The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), which was £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 financial year.

This includes qualifications in, or focusing on, British Sign Language (BSL) up to and including level 2. These qualifications include, for example, the Level 1 Award in BSL which allows learners to communicate in BSL on a range of topics that involve simple, everyday language use, thereby giving them the basic skills and confidence in production and reception of BSL.

About 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who determine which provision to fund for learners who live in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides the remaining funding for learners who live in non-devolved areas. Where community learning providers offer BSL courses, those providers are responsible for determining the course fees, including levels of fee remission.

There were 60 adult (19+) education and training learning aim enrolments in the 2021/22 academic year by learners living in Kent or Medway with ‘British Sign Language’ or ‘BSL’ in their aim title. In 2020/21, there were 35 enrolments and in 2019/20, there were 87. The department does not hold information as to whether the learners taking these aims have deaf children.

These figures do not correspond to learners, as learners may enrol on multiple aims. Additionally, these are funded adult (19+) education and training aim enrolments. This will include AEB-funded learning, as well as other funding provision, such as advanced learner loans.

On 20 January 2023, the Department announced that the first deliveries of defibrillators had taken place. More information on the announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defibrillator-deliveries-begin-for-all-schools-that-need-one.

Since this announcement, as part of the ongoing rollout, the Department has delivered over 3,500 defibrillators to state funded schools.

As of 12 April 2023, 98 defibrillators have been delivered to state funded schools in Kent and 31 to schools in Medway Local Authorities. All eligible schools in Kent and Medway are expected to receive a defibrillator by the end of the 2022/23 academic year. Schools will be contacted by the supplier, Lyreco, once their defibrillator has been dispatched.

The Department would again like to express thanks to Mark King and the Oliver King Foundation.

In 2021/22, 25% of buses in England outside of London were equipped to provide audio-visual information. We do not hold more granular information, such as statistics specific to Kent and Medway.

We plan to require the provision of audible and visible information on local bus and coach services across Great Britain and intend to introduce the Accessible Information Regulations.

We have allocated £3.55m to the Real Time Information Group, who will be supporting small operators with the upfront costs of the planned Regulations.

The 2021 National Bus Strategy requires all Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) outside London to produce Bus Service Improvement Plans. Our Guidance created to support LTAs with the development of these plans recommends that buses offer end to end accessibility, by for example, offering onboard accessible information.

We have also required buses funded through the government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme to provide audible and visible information as standard.

The Department, NHS England and NHS Improvement, and community pharmacy representative bodies will be working together to establish how community pharmacies’ role could be expanded further in the vaccination programme. This includes pharmacies in the Chatham and Aylesford constituency and the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group area.

The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support

The figures include those in temporary and hotel accommodation.

Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, local authorities in England are required to appoint one or more suitably qualified inspectors to inspect premises requiring licensing under the regulations, including those relating to dog breeding, pet selling, hiring out horses, animal exhibits and animal boarding. Local authorities appoint such inspectors using powers under section 51 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Local authority animal welfare inspectors also carry out inspections in relation to welfare in transport, on-farm welfare and, particularly in Kent, helping to tackle illegal imports of dogs. It is for local authorities, such as those within Kent, to determine how to prioritise their resources as well as the number of animal inspectors they appoint under the Animal Welfare Act. We do not hold data centrally on the number of inspectors appointed under the Act.

The figures requested are in the attached table. Figures are accurate as of 1^st January 2020.

NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care or in GP surgeries, local authorities or other providers.

The following table shows the number of nurses and health visitors, midwives and mental health staff as at September 2019, the latest available data at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Kent Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Medway NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Medway CCG and NHS West Kent CCG, full time equivalent (FTE).

Note:

CCGs are National Health Service bodies responsible for the planning and commissioning of health care services for their local area. They are made up of a governing body directly employed by the CCG and local general practitioner (GP) practice members within the area of the CCG.

The following table shows the number of doctors, nurses and other direct patient care staff employed in general practice as at September 2019 within the areas NHS Medway CCG and NHS West Kent CCG. These are in addition to those nurses employed directly by the CCG in the previous table. The figures presented include GP registrars and GP locums, FTE.

Note:

Figures shown here do not include general practice staff working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings. figures contain estimates, for practices that did not provide fully valid general medical practice GP, nurse or direct patient care staff records.

