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  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which national homelessness prevention and reduction schemes received direct funding from central government (a) in 2015-16 to date and (b) in each financial year since 2009-10; and what the cost of these schemes to the public purse was in those years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Since 2010 we have invested over £500 million to enable local authorities and the voluntary sector to support those vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. Our initiatives have included funding:

    • Crisis – £14 million funding to support their Access to Private Rented Sector scheme, which has helped created 10,000 tenancies.
    • Homeless Link – over £30 million, £20 million of which went to their Homelessness Transitional Fund, which provided support to 115 areas to ensure that more rough sleepers are found quicker and given the help they need.
    • Help for Single Homelessness Fund – £8 million to help improve local authority support for 22,000 single homeless people.

    The Government has provided £470 million funding for homelessness prevention over the last Spending Review period. Salford City Council was allocated the following amounts based on the homelessness prevention funding formula within the Local Government Finance Settlement:

    • 2014-2015: £70,591
    • 2015-2016: £70,319
  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much central government funding has been allocated to programmes in (a) Salford City Council and (b) Salford and Eccles constituency to reduce and prevent homelessness in (i) 2014-15 and (ii) 2015-16 to date.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness. We have protected the homelessness prevention funding local authorities receive, totalling £315 million by 2019-20. This builds on the Spending Review commitment to increase central government funding to £139 million over the next four years. We will work with homelessness organisations to consider other options, including legislation, to ensure those at risk of homelessness get earlier and more effective support.

    Funding is allocated at a local authority level. Salford City Council was allocated the following amounts based on the homelessness prevention funding formula within the Local Government Finance Settlement:

    – 2014-2015: £70,591

    – 2015-2016: £70,319

  • Drew Hendry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Drew Hendry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Drew Hendry on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what provisions the UK has adopted to comply with the new EU directive on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks; and how the UK plans to apply that directive in relation to new build homes.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    DCMS is responsible for transposing the EU Broadband Cost Reduction Directive, and will produce regulations to ensure the Directive comes into force by 1 July 2016. The Directive will ensure that public communications networks can request information about a broad range of physical infrastructure that may be suitable for rolling out networks, and can request access to such infrastructure on fair and reasonable terms. There will also be enhanced transparency of planned civil works and a requirement to coordinate works funded through public means.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to how many (a) ducts and (b) poles built with BDUK funding BT is (i) obliged and (ii) not obliged to give Wholesale Open Access to other communication providers under the terms of the BDUK state aid permission.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    BT and the other suppliers with funding from BDUK are obliged to provide wholesale access to all new ducts and poles built using the public subsidy, in line with the requirements of the BDUK European State aid approval.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department have had with (i) James Murdoch and (ii) representatives from Sky UK Limited in each year since 2012.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Details of Ministers’ and Senior Civil Servants’ meetings with external organisations, including senior media figures, are published routinely and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications on Gov.uk.

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  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had with counterparts in the Cabinet Office on the privatisation of Channel 4 in each year since 2010.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Ministers and officials regularly meet with counterparts in other departments to discuss a range of issues. Historic records of internal government meetings are not kept.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, by when he expects all households and businesses to have access to fibre optic broadband.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government will launch a public consultation early next year in preparation for the implementation of a new broadband Universal Service Obligation by 2020, with the ambition to give people the legal right to request a connection to broadband with speeds of 10 Mbps, no matter where in the country they live. Almost 90% of households and businesses in the UK currently have access to superfast broadband – and we are on target for this to reach 95% by the end of 2017.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost is of subsidising satellite broadband to a further one per cent of premises; and how much of that cost will be borne by each of the superfast broadband programmes.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The government is making available a subsidy of up to £400 for each installation of satellite broadband in premises which are currently unable to access a broadband speed of at least 2Mbps throughout 2016 and 2017. The total cost of the scheme will depend on the level of demand.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the total annual cost to the UK economy of broadband connections that do not reach Ofcom’s acceptable minimum speed of 10Mbit/s.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The economic benefits of broadband are clear – and that is why we have done and invested more that ever since 2010 than ever to ensure that 95% of homes and businesses right across the UK will have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2017. The benefits are supported by SQW Consulting’s UK Broadband impact study in 2013 estimated that the availability and take-up of faster broadband speeds will add about £17 billion to the UK’s annual Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2024.

    In November, the Prime Minister announced our ambition to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) at 10 Mbps. This new broadband USO will give people the legal right to request an affordable broadband connection from a designated provider, up to a reasonable cost threshold, no matter where they live. We will be consulting on these proposals shortly.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises in Essex that will have access to superfast broadband by completion of phase two of the superfast broadband programme.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    By the end of phase two of the Superfast Broadband Programme approximately 93% of homes and businesses in Essex will have access to superfast broadband.