Every parliamentary written question tabled by Julia Buckley this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 101–120 of 125 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, whether the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will continue after March 2025.
Decisions on funding post March 2025 are a matter for the Budget on October 30th.We recognise the challenges this brings for some projects. We are working closely with local authorities and key stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition to future funding,...
What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Health and Care Professions Council in accrediting people with international qualifications.
No assessment has been made by the Government. The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) oversees the work of the statutory bodies that regulate health professionals in the United Kingdom, including the Health and Care Professi...
Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press notice entitled Record number of new bathing sites get the go ahead, published on 13 May 2024, whether he plans to publish a consultation on bathing water r
Bathing waters are one of the most visible ways in which the public interacts with the water environment. The Government recognises that there have been increasing changes to how and where people use bathing waters. Ministers are currently working through...
What date people must submit a pension credit claim by to qualify for the 2024 winter fuel allowance.
A claim for Pension Credit can be backdated by up to three months, as long as the conditions of entitlement are met during that period. This means that any claim made by 21 December and successfully backdated can qualify for this year’s Winter Fuel Payment.
Whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of making lifetime Blue Badge awards to people with lifelong conditions.
As a general principle, Blue Badge eligibility is based on mobility. Reapplying for a badge every three years gives local authorities the opportunity to reassess badge holders when their badges expire, ensuring that they continue to meet the criteria which makes them eligible for a badge. It also serves the purpose of making sure that the details local authorities hold about the badge holder, and those that are displayed on the badge itself, remain correct.
What recent discussions she has had with Shropshire Council on the adequacy of (a) funding for and (b) delivery of SEND services.
Departmental officials are in regular contact with Shropshire Local Area Partnership to ensure children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families are provided with positive experiences and outcomes, helping to foster a shared sense of responsibility and accountability for inclusion. This government is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with Local Area Partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
With reference to the Ninth Report of Session 2021–22 of the Home Affairs Select Committee entitled Spiking, HC967, whether her Department plans to follow the recommendations of that report.
The Home Office has already implemented a number of the recommendations, or is in the process of doing so. This includes:- The rollout of an online spiking reporting and advice tool across the UK to encourage more and better reporting of spiking, including anonymously. This is intended to improve data on the prevalence and scale of spiking.- Providing funding for the development of spiking training to ensure that night time economy staff are trained to respond effectively to reports of spiking and co-ordinate with security staff and the emergency services.- The government has committed in its manifesto to introduce a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime. This will form part of the Crime and Policing Bill.- The formation of a rapid testing capability for spiking to gather more accurate results in a quicker time frame (2-3 weeks opposed to 6-8). This is being supported by research into the efficacy of rapid urine testing kits which aim to provide results in a matter of minutes. At this stage however, I urge anyone who believes they have been spiked to contact the police as soon as possible to provide a report and a urine sample for lab testing.Many of these measures were designed with the aim of addressing the key barriers to prosecution which we have identified as lack of evidence, and identification of perpetrators.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to increase the flood resilience of the river Severn in the Shrewsbury area.
Protecting communities around the country from flooding and coastal erosion is one of the new Secretary of State’s five core priorities. This Government will improve resilience and preparation across central government, local authorities, local communities and emergency services to better protect communities across the UK. We will launch a new Flood Resilience Taskforce to turbocharge the delivery of new flood defences, drainage systems and natural flood management schemes, which will ensure we’re prepared for the future and help grow our economy. We will review the current 6-year capital programme (2021-2027) to ensure flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future. The programme is currently forecast to invest over £150 million across the English Severn and Wye Catchment, with almost £30 million of this to be invested in Shropshire, better protecting almost 450 homes and businesses there. The Environment Agency also maintains existing flood risk management assets in Shrewsbury which better protect 154 properties from flooding, and provides a free Flood Warning Service to residents in the constituency.
Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to reintroduce a statutory Private Parking Code of Practice.
The Government will set out its plans for regulation of the private parking industry in due course.
Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of NHS England underwriting leases for GP practices.
