It is the responsibility of National Health Service trusts to have staffing arrangements in place that deliver safe and effective care. This includes recruiting the appropriate professionals needed to support these levels and meet local needs.

Dermatology is a highly competitive specialty training pathway and often oversubscribed. Nationally and locally there has been a 100% fill rate in dermatology training for the past four years. Since 2010, the number of full-time equivalent dermatologists (doctors at the consultant grade) has increased by 26% rising from 464 in May 2010 to 584 in May 2019.

The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, puts the workforce at the heart of the NHS and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. In advance of publishing the final People Plan, the NHS will establish a national programme board to address geographical and specialty shortages in medicine.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation

The latest update on suicide prevention from the health scrutiny panel at City of Wolverhampton Council (June 2019), shows that 66 deaths were registered as suicides for the period of 2015-17 and 54 of these (82%) were male.

In ‘Making Wolverhampton a Suicide Safer Community: Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Strategy 2016–2020’, City of Wolverhampton Council has set the following aims to reduce suicides:

- provide a multi-agency approach to suicide prevention across Wolverhampton;

- raise awareness of suicide, compelling organisations and the community to take positive action;

- upskill workforces through information and knowledge enabling them to better understand and respond to poor mental wellbeing and suicide ideation;

- influence services and policies so that suicide prevention is robustly considered and embedded in routine business; and

- provide a coordinated suicide support offer which can be accessed by services and communities.

The commissioning and configuration of dermatology services in England is a local matter. The local National Health Service is best placed to make decisions that ensure services meet the needs of resident populations in the most appropriate way.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning the vast majority of dermatology services. The majority of patients with dermatological disorders are managed in primary and community care. Wolverhampton CCG is currently re-procuring its community dermatology service which will encompass an extended range of services. This procurement has been undertaken with the knowledge and co-operation of Royal Wolverhampton Trust. The Royal Wolverhampton Trust is also exploring with other trusts how to make the best use of scarce dermatology staff by working with each other more closely.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

To provide context, we have provided figures for increases in rail fares since 2005. Since 2005, the fares for a peak time return ticket (an Anytime Day Return) between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street, set by the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, have risen as shown in the below table:

Since 2005, the fares for a peak time return ticket (an Anytime Return) between Wolverhampton and London Euston, set by Virgin Trains West Coast, have risen as shown in the below table:

The figures show that over the five years between 2 January 2005 and 2 January 2010, the peak time return ticket between Wolverhampton and London Euston rose by 39%. By comparison, over nearly double the time period, in the nine years between 2 January 2010 and 2 January 2019, the peak time return ticket rose by only 25%.

The totals of each local authority’s source of finance, including grants from central government, are reported in their General Fund Revenue Account outturn and capital account outturn returns to MHCLG.

These can be found for the years requested via following the links to individual local authority data from www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-capital-expenditure-receipts-and-financing (‘RS revenue outturn summary’ data table) and from www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-capital-expenditure-receipts-and-financing (Table 'B. Resources used to finance capital expenditure' in the ‘COR4’ data table).

HMRC has received representations from Wolverhampton Council, Coventry Council and the Mayor of the West Midlands about the closure of the HMRC offices in Coventry and Wolverhampton and relocation of the workforce to Birmingham. HMRC officials recently met with the Mayor and representatives from the two councils.

HMRC conducted high level People Impact and Equality Assessments to inform its initial planning and has already published a summary of this to its staff. It continues to undertake extensive work on people and equality impacts, including gender. Wolverhampton is included in impact work for the Birmingham Regional Centre.

Analysis of the data on the number of women affected was completed by the end of May. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has provided this information in a Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS731, published today.

Ministers and officials regularly engage with trade unions to discuss a range of issues concerning the steel sector.

With regards to their announcement on the 8^th May, Tata Steel have been clear that they will act as a responsible seller. The UK steel industry sits entirely within the private sector, and whilst the sale of its Engineering Steels Service Centre in Wolverhampton is a commercial decision for Tata, we will continue to work closely with them, the unions, and any new partners.

Ministers and officials regularly engage with Tata to discuss a range of issues concerning the steel sector.

With regards to their announcement on the 8^th May, Tata Steel have been clear that they will act as a responsible seller. The UK steel industry sits entirely within the private sector, and whilst the sale of its Engineering Steels Service Centre in Wolverhampton is a commercial decision for Tata, we will continue to work closely with them, the unions, and any new partners.

The apprenticeship levy did not come into effect until April 2017 and so there were no levy-supported apprenticeship starts before that date.

The table attached sets out the overall number of apprenticeship starts where the learner’s home postcode is in the Wolverhampton local authority (LA) area, and provides the number of these that were levy-supported since April 2017. Please note that 2016/17 figures for all apprenticeship starts are full year figures and the 2016/17 levy-supported starts represent just 2016/17 quarter 4; this means that these are not comparable as they represent different timeframes.

The apprenticeship levy is collected centrally by HM Treasury and future availability and location of apprenticeships is dependent on where employers choose to recruit or offer apprenticeship opportunities. We do not therefore hold data on future delivery in the Wolverhampton LA area.

The table below provided by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy shows the number and proportion of households living in fuel poverty in Wolverhampton Local Authority area and Wolverhampton North East constituency for the latest data available (2015).

Household figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

The Cold Weather Payment scheme is administered at weather station level rather than any other standard GB geography such as constituency level. The coverage area for each weather station is determined by the Met Office which assesses the most appropriate weather station for each postcode area. Cold weather payments are triggered when the average temperature recorded at the weather station has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0^oC or below over seven consecutive days, during the Cold Weather season (November to March).

The Wolverhampton local authority area covers all or part of the following postcode areas: WV1-4, WV6, WV8-14. The constituency of Wolverhampton North East covers all or part of the following postcode areas: WV 1-4, WV 7-9, WV 10-13.

All of the above postcode areas are covered by the Coleshill weather station. Qualifying individuals living in this area will have received a payment in respect of a seven-day period of Cold Weather from 24^th February – 2^nd March 2018. No other payments have been triggered in the Coleshill weather station area in the current Cold Weather season.

Coleshill weather station covers the following postcode areas: B1-21, B23-38, B40, B42-50, B60-80, B90-98, CV1-12, CV21-23, CV31-35, CV37, CV47, DY1-14, LE10, WS1-15, WV1-16. We estimate that 289,000 payments were made in this area as a whole in respect of the trigger on 24^th February. We are not able to break this figure down to a lower level.

Notes

1. The number of payments given here is an estimate as information on the exact number of payments made is not readily available. These figures are produced by determining the volume of eligible recipients in each weather station area at the start of the winter season and using these figures throughout the winter to estimate payments and expenditure based on the actual triggers recorded.

2. The number of payments made is not necessarily the total number of individuals benefitting from a Cold Weather Payment. Any individuals making a joint claim for one of the qualifying benefits, such as a couple living together, will receive one payment between them rather than one payment each.

3. Estimates of Cold Weather Payments are published weekly during the Cold Weather season. The latest published estimates can be found at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cold-weather-payment-statistics-2017-to-2018

The Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy do not hold data on Warm Home Discount recipients at Local Authority or Parliamentary Constituency level.

Wolverhampton City Council will have available £876.7 million in Core Spending Power between 2016/17 to 2019/20.

Information on Wolverhampton’s Revenue Support Grant funding can be found on line at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing.

The 2018-19 local government finance settlement confirms that Wolverhampton will have access to £221.4 million in Core Spending Power - an increase of 1.8 per cent from 2017-18. Wolverhampton has core spending power per dwelling of £2,029 compared to an average for Metropolitan Districts of £1,786. Wolverhampton is also part of the West Midlands Combined Authority and is a 100 per cent business rates retention pilot, enabling the authority to benefit from an increased share of business rates growth across the pilot area.

As part of my on going engagement with local government, I recently met with representatives of Wolverhampton Council to discuss the local government finance settlement and related matters.

We received a number of submissions to the Channel 4 regional consultation from individuals and local authorities across the UK. No decisions have been taken. The government is working with Channel 4 on how it can best increase its regional impact, and we will set out next steps in due course.

Estimates of house building, new build dwellings starts and completions for England and in each local authority district, to June quarter 2017, are shown in Live Table 253a at the following link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building

Data for the September quarter 2017 is scheduled for publication on the 19 December 2017.

These only cover new build dwellings and should be regarded as a leading indicator of overall housing supply. The Department also publishes an annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’, which is the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply.