The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have guidelines for local authorities about charging for responses to Freedom of Information requests.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government has not published guidance for local authorities about charging for Freedom of Information requests.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 20 January (HL5274), whether it is still a legal requirement to have a daily act of collective worship in academies, free schools and maintained schools.
Lord Nash
All state schools, including academies and free schools, must provide a daily act of collective worship for all registered pupils up to the age of 18. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from all or any part of collective worship, and sixth-form pupils have the right to withdraw themselves from collective worship.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to prevent children either never going to school or going missing from school.
Lord Nash
The law provides a number of safeguards to ensure that all children receive a suitable full-time education. These are set out in Chapters I and II of Part VI of the Education Act 1996, and include:
a duty on local authorities to make arrangements to establish, as far as it is possible to do so, the identities of children of compulsory school age in their area who are not receiving suitable education (Section 436A);
a duty on local authorities to arrange suitable education for all children of compulsory school age who may not for any period receive it, unless such arrangements are made for them (Section 19);
a duty on parents to ensure that their child of compulsory school age is receiving suitable full-time education, either at school or otherwise (Section 7);
provision for a local authority to issue a School Attendance Order to a parent where it is not satisfied that a child of compulsory age is receiving a suitable education (Section 437); and
provision for the prosecution of a parent who has failed to secure their child’s regular attendance at school (Section 444).
Statutory guidance requires local authorities to have robust procedures and policies in place to enable them to carry out their duty to identify children of compulsory school age in their area who are not receiving suitable education (Children Missing Education, 2015).
Under the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, schools have a duty to inform their local authority, at agreed intervals, of the details of pupils who are regularly absent from school or have missed 10 school days or more without permission. Schools must also notify the authority if a pupil is to be deleted from the admission register in certain circumstances.
We are taking steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be when it comes to protecting young people, while at the same time safeguarding the rights of parents to determine how and where to educate their children. The Department for Education is currently consulting on proposals to strengthen further the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 in order to require schools to inform local authorities under all grounds when a child’s name is deleted from a school register.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial support is available for children whose parents choose for their child to be tutored at home.
Lord Nash
When parents elect to educate children at home, they assume financial responsibility for their children’s education. Local authorities are not funded specifically to provide financial support to those parents who educate at home.
If a child has special needs, financial assistance may well be appropriate. If the child has a statement of special educational needs or an Education and Health Care (EHC) Plan which specifies home education, or one which specifies a school but the parents have chosen to educate their child at home, then financial support to the parents may help discharge the authority’s duty to ensure that the child’s needs are met.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many companies have made special arrangements with HMRC to pay tax owed, and how the arrangements are assessed as reasonable and fair to the taxpayer in general as well as to the company concerned.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HMRC does not enter into special arrangements with companies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are planning to take to end fraudulent whiplash insurance claims.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Government is determined to crack down on the compensation culture and insurance fraud.. We therefore announced, in the Autumn Statement, that we will limit the right to damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity in low value whiplash claims and raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000.
These reforms build on previous measures taken forward by the Ministry of Justice to control costs, strengthen the medical evidence process and reduce incentives to pursue fraudulent and unnecessary whiplash claims.
The Government will consult on the detail of the new measures in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the expected timetable for the Lloyds Banking Group share offer.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The government is committed to creating a share owning democracy in Britain. The Lloyds Banking Group share offer will help build that by giving the general public the chance to have a greater stake in our economy and encouraging long-term share ownership.
However, given ongoing events in financial markets, now is not the right time to sell shares to retail investors. We have always been clear that sales are dependent on market conditions and the timing of the offer will be kept under review in light of this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the market conditions affecting the Government’s decision to postpone the privatisation of Lloyds Bank on the proposed privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
Anna Soubry
Decisions about these separate matters will be taken on their individual merits. Further information on the Government’s proposals for a sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) is provided in our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB and in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the future of GIB. Both documents can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK voting to leave the EU on UK students’ participation in the Erasmus scheme.
Joseph Johnson
The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of EU membership that cause so much frustration in the United Kingdom – so we get a better deal for our country and secure our future. We are confident that the right agreement can be reached.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roberta Blackman-Woods on 2016-01-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate what proportion of the cost of introducing the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework will fall to (a) central government and (b) universities.
Joseph Johnson
We recently published the Green Paper “Fulfilling our potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice,” which sets out our proposals for delivering the Teaching Excellence Framework and reducing the regulatory burden on the sector. The consultation period closed on 15 January 2016.
Once we have considered the consultation responses, and are in a position to publish our final proposals, we will publish a Regulatory Impact Assessment which will set out the costs of implementation.