Category: Speeches

  • Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how old the (a) women and (b) men in the army were who told the Sexual Harassment Report 2015 survey that they had been a victim of a sexual assault in the previous 12 months.

    Mark Lancaster

    The table below gives the age range by gender for Regular and Reserve Army personnel who answered ‘yes’ to Question 12 of the Sexual Harassment Survey 2015: ‘In the past 12 months have you had an experience involving any of the behaviours in Question eight which made you feel particularly upset?’ and who then specified in Question 13 that one of these experiences was ‘Made a sexual assault on you’:

    Gender

    Minimum Age (in years)

    Maximum Age (in years)

    Average (Mode) age

    Men

    29

    37

    See note 4

    Women

    18

    52

    23

    This information should be considered with the following caveats:

    The data captured in the Sexual Harassment Survey 2015 represents the attitudes and opinions of serving personnel, not the number of sexual assaults recorded through the formal complaints process.

    Participants were not given a definition of sexual assault in the survey, therefore answers were based on subjective interpretations of the term. It is not known whether the behaviour experienced was consistent with the legal definition of sexual assault.

    Because a sample, rather than a census, was taken, the data may not be representative of the whole serving population.

    Not available due the small sample size.

  • Karin Smyth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Karin Smyth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase GP recruitment in South Bristol.

    David Mowat

    The Government has committed to increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors in general practice.

    NHS England advises it has invested £10million to kick start a range of initiatives to expand the general practitioner (GP) workforce, set out in a joint action plan developed with Health Education England (HEE), Royal College of General Practiioners and British Medical Association. Achievements to date include , a new national induction and refreshers scheme was launched in 2015.

    Further measures to boost the general practice workforce are set out in the General Practice Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016.

    HEE’s confirms it is working to maintain a high fill rate of Bristol’s programme for Postgraduate Training pre Certificate of Completion of Training and to continue to produce high calibre GPs leaving the Bristol Programme upon completion of their training. HEE advises it is doing this by:-

    ― Continuing to offer high quality training placements throughout the Bristol region;

    ― Promoting new initiatives such as the Global Health Programme and Leadership and Excellence Extensions of Training opportunities; and,

    ― Maintaining existing Scholarship programme for trainees in their final year to gain extended skills in primary care.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether an estimate has been made of the number of jobs likely to be created due to the completion of the station for High Speed 2 in Birmingham.

    Andrew Jones

    Birmingham and the West Midlands will be key beneficiaries of HS2, which will provide a springboard for regeneration and growth and support job creation.

    The Department for Transport alongside the Department for Communities and Local Government are supporting Birmingham and have provided £2.5 million funding to support the development of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Growth Strategy. The strategy demonstrates the potential for HS2 to support the creation of 36,000 jobs around Curzon Street Station and 16,500 jobs around Birmingham Interchange Station.

    In addition, HS2 Ltd expects the construction of HS2 to create 24,600 jobs, which will include many further opportunities for Birmingham and the West Midlands.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what average time his Department took to respond to freedom of information requests in each year since 2005.

    David Mundell

    The Government publishes statistics on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within central government, including on timeliness. These can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

    “

  • David Amess – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    David Amess – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2015 to Question 13645, what the names of each (a) head teacher and (b) school her Department is currently working with to improve the provision of PSHE in schools; and if she will make a statement.

    Edward Timpson

    We selected these headteachers to work with us on this issue because of the high quality of provision of PSHE education in their schools. The group of headteachers and practitioners that we are currently working with includes Carl Ward of Haywood Academy in Stoke on Trent; Cathie Paine of the Reach2 Academy Trust; Jerry Rayner of Rugby Independent School in Warwickshire; Michelle Colledge-Smith of the Outwood Grange Academy Trust; and Vanessa Ogden of Mulberry School in Bethnal Green.

    The group has not been asked to advise the Government on the content of PSHE. Their focus is to produce an action plan and recommendations for improving the quality of PSHE teaching. We want to draw on expertise from a range of headteachers and practitioners and will invite others to join the group as appropriate. The Department regularly speaks to a wide range of stakeholders and will continue to do so regarding PSHE.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to make an assessment of the humaneness of hunting with dogs.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government has no plans to make an assessment of the humaneness of hunting with dogs. However, in 1999 a Government Committee (the Burns Inquiry) was set up to examine the facts in the debate about hunting with dogs, including whether hunting with dogs is cruel. The findings of the inquiry were published on 9 June 2000 (www.huntinginquiry.gov.uk/mainsections/huntingframe.htm).

    On 12 March 2001 Lord Burns stated: “… There was not sufficient verifiable evidence or data safely to reach views about cruelty. It is a complex area …". [Hansard 12 March 2001; col. 533

    http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/2001/mar/12/hunting-bill].

    “

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he is planning to allocate a proportion of the proposed £1.4 billion mental health funding for children and young people over the next five years funding to be invested in mental health services to support (a) children in care and (b) care leavers.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government is committed to making the full £1.4 billion investment available over the course of this Parliament to improve mental health services for children and young people.

    In line with guidance published by NHS England, all clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have produced Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health and these have all now been assured and funding allocated for implementation. These plans required all key partners to agree locally how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations and should cover the whole spectrum of need, which includes improving access to mental health services for vulnerable groups such as children in care and care leavers so that they can receive high quality mental health care when they need it. It is for local partners to decide how much of the funding which will be allocated to CCGs to improve local services throughout the five years will be spent specifically on children in care and other vulnerable groups. However, this will be based on an assessment of local needs and set out in the LTPs.

    The Government’s overall strategy to improve outcomes for care leavers is set out in the Care Leaver Strategy: A cross-departmental strategy for young people leaving care report (October 2013), and a one-year-on document, Care Leaver Strategy: One year on progress update, (October 2014) that reported on progress made and set out how the Government intends to further improve support for care leavers. The Government intends to publish its refreshed Care Leaver Strategy later this year.

    The Local Government Association has produced a spreadsheet giving details of every LTP can be found using the following webpage address:

    www.local.gov.uk/camhs

    “

  • Gavin Newlands – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Gavin Newlands – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide a breakdown of the main reasons why applications to the National Enterprise Allowance scheme were turned down in each of the last five years.

    Priti Patel

    The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) is a voluntary scheme. Eligible claimants will be referred to one of our contracted NEA providers who will assess their business idea for viability and sustainability. Claimants who are not accepted onto the scheme can be re-referred at a later date.

    We do not hold the data on how many people are rejected by our providers.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Attorney General, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department’s agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.

    Robert Buckland

    Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. This would include some senior civil servants, such as ambassadors and chargés d’affaires. The Government’s view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed. The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.

    The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. The Treasury regularly raises these issues with financial institutions and the regulator, and encourages financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.

  • 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 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 2.29 of her Department’s White Paper, Educational excellence everywhere, published in March 2016; what measure her Department plans to use to determine what constitutes a high quality trainee.

    Nick Gibb

    High-quality trainee teachers are central to our ambition of achieving educational excellence everywhere. The White Paper confirmed that we will introduce new quality criteria to inform the allocation of training places to providers of initial teacher training (ITT) for both schools and universities. This will include an assessment of the quality of trainees recruited to ITT courses.

    We will announce further details of the criteria we intend to use shortly; this will begin to inform the allocation of training places to schools and universities from the 2017/18 training year. We anticipate refining the criteria over the coming years, taking account of feedback from the sector and the way in which providers are responding.