Category: Speeches

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which schools will no longer receive the extra £2,300 per school per year to help provide hot meals.

    Lord Nash

    In 2015-16, each maintained school in England with 150 pupils or fewer received temporary funding to help with the transition to universal infant free school meals (UIFSM). The full list of schools who received this funding in 2015-16 is attached alongside this response. Full details of 2015-16 funding allocations for UIFSM can be found on GOV.UK.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of emergency respite places for people being cared for by family or friends in (a) England, (b) Birmingham and (c) Swindon.

    Alistair Burt

    The Short and Long Term (SALT) Care data collection for 2014-15 show the number of cared-for people receiving respite or other forms of carer support;

    (a) England – 55,735

    (b) Birmingham local authority area – 635

    (c) Swindon local authority area – 160

    The data include other forms of support as well as emergency respite places; a precise figure for emergency respite places is not available. We are working with councils to improve data in this area for future iterations of the SALT Care data collection.

    The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers and the importance of supporting them in their caring roles. That is why we continue to support implementation of the improved rights for carers enshrined in the Care Act 2014. This includes a right to an assessment on the appearance of needs for support. These assessments cover carers’ wellbeing and what support they may need in their caring role.

    The Department has provided £104 million of funding to local authorities for these improved carers’ rights in 2015/16. We have also made an additional £400 million available to the National Health Service between 2011 and 2015 to provide carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities to sustain them in their caring role. The equivalent annual allocation of £130 million for carers breaks is now included in the Better Care Fund.

    The Department is also leading the development of a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy that will look at what more we can do to support existing carers and future carers.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many further submissions under rule 353 of the Immigration Rules were made in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16.

    James Brokenshire

    Our records indicate that 22,149 1 further submissions under rule 353 of the Immigration Rules were made from 2013 to 2015. The breakdown of applications received is 8,088 during 2013, 7,206 in 2014 and 6,855 for 2015.

    1 Relates to 18,143 people – due to a number of individuals making multiple further submissions.

    Notes:

    • The data only includes further submissions that are linked to an Asylum claim.

    • The data includes main applicants only and does not include dependants.

    • The data covers further submissions applications made between 01/01/2013 and 31/12/2015 (in line with data publications under the transparency agenda).

    The data provided is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects NHS providers to return to surplus.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government’s Mandate to NHS England 2016-17, sets very clear expectations for this year including a specific objective to balance the National Health Service budget.

    Details can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/494485/NHSE_mandate_16-17_22_Jan.pdf

    “

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which official engagements he has undertaken in Redcar since May 2015.

    Margot James

    My Rt hon Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) visited Redcar on 2 October 2015 following the announcement of the liquidation of Sahaviriya Steel Industries UK (SSI).

    The then Secretary of State announced a support package worth up to £80 million for former employees affected by the closure. He was accompanied by the then Minister for Small Businesses, Industry and Enterprise, Anna Soubry.

    The Minister for Small Businesses, Industry and Enterprise then attended the Redcar taskforce on 21 March 2016.

    In his previous role as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my Rt hon Friend met the Mayor and Leaders of the five Tees Valley authorities on the following dates: 15 July 2015 (a joint meeting with James Wharton), 23 March 2016, 7 June 2016 (to launch Lord Heseltine’s report Tees Valley: opportunity unlimited) and 12 July 2016. These were regular catch-up meetings, which took place in Westminster.

  • Deidre Brock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Deidre Brock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that unaccompanied refugee children in Europe with an existing family connection in the UK have their asylum under the Dublin Regulation processed without undue delay.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government is fully committed to the efficient and timely operation of the Dublin Regulation and we are working closely with EU partners, including the French, Greek and Italian authorities to identify, assess and transfer children to the