Under the GP Contracts, premises liabilities are the responsibility of the contractor. Overall contractual payments reflect this arrangement, with the National Health Service also reimbursing direct premises costs including rent, business rates, water, and clinical waste.There are 8,842 practice premises across England, of these, 51% are leased premises. The NHS is not a formal party to the leases on these properties. If NHS England were to consider a formal underwriting of the leases, legal advice notes, that would constitute a commitment, which would require capitalisation under the International Financial Accounting Standard IFRS16, and limited NHS capital budgets would have to be diverted to offset this commitment, in addition to the payment of rents against the properties.This would provide, in effect, a double payment of costs against the asset and would commit substantial capital funds to the exercise, limiting the ability of integrated care systems to invest in the primary care estate, address secondary and community care, mental health services, and critical and usual infrastructure maintenance requirements, significantly adversely affecting the overall investment plans for communities. As a result, NHS England considers that a formal underwriting of leases would not provide best use of public funds.
If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of SEND provision in Shropshire.
Following the last Ofsted inspection, departmental officials have been working with Shropshire Council to closely monitor progress against the areas for improvement identified by inspectors. The department has appointed a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) advisor to support and work alongside Shropshire Council and the local area partnership. This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with local area partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
If she will take steps to include the Chambers of Commerce in the Skills England programme.
The department has set out its plan and ambitions for Skills England. Work is now underway to develop how it will deliver, and the department has already been clear that working with a wide range of stakeholders will be central to this. This includes the British Chambers of Commerce as well as other key organisations. The department will publish its first report in due course, which will be followed by a series of engagement activities.
What steps her Department is taking to reduce call waiting times to the Child Maintenance Service; and if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of call handling times by that service.
CMS are committed to delivering the best possible service to all customers within our growing caseload, though fully recognise that call waiting times are sometimes longer than we would like. To address this, we are working to improve the efficiency of our customer interactions through both the telephone and Digital channels, and by promoting self-service online. These are freeing up CMS resource to support customers that need to contact us by telephone. The class leading CMS online service supports customers in understanding options around child maintenance arrangements through to completing applications and the ability to manage their case online. These services are available 24/7, and in July 2024 over 1 million customers were logging on to their online My Child Maintenance Case account and using them. To improve the efficiency of the service, improvements have been made to process simple actions automatically, whilst also improving training and guidance for CMS colleagues. As a result, call volumes are reducing, and improved customer service being delivered through the combination of Online and Telephone channels. CMS is working to improve all forms of communication with customers, including greater use of SMS and email as well as improving letter content. The Department continually seeks to review, evaluate, and enhance tools and training material to support staff in delivering a quality customer service and takes timely action to further train and support staff where further improvements can be made. Additionally, CMS have extended their telephony service to 6pm on weekdays to meet demand.
Whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the lack of shared IT systems between primary, secondary and mental healthcare on (a) patients and (b) healthcare professionals.
No specific assessment has been made. Shared care records are in place in all integrated care boards, allowing information from general practice and acute settings to be shared for direct care.The Frontline Digitisation programme is working to improve the digital maturity of all providers so that they have adequate enabling hardware, robust connectivity, electronic patient record systems, and other core capabilities in place.The Data Information and Smart Data Bill announced in the King's Speech will include the statutory power to require IT suppliers to adhere to information standards. This will help ensure there is a ‘common language’ for health and care software systems to talk to each other, across all health and care settings.
When her Department plans to publish a response to the Law Commission report entitled Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law, published in July 2022.
We are aware that the Law Commission made recommendations for wholesale change of weddings law in July 2022. We will take the time as a new Government to properly consider this issue. We will set out our next steps on our manifesto commitment to strengthen rights and protections for women in cohabitating couples in the near future.
How many liability orders have been pursued by the Child Maintenance Service since 1 August 2023.
