Every parliamentary written question tabled by Luke Evans this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 681–700 of 868 · this parliament
Pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 34655 on Department of Health and Social Care: Workplace Pensions, by what date all affected individuals will be contacted under the revised delivery plan for remedial service statements.
I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS566 which I gave on 31 March 2025.
Pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 34655 on Department of Health and Social Care: Workplace Pensions, by what date his Department plans to finalise production of the revised delivery plan for remedial service statements.
I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS566 which I gave on 31 March 2025.
Pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 34655 on Department of Health and Social Care: Workplace Pensions, by what date her Department plans to communicate the revised delivery plan for remedial service statements to affected individuals.
I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS566 which I gave on 31 March 2025.
What (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory bodies her Department is consulting on her plans for musical education.
On 18 March 2025, the department announced its intention to launch a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to promote opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school, including through the government’s network of Music Hubs. Our intention is to launch in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details will be released in due course, including on engagement with music education partners.To support the delivery of music education, the government has committed £79 million per year for the Music Hubs programme, inclusive of the 2024/25 academic year. The 43 Music Hubs partnerships across England offer a range of services, including musical instrument tuition, instrument loaning and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access to musical instruments, the government is investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology from the 2024/25 academic year. This funding enables Music Hubs partnerships to better cater to the needs of the children and young people they work with.The government is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a four year period from the 2024/25 to 2027/28 academic years, backed by a further £3.85 million funding from Arts Council England and Youth Music. This pilot is delivered by Young Sounds UK in 12 areas of the country and aims to help disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with special educational needs and disabilities, to learn how to play an instrument of their choice or learn to sing to a high standard.The government believes creative subjects like music, art and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves.
Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to formulate the National Youth Strategy.
We are co-producing the National Youth Strategy with young people and cross-sector experts. We have already conducted Ministerial roundtables with young people as well as in-person and online focus groups. We have also launched a national survey to ask young people about their worries and hopes for the future, and created an engagement toolkit so organisations or MPs can run their own workshops and discussions with young people. In addition, we have set up a Youth Advisory Group and an Expert Advisory Group to work alongside us throughout the development of the Strategy. We are also working closely with other Government Departments to ensure the Strategy is cross-cutting and better coordinates youth policy. We will be publishing an interim report this spring and the Strategy will be published this summer.
What discussions she has had with HMRC on the potential impact of flexible working arrangements on (a) length of call wait times, (b) stability of phone and WiFi connections, (c) privacy and (d) ease of call escalation for customers.
HMRC supports flexible working. HMRC expects most colleagues to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. They can spend up to 40% of their time working at home if they wish, provided they can do their job effectively from home and this fits with the department’s needs. Analysis shows that HMRC customer advisers are similarly productive at home and in the office. Advisers answered 15.9 calls on average per day at home, compared to 16.3 in the office (based on data between October 2022 to December 2022). Staff working from home connect to the HMRC Network via wi-fi (or a wired connection), using a secure and performant VPN Connection. Robust monitoring is in place that provides full visibility of both the connection performance and call quality, for all HMRC devices and calls. HMRC colleagues are held to the same performance expectations whether they are working in the office or at home, and receive the same induction and mandatory learning around data protection and security. Escalations/ call transfers can take place between a variety of HMRC teams in multiple locations. The systems used by colleagues working from home have the same functionality as those used when working in the office. Therefore there is no impact on call escalation for customers.
Pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 35774 on Pension Credit: Staff, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of using (a) external providers and (b) external recruitment to process pension credit applications during Winter 2024-25.
My previous response (UIN 35775) advised we had deployed over 500 additional staff through a combination of internal redeployments, use of external providers and external recruitment. The 24/25 forecast cost of (a) external providers is £1.9 million, and (b) external recruitment is £2.2 million.
Pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 35774 on Pension Credit: Staff, what steps she is taking to ensure that the work previously undertaken by internal redeployed staff is continued.
My previous response reference 36448, advised redeployed colleagues to support Pension Credit were from Child Maintenance Service and Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt. Since the redeployment, both services have continued with no deterioration in service or performance.Further to this, the Autumn Statement includes additional investment in Fraud and Error, which means we can increase our resourcing levels. We will also be increasing Child Maintenance Service resources as demand for that service continues to grow. In the meantime, we are continuing to transform Child Maintenance Service with our 24/7 online service and also with further automation, reducing the need for human intervention.
Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37715, which (a) local authorities, (b) police forces and (c) animal welfare groups his Department has had discussions with on responsible dog ownership; and when he last held a meeting on this.
Defra continues to work with the police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to explore measures to reduce dog attacks and promote responsible dog ownership across all breeds of dog.
