The core Northern Forest (NF) area will see at least 1.8m new trees, funded by our £5.7m four-year investment planted in Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and the Humber. Beyond the core area of the NF, our investment will also fund new woodland creation in surrounding halo areas, of which Lancashire is included, where the NF partnership has judged that new woodland there would be beneficial.

It is important that the police and local agencies have the powers they need to tackle local issues quickly and effectively. That is why we reformed the tools and powers available to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

In 2019/20 Lancashire Police are receiving £285.1 million of funding, an increase of £18.4 million, on 2018/19. Funding for 2020-21 for individual forces will be announced as part of the provisional police settlement later this year. Decisions about the allocation of police resources are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to meet the needs of their local community.

In February 2019, the OGA announced it would work with recognised and independent geologists and scientists to carry out a scientific analysis of the data gathered during Cuadrilla’s operations at Preston New Road between October and December 2018. This work includes inputs from the British Geological Survey (BGS), Dr Ben Edwards, Nanometrics Inc and Outer Limits Geophysics; further information can be found on the OGA website. Additionally, during operations the OGA seeks expertise from external experts, including the BGS and from Bristol University.

It is for those in the area to consider whether a Pennine Lancashire unitary authority would be the best way forward, as my Rt Hon Friend, the then Secretary of State, told the House on 22 July 2019 (HCWS1790). If the area requests that we formally invite councils to submit a proposal for such an authority, we would do so if that request demonstrates local opinion is coalescing around a single unitary option for the area, which would be likely to meet our publicly announced criteria for unitarisation.

Under the 2008 Education and Skills Act, local authorities have a statutory duty to identify and track participation of 16 and 17-year-olds in education or employment with training, to support those who are not participating to do so, and to make sure there is sufficient, suitable education and training provision to meet their needs. Local authorities also have a duty to work with schools to identify those young people who need targeted support or who are at risk of not participating post-16. Alongside this, they must lead the September Guarantee process which guarantees all young people a suitable place in further education at the end of years 11 and 12.

In line with these duties, where a young person is identified as ‘Not in Education, Employment and Training’ (NEET), the local authority has a responsibility to work with them. Similarly, where a young person’s destination is identified as ‘not known’, the local authority must continue to try to locate and contact the young person through various routes.

Local authorities may choose to organise their tracking of young people in a variety of ways; however, all local authorities have a duty to submit monthly data to the Department for Education’s ‘National Client Caseload Information System’ (NCCIS). This data is then published by the department, throughout the year in various publications, for transparency purposes.

The department publishes the NEET scorecard annually, which pulls together all of the NCCIS data published throughout the previous year and other relevant data. The scorecard ranks local authorities into 5 groups based on their performance on the percentage of 16 and 17-year-olds NEET and whose activity is not known. The department actively performance manages those local authorities in the bottom group. These actions can vary from engagement at official level, meetings and ministerial letters.

As this year’s scorecard has yet to be published, it will not be possible to confirm at this time exactly what action will be taken with individual local authorities. However, as local authority groups will be based on the NCCIS NEET and participation data, published on 20 June 2019[1], which shows that Lancashire County Council’s NEET and not known percentage is 10%, of which 8% were not known, which is above the North West average of 3.2% and the England average of 2.9%, it is likely that performance management action will be taken in relation to Lancashire local authority.

The department’s performance management approach has worked well in the past, with the majority of the local authorities contacted achieving improvements in their submitted data. Where improvements are not achieved, in a reasonable timeframe, the department follows up at official level with formal meetings to agree action plans and deadlines for improvement.

[1] NEET and Participation Local Authority Figures: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures.

The Ministry of Justice has published information on the number of convictions for offences involving the grooming of children by Police Force Area and age ranges up to December 2018, which can be found in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804510/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2018.xlsx

• Filter the Police Force Area field to ‘Lancashire’
• Select 88A Sexual grooming in the Offence filter, which will display prosecutions and outcomes in the pivot table
• To display convictions by age range, remove the ‘Values’ field from Rows and drag Convictions into the Values area, and Age Range into the Rows area. Note that data for 2017 and 2018 allows a more detailed breakdown of age ranges than previous years.

Please note that Police Force Areas provide breakdowns of where offences were dealt with (not where they were committed).

In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.

The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.

This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.

On 10 June 2019, the BBC announced that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.

The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.

The data is not available in the format requested.

The number of National Health Service vacancies in England as at 31 March 2019 will become available on 30 May 2019, when NHS Improvement and NHS Digital are due to produce a joint vacancy statistics report.

As part of their normal responsibilities as one of the independent regulators of the shale gas industry, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is carrying out a scientific analysis of the data gathered during the operations at Preston New Road. It is not a review of the traffic light system.

The OGA will work with recognised and independent geologists and scientists with expertise in hydraulic fracturing operations to assess the data and will provide updates on the progress of this analysis on their website as appropriate.

