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1564329

	registered interest
	date	06/01/2023
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Buses: Exhaust Emissions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many new net zero emission buses were funded by his Department in the last five years; what the power source was for those buses; and how many and what proportion of those buses were manufactured in the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	117446
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2023 answer text <p>We have committed to funding 4,000 zero emission buses (ZEBs) this Parliament. Across the UK an estimated 3,250 ZEBs have been funded so far.</p><p> </p><p>Between financial years 2018-19 to 2022-23 the Department for Transport has provided funding for 2,594 zero emission buses. The number of buses ordered and delivered may change following the outcome of procurement processes undertaken by local transport authorities or bus operators.</p><p> </p><p>Table 1 below presents the number of zero emission buses funded between financial years 2018-19 to 2022-23.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Number of Zero Emission Buses</p></td><td><p>Number of Battery Electric Buses</p></td><td><p>Number of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Buses</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>76</p></td><td><p><del class="ministerial">43 </del> <ins class="ministerial">33</ins></p></td><td><p><del class="ministerial">33 </del> <ins class="ministerial">43</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019-20</p></td><td><p>27</p></td><td><p>27</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020-21</p></td><td><p>556</p></td><td><p>556</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021-22</p></td><td><p>1298</p></td><td><p>1154</p></td><td><p>144</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022-23</p></td><td><p>100</p></td><td><p>100</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>TCF 2018-19 to 2022-23*</p></td><td><p>46</p></td><td><p>46</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>London 2020-21 to 2022-23**</p></td><td><p>491</p></td><td><p>491</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>2594</p></td><td><p>2417</p></td><td><p>177</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>*46 zero emission busses were funded through the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) between financial years 2018-19 to 2022-23.</p><p>**491 zero emission buses were introduced in London in financial years 2020-21 to 2022-23 as a result of Department for Transport funding to Transport for London.</p><p> </p><p>Table 2 provides information, where available, on the bus manufacturer of these zero emission buses.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Bus Manufacturer</p></td><td><p>Number of Zero Emission Buses</p></td><td><p>Percentage of Zero Emission Buses</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Alexander Dennis Ltd</p></td><td><p>436</p></td><td><p>17%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Wrightbus</p></td><td><p>188</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Switch Mobility</p></td><td><p>26</p></td><td><p>1%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Volvo</p></td><td><p>6</p></td><td><p>0%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Supplied by Pelican Bus &amp; Coach UK and manufactured by Yutong</p></td><td><p>221</p></td><td><p>9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Supplied by Harris Group and manufactured by Higer</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>0%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Information not held by the Department</p></td><td><p>491</p></td><td><p>19%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bus manufacturer subject to outcome of procurement process by local transport authority or bus operator</p></td><td><p>1223</p></td><td><p>47%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>2594</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency North West Durham answering member printed Mr Richard Holden question first answered 16/01/2023 16:35:59 question first ministerially corrected 01/02/2023 09:22:39 answering member 4813 label Biography information for Mr Richard Holden previous answer version 47109 answering member constituency North West Durham answering member printed Mr Richard Holden answering member 4813 label Biography information for Mr Richard Holden
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1564330

	registered interest
	date	06/01/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Probate
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probate cases are under consideration in England; and what proportion of those cases have been waiting for a decision for six weeks or more.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	117447
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2023 answer text <p><ins class="ministerial">There were 53,253 probate cases in the Open Caseload<sup>1</sup> as at 31 December. Of those 30,656 were more than 6 weeks old<sup>1</sup>. Of the cases over six weeks old 13,536 were stopped, 7,247 were awaiting documentation and 9,873 were ready to progress.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial"><sup>1 </sup>Data as at 31 December in line the official published stats. The administration of probate applications is dealt with as a national service, covering England and Wales. The open caseload excludes cases older than 6 months.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial"><sup>2</sup>The time outstanding is counted from the application submission date recorded in the case management system, except for digital applications with a Will, where the date of receipt of the original Will by HMCTS is used.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">This data is management Information. The management information presented in this table reflects what is recorded on relevant case-management systems on the date of extraction. The case management systems are continually updated and so the information presented will differ from previously published information. Management information can differ from the quality assured MOJ official statistics, which form the agreed definitive position. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.</ins></p><p><del class="ministerial">The total amount of unassessed probate cases where evidence has been received to enable a case to be assessed is 12,923.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">4805 of these cases are over 6 weeks since the date the evidence was received.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">In addition, there are 38,245 cases which are either waiting for evidence, such as the original will, to arrive, are subject to a legal hold following an application from another party or have been stopped due to an error or missing documentation and are waiting for a response from the applicant.</del></p><p>HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.</p><p>The improvement of the online probate system remains a priority for HMCTS, to ensure more applications can be issued first time and resources can be focused on reducing waiting times.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 16/01/2023 17:38:53 question first ministerially corrected 25/04/2023 12:20:11 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer previous answer version 47244 answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1176560

	registered interest
	date	05/02/2020
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Highways England: Pay
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff at Highways England received a salary of more than £100,000 in the last financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	12867
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/02/2020 answer text <p>Highways England employed 61 staff on a base salary of £100,000 or more in <ins class="ministerial">2018-19</ins> <del class="ministerial">2019-20</del>. I have committed in the House to addressing this issue.</p> answering member constituency Welwyn Hatfield answering member printed Grant Shapps question first answered 14/02/2020 14:58:25 question first ministerially corrected 12/03/2020 10:33:24 answering member 1582 label Biography information for Grant Shapps previous answer version 7123 answering member constituency Welwyn Hatfield answering member printed Grant Shapps answering member 1582 label Biography information for Grant Shapps
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1716927

