The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Powell on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many jobs have been transferred from the public to the private sector as a result of privatisations or outsourcing by his Department since May 2010.
Elizabeth Truss
The number of jobs transferred from the Department for Education to the private sector since May 2010 is set out in the table below:
|
2010-2011 |
2011-2012 |
2012-2013 |
2013-2014 |
|
0 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2014, Official Report, column 250W, on schools construction, if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department’s non-firm, estimated dates for the start and finish of construction for each PSBP school.
Mr David Laws
The Department for Education does not hold firm predictions for when every project will start or finish construction as time scales can shift in either direction.
I do not believe it is appropriate to publish non-firm, estimated dates for the start and finish of construction for each Priority Schools Building Programme school.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether academies are permitted to (a) sell and (b) otherwise financially profit from their holding of school title deeds which were formally held by local authorities.
Mr Edward Timpson
When community schools convert to academies, the freehold is retained by the local authority and a lease is granted to the academy trust.
There are strict rules protecting publicly funded land used by academies, regardless of who holds the freehold. This is set out in published guidance, which is available at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/protection-of-school-playing-fields-and-public-land-advice
A copy of the guidance has been placed in the House Library.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will visit further education colleges to discuss the effect of his proposed 17.5 per cent reduction from September for funding for 18 year olds in full-time education.
Elizabeth Truss
I have received a large number of invitations to discuss this topic and sadly cannot accept nearly as many as I would like to.
Nevertheless, I have listened to the views of the hon. and Rt hon. Members, as well as those of colleges and other providers of 16-to-19 education. I am pleased that we have been able to afford to mitigate the impact of the funding reduction on 18-year-olds in the academic year 2014/15. We will cap any losses in relation to this at 2% of the funding that an institution receives for the education of 16-to-19 year olds.
However, the overriding need to tackle the budget deficit remains, and so the full funding reduction for 18-year-olds will still be necessary in 2015/16. We have carried out and published an impact assessment, which is available online:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-reduction-for-18-year-olds-impact-assessment.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hoban on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure parents are aware of the early years educational support available to children with cerebral palsy under two years of age.
Elizabeth Truss
The Early Years Foundation Stage framework makes clear that providers must have and implement a policy and procedures to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care, including support for children with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities.
The Government is introducing wide-ranging reforms through the Children and Families Act 2014 to improve provision and support for children and young people with SEN and disabilities from birth up to the age of 25.
The Act requires local authorities to publish a local offer of services for children with SEN or a disability which will include children with cerebral palsy. The local offer will set out in one place information about provision families can expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people who have SEN or are disabled, including those who do not have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.
The local offer will also provide parents with clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the services and support available and how to access it, including that from Early Years services. This should include relevant services from agencies such as Portage and Early Support, arrangements for identifying and assessing children’s needs in the early years and support available to parents to aid their child’s development at home.
The offer will make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving families and service providers in its development and review, enabling them to have a greater say in how services and support develop over time.
The new birth to 25 SEN Code of Practice, due to come into force from September 2014, will set out clear expectations for practitioners on how they work together with families of children with SEN or disability to understand their child’s needs and help them to access support quickly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the likely effect of the Supplemental Balancing Reserve on energy bills for the year (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.
Michael Fallon
The cost of procuring Supplemental Balancing Reserve and Demand Side Balancing Reserve is a matter for Ofgem and National Grid. In its draft Impact Assessment Ofgem estimated the cost of buying these services would be less than £1 a year for the average domestic customer. Ofgem’s final Impact Assessment did not revise or update this estimate. DECC has not carried out a separate assessment.
Ofgem’s draft Impact Assessment can be found at https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/84629/nationalgridsproposednewbalancingservices-draftimpactassessment.pdf
A final Impact Assessment is available at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/85278/decisiontoacceptngetapplicationtointroducetwonewbalancingservicesandsubsequentconsultationonfundingarrangements.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment has been made by (a) the RIMNET network and (b) other bodies of the possibility that the sand fallout across the British Isles from the Sahara desert has been contaminated by long-lived radioactive fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted by France in the Algerian Sahara in the 1960s.
Michael Fallon
The Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network (RIMNET) is the UK Government’s radiation monitoring and nuclear emergency response system which is operated on a 24 hour a day, seven days a week basis by the Met Office, on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Data from RIMNET has been inspected and shows no evidence of increased levels of radioactivity across the UK.
The Environment Agency (EA) undertakes a programme of far-field monitoring, away from nuclear sites, of radioactivity in air and rainwater. This programme involves constantly sampling air through filters in High Volume Air Samplers. Filters are changed on a weekly basis and subsequently analysed. Past Saharan dust events have not caused any detectable increase in radioactivity on the filters. Results for the changed filters on 31st March and 7th April should be available in the next few days. The results will be published as consolidated data in the annual Radiation in Food and the Environment (RIFE) report which is published jointly by a number of UK and devolved agencies. Previous RIFE reports are available here:
http://www.sepa.org.uk/radioactive_substances/publications/rife_reports.aspx.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much has been disbursed to Ombudsman Services for work relating to the Green Deal in each month since January 2013; and how many complaints relating to the Green Deal have been processed by Ombudsman Services over the same period.
Gregory Barker
I can confirm that DECC pays the Ombudsman Service a fixed quarterly rate to provide Green Deal services, support to DECC and maintain systems, plus an additional fee for each investigation undertaken. The quarterly fixed rate payments work out at £3,333.00 per month.
I would also like to point out that as part of the Government’s transparency initiative DECC publishes summary details of all payments made over £500, including payments to contractors. You can find this information using the following link:
The Ombudsman Service has undertaken some casework but this has not resulted in formal complaints or investigations and there have been no investigation charges to the Department.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what forecast he has made of the impact of capacity contracted under the Supplemental Balancing Reserve to the Loss of Load Expectation in the winter of (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.
Michael Fallon
The Government has not made any forecast of the impact of capacity contracted under the Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) on the Loss of Load Expectation for winter 2014-15 or 2015-16.SBR is one of National Grid’s two new balancing services, approved by Ofgem in December 2013. SBR and the Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) will address potential capacity shortfalls in the middle of the decade. National Grid is currently developing a methodology to determine how much capacity should be contracted via SBR. Once this is approved by Ofgem, National Grid will proceed with the procurement process.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Powell on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many jobs have been transferred from the public to the private sector as a result of privatisations or outsourcing by his Department since May 2010.
Gregory Barker
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has not transferred any jobs to the private sector as a result of privatisation or outsourcing since May 2010.