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  • Sir Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Sir Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sir Nicholas Soames on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made in NATO Transformation.

    Mr Julian Brazier

    Good progress is being made since Wales on transforming NATO’s ability to respond to the range of challenges the Alliance faces. NATO’s new political guidance gives the Alliance the flexibility to plan for and adapt to the threats that it may face, including from Cyber and Hybrid attacks. The Readiness Action Plan, agreed at the Wales Summit, established the NATO enhanced Response Force, which will enable NATO to respond quickly, efficiently and effectively to the evolving and emerging threats. In support of this, the UK will lead a multinational force that includes up to 3,000 UK personnel as Framework Nation for NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force in 2017.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2016 to the hon. Member for St Albans to Question 30490, on pupil premium, if she will estimate the number of children eligible to receive pupil premium funding with at least one non-UK EEA national parent in each year since 2011-12.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Department does not collect data on the identity or characteristics of individual pupils’ parents (including details of parental nationality), so cannot offer a meaningful estimate of the number of pupil premium pupils with at least one parent who is a non-UK EEA national.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to the hon. Member for St Albans to Question 30489, on schools: admissions, if she will commission research on the effect on additional school places of inward migration from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries.

    Edward Timpson

    As set out in the written response to PQ 30489, supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places remains one of this Government’s top priorities. The basic need capital funding we allocate to local authorities to create new school places is based on their own data on school capacity and future pupil forecasts. Any increase in need for places should be reflected in the local authority’s final basic need allocation. We allocate basic need funding three years ahead to give local authorities time to plan and deliver the new places needed in their area.

    The Government has committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which, when added to our investment in the free schools programme, will help to create 600,000 new places.

    Beyond the information already provided to the Department by local authorities, we do not plan to commission further research on the effect of inward migration on the need for school places.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to the hon. Member for St Albans to Question 30489, on schools: admissions, if she will estimate the number of those new school places which are needed up to 2021 due to immigration from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries.

    Edward Timpson

    As set out in the written response to PQ 30489, supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places remains one of this Government’s top priorities. The basic need capital funding we allocate to local authorities to create new school places is based on their own data on school capacity and future pupil forecasts. Any increase in need for places should be reflected in the local authority’s final basic need allocation. We allocate basic need funding three years ahead to give local authorities time to plan and deliver the new places needed in their area.

    The Government has committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which, when added to our investment in the free schools programme, will help to create 600,000 new places.

    Beyond the information already provided to the Department by local authorities, we do not plan to commission further research on the effect of inward migration on the need for school places.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2016 to Question 31889, whether local authorities can instruct academy schools to admit children to meet their legal obligation; and whether it is her policy that local authorities will be able to instruct academy schools to admit children to meet their legal obligation under the proposed fully academised system.

    Nick Gibb

    Academy schools are their own admission authorities as are maintained voluntary aided and foundation schools. Such schools set their own admission policies and can only change them after consulting local people. Local authorities (LAs) can object to the Schools Adjudicator about an admission policy or a reduction in an admission number but cannot determine how many pupils such schools must admit.

    LAs are able to launch a competition for a new free school and, in certain circumstances, place children through the local fair access protocol or, where a school does not agree to admit a child, seek to direct admission.

    All state-funded schools are required to participate in the local in-year fair access protocol. Protocols allocate places to children who are unplaced by the start of the school year. Legislation also provides local authorities with powers to seek to direct the admission of children to maintained schools for which they are not the admission authority. Academy funding agreements contain similar direction powers.

    Directions can be sought when there is no other school place within a reasonable distance or where a looked after child has been refused a place.

    The Schools Adjudicator decides directions for maintained schools while the Education Funding Agency decides directions for academies on behalf of the Secretary of State.

  • Meg Hillier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Meg Hillier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether VAT was charged on the purchase of Kingsland Fire Station from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

    Edward Timpson

    VAT was not charged on the purchase of Kingsland Fire Station, 333 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4DR when it was purchased in October 2015. The site was not VAT elected.

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what total value of assets has been transferred from local authority control to control by academy schools or combinations of academy schools in each of the last five years.

    Edward Timpson

    The majority of the assets that transfer to academy control on conversion are land and buildings. In the vast majority of conversions the local authority (LA) retains the freehold, and will lease the land and buildings to the academy. No academy can dispose of land without the Secretary of State’s consent and – where they retain the freehold – the LA.

    In accordance with government accounting requirements the Department for Education is obliged to consolidate academy trust’s accounts into our own and record the total value of net assets that academies control; including land and buildings leased from LAs.

    The table below summarises information we hold and have published on the transfer, in accountancy terms, of assets to academies. As the Department for Education has only been required to consolidate academy trust’s accounts into our own from financial year 2012-13, it is not possible to provide individual figures for 2010-11 and 2011-12.

    Net assets transferred to EFA on conversion of academy trusts from local authorities.

    Year

    Net assets transferred from local authorities (£m)

    Academies converting before 1st April 2012

    13,900

    Academies converting in 2012-13

    6,213

    Academies converting in 2013-14

    3,390

    Academies converting in 2014-15

    2,707

    Total

    26,210
  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) take action against unregistered schools.

    Edward Timpson

    We have been working closely with Ofsted and local authorities to identify unregistered schools, and the Chief Inspector has powers to make unannounced visits to any institution that he suspects is operating unlawfully as an independent school. We have also given Ofsted additional resources so that they can go out to locate and investigate unregistered schools and draw up a programme for inspecting them to collect evidence to support prosecutions.

    Institutions that are suspected of operating as unregistered schools receive a very clear warning from the Department that it is a criminal offence and that they must cease operating immediately.

    To raise awareness, we have published two statements setting how we regulate and intervene in independent schools and details of when we will take legal action against unregistered schools.

    The statements were announced by the Secretary of State on 19 January 2016, as part of a package to protect children from extremism. The announcement, the press release and the statements are available on GOV.UK at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-about-tackling-extremism;

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-drive-to-protect-children-from-spell-of-twisted-ideologies; and

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulating-independent-schools

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  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to increase the numbers of primary and secondary school places in Dartford.

    Edward Timpson

    Supporting local authorities to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of this Government’s top priorities. That’s why we’ve committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which along with our investment in the free schools programme we expect to deliver 600,000 new places.

    Kent County Council, which is responsible for school places in Dartford, received £115 million in basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, helping to create nearly 17,000 new places between 2010 and 2015. Of these, around 8,700 were primary places and around 8,200 were secondary. Kent has also been allocated £144 million to create the additional places required by September 2019.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of places available in local authority maintained nurseries in (a) Dartford and (b) Kent.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare and early education places, and make this report available and accessible to parents. The Department does not hold borough-level estimates centrally of the number of places in local authority maintained nursery schools. However, the number of pupils attending local authority maintained nurseries can be found in the statistical first release and underlying data published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015

    The Local authority and regional tables: SFR16/2015 (Table 7b)[1] indicates that 90 pupils were registered as attending local authority maintained nursery schools in Kent in 2015.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445755/SFR16_2015_LA_tables.xlsx

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