	registered interest
	date	09/05/2024
	answering body	House of Commons Commission
	answering dept id	18
	answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
	answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
	hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, for what reason the Polycom phone system malfunctioned on 9 May 2024.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	25405
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>I am sorry that the right hon. Member and all colleagues continue to experience inconvenience in telephony services which are currently below standard. The latest issue with handsets underlines the need for the solution which the Parliamentary Digital Service is implementing later this year.</p><p>Polycom devices need to communicate with an external supplier to register the device and make/receive calls. Each device communicates with one of two external servers. One of the servers experienced issues on Thursday 9 May and any device that attempted to connect to this server was impacted by the outage. Polycom phones communicating with the working server did not experience an outage.</p><p>The first report the Digital Service received of handsets not working was at 12.13pm on Thursday 9 May. The team declared a major incident shortly afterwards and service was restored at 9.46am on 10 May.</p><p>The Voice Programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure and when implemented, handsets will have 99.999% reliability of connecting.</p> answering member constituency Broxbourne answering member printed Sir Charles Walker question first answered 15/05/2024 14:11:41 answering member 1493 label Biography information for Sir Charles Walker
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1714722

	registered interest
	date	29/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to remove access to benefits for people sentenced to be held in secure mental health facilities.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	23974
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/05/2024 answer text <p>The DWP Secretary of State has asked officials to look into the rules around benefits entitlements for offenders who are detained in psychiatric hospitals.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 08/05/2024 15:08:42 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1713405

	registered interest
	date	24/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Department for Work and Pensions: Departmental Responsibilities
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many hon. Members he has held meetings on constituency cases with since his appointment.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	23370
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Information on meetings on constituency cases is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Information on ministerial meetings can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-ministers-hospitality-and-gifts" target="_blank">DWP ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 29/04/2024 16:38:12 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1712710

	registered interest
	date	22/04/2024
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Members: Correspondence
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to reply to the letter of 12 February 2024 from the Rt hon. Member for Warley.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	22840
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The letter was transferred to the Home Office from the Department for Business and Trade on 18 April. We are considering the matters raised and will respond shortly.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 29/04/2024 15:51:31 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1701365

	registered interest
	date	16/04/2024
	answering body	House of Commons Commission
	answering dept id	18
	answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
	answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
	hansard heading	House of Commons: Telephone Systems
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, what assessment the Commission has made of the level of performance of the Polycom phone system.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	21872
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2024 answer text <p>The performance of the current telephony system is not good enough and is falling short of reasonable expectation. The Parliamentary Digital Service is working hard with our suppliers and technology partners to bring the level of service up to an acceptable standard. A new solution has been procured and will be implemented later this year. I apologise to the right hon. Member and all colleagues for the inconvenience they are experiencing.</p> answering member constituency Broxbourne answering member printed Sir Charles Walker question first answered 26/04/2024 15:18:15 answering member 1493 label Biography information for Sir Charles Walker
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1700017

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Defence
	answering dept id	11
	answering dept short name	Defence
	answering dept sort name	Defence
	hansard heading	Defence: Nuclear Engineering
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the number of graduate nuclear (a) engineers and (b) scientists required for the military nuclear programme.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	20860
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>As announced in the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) Command Paper: Delivering the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent as a National Endeavor, the Department is investing to increase its intake of nuclear sector graduates by an additional 2,000 personnel over the next four years.</p><p>Of these 2,000, over 1,600 are for the DNE, with up to 70% of these graduates expected to join in engineering posts with the remainder in a range of supporting professions such as science (including physics, material science, nuclear science), commercial and finance.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 22/04/2024 15:23:33 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1697795

	registered interest
	date	21/03/2024
	answering body	Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
	answering dept id	90
	answering dept short name	Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
	answering dept sort name	Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
	hansard heading	Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, what assessment the Committee has made of the effectiveness of the handling of MPs expenses claims by IPSA.
	tabling member constituency	Warley
	tabling member printed	John Spellar
	uin	19774
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2024 answer text <p>The Speaker’s Committee meets IPSA throughout the year to assess its performance, running costs and effectiveness in handling MPs’ expenses. The Committee last met IPSA on 5 March 2024 and a transcript of that session is available on the Committee’s website: <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/14403/pdf/" target="_blank">https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/14403/pdf/</a></p><p>In 2023, 65.3 per cent of MPs and their staff rated IPSA’s service as either good or very good, which was up on this measure in 2019 when 25.1 per cent rated the service in that way. The time taken for IPSA to reimburse MPs’ claims has reduced from an average of 8 days in 2020-21 to 2.6 days in 2023-24. Compliance with IPSA’s scheme is currently at 99.9%.</p><p>Through its scrutiny of IPSA, the Committee is looking at the steps being taken by IPSA to help improve its effectiveness in enabling MPs and their staff to claim for expenses and business costs. IPSA’s ongoing work includes:</p><ul><li>the development of an IPSA online portal to enhance the customer experience by improving the functionality of the system in areas such as claim and form submission;</li><li>the greater provision of centralised services, reducing the financial and administrative burden on MPs and their staff through the centralised provision of goods and services such as constituency office leases, utilities, and equipment;</li><li>the piloting of an online marketplace, allowing MPs and their staff to purchase goods such as office equipment centrally; and</li><li>exploration of alternative models of reimbursement, enabling MPs and their staff to pay for business costs without the need to claim retrospectively.</li></ul><p>The Committee plans to consider IPSA’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2023-24 later in the summer at which point it will assess IPSA’s latest results against its performance indicators.</p> answering member constituency Broxbourne answering member printed Sir Charles Walker question first answered 26/03/2024 10:33:05 answering member 1493 label Biography information for Sir Charles Walker
	tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar