Category: Speeches

  • Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Saville Roberts on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been arrested and charged with offences relating to girls under 18 years of age reported as missing to the police in each year from 1998 to 2005.

    James Brokenshire

    The information in this request is held by individual police forces.

    Between 1998 and 2005, the Metropolitan Police Service was responsible for the Missing Persons Bureau, but did not publish reports detailing the number of missing cases. In 2013, the function was transferred to the National Crime Agency to improve the service offered to policing in respect of the handling of missing person and unidentified investigations.

    The National Crime Agency publishes annual statistics on Missing Persons which includes missing children http://missingpersons.police.uk.The last published report shows that in 2014/15 there were 112,252 missing persons incidents involving children. Of these, the report finds that 54% of these missing incidents involved female children under the age of 18.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans her Department has made to reallocate UK aid funding from cross-EU funds and programmes.

    Rory Stewart

    We remain committed to spending 0.7% of our national income on development assistance, and to achieving the UN’s Global Goals and ending extreme poverty by 2030. Outside of the EU we will have better control over where we are spending our money. We will continue to uphold our manifesto commitments on UK international development.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve broadband networks in the UK to support small businesses.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Since 2010 the proportion of households and businesses with access to superfast broadband has risen from 45% to 83%. Thanks to the Government’s investment this will rise to 95 per cent by the end of 2017. In addition, the Government’s Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme has been a tremendous success. More than 55,000 small businesses across the UK have taken up the offer, many of which are already seeing significant boosts to their business as a result of improved broadband speeds.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-12-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 17 November (HL3653), whether they will require all EU advertising notices to include information about the ratio of UK contributions to the EU budget and sums returned by way of grants.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The government has no plans to require all EU advertising notices for Structural and Investment Funds to include information about the ratio of UK contributions to the EU budget and sums returned by way of grants. However we will seek to remove the requirement to display notices in future reforms of the CAP.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of apprentices working in the curry industry.

    Nick Boles

    Information on the number of Apprentices working in the curry industry is not available.

    Apprenticeship starts by Sector Framework and Standard are published as a supplementary table (first link) to a Statistical First Release (second link).

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

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/learner-participation-outcomes-and-level-of-highest-qualification-held

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Prime Minister, what the (a) job description, (b) budget and (c) selection criteria is for each of his trade envoys.

    Mr David Cameron

    Information regarding trade envoys can be found on the gov.uk website.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evidence her Department holds that increasing the national expectations in writing from 4b to 5c will improve the outcomes in writing for children at the end of Key Stage 2.

    Nick Gibb

    The Government has set a more a challenging expected standard for assessment at the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) to reflect the high expectations set by the new national curriculum. The curriculum standards align with the highest performing jurisdictions internationally and have been raised because too many children who met the old expected standard at the end of primary school did not go on to achieve at least five good GCSEs.

    The new expected standard is not, however, equivalent to the old level 5c for KS2 English writing or any other subject. While there will be no need to make comparison to the old national curriculum levels once the new system is established, we have been clear that the new expected standard is broadly equivalent to 4b.

    The Standards and Testing Agency published exemplification materials for KS2 writing in early February to support teachers in making their teacher assessment judgements. These were developed in consultation with a number of teacher panels and are real examples of work by pupils currently in year 6. The materials show two examples of pupils assessed as working at the expected standard: one shows work that has met the expected standard and is broadly equivalent to the old 4b, while another shows work at the higher end of the expected standard. We have published these two different examples to show the breadth of competence covered by ‘meeting the expected standard’. I have asked the Standards and Testing Agency to issue further guidance to schools shortly to clarify the assessment arrangements and eliminate any misunderstandings.

  • David Mowat – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    David Mowat – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mowat on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of residential addresses in the parish of Hatton are currently within reach of superfast broadband.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Department does not hold parish level data.

    However, current estimates suggest that almost 85% of premises in the Warrington South constituency are subject to commercial rollout, and a further 9% of premises (4,615) now have coverage as a result of this Government’s Superfast Broadband programme.

    Based on DCMS modelled estimates and current delivery plans, 97.7% of premises in the Warrington South constituency will have access to superfast broadband by December 2017. Early gainshare funding that BT will return in response to the high levels of take-up being achieved, could help extend coverage further.

    In addition, the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation will give people the legal right to request a broadband connection, no matter where they live, by the end of this Parliament. Our ambition is that this should be set at 10 Mbps.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of people having to travel more than one hour to attend a jobcentre plus office in order to obtain a National Insurance number in the last 12 months.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    No estimate has been made of the number of people having to travel more than one hour to attend a Jobcentre Plus office in order to obtain a National Insurance number in the last 12 months.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost to the public purse was of replacement prison cell doors because of damage by prisoners in each of the last five years.

    Andrew Selous

    The Information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.