UK capability showcase.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
Pricing is dependent on the area which the company product covers within the showcase per year. Please see below current pricing:
All prices exclusive of VAT.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to ensure that his Department's (a) policy and (b) guidance is (i) trauma-informed and (ii) co-produced with lived-experience experts.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP is committed to being a more Trauma Informed organisation. We have a dedicated programme which will integrate the six key pillars of the approach as defined by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (December, 2022) which are safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration. Our programme looks at these six pillars within the contexts of application to our colleagues, our customers, our culture, and the context of our interaction- whether that is a physical, telephony, digital or postal interaction. We are learning from best practice demonstrated by organisations such as NHS Education Scotland, Work Services Australia and the Wales ACES Hub to shape the future prioritisation of this work.
The integration programme is in its early phases, and we appreciate that it will take time to realise the benefits of changes we implement. We are learning from the continued progress of leaders in the field including programmes such as the Scottish National Trauma Transformation Programme. We recognise that an important aspect of many programmes is policies and procedures and intend to replicate this focus within our own work whilst recognising that the programme does not seek to change what the department does, instead we are impacting how we do this, which will extend to supporting our policy development.
We recognise that any truly trauma informed system is shaped by lived experience experts and we fundamentally believe in the co-production of this programme. This is why we have an extensive network of diverse internal and external stakeholders who are engaged in shaping the programme through ongoing forums and insight activity. We are also currently collaborating with the University of Salford on research which explores how trauma informed the department is through conversations with customers, colleagues and external stakeholders. The outcome of this research will help to shape the future priorities of the programme. Finally, we are currently exploring how we establish our own co-production forums for the programme taking advice from expert stakeholders to ensure we create a safe, empowering space for lived experience experts to whilst establishing trust in the ongoing aims and progress of the programme.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to support the development of electric propulsion systems.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) is primarily supporting electric propulsion projects via our European Space Agency (ESA) membership, which has provided a total of approximately €90m funding to support development of UK electric propulsion systems to date. This includes €63m which supported UK companies to develop electric thrusters for flagship ESA missions, €6m through Horizon2020 to enable system development and upskill UK networks, and €9m to develop an independent UK end-to-end electric propulsion system. UKSA is also exploring nuclear electric propulsion for rapid interplanetary transit and novel water-based propellants for future off-world refuelling.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase childcare provision in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the government’s Spring Budget, the Chancellor of Exchequer announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By 2027/28, this government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs.
A commitment has been made to ensure that 30 hours of funded childcare is available for every child over the age of nine months with working parents by September 2025.
More parents are going to be able to return to work while balancing childcare commitments, thanks to the government’s £4 billion per year expansion of childcare in England. This is the largest expansion of funded childcare ever and will remove barriers to work for nearly half a million parents with a child under three in England.
South Holland and the Deepings constituency is within the area covered by Lincolnshire County Council.
Local authorities have received £12 million of local authority delivery support funding for this financial year to support with meeting programme and delivery costs associated with rolling out the expanded early year entitlements, from which Lincolnshire County Council received £125,423.
Local authorities have also received a £100 million allocation for local areas to use to make sure childcare settings in their areas have enough physical space, which is anticipated to add thousands of new childcare places across the country. Lincolnshire County Council received £1,461,094 from this fund.
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. Part B of the ‘Early education and childcare’ statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.
If Lincolnshire County Council report any sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues, and where needed, supports them with any specific requirements through its childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the unused court capacity was in each year since 2015.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS had the following number of sessions recorded as either available or unavailable since 2015:
Period | Available verified sessions | Unavailable verified sessions |
FY 15-16 | 1,552,490 | 42,692 |
FY 16-17 | 1,512,424 | 36,811 |
FY 17-18 | 1,387,270 | 37,598 |
FY 18-19 | 1,347,648 | 36,507 |
FY 19-20 | 1,302,006 | 38,408 |
FY 20-21 | 1,062,856 | 130,071 |
FY 21-22 | 1,277,033 | 86,511 |
FY 22-23 | 1,277,981 | 42,665 |
FY 23-24 | 1,281,838 | 48,201 |
A ‘session’ represents the time that court/hearing room space is available, with up to two sessions available each day. Available and unavailable sessions are recorded for all jurisdictions.
HMCTS record a session being unavailable for a number of reasons, including important alternative uses. For example:
HMCTS’ Courtroom Planner performance database was introduced in April 2015 to collect information on the availability of courtrooms. The data was suspended in April 2020 due to COVID disruption and resumed in September 2020. The data between April and August 2020 is therefore incomplete.
The amount of time we use our available estate for hearings is also connected to the funded number of sitting days in any one year, and the availability of key participants such as judiciary and legal professionals.
To maintain session levels, we are investing £220m in the two years to March 2025 for essential maintenance and repair work across the estate to ensure we are keeping as many courtrooms open as possible to hear more cases. This two-year capital maintenance allocation enables us to plan major estate projects in advance and with certainty. Maintenance funding is prioritised to sites that need it most, and this investment is a step forward in improving the quality of the court estate. We have a planned pipeline of future works to improve the resilience and quality of the court estate, and this is kept under regular review.
We have also introduced additional measures to speed up justice for victims and improve the justice system, including:
o Extending 20 Nightingale courtrooms beyond March 2024 to provide additional capacity in the court estate.
o Investing in judicial recruitment since 2017 which has resulted in the annual recruitment of approximately 1000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions. In particular, this has led to an overall increase in the number of judges in the Crown Court.
Please note all data provided is internal and subject to data quality issues inherent in any large-scale manual system.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of the population have access to (a) green space and (b) water within 15 minutes walk from home.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 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 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.
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.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to reclassify retail as legitimate employment land use as part of the Accelerated Planning Service Consultation.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Our proposals for the Accelerated Planning Service do not include the reclassification of any land uses. The Accelerated Planning Service on which the Government is currently consulting is for planning applications for major commercial development which create 1,000 sqm or more of new or additional employment space as defined in planning legislation. This could include retail development. The consultation closes on 1 May 2024 and we will analyse responses and announce our decision in due course.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to reclassify retail as legitimate employment land use as part of the Accelerated Planning Service Consultation.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Our proposals for the Accelerated Planning Service do not include the reclassification of any land uses. The Accelerated Planning Service on which the Government is currently consulting is for planning applications for major commercial development which create 1,000 sqm or more of new or additional employment space as defined in planning legislation. This could include retail development. The consultation closes on 1 May 2024 and we will analyse responses and announce our decision in due course.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2024 to Question 14272 on Defence: Space Technology, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Skynet secure satellite communications programme continues to provide a significant boost to the UK space sector.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The SKYNET secure satellite communications programme, which is investing £5 billion over the next decade, provides a significant boost to the industry through direct investment into the sector and use of social value provisions in contracts.
SKYNET provides long-term investment in the UK space sector. This includes promoting the development of new technology and use of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Under SKYNET contracts, the Prime contractor is required to demonstrate social value. This includes measures such as investment into graduate or apprenticeship schemes. This will increasingly be part of our approach to major contracts for the space sector in support of our national policy ambitions under the recently-published Space Industrial Plan.
As we move towards the next generation of SKYNET, the investment in this programme will continue to help develop the thriving UK space sector.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what funding UK Defence and Security Exports offers to companies to exhibit at international defence and security trade shows.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
UK Defence and Security Exports does not offer any funding to companies to exhibit at international defence and security trade shows. UKDSE offers other services to companies such as equipment demonstration through the Export Support team and opportunity to purchase space on the main UK stand at some events.