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1584442

registered interest
date	06/02/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Apprentices and Vocational Education: Solihull
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) degree apprenticeships and (b) higher technical education in Solihull.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	140184
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/02/2023 answer text <p>Employers have designed over 155 high-quality degree level apprenticeship standards to support them to develop the skilled workforces they need. The department is working to expand these opportunities, so they are accessible to people across England, including in Solihull.</p><p>The department is making up to £8 million available in the 2022/23 financial year to higher education institutions through the Strategic Priorities Grant to enable them to grow provision and form new employer partnerships.</p><p>The department is promoting apprenticeships at all levels, including degree level, to young people through the Apprenticeship Support &amp; Knowledge (ASK) programme. ASK ensures students across England are aware of the benefits of apprenticeships. From this autumn, UCAS will expand their service so that young people can see more personalised options, including apprenticeships. From 2024, students will be able to apply for apprenticeships through UCAS alongside an undergraduate degree application. This means thousands of more young people will benefit from a wider choice of high-quality options, and employers can benefit from better access to talent on UCAS.</p><p>The department has worked with employers across the country to help them showcase higher and degree level apprenticeship vacancies. During National Apprenticeship Week, we published a listing featuring hundreds of vacancies that are available for people to apply for now, including in the West Midlands. This listing is available at: <a href="https://amazingapprenticeships.com/app/uploads/2022/11/Higher-Degree-Listing-FEB-2023.pdf" target="_blank">https://amazingapprenticeships.com/app/uploads/2022/11/Higher-Degree-Listing-FEB-2023.pdf</a>.</p><p>The department is delivering reforms to improve higher technical education, including by investing £300 million to establish 21 Institutes of Technology (IoT) across the country. IoTs are collaborations between employers, colleges and universities that focus on the higher level science, technology, engineering and mathematics skill needs of employers and learners. The department used £9 million of the capital funding to support the creation of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull IoT. This IoT opened in 2020 and delivers higher technical education in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors.</p><p>The department has introduced Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). HTQs are level 4 to 5 qualifications providing the skills demanded in the workplace by employers. Solihull College &amp; University Centre, as part of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull IoT, received funding through the Higher Technical Education Growth Fund in 2022 to support the rollout of HTQs.</p><p>The department is also introducing T Levels at Level 3, which provide a high quality route into Higher Technical Education. Solihull College and University Centre offer T Levels in Digital, and Solihull Sixth Form College will offer T Levels in Education and Childcare from September this year.</p> answering member constituency Harlow answering member printed Robert Halfon question first answered 14/02/2023 12:21:40 answering member 3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1584443

registered interest
date	06/02/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Crime Prevention: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of (a) multi-agency partnerships and (b) government-funded programmes on reducing serious violence.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	140185
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2023 answer text <p><br>The Home Office's primary means of investing in multi-agency partnerships to reduce serious violence since 2019 has been the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme.</p><p>Since 2019, the Home Office has invested up to £170m into the development of now 20 (18 until 2022/23) VRUs in the areas worst affected by serious violence in England and Wales. VRUs bring together local partners to understand the drivers of serious violence in their area and in response they deliver a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert young people away from a life of crime.</p><p>The Home Office has also invested up to £170m since 2019 into the 'Grip' (formerly Surge) hotspot policing programme, which uses data to identify the top violence hotspots and target police activity in those areas. This work is complemented by 'problem-solving' policing interventions aimed at tackling the long-term causes of serious violence affecting specific locations.</p><p>An independent evaluator (Ecorys / Ipsos MORI) has carried out yearly evaluations to assess both the impact that the combination of VRU and Grip funding has had, as well as how successfully the VRU model has been implemented. The findings of this evaluation have been published, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/violence-reduction-units-year-ending-march-2022-evaluation-report/violence-reduction-units-year-ending-march-2022-evaluation-report.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 13/02/2023 11:25:04 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1584444

registered interest
date	06/02/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Hospitals: Vulnerable Adults
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what impact his Department’s delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services will have on keeping vulnerable people out of hospital.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	140186
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/02/2023 answer text <p>The delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services was published on 30 January and contains a number of interventions to expand care outside of hospital. This includes improving the use of urgent community response, scaling up falls and frailty services, and expanding virtual wards so that more people can receive high-quality care from their own home.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 14/02/2023 09:30:00 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1584446

registered interest
date	06/02/2023
answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept id	216
answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
hansard heading	Technology: New Businesses
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the growth of regional technology (a) start-ups and (b) scale-ups.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	140188
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/02/2023 answer text <p>We are proud that the UK’s start up and scale up tech ecosystem was recently valued at over £1 trillion and that the UK is only the third country in the world to have a tech sector reach this valuation. We are committed to ensuring the benefits and growth of the tech sector are felt in all corners of the country.</p><p>We are supporting businesses across the UK through investment. The £12 million Digital Growth Grant will continue to support companies across the UK to access finance and business advice through tailored growth programmes and events. In addition, the £2.6 billion UKSPF fund encourages areas across the UK to consider interventions to support and grow their local tech ecosystems.</p><p>Tailored support and localised interventions will be important to successful economic growth across the regions. We published a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/assessing-the-uks-regional-digital-ecosystems" target="_blank">Regional Tech Ecosystems report</a>, which identified several regions as digital and tech growth hubs across the UK and aims to better understand the drivers of growth at a local level.</p><p>Government engagement with the tech community is one of the key levers used to understand the needs of the sector, whilst also promoting the sector's success. Ministers engage frequently with the sector through roundtable discussions and bilaterals to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing growth, such as those conducted whilst developing our Digital Strategy. From a promotional perspective, Ministers often proactively engage with regional tech events, such as Birmingham Tech Week, and utilise the Department’s convening power to highlight the importance of regional investment. The department’s communication strategies further champion the regional ecosystems through promotion of regional success stories to a national and international audience.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Sutton and Cheam answering member printed Paul Scully question first answered 16/02/2023 12:04:33 answering member 4414 label Biography information for Paul Scully
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1584449

registered interest
date	06/02/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Environment Protection
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to restore nature and improve environmental quality as part of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	140190
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/02/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to leaving the environment in a better state than we found it and halting and reversing nature’s decline. Five years ago, the 25 Year Environment Plan set out our vision for a quarter-of-a-century of action to help the natural world regain and retain good health.  Since then, we have laid the foundations for the future. We passed the Environment Act which sets ambitious legally-binding, long-term targets to restore nature. Now, we are building on the vision with our Environmental Improvement Plan 2023, which details a delivery plan for each of our ten goals, matched with stretching interim targets to measure progress. This includes our apex goal of improving nature and apex target of halting species decline by 2030.</p><p> </p><p>Taking action across our environmental goals will help us restore nature, tackle environmental pollution, and increase the prosperity of our country.</p> answering member constituency Copeland answering member printed Trudy Harrison question first answered 14/02/2023 15:53:37 answering member 4593 label Biography information for Trudy Harrison
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1584451

registered interest
date	06/02/2023
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Public Sector: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using new technology such as artificial intelligence to find and prevent fraud across the public sector.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	140192
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/02/2023 answer text <p>The Cabinet Office’s Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) is investing in new technologies that will increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to detect and prevent fraud. This includes the use of predictive analytics, a field of AI, that uses supervised machine learning techniques to predict the likelihood of fraud within a given area of spending.</p><p>For example a recent Cabinet Office contract award to build a Single Network Analytics Platform for the public sector, features AI and ML capabilities. This platform is for use by public bodies to access data that will help them identify fraud and actors who present a threat.</p><p>The PSFA’s approach is to ‘test and learn’ and to carefully apply AI and ML where appropriate, each time proving its merits, and then expanding where a viable use case exists.</p> answering member constituency Horsham answering member printed Jeremy Quin question first answered 15/02/2023 10:58:46 answering member 4507 label Biography information for Sir Jeremy Quin
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1582872

registered interest
date	01/02/2023
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media: Disinformation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support social media companies in tackling fake news on their platforms.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	137893
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2023 answer text <p>The DCMS Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) works to understand the scope, scale and reach of disinformation in the UK and works with social media platforms to tackle it.</p><p>The Government regularly meets with a range of social media platforms to aid our understanding of the spread of misinformation and disinformation on their services, including new and emerging narratives, and the range of steps they are taking to address this. This work includes encouraging platforms to ensure that their Terms of Service (ToS), policies and enforcement are fit for purpose, whilst still respecting freedom of expression. The primary purpose of the team is not to spot every instance of disinformation across all social media platforms. However, when the team does identify particular pieces of harmful content which may violate platforms’ Terms of Service, these are referred to the relevant platform for consideration, who in turn decide what action to take.</p><p>Under the Online Safety Bill, all social media companies subject to the safety duties will be required to take measures to remove illegal misinformation and disinformation once they become aware of it. The Foreign Interference Offence, brought forward in the National Security Bill, will also be designated a priority offence requiring companies to take proactive action against state-sponsored disinformation that is of most concern.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Sutton and Cheam answering member printed Paul Scully question first answered 07/02/2023 16:59:13 answering member 4414 label Biography information for Paul Scully
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1581845

registered interest
date	30/01/2023
answering body	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept id	211
answering dept short name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept sort name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
hansard heading	Housing: Construction
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to encourage local authorities to adopt housing estates from planning developers more promptly.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	135286
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2023 answer text <p>Where a road is offered for adoption, the Highways Authority will assess whether the road has been constructed to the correct standard and will make a decision whether or not to adopt the road.</p><p>The maintenance of a highway is a significant financial burden and a local highway authority must be satisfied that any roads it chooses to adopt, are sufficiently robust and built to the correct standards, to ensure its risks and liabilities are reduced so far as practicable.</p><p>The Department for Transport has issued an advice note to councils to help them navigate some of the complexities surrounding new developments and the adoption, maintenance and upkeep of roads. This includes recommending early engagement with the relevant highway authority, to help facilitate an easier adoption process. The advice note is available <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1095577%2Fadvice-note-highways-adoption.pdf&amp;data=05%7C01%7CParliamentary%40levellingup.gov.uk%7C52658b46b15f402c7a1908db08f9ef0d%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C638113641763366842%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=EewXz9WJyIW8lWqy7d2CKp7jHw8EQQ70pAfd0LPBrf4%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 07/02/2023 11:15:17 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1581953

registered interest
date	30/01/2023
answering body	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept id	211
answering dept short name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept sort name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
hansard heading	Levelling Up Fund
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the impact of inflation on infrastructure projects funded through round one of the Levelling Up Fund.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	135325
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2023 answer text <p>We continue to support successful Levelling Up Fund round 1 projects and have put in place a proportionate project adjustment process. We will work with local areas to find practical solutions and make sensible adjustments to the scope and phasing of projects to mitigate delivery challenges including cost inflation whilst also maintaining value for money.</p><p>We have also agreed a £65 million package of support for successful applicants, to help ensure they have the necessary capacity and capability to deliver their projects.</p> answering member constituency Bishop Auckland answering member printed Dehenna Davison question first answered 07/02/2023 17:11:31 answering member 4737 label Biography information for Dehenna Davison
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1581957

registered interest
date	30/01/2023
answering body	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept id	211
answering dept short name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept sort name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
hansard heading	Levelling Up Fund
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when his Department plans to provide feedback to local authorities who were unsuccessful in round two of the Levelling Up Fund.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	135326
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2023 answer text <p>I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fquestions-statements.parliament.uk%2Fwritten-questions%2Fdetail%2F2023-01-23%2F129836&amp;data=05%7C01%7CParliamentary%40levellingup.gov.uk%7C5de7904299ee462667f708db090b3597%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C638113715964298072%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=4bDOfq1cAllGpun3jdbSxTGUSkMwWfhAHrRcE1Y6ZMo%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">129836</a> on 26 January 2023.</p> answering member constituency Bishop Auckland answering member printed Dehenna Davison question first answered 07/02/2023 17:11:59 answering member 4737 label Biography information for Dehenna Davison
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight