The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people in (a) Feltham and Heston constituency, (b) Houndslow, (c) London and (d) the UK sought advice from the Family Rights Group in 2015.
Edward Timpson
The Department for Education supports the Family Rights Group (FRG) in providing a national helpline for England. Our grant agreement with FRG does not require them to provide us with data by ward or the wider UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what (a) financial and (b) material support her Department is providing to facilitate the provision of education for children in conflict zones; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Nick Hurd
Draft answer
The UK is one of the biggest bilateral donors to basic education in low income countries. DFID has bilateral education programmes in 21 Low Income Countries, some of which are fragile or conflict affected. Between 2010 and 2015 DFID supported 11m children in school across these 21 countries. DFID has again pledged, in our manifesto commitments, to support 11m girls and boys with a decent education between 2015 and 2020. Through our flagship £355 million Girls’ Education Challenge we will enable up to 1 million of the world’s most marginalised girls to benefit from an education of sufficient quality and transform their lives, including countries such as Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.
DFID is supporting improvements to how the international community provides education in emergencies, including leadership to establish the ‘No Lost Generation’ Initiative to provide over 251,000 Syrian children with education inside Syria and in the region. At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region that will be held in London this week, we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17. At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. This will be a new model for providing education to children in a protracted crisis.
DFID is also financing, with partners, a technical design process for a new Global Platform and Financing Facility for education in emergencies to improve how education is delivered globally in crisis. It is envisaged that this new Platform will be launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in May.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what pressure, if any, they have placed on Health Education England to penalise NHS Foundation Trusts in respect of the funding of training places if they do not implement the junior doctors’ contract consistently.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government has not pressured Health Education England to penalise National Health Service foundation trusts. The emphasis of the letter sent by Health Education England’s Chief Executive, Professor Ian Cumming OBE, to all trusts on 15 February this year, was clear on the need for consistent implementation to ensure that patients get the care they need where they need it and junior doctors get the training they need across the whole of the NHS:
“A single national approach is essential to safeguard the organisation and delivery of postgraduate medical training to ensure all doctors can secure the professional development they require to complete their training programmes. We are not prepared to see a system where a competition based on a local employer’s ability to offer different terms is part of the recruitment process. The recruitment process should be based on patient and service need and quality of training as it always has been. Therefore implementation of the national contract will be a key criterion for Health Education England in making its decisions on our investment in training posts.”
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-03-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the level of subsidy from the public purse provided for council housing.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Local housing authorities do not receive subsidy from the Exchequer; the Localism Act 2011 abolished Housing Revenue Account Subsidy.
The Housing Revenue Account Self-Financing Determinations published in 2012 provided a once and for all settlement that allows local housing authorities in England to keep all their rental income in return for a rebalancing of housing debt.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-14.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many applications from public sector organisations his Department has received to (a) increase service charges, (b) charge above cost for public services and (c) charge below cost for public services in each year since 2009-10; and how many such applications have been (i) approved and (ii) rejected.
Greg Hands
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Treasury consent is required for all proposals to extend or vary charging schemes, and Treasury guidance advises that it is good practice to review these routinely at least once a year, and if appropriate revise the charging level. This leads to a large number of requests for consent being received by HM Treasury on a regular basis, not all of which are collated centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2016-05-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they regard as the main objectives of the forthcoming autumn UN Peacekeeping Conference.
Earl Howe
The Secretary of State for Defence will host a UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial at Lancaster House in London on 8 September 2016. This is a follow-on event to the Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping hosted by President Obama last September. The event will be an opportunity to take stock of progress made on pledges since last year, as well as to focus on how we can improve peacekeeping and on the role and participation of women in peacekeeping.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many public procurement contracts were won by small and medium-sized businesses in each region in the last five years.
Ben Gummer
In 2014-15, Central Government spent over £12 billion (27.1%) with small and medium sized businesses, which shows a continued year on year increase in SMEs winning public procurements.
The Government is determined to deliver its new target of one third of spend with SMEs by the end of this Parliament and we have appointed Emma Jones as the new Crown Representative for SMEs to help us achieve that.
We do not hold information on the number of public sector contracts won by small businesses or on the number of companies bidding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason her Department has invited private sector companies to tender for work currently carried out by its civilian enforcement officers.
Dr Phillip Lee
HMCTS are considering a range of options about how best to deliver this service. The tender process will allow HMCTS to make informed decisions about what is in the best interests of the service and the taxpayer. No decision on the way forward for the Civilian Enforcement Office role has been made at the current time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve diplomatic and economic ties with the new government in Burma.
Mr Hugo Swire
Burma’s constitution establishes a long delay between the election and the formation of a new government, which is due to take place in March 2016. The Prime Minister, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), called Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on 10 November to offer continued political and economic support for the people of Burma. We will of course keep in close contact on a range of topics and look forward to working with whatever new administration emerges in March.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much capital funding his Department has allocated to construction of a new concert hall in London led by the Barbican Centre.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not allocated any capital funding for the construction of the new concert hall in London.