Category: Questions

Oral & written questions in the Lords and Commons

Church Commissioners Written Questions: Church Repairs & Maintenance, Rural Areas, and Vandalism of Cemeteries in Jerusalem

Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs on 10th March 2023:

Jerome Mayhew MP (Con): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of local authority grant funding available to parish churches to upgrade their facilities.

Andrew Selous MP (Con): It is the view of the National Church Institutions that Local Authority and Parish Council grant funding is not being made available to parish churches on a consistent basis, due to a lack of clarity in interpretation of existing law, specifically the Local Government Acts 1894, 1972 and the Localism Act 2011.

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Bishop of Exeter asks about fruit and vegetable shortages in UK shops

The Bishop of Exeter received the following written answer on 10th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Exeter asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the causes of fruit and vegetable shortages in UK shops.

Lord Benyon (Con): The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response and is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.

Defra is closely monitoring markets and supply chains to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures, including requesting weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods affected to ensure we have the latest available data. We know that some supermarkets have applied item limits to a small number of fruit and vegetables due to poor weather affecting the harvest in Spain and North Africa, where a high proportion of produce consumed in UK at this time of year is grown.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about delivery of special educational needs policy

The Bishop of St Albans asked about government support for health, social care, and CAMHS services in response to the announcement of a new special educational needs plan on 9th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too thank His Majesty’s Government for the improvement plan. I commend what they are doing to try to get a much more integrated approach and some of the resources mentioned in the plan. However, I share the concern raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Twycross, about implementation. The stories I pick up from grass-roots situations in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, where I serve, show that there are still some very serious problems, and some children are now being failed immediately.

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Bishop of Exeter asks about poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran

The Bishop of Exeter asked about the potential of a fact finding mission to investigate the possible poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls on 9th March 2023, during a debate on reports that toxic chemical agents had been used against the schoolgirls by Iranian authorities:

The Lord Bishop of Exeter: My Lords, the production and utilisation of chemical warfare in civil and international conflicts is explicitly prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Iran is a signatory and a participating member. Will His Majesty’s Government commit to using this existing framework to advocate for the creation of a fact-finding mission by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons?

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Church Commissioner Questions: families, marriage, Lichfield, Nigeria

On 9th March 2023 MPs put questions to the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Andrew Selous MP, during his monthly question time in the House of Commons.

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Bishop of Leicester asks about households on pre-payment energy meters

The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 9th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government what proportion of eligible households on prepayment meters in (1) Leicester, and (2) Leicestershire, have redeemed their Energy Bills Support Scheme vouchers.

Lord Callanan (Con): The Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) for Great Britain publishes transparency data on gov.uk. These show that across October, November and December 2022, 71% of issued vouchers were redeemed in Leicester Local Authority (LA), and 76% in the LAs comprising the rest of Leicestershire. Full breakdown in the table below.

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Bishop of Leicester asks about impact of household support schemes

The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 9th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government whether they are evaluating the impacts of the various household support schemes delivered by county councils and unitary authorities.

Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con): Local Authorities have the local ties and knowledge, making them best placed to identify and help those most in need. County Councils are expected to work together with District Councils to provide support and to ensure the funding meets its objectives by identifying those most in need.

Authorities provide management information to DWP which has been used for all the various household support schemes to evaluate how successful The Fund has been in providing support to households.

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Bishop of Durham asks about protection for children arriving in the UK

The Bishop of Durham asked a question about protection for children and unaccompanied minors arriving in the UK on 8th March 2023, following the government’s announcement of the planned Illegal Migration Bill:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I return to the Statement, rather than the Bill, which we will spend hours debating in due course. There was a lot in this Statement that worried me, but what worried me even more was that there was no reference whatever to children, unaccompanied children and their protection in this whole process. Can the Minister comment on why nothing was said about that in the Statement?

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Bishop of London asks about career progression and gender pay gap for nurses

The Bishop of London asked a question on government support for career progression to senior positions in nursing, during a debate on the pay disparity between men and women on 8th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, in 2019 the Royal College of Nursing found that 90% of all nurses in the UK are women and that they fill less than a third of senior positions and earn on average 17% less than men. That is despite the fact that the Royal College of Nursing also noted that nursing is a gendered profession seen as a woman’s role. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that female nurses progress to senior positions?

Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con): I will talk to my colleagues in Health about that issue. I was not aware of it, but it is important and I will take it forward and come back to the right reverend Prelate.

Hansard

Bishop of St Albans asks about water quality improvement

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 8th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve water quality in Hertfordshire.

Lord Benyon (Con): Improving water quality remains a government priority. We have set new targets under the Environment Act to address major pressures on water. This will significantly reduce pollution from agriculture, wastewater treatment works and abandoned metal mines pollution.

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