As part of their normal responsibilities as one of the independent regulators of the shale gas industry, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is carrying out a scientific analysis of the data gathered during the operations at Preston New Road. It is not a review of the traffic light system.

The OGA will work with recognised and independent geologists and scientists with expertise in hydraulic fracturing operations to assess the data and will provide updates on the progress of this analysis on their website as appropriate.

In Summer 2018 the Government consulted publicly on plans to use powers in the Bus Services Act 2017 to make Regulations requiring the provision of audible and visible information onboard local bus services across Great Britain.

We continue to analyse responses to the consultation and expect to announce our next steps regarding the making of Regulations and publication of guidance later in the year.

Funding has been allocated as follows to the flood defence works referenced in the answer of 7 February 2019 to PQ 218283:

• £22,000 to the completed embankment improvements to the south of Moss Side, and £15,000 to embankment improvements to the north of Moss Side, which are planned for April 2019.

• £138,000 for forecast maintenance costs in 2019/20 in areas such as Main Drain and Liggard Brook, including £57,000 for channel maintenance and £81,000 operating costs for pumping stations and tidal outfalls.

• Over £20 million to the Fairhaven and Church Scar Coast Protection Scheme.

• £1.2 million to the Starr Hill Sand Dunes project.

The Environment Agency is delivering a joint capital programme with other Risk Management Authorities to better protect over 34,000 homes from flooding in Lancashire between 2015 and 2021 at an estimated cost of £100 million. This programme has already delivered better protection to nearly 28,000 homes and over 1,000 businesses.

In addition to the capital programme, in 2018/19 £3 million was allocated in Lancashire for maintaining flood risk assets such as flood basins and embankments. This level of investment is expected to continue until 2021 to ensure these assets are in the right condition to protect people and homes.

The Department for Transport is allocating £6.6 billion between 2015/16 and 2020/21 to local highway authorities for local highway maintenance funding, including for the repair of potholes or to stop them forming.

From this, it has allocated Lancashire County Council the following funding over the last three years:

*In the Budget, the Chancellor provided local highway authorities in England an additional £420m for highway maintenance.

Between February 2018 and January 2019 there were 8,780 Mandatory Reconsiderations registered against Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Normal Rules claims for claimants living in Lancashire. This covers both new claims and DLA reassessment claims.

The Department publishes the number of Right to Buy Sales by local authority area from 1979-80, when the scheme began, to 2017-18 in Live Table 685, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales.

Information on Right to Buy sales in the three quarters of 2018-19 are published in Live Table 691 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales. Please note these figures are only provisional.

Note that 2017-18 sales figures in Live Table 685 and 691 do not match. This is because Live Table 691 is revised quarterly while 685 is done annually. It is therefore advised to use the figures in 691

The House will be aware that we increased the amount of money being spent on flood defences between 2015 and 2021—£2.1 billion across those six years—better to protect more than 300,000 homes. The hon. Lady will be aware that there are formulas for how we can allocate money to projects. My right hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon) opened up the doors with a partnership funding approach, which is largely working. However, I am very conscious that the hon. Lady is doing diligent work on behalf of her constituents to get better flood protection.

The Government declared in response to the Somerset flooding that “money is no object”. This week, ground investigation works are starting on a £40 million flood risk management scheme for Preston and South Ribble. Will the Minister explain why a maximum bid of £1.3 million is available for the flood defence grant-in-aid fund for a project that cost £9.7 million to deliver, as outlined in the Lancashire County Council report regarding Hurleston brook, known as the Jacob report?

On 16 March 2019 there was heavy rainfall across Lancashire, and reports of flooding to highways and alongside rivers. The Environment Agency (EA) issued flood warnings for Colne Water at Lenches, around Waterside Industrial Estate, the River Ribble at Samlesbury and Walton-le-Dale. Despite heavy rainfall affecting roads in East Lancashire and in the Ribble Valley no properties were reported as having been flooded. No road or property flooding was reported in Preston, however fire crews were called to a flooded field at Samlesbury where 170 marooned sheep were successfully rescued by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service.

The EA is delivering a joint capital programme with other Risk Management Authorities to better protect over 34,000 homes from flooding in Lancashire between 2015 and 2021 at an estimated cost of £100 million. This programme has already delivered better protection to nearly 28,000 homes and over 1,000 businesses.

Planned future measures include the Preston South Ribble Scheme, which will improve flood mitigation to around 3,600 residential properties as well as over 300 businesses. This scheme, which is approaching the design stage, is expected to cost around £40 million and take 5-6 years to complete. Ground investigation surveys are due to start on 25 March 2019.

I am aware of the issue; my hon. Friend has raised it with me. I simply say to him that I have asked for this matter to be looked at carefully. I do not want improvement works to be done at the disadvantage of his constituents.