Air pollution is reducing in the UK, as set out in the annual National Statistics report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/air-quality-statistics

There are 169 national automatic monitoring stations in the UK, of which 2 stations are in Medway. Chatham Roadside measures hourly concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5); Rochester Stoke measures concentrations of ozone and sulphur dioxide in addition to these pollutants. Near real-time measurements from these sites and further data tools can be found on the UK-AIR website (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/).

There are no national automatic monitoring stations in Tonbridge and Malling or Maidstone.

All local authorities also carry out their own air quality monitoring activities and produce annual status reports on air quality within the local authority boundaries.

Each of the local authorities has air quality management areas which can be found online at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/aqma/maps

Councils have statutory duties to tackle air pollution and already have considerable powers.

Defra’s Air Quality Grant Programme provides funding to local authorities for projects in local communities to tackle air pollution and reduce emissions. The scheme has awarded over £60 million in funding to a variety of projects since it started in 1997 and over £3 million will be awarded this year.

We will bring forward provisions on air quality in 2019 in the forthcoming Environment Bill.

Air pollution is reducing in the UK, as set out in the annual National Statistics report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/air-quality-statistics

There are 169 national automatic monitoring stations in the UK, of which 2 stations are in Medway. Chatham Roadside measures hourly concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5); Rochester Stoke measures concentrations of ozone and sulphur dioxide in addition to these pollutants. Near real-time measurements from these sites and further data tools can be found on the UK-AIR website (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/).

There are no national automatic monitoring stations in Tonbridge and Malling or Maidstone.

All local authorities also carry out their own air quality monitoring activities and produce annual status reports on air quality within the local authority boundaries.

Each of the local authorities has air quality management areas which can be found online at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/aqma/maps

Councils have statutory duties to tackle air pollution and already have considerable powers.

Defra’s Air Quality Grant Programme provides funding to local authorities for projects in local communities to tackle air pollution and reduce emissions. The scheme has awarded over £60 million in funding to a variety of projects since it started in 1997 and over £3 million will be awarded this year.

We will bring forward provisions on air quality in 2019 in the forthcoming Environment Bill.

The number of adults receiving social care is collected by the health and social care information centre (HSCIC) as part of the referrals, assessments and packages of care (RAP) return. However, we are unable to provide data on the number of service users in Chatham and Aylesford as data are not collected at constituency level. Both Kent and Medway are local authority areas for which we are able to supply data.

Table 1 shows the number of and proportion of adults receiving social care in Kent and Medway local authority social service departments in 2011-12. Proportions of adults receiving social care are supplied as a percentage of all adults living within each area according to latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) population estimates.

Since the publication of the last National Otter Survey report covering 2009-10 otter signs have been found in Kent confirming that the species is now present throughout England. This demonstrates the slow but gradual recovery of otter populations over this period, moving from west to east.

It is currently not possible to estimate otter abundance from the quantity and distribution of otter signs and sightings. Research investigating the possibility of assessing numbers of otters from DNA or chemical analysis of spraint (otter faeces) is ongoing.

There are no plans to reintroduce otters into any county; they have returned naturally.

Since the publication of the last National Otter Survey report covering 2009-10 otter signs have been found in Kent confirming that the species is now present throughout England. This demonstrates the slow but gradual recovery of otter populations over this period, moving from west to east.

It is currently not possible to estimate otter abundance from the quantity and distribution of otter signs and sightings. Research investigating the possibility of assessing numbers of otters from DNA or chemical analysis of spraint (otter faeces) is ongoing.

There are no plans to reintroduce otters into any county; they have returned naturally.

It is not possible to provide the number of people receiving specialist alcohol interventions living in Tonbridge and Malling Unitary Authority or Chatham and Aylesford constituency. The number of 12 to 17-year-olds receiving specialist alcohol interventions in Kent and in Medway unitary authority is given in the following table.

Within these statistics, a young person's age is determined when they first start treatment or if they are already in treatment, at start of the year.

Young people and their treatment needs differ from adults. Very few young people develop dependency. Those who use drugs or alcohol problematically are

likely to be vulnerable and experiencing a range of problems, of which substance misuse is one.

The majority of young people accessing specialist alcohol interventions have problems that require psychosocial, harm reduction and family interventions, rather than treatment for addiction. Most young people need to engage with specialist alcohol interventions for a short period of time, often weeks, before continuing with further support elsewhere, within an integrated young people's care plan.