Whether he has had recent discussions with his officials on the potential merits of transferring the British Coal Superannuation Scheme to its members.
I have asked my officials to consider the impacts of proposals put forward by the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme Trustees.
What progress she has made on producing a plan for musical education.
On 18 March 2025, the department announced its intention to launch a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to promote opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school, including through the government’s network of Music Hubs. Our intention is to launch in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details will be released in due course, including on engagement with music education partners.To support the delivery of music education, the government has committed £79 million per year for the Music Hubs programme, inclusive of the 2024/25 academic year. The 43 Music Hubs partnerships across England offer a range of services, including musical instrument tuition, instrument loaning and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access to musical instruments, the government is investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology from the 2024/25 academic year. This funding enables Music Hubs partnerships to better cater to the needs of the children and young people they work with.The government is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a four year period from the 2024/25 to 2027/28 academic years, backed by a further £3.85 million funding from Arts Council England and Youth Music. This pilot is delivered by Young Sounds UK in 12 areas of the country and aims to help disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with special educational needs and disabilities, to learn how to play an instrument of their choice or learn to sing to a high standard.The government believes creative subjects like music, art and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves.
Whether she has had discussions with (a) the National Police Chiefs Council and (b) Leicestershire Police on a rural crime strategy.
The Home Office is working closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to develop the next interim of the Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy, and I recently met with the NPCC lead for rural crime to discuss that strategy, and related issues.
Whether staff seconded from NHS England to a transitional operations team in his Departent will focus solely on the transfer of responsibilities from NHS England to the Department for Health and Social Care; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the work ordinarily undertaken by the staff who have been seconded will be completed.
Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to determine the structure and requirements of the team required to support the creation of a new centre for health and care. The transition team will work across NHS England and the Department, bringing together the expertise and experience of both organisations.As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds and take precautions to avoid disruption, including when staff have been moved to work on the transition.
Pursuant to the Answers of 21 March 2025 to Question 38389 on NHS England and Question 38390 on NHS England: Redundancy Pay, if he will publish modelling outlining (a) how the short-term upfront costs will be recouped; and (b) in which financial year those costs will be recouped.
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the minimum tapered annual allowance on trends in the levels of extra work taken on by (a) GPs and (b) consultants.
From 6 April 2023, the standard annual allowance threshold increased from £40,000 to £60,000, giving individuals scope for greater tax-free pension growth. The tapered annual allowance further restricts the amount of tax-free pension saving available to the very wealthiest in society. The taper applies when taxable earnings reach £200,000.A range of factors may influence personal decisions around intentions to take on extra work, making it difficult to measure the unique impact of tax measures. There is no clear evidence from National Health Service payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime constrains the activity of the consultant workforce in aggregate. Given measurement difficulty, no assessment has been made on the impact of the annual allowance pension tax regime on general practice activity, or consultant activity at specialty level.Where NHS Pension Scheme members do incur annual allowance pension tax charges, these do not have to be met in the current tax year. The NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility through which individuals can ask the scheme to pay the tax on their behalf in exchange for a fair reduction in the generous pension benefits paid at retirement.
What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the annual allowance threshold on trends in the levels of extra work taken on by (a) GPs and (b) consultants.
From 6 April 2023, the standard annual allowance threshold increased from £40,000 to £60,000, giving individuals scope for greater tax-free pension growth. The tapered annual allowance further restricts the amount of tax-free pension saving available to the very wealthiest in society. The taper applies when taxable earnings reach £200,000.A range of factors may influence personal decisions around intentions to take on extra work, making it difficult to measure the unique impact of tax measures. There is no clear evidence from National Health Service payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime constrains the activity of the consultant workforce in aggregate. Given measurement difficulty, no assessment has been made on the impact of the annual allowance pension tax regime on general practice activity, or consultant activity at specialty level.Where NHS Pension Scheme members do incur annual allowance pension tax charges, these do not have to be met in the current tax year. The NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility through which individuals can ask the scheme to pay the tax on their behalf in exchange for a fair reduction in the generous pension benefits paid at retirement.
What the cost to the public purse is of staff being made redundant from NHS England.
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
If he will publish modelling outlining the estimated cost of staff being made redundant from NHS England.
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
Pursuant to the Answers of 21 March 2025 to Question 38389 on NHS England and Question 38390 on NHS England: Redundancy Pay, what the short-term upfront costs of integrating NHS England and his Department will be.
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
What estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the abolition of NHS England.
We recognise that there may be some short-term upfront costs as we undertake the integration of NHS England and the Department, but these costs and more will be recouped in future years as a result of a smaller, leaner centre. By the end of the process, we estimate that these changes will save hundreds of millions of pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline services.