A principle of child maintenance is to increase levels of cooperation between separated parents and encourage parents to meet their responsibilities to provide their children with financial support. Where a family-based child maintenance arrangement is not suitable the Child Maintenance Service offers a statutory scheme for those parents who need it. The Government is dedicated to ensuring parents meet their obligations to children and the Child Maintenance Service will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply. Where parents fail to pay their child maintenance, the Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement which includes liability orders. The Service is committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families. The Department plans to bring forward changes to allow Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears. The administrative liability order will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, which can take up to 22 weeks. We expect the new liability order process to take around six to eight weeks, meaning CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly for those who seek to avoid their financial obligations to their children. We will bring forward the legislation as soon as possible. The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are available up to March 2024. The next release to June 2024 is scheduled for Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 09:30am. The statistics for liability orders are shown in Table 7.1 of the National tables. The relevant data taken from that table, covering the period requested, is shown in the following table: Liability Orders in process and money collected in Great Britain, and Liability Orders applied for and granted in England and Wales, July 2023 to March 2024 Jul to Sep 23Oct to Dec 23Jan to Mar 24Liability Orders in process at end of quarter7,5006,4006,200Liability Orders applied for during quarter (excludes Scotland)4,1004,5005,300Liability Orders granted during quarter (excludes Scotland)3,6003,9004,400Liability Orders withdrawn or dismissed during quarter (excludes Scotland)300300400Money collected during quarter from Paying Parents with a Liability Order in process (£ millions)2.42.12.1Source: Child Maintenance Service Administrative and Clerical Data Notes: This table includes actions taken to collect both maintenance arranged by the Child Maintenance Service, and Child Support Agency arrears that have been transitioned to Child Maintenance Service systems. This may include actions taken against parents for whom no ongoing maintenance has been arranged under the Child Maintenance Service. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 or £100,000. "In Process" counts give the number of Paying Parents for which the relevant enforcement action was ongoing at the end of the quarter. "Ongoing" includes the period in which the action was being formally considered, in addition to the period during which the action was actively being progressed. A Paying Parent can be taken to court over unpaid child maintenance. Courts can grant a Liability Order, which is a legal recognition that a debt is owed. This enables recovery of the debt through further Civil Enforcement Actions, e.g. referral to an enforcement agency. Some Liability Order figures are restricted to England and Wales and exclude Scotland, this is indicated in the row title where relevant.
What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in collecting arrears payments.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) always encourages paying parents to pay their maintenance on time, to avoid accrual of arrears. Where a paying parent fails to pay on time or in full, the CMS aims to take immediate action to recover the debt and re-establish compliance. The CMS will initially negotiate a payment that is feasible for the parent to pay. If this is unsuccessful and the paying parent is employed, the CMS will use a Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO) to take payment directly from their wages. The CMS has a range of strong enforcement powers that can be used against those who consistently refuse to meet their obligations to provide financial support to their children. These powers include the ability to deduct directly from the paying parent’s bank accounts, forcing the sale of property and disqualifications from holding or obtaining driving licenses and passports. We are committed to making the most effective use of these strong enforcement powers and have made a number of improvements to our enforcement process to make it quicker and more efficient.
What steps her Department is taking to ensure gender equality in the work of the Child Maintenance Service.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) aims to provide a high-quality service to all its customers. The CMS treats parents equally as individuals based on their roles within the scheme and makes no reference to gender. The Department has a specific duty to assess the impact of proposed policies and services and any changes to them on equality to ensure the Department meets its Public Sector Equality Duty obligations.
What the total value of child maintenance arrears was on 30 August 2024.
The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are available up to March 2024. The next release covering the statistics to June 2024 is scheduled for Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 09:30am. The total value of child maintenance that has not been paid and now needs to be collected through ‘Collect and Pay’ at the end of March 2024 was £634.9 million, as shown in Table 6 of the National tables. The following information is a summary from the latest publication for data up to March 2024. In the 12 months up to March 2024 the child maintenance service arranged £1.4 billion child maintenance, an increase from £1.2 billion during the previous 12 months.61% of all CMS arrangements use Direct Pay, with 37% using Collect and Pay and just over one billion pounds was arranged through the Direct Pay service in the last 12 months (we do not measure the compliance of Paying Parents on the Direct Pay service).Since March 2023, the percentage of parents paying something towards their maintenance through collect & pay has increased from 65% to 69%.In the period April 2023 to March 2024 £316.8 million was arranged through the Collect & Pay service:o £224.9 million was paido £91.9 million was unpaid
What recent discussions her Department has had with local authorities on reducing processing times for blue badge applications.
The Department for Transport sets the legislation that governs the Blue Badge scheme and provides guidance for local authorities who are solely responsible for administering the scheme, including issuing the badges. There are no timescales set for administering applications other than a suggested guideline that issuing authorities should aim to complete end to end applications within 12 weeks. 80% of citizens apply for a badge using the Blue Badge Digital Service (BBDS) operated by the Department for Transport. The Department has a programme of continuous improvement of the digital service with the aim of making online badge applications quicker and easier for applicants and local authorities.