Every parliamentary written question tabled by Siân Berry this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 381–398 of 398 · this parliament
What steps she is taking to (a) monitor and (b) maintain standards of police conduct.
Policing is subject to a highly regulated police complaints and disciplinary system, which includes oversight responsibilities for both local policing bodies and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The Government has committed to strengtheni...
If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of prosecution under Section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006 of (a) social media platforms and (b) their owners for facilitating (i) the dissemination of terrorist materials and (ii) incitements to terrorism by far right groups.
Section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006 contains offences relating to the sale and other dissemination of books and other publications, including material on the internet by an individual, that encourage people to engage in terrorism, or provide information that could be useful to terrorists. Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 also provides a power for a constable to, in certain circumstances, give a notice to a person that a statement, article or record is unlawfully terrorism-related.It is a matter for the police to consider whether to open a criminal investigation into an offence. It is then for the Crown Prosecution Service to make a charging decision. Both the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service are independent of Government.
If she will make it her policy to repeal the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022
Certain sections of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 are currently being reviewed by the Government in line with commitments made in Parliament when the Act was passed. In addition, the entirety of the Act will be subject to post-legislative parliamentary scrutiny. This usually occurs between 3 and 5 years after Royal Assent.
Whether she plans to appoint a new anti-corruption champion.
The government is considering a range of appointments following the election. When there are appointments to announce, this will be done in the usual way.
For what reason the 2024-25 pay award does not apply to teachers in (a) sixth form and (b) further education colleges; and if she will make it her policy to apply the award to those teachers.
Further education (FE) providers are not in scope of the School Teacher Review Body’s remit. The government neither sets nor makes recommendations about FE teacher pay, and it is instead the responsibility of individual colleges to make awards in line with their own local circumstances. The fiscal situation that the government has inherited means that it has had to take incredibly difficult decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. However, I can assure you that this government knows the very important contribution of sectors where pay is not currently set by a Pay Review Body, including FE. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce a Budget on 30 October, to be followed by a multi-year spending review in Spring 2025. Decisions about future post-16 funding and capital programmes will be subject to the outcomes of these fiscal events. The department will continue with plans to invest in FE teachers, as part of the c.£600 million funding across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years that was announced last autumn. This includes extending retention payments of up to £6,000 after tax to eligible early career FE teachers in key subject areas. We will also work with the FE sector to recruit 6,500 additional teachers across schools and colleges to raise standards for children and young people.
How many students took the (a) BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Business and (b) WJEC Level 3 Applied Diploma in Criminology in (i) Brighton and Hove and (ii) the UK in the 2023-24 academic year; and whether students will be able to enrol on these courses in the 2025-26 academic year.
The full-year participation data for the 2023/24 academic year is expected to be available in November 2024. After this point the department will be in a position to provide additional breakdowns. Regarding student enrolment for the 2025/26 academic year, on 24 July 2024 the Secretary of State announced that the department is conducting a short, internal review of Post-16 qualifications reform at Level 3 and below. Defunding decisions for 2025 onwards will be confirmed after the short review and we will set out the position before the end of December 2024.
If she will bring forward legislative proposals to set conditions for and regulate the use and deployment of live facial recognition technology by police forces in England and Wales.
Live facial technology is already being used effectively by some police forces to identify suspects more quickly and accurately.Its use is governed by data protection, equality, and human rights legislation supplemented by specific policing guidance.
When she plans to publish an updated Road Safety Statement; and whether that update will include a Vision Zero approach.
The Government has announced that it intends to publish a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade. Work is already underway on this and further details will be set out in due course.
Media and Sport, if she will publish the (a) revenue and (b) capital funding provided by each government department for youth work in England and Wales in each financial year since2010-11.
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. In England, since 2010, DCMS has directly provided over £1.5 billion to the youth sector - mainly through three large programmes: MyPlace (capital); National Citizen Service (revenue) and the Youth Investment Fund (capital and revenue).Over the current Spending Review Period, DCMS is investing £500 million of revenue and capital funding in youth services to deliver the National Youth Guarantee. This is in addition to revenue funding provided through DCMS Public Bodies, such as Sport England, Arts Council England and the National Lottery Community Fund, and other government departments. We do not hold the breakdown of youth work funding from other government departments.As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. Details of all Local Authorities’ annual spending on youth services in England can be found in Section 251 data published on gov.uk.The devolved administration of Wales is responsible for their own youth services and we do not hold the data requested.
