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  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with which suppliers his Department has contracted to provide steel for construction of the Successor submarine.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    BAE Systems (BAES) is the prime contractor for the majority of the Successor programme. As prime contractor, BAES will sub-contract suppliers of steel and related services.

    Separately, Missile Tubes for the Common Missile Compartment are being produced jointly with the US and steel procurement will be carried out by US contractor General Dynamics Electric Boat.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ministry of Defence Police stations there were in each of the last six years.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) do not have any designated police stations as defined by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.The MDP work collaboratively with Home Office forces, Police Scotland and Police Service Northern Ireland in locations where the force is deployed.

    The MDP has regularly collaborated to provide support to national police operations. However the information requested will take time to collate and I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.30 of Educational excellence everywhere, Cm 9230, when she plans to amend the academy articles of association models to remove the requirement for new academy trusts and school governing boards to elect parent governors; and if she will take steps to enable existing academies to make that change.

    Edward Timpson

    The model articles of association give multi-academy trust (MAT) boards the freedom to appoint a local governing body. The board is also free to decide on what, if any, governance functions they delegate to subsidiary governance structures at the level of either individual schools or clusters of schools. Whatever arrangements MATs use, they must set out and publish on their website their chosen arrangements in a clear scheme of delegation.

    The White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere outlines our intention to place a new expectation on all academies to put in place specific arrangements to engage with all parents in a meaningful way to listen to their views and feedback. To enable a move to fully skills-based governance, the White Paper also announces an end to our requirement on new and existing trusts to reserve places on the board for elected parents.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.35 of Educational excellence everywhere, Cm 9230, if she will issue guidance on levels of remuneration for non-executive academy trust directors.

    Edward Timpson

    Academy trusts are independent charities and must comply with charity law. This means that trust directors can only receive payment for carrying out trustee duties with Charity Commission authorisation.

    The Charity Commission will only authorise payment to academy trustees where it has been clearly shown to be in the charity’s interests. They will consider issues such as the reasons for payment, whether conflicts of interests are managed appropriately, whether the Principal Regulator (for academies this is the Secretary of State for Education) is agreeable and whether payment of any trustees is in the longer-term interests of the charity. These arrangements are set out in the Department’s Governance Handbook, available on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-handbook. It is up to trusts to decide on the level of any such remuneration.

    Academy trusts operate under a robust accountability system which holds them to account for the results they achieve and their use of resources. This includes a requirement to publish audited accounts each year allowing the wider public chance to hold academy trusts to account to help make sure that spend is securing better outcomes for pupils.

    “

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.35 of Educational excellence everywhere, Cm 9230, what powers she has to require local authority maintained schools to provide details of everyone involved in governance for a new database; and when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to bar unsuitable individuals from being governors of maintained schools.

    Edward Timpson

    The Education Act 2002 gives the Secretary of State the power to give guidance to maintained schools governing bodies about their constitution. She also has a number of other information gathering powers in legislation. We expect to use this combination to make provision for the database by 1 September 2016. We also intend to bring forward legislation on barring unsuitable individuals from being governors of maintained schools at the earliest opportunity.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32243, how many investigations her Department has carried out into cases where schools or early years settings have been accused of refusing to accept disabled children in each year since 2010; and what the outcomes of those investigations were.

    Edward Timpson

    If it is considered that a child or young person may have been refused admission to a school because of a disability, a claim for disability discrimination can be made to the First-tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability. The latest Disability Discrimination Statistics are available on GOV.UK[1].

    Claims for disability discrimination against early years settings are heard by the county courts.

    In 2014, 27,140 new statements or EHC plans were issued[2] and, in total, there are currently 240,185[3] children and young people with statements or EHC plans. Since 2013, the Department has received around 25 requests for an SEN determination about school admissions each year, although only three have resulted in directions to admit. In order to protect the identity of the child, we are unable to give details of these.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/483768/tribunals-send-tables.xlsx

    [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015 (Table 2)

    [3] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015 (Table 1)

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  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has for the National Curriculum when all schools become academies.

    Nick Gibb

    In 2014 the Government introduced a new, more rigorous national curriculum which was developed with regard to the views of subject experts and teachers and to the findings of international best practice comparisons.

    A system where every school is an academy will mean that the national curriculum will be a benchmark. It will serve an important role in setting out the level of knowledge-based, academically rigorous education which every child should experience.

    If academies or Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) want to deliver the national curriculum in their schools, they can do so confidently. The Government wants academies to use their freedoms to innovate and build challenging, tailored curricula to meet the particular needs of their pupils, their local area or the particular ethos of the school.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on whether academies will be able to employ unqualified teachers when all schools become academies.

    Edward Timpson

    Since August 2012, the funding agreements for all new academies has given the academy trust the freedom to employ anyone it believes is suitably qualified or is otherwise eligible to plan and prepare lessons and courses for pupils, teach pupils, and assess and report on pupils’ development, progress and attainment. Academies set up prior to this date can apply to the Education Funding Agency to have their funding agreement amended.

    As set out in our White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, we will replace Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) with a stronger, more challenging accreditation based on a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as judged by great schools. This new accreditation will raise the quality and status of the teaching profession, better recognising advanced subject knowledge and pedagogy that is rooted in up-to-date evidence, ensuring the highest quality of teaching is paramount to the success of each school. Headteachers know this, which is why we trust them to employ staff that they believe to be best qualified for the job – including whether to make this accreditation a mandatory requirement or not, considering how to weigh it against other qualifications and experience the potential teacher may bring.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department last reviewed its statutory guidance on post-16 transport to education and training.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The statutory guidance for local authorities on post-16 transport was updated in February 2014 following the implementation of Raising the Participation Age (RPA). It was last reviewed in February 2016 and was found to be still up-to-date; there are no immediate changes planned to the guidance.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.28 of Educational excellence everywhere, Cm 9230, when she plans to amend the model articles of government of academies to require each school in a multi-academy trust to have a school level governing body; and whether she plans that those model articles will set out the role of school level governing bodies to focus on understanding and championing the needs of pupils, parents and the wider local community.

    Edward Timpson

    The model articles of association give multi-academy trust (MAT) boards the freedom to appoint a local governing body. The board is also free to decide on what, if any, governance functions they delegate to subsidiary governance structures at the level of either individual schools or clusters of schools. Whatever arrangements MATs use, they must set out and publish on their website their chosen arrangements in a clear scheme of delegation.

    The White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere outlines our intention to place a new expectation on all academies to put in place specific arrangements to engage with all parents in a meaningful way to listen to their views and feedback. To enable a move to fully skills-based governance, the White Paper also announces an end to our requirement on new and existing trusts to reserve places on the board for elected parents.