Category: Speeches

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to implement the actions identified for it in the Government’s Ending Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016-2020, published in March 2016; and when a member of staff from her Department last attended a Violence against Women and Girls Stakeholder Meeting chaired by the Home Office.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Government is committed to delivering the Strategy published in March. The table below shows the progress made in delivering the actions allocated to the Department for Education (DfE) or the Government Equalities Office (GEO).

    REF

    DfE/ GEO

    ACTION

    PROGRESS

    1

    GEO

    Develop new guidance in consultation with teachers for PHSE lessons specifically about gender equality (Apr 2016).

    GEO has been working with the PSHE Association to consult teachers on how best to deliver this commitment.

    2

    GEO

    Fund the Freedom Charity to expand the ‘Train the Trainers’ project…. (Apr 2016).

    GEO funded the Freedom Charity to expand their ‘Train the Trainers’ project to reach a greater number of communities and empower teachers to deal with the topic of forced marriage sensitively and confidently. This funding enabled an additional 3,620 students and 1,230 staff to learn about forced marriage with Freedom.

    3

    DfE

    Publish a consultation report on updated statutory safeguarding guidance for schools, Keeping Children Safe in Education, to come into force in September 2016 (May 2016).

    DfE published the Government response to the consultation in May, and published a draft of the revised guidance for information at that time. The guidance came into force on 5 September 2016.

    5

    HO/ GEO

    Launch the second phase of the national prevention campaign to challenge abuse in teenage relationships and promote understanding of health relationships and consent – including among LGB&T teenagers (Feb 2016).

    GEO, in partnership with the Home Office, launched Disrespect Nobody, the second phase of the national prevention campaign to challenge abuse in teenage relationships. This included a TV advert, along with a dedicated website, blogs and guidance for teachers.

    6

    DfE

    Launch a communications campaign to encourage the public to report all forms of child abuse to help address people’s fear of reporting (Mar – autumn 2016).

    In March 2016 DfE launched the national Together we can tackle child abuse campaign to encourage members of the public to report any concerns they may have about a child, in particular about suspected child abuse and neglect. Over 100 councils have engaged with the campaign so far, and our findings indicate that it is giving people a sense of confidence to report their suspicions. We know it takes time to change opinions and behaviours, which is why we plan to run the campaign again in 2017.

    8

    GEO

    Update Media Smart resources (with the Advertising Association) to help teachers and parents improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media and their resilience to negative content (Sep 2016).

    GEO commissioned the charity Media Smart to develop a new resource to help teachers and parents improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media and their resilience to negative content. The resource was published in August 2016 and will be disseminated to schools this term.

    10

    GEO

    Conduct or commission mapping of the evidence base and initiatives that engage men, boys and bystanders in VAWG prevention to identify how Government can build on these initiatives to further social change (Apr 2017).

    GEO is currently mapping the evidence base and initiatives that engage men, boys and bystanders in VAWG prevention, as well as meeting with stakeholders working in this area.

    18

    DfE

    Raise standards in social work and overhaul social work education and practice to improve the recruitment, retention and development of social workers under-pinned by a new regulator…. (all social workers assessed and accredited by 2020).

    DfE is continuing to develop our plans for the assessment and accreditation of child and family social workers and will consult this autumn. We expect the first social workers will begin assessment in spring 2017. The Children and Social Work Bill includes provision to establish a new regulator for social workers.

    19

    DfE

    Establish a What Works Centre, with up to £20m of funding, which will be an evidence-based resource to support social workers and work alongside the Chief Social Worker (by end 2016).

    It is expected that the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care will be established in 2017 – we are currently considering options for the model and set-up process and carried out early market engagement in June/July 2016 to inform our thinking.

    28

    GEO/ HO

    Establish an official Government working group to map out current issues, prevalence, initiatives and barriers to addressing gendered online abuse to improve understanding and coordinate the response to online manifestations of VAWG (Dec 2016).

    In partnership with the Home Office, GEO has established an official Government working group to do this. This work is ongoing.

    30

    GEO

    Continue to ensure victims of revenge pornography have access to bespoke support and advice about their right to have the images removed from websites (review Apr 2017).

    GEO has funded the Revenge Porn Helpline for a further year to continue its important work supporting victims of revenge porn and working to have such images removed from websites.

    68

    DfE

    Carry out an urgent review of Local Safeguarding Children Boards and take forward plans to centralise serious case reviews so that lessons from serious incidents can be learned more quickly and effectively (review completed by Mar 2016).

    The review was completed in March 2016 and published in May 2016. Provisions to cover the key recommendations on LSCBs and reviews are included in the Children and Social Work Bill.

    Department officials are in regular contact with their Home Office counterparts to discuss relevant policy issues, including those raised by stakeholders. Such discussions run alongside inter-ministerial meetings, the most recent of which I attended in June.

  • James Cleverly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    James Cleverly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cleverly on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department had on the candidates for appointment for the post of Secretary-General of the Commonwealth before the most recent appointment to that post made at the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting in November 2015.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    ​​We demand a lot of the Commonwealth and had high expectations for the new Secretary-General. The UK wanted the strongest possible candidate to steer the Commonwealth through reform, to ensure that it has a voice on the most pressing global challenges and to unite countries behind the Commonwealth’s values such as the protection and promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. We assessed candidates for the position based on this criteria. We welcomed Patricia Scotland’s appointment as Secretary General in November 2015.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2015 to Question 14466, if he will publish the minutes of the 21 October 2015 meeting of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody.

    Andrew Selous

    The next meeting of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody, which I will chair, will take place on 1 March 2016. The minutes of the Board held on 21 October 2015 will be agreed by members at that meeting and then published.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many apprenticeships were available in the (a) food and (b) tourism sectors in (i) 2010 and (ii) 2015.

    Nick Boles

    Apprenticeship starts by academic year and the framework of the apprenticeship is published at the FE data library (first link) as a supplementary table to a Statistical First Release (second link):

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/477738/apprenticeships-starts-by-sase-framework.xls

    “

  • Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department plans to monitor progress against the targets in its Framework for Sexual Health Improvement in England.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department’s Framework for Sexual Health Promotion in England (2013) sets out our ambitions and objectives to improve sexual health for all people. It takes account of the commissioning arrangements from 2013 including the new role for local authorities (LAs) as commissioners of most sexual health services. Later this month Public Health England (PHE) will undertake a survey of local commissioning arrangements for sexual health. It has also produced sexual health and reproductive health profiles to help LAs and others monitor the sexual and reproductive health of their populations and the performance of local public health related systems.

    It is for LAs to decide on what research and evidence they need to inform their tenders for sexual health and reproductive health services in line with procurement requirements and good practice. In 2014 PHE published Making it Work, a guide to commissioning for sexual health across the whole system, to improve the sexual health of both individuals and the wider public.

    We have made no formal assessment of the effect on sexual health services of reductions in the Public Health Grant to LAs for 2015/16, although PHE continues to monitor relevant outcomes data for every LA in England. Decisions on local public health spending are a matter for LAs. They are mandated by legislation to commission open access sexual health services that meet the needs of their local population. Officials meet regularly with sexual health organisations who would raise any concerns if LAs were not meeting their mandatory requirements for sexual health services.

    The Framework for Sexual Health Improvement includes as a priority reducing unwanted pregnancies and highlights the need to increase access to long acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods and emergency contraception for women of all ages. We have no plans to evaluate the effect on general practitioner surgeries of LA commissioning of LARCs.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the government of Egypt on the imprisonment of Mohammed Hegazy in that country.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are concerned about the case of Bishoy Armia Boulous, formerly Mohammed Hegazy, who was arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in June 2014 for ‘disturbing the peace by broadcasting false information’ after filming clashes between Muslims and Christians in Upper Egypt. We are aware of his continued imprisonment and reports that his treatment whilst in prison has been in breach of his human rights. We have raised his case with the Egyptian Embassy in London and will continue to raise concerns about such cases with the Egyptian authorities.

  • David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of patients who will be able to access treatments for colorectal cancer on the NHS from April 2016.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that all patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer will continue to be able to access treatment for their disease. It is not possible to estimate the numbers of patients who will be able to access both current and future specific treatments for colorectal cancers as there is a wide range of treatments available and these are ever changing.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which universities have opened a Confucius Institute on campus; and what guidance he has issued to those universities on relations with the Chinese government.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Government values the productive links our universities have with China, and we welcome the increasing number of UK students and institutions benefitting from such international collaborations.

    Higher education institutions are autonomous and, as such, are responsible for developing their own academic and international partnerships, while ensuring that they comply with any relevant statutory duties, including the requirements of the Education Reform Act 1988.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the number of pupils recorded in the annual school census is who do not have English listed as their first language in (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) special schools in each of the last five years by local authority area.

    Nick Gibb

    The number and proportion of pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English in primary, secondary and special schools in England is available at the following links:

    For years prior to 2010: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120504203418/http:/education.gov.uk/rsgateway/sc-schoolpupil.shtml

    For years from 2010 onwards: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers

    These tables contain figures for each local authority individually.

    Information is not readily available on the first languages of pupils whose first language is not English. Data for the years requested for local authorities and regions could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.

    “

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral evidence given by Sir Mark Stanhope to the Defence Committee on 7 June 2016, HC 221, at Question 3, what anti-submarine warfare capability is planned for the general purpose frigates; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The General Purpose Frigate Programme has just begun its pre-concept phase activity. This work will consider a range of capability requirements based on the ship’s role, operating environment and the likely threats it will face. This work will also take into account the wider capabilities available to Defence, such as those provided through the procurement of the Anti Submarine Warfare capable Type 26 Frigates.