How much (a) revenue and (b) capital funding her Department has provided for (i) walking, (ii) cycling, (iii) healthy and safer streets, (iv) disabled access and (v) other ways to support active travel in England in each financial year since 2010-11.
The table below outlines Departmental funding for active travel for the period 2011/12 to 2023/24. It is not possible to disaggregate this into separate amounts for walking, cycling, healthy streets and so forth. Comparable data for 2010/11 is unavailable. The figures do not include funding from wider sources within the Department such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) or the Levelling Up Fund. YearCapital(£ million)Revenue(£ million)Combined*(£ million)2011-123964542012-137259542013-1413163542014-155054542015-167457542016-17434402017-18723002018-19293602019-2033702020-2118711802021-222057402022-232007302023-2454580 *Local Sustainable Transport Fund including wider sustainable transport spend.
Communities and Local Government , if she will make an estimate of the real-terms value of the total of discounts claimed under Right to Buy in each local authority in England and Wales in each year since 1989.
The total amount of Right to Buy discounts per local authority from 2011-12 onwards is available in Section B of the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS) available here Local authority housing data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), with the latest data included in the LAHS open data Local Authority Housing Statistics open data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).Discounts data prior to 2011-12 are not available by local authority. At England level, the average discount from 1998-99 is available in live table 682 Live tables on social housing sales - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)Figures are not available for earlier periods.
Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing councils with grants to buy homes from the market to convert the tenure of these homes to council housing.
The Government will support councils and housing associations to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply. As a first step, we have given councils the ability to combine Right to Buy receipts with section 106 contributions and removed the caps on the percentage of replacements delivered as acquisitions and the percentage cost of a replacement home that can be funded using Right to Buy receipts. These flexibilities will be in place for an initial 24 months, subject to review. We encourage councils to make the best use of these flexibilities and to achieve a good balance between acquisitions and new builds. We have also confirmed the third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund will be going ahead, with £450 million to councils to acquire and deliver homes for families at risk of homelessness.
Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Right to Buy and associated discounts on the value for money of grant spending on new council housing through the Affordable Housing Programme.
Local authorities can bid for grant funding through the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) to support delivery of affordable homes. If a home built using AHP grant is sold via the Right to Buy, then the local authority must either recycle the relevant grant or return it to Homes England or the Greater London Authority so that it can be used for another permitted purpose, including the delivery of new homes. These requirements ensure that grant issued through the AHP is used efficiently and in a way that secures value for money. As such, we have not made a specific assessment as outlined in the question.The Government is undertaking a rapid review of the increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012 and will bring forward more detail and secondary legislation this Autumn. We will also review the Right to Buy more widely, including looking at eligibility criteria and protections for new homes and will bring forward a consultation in the Autumn.
If he will make an estimate of the percentage change in real terms of the average cost per kilometre to an individual of travelling by (a) private car, (b) bus, (c) train and (d) domestic aeroplane since (i) 1997, (ii) 2010, (iii) 2015, (iv) 2017 and (v) 2019.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon Lady’s Parliamentary Question of 30/07/24 is attached.
Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the value for money of grant spending on new council housing through the Affordable Housing Programme.
The Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) receives bids from housing associations and local authorities. Our delivery partners, the GLA and Homes England, assess the viability of these against criteria set out in the internal programme evaluation. The National Audit Office conducted a value for money assessment for the AHP 21-26 and published this in on their website in September 2022.
Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the amount held by each (a) council and (b) other planning authority in unspent Section 106 and developer contributions towards affordable housing..
Local planning authorities are required to publish an infrastructure funding statement annually on their websites. These should include information on the amount of unspent developer contributions they hold at the end of each reporting year and the amount spent during the year, including on affordable housing.
If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) available (a) in pharmacies and (b) from an online service.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a priority for the Government, and we will commission a new plan to end new HIV transmissions within England by 2030. As part of our work in developing a new plan, we will explore options for ensuring equity and equal access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for all communities, including those across different risk, demographic, and geographic groups. We will also explore opportunities to deliver PrEP in settings outside of sexual health services, to improve access and equity, including considering online PrEP provision and PrEP in pharmacies.
What steps he is taking to ensure communities have equal access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) across different (a) risk, (b) demographic and (c) geographic groups.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a priority for the Government, and we will commission a new plan to end new HIV transmissions within England by 2030. As part of our work in developing a new plan, we will explore options for ensuring equity and equal access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for all communities, including those across different risk, demographic, and geographic groups. We will also explore opportunities to deliver PrEP in settings outside of sexual health services, to improve access and equity, including considering online PrEP provision and PrEP in pharmacies.