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  • Anne McIntosh – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Anne McIntosh – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne McIntosh on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations he has received on funding sixth forms in rural schools.

    Mr David Laws

    The Department for Education has received three letters recently on funding sixth forms in rural schools. We recognise the importance of rural schools, many of which are small schools, and the need to maintain access to a local school in rural areas. Often these schools are at the heart of their community.

  • Jamie Reed – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jamie Reed – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teaching assistant training posts have been (a) commissioned and (b) filled in in (i) Copeland and (ii) Cumbria in the latest period for which figures are available.

    Mr David Laws

    The information requested is not collected centrally.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to monitor the scale and causes of food poverty in the United Kingdom; and what steps they plan to take.

    Lord De Mauley

    The root causes of household food insecurity are varied and complex. The Government is committed to playing its part in tackling both short and long term challenges. While it is not the Government’s role to set food prices, we work to promote open and competitive markets that help offer the best prices to consumers.

    Through Healthy Start the Government provides a nutritional safety net that encourages healthy eating to around half a million pregnant women and children under 4 years old in low income and disadvantaged families throughout the UK. The Government provides free school meals to disadvantaged children, and the Deputy Prime Minister has announced healthy free school meals for all school children in reception, year 1 and year 2 from September 2014. We are reforming the welfare system to make it fairer, more affordable and better able to tackle poverty, unemployment and welfare dependency. We are also providing increased access to jobs through the Government’s efforts to promote growth in the economy.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will develop and implement a cross-departmental strategy for tackling food poverty in the United Kingdom.

    Lord De Mauley

    Food inflation fell to an annual rate of -0.6 per cent in the year to May, down from 0.5 per cent in March, which means food is cheaper now than it was twelve months ago (the first this has happened since 2006). The Government has a clear strategy on benefits and welfare which includes making work pay, creating a fiscally sustainable system for future generations and ensuring we are focusing benefit support on those most in need. Our benefits system provides a strong safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable, with £94 billion per year provided for working age benefits which support millions of people who are on low incomes or out of work. The introduction of Universal Credit willalsosee three million households better off and significantly improve take-up of unclaimed benefits.

    In addition, through Healthy Start the Government provides a nutritional safety net by encouraging healthy eating to around half a million pregnant women and children under 4 years old in low income and disadvantaged families throughout the UK.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the recent report by Church Action on Poverty, Oxfam GB and The Trussell Trust Below the Breadline: The relentless rise of food poverty in Britain.

    Lord De Mauley

    The Government noted the recent Below the Breadline report. The factors that impact on household food security are complex and include economic, social and environmental influences. There is no official definition of “food poverty”. A single measure would not be able to reflect the multi-faceted aspects of this issue. Year on year food prices have fallen for the first time since 2006 with an annual rate of inflation of -0.6 per cent in the year to May 2014. This is down from 0.5 per cent inflation in April.

    We recognise the extremely valuable work of civil society groups in supporting local communities. There has long been a tradition in this country of voluntary and charity organisations providing support to people in need.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Taylor of Holbeach on 6 May (WA 322), what form the review of asylum support rates will take; and which stakeholders will be consulted.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    The review is an internal Home Office one, to ensure that the payments provided to destitute asylum seekers are sufficient to cover their essential living needs consistent with the judgement of 9 April. The Home Office has met with represenatives of "Still Human Still Here", a coalition of organisations with an established interest in the issue. The review will take full account of both their views and the details of the judgment of 9 April.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 19 March (WA 32), whether they will make a Written Ministerial Statement when they place in the Library of the House a copy of the review of the way local authorities have used the funding provided following the abolition of the discretionary Social Fund.

    Lord Freud

    Decisions on how this information will be presented will be made in due course.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Pensions, Steve Webb, on 13 March (HC Deb, 317W) and the Written Answer by Baroness Stowell of Beeston on 3 March (WA 278–9), how they reconcile the statements that it was always the intention that 2014–15 would be the last year of separate funding for local welfare provision from the Department for Work and Pensions” and that “this decision was taken at the Spending Round 2013″.”

    Lord Freud

    I see no contradiction in the above statements.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish a full list of the criminal offences introduced between 1997 and 2013 in a form easily understood by the general public.

    Lord Faulks

    The Government wants to avoid bringing in new criminal offences where they are not needed and will continue to scrap unnecessary and out of date laws, but where there is a genuine need to create a new criminal offence we will continue to do so.

    To publish an accessible list of criminal offences introduced between1997 to 2008 would incur a disproportionate cost to the public purse.

    During this parliament, however, the Government committed to publishing the number of offences it created each year. My department is responsible for doing so and publishes an annual statistical bulletin on the number of new criminal offences added to the statute book. The bulletins cover primary and secondary legislation containing criminal offences enforceable in England and Wales. The latest bulletin covering the period 2009 to 31 May 2013 is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revised-new-criminal-offences-statistics-in-england-and-wales-june-2009-may-2013. The next bulletin should be available in December and will cover the period from 1 June 2013 to 31 May 2014.

    “

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Warsi on 17 June (WS 586–88), whether they plan to abandon their demand that President Assad step down and to urge co-operation between his government and the official opposition to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham and other Islamic terrorist groups in Syria.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Assad regime is the primary cause of terrorism in Syria, not the solution to it. The most effective way to tackle terrorism in Syria is to support the moderate opposition in its efforts to protect the Syrian people from the twin threats of tyranny and terrorism. The only sustainable solution to the crisis in Syria is to reach a negotiated political transition by the mutual consent of both sides – this is the principle in the Geneva Communiqué as endorsed by the UN Security Council.