The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether bids can continue to be made by British cities to become European capital of culture after the vote to leave the EU.
Matt Hancock
DCMS is currently reviewing the impact of the referendum result on the UK’s ability to participate in this competition, and will provide clarity to all interested cities once we are in a position to do so.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2015-10-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to improve the provision of work in prisons; and if he will make a statement.
Andrew Selous
We want prisons to be places of hard work, rigorous education and high ambition, with incentives for prisoners to learn and for prison staff to prioritise education and work. Improvements have been made to increase work but we want to go further. We are looking at the ways in which this might be achieved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make representations to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to open an investigation into the case of James Thompson.
Mike Penning
As I stated in response to Questions 14066 and 16560, although the Criminal Cases Review Commission is funded by my Department, it is entirely independent of Government, and Ministers cannot, and should not, attempt to intervene in its reviews or decisions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the situation in Eastern Ukraine; and if he will make a statement.
Mr David Lidington
The security situation in eastern Ukraine remains fragile, although a ceasefire agreed in September continues largely to hold following an order issued by the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ chief-of-staff on 25 November not to return fire unless in self-defence. Progress on the Minsk peace process was made at a Normandy-format Foreign Ministers’ meeting on 6 November, including agreements on the withdrawal of heavy weapons and de-mining. However these now need to be fully implemented alongside the ceasefire being fully respected.
A report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 9 December reported that the total death toll since mid-April 2014 is at least 9,098, with another 20,732 injured. The report also reveals that serious human rights abuses against people in the separatist-held areas continue, including killings, torture, ill-treatment, illegal detention and forced labour, lack of freedom of movement, assembly and expression. An estimated 2.9 million people living in the conflict area continue to face difficulties in exercising their economic and social rights, in particular access to quality medical care. The already dire humanitarian situation is exacerbated by the lack of access to these areas by international humanitarian organisations. Sustained and unimpeded access by humanitarian organisations to these areas is vital.
I expressed my concern at the situation in Ukraine in a statement at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel on 3 December, where I called on the Russian Federation to withdraw their weapons and personnel, and use their considerable influence over the separatist leadership in order to bring an end to the crisis. I also raised the Government’s concerns about the situation in Eastern Ukraine with Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Titov in Moscow on 22 December.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many recruitment and employment agencies his Department has used to source staff in each year since 2010-11.
David Mundell
The Scotland Office used two recruitment agencies to source staff since 2010-11.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-02-24.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of his Department’s fiscal policies on the financial position of women.
Harriett Baldwin
In line with the Equality Act and the Government’s strong commitment to gender equality, ministers carefully consider the impacts for women when developing fiscal and other policies.
It is equally important for the future finances of both women and men that we have chosen to tackle the deficit; other Government policies including increases in the income tax personal allowance, the simplified state pension, auto enrolment into pensions, the National Living Wage, and free and tax-free childcare are also especially beneficial to women.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes to Health Education England funding on training in (a) child psychotherapy, (b) clinical psychotherapy; and on the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.
Ben Gummer
Higher Education training in child psychotherapy, clinical psychotherapy and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies is not currently eligible for NHS Bursary funding and, as such, is not subject to the healthcare education funding reforms.
The Government will be consulting shortly on healthcare education funding reform as announced in the November 2015 Spending Review and respondents to the consultation may wish to raise issues relating to courses operated outside of the remit of these reforms. The Government will consider these in the context of its consultation response.
Health Education England (HEE) funding for psychological therapy training is currently determined at a local level based on local need. For 2016-17 HEE will fund those commissions set out in the HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan for 2016-17 which was published in December 2015. HEE’s plans for training child psychotherapists, clinical psychotherapists and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (low intensity and high intensity practitioners) remain unchanged from 2015-16, with 43, 526 and 946 proposed commissions respectively.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many times she has attended public meetings of the International Development Committee since her appointment.
Mr Desmond Swayne
Ministerial attendance at public meetings of the International Development Committee is a matter of public record. Details can be found online at http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/international-development-committee/formal-minutes/
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb on 2016-05-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the total cost of Trident renewal over the lifespan of the Successor-class submarines, including in-service costs and decommissioning.
Earl Howe
As stated in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, our latest cost estimate for manufacturing the four submarines of the Successor submarine programme is £31 billion, plus a contingency of £10 billion. This includes an assessment of the likely inflation over the lifetime of the programme and the risks appropriate for a project at this stage.
Once the new fleet of ballistic missile submarines comes into service, we expect that the in-service costs of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, which include the costs of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, basing and disposals, will be similar to the current system, at around six per cent of the defence budget.
While we have no plans to replace the current Trident D5 missile, we are participating with our US partners in a programme to extend their lifespan to the 2060s. The estimated cost is around £250 million.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-07-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what new measures she is implementing to encourage take-up of teacher training.
Nick Gibb
The latest published figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that teaching remains a hugely popular profession; nearly 28,000 people have been recruited to postgraduate teacher training courses in England in 2016/17, with several weeks of the recruitment cycle remaining.
Our 2017/18 teacher recruitment marketing campaign will commence in the autumn and will feature a new television advert, alongside print, online and social media advertising. Forty recruitment events will take place across the country, and teaching will be promoted also at over thirty graduate fairs where our advisors will meet students, setting out the benefits of a career in teaching.
To support recruitment in 2017/18, we will also be announcing a new package of financial incentives, including bursaries and scholarships to attract top graduates in priority subjects such as physics and maths, in early autumn.
In addition, we are spending up to £67 million on a programme of measures to upskill the existing maths and physics teaching workforce, and increase the number of new maths and physics specialists entering teaching. This package aims to recruit up to 2,500 new teachers and upskill up to 15,000 existing teachers over the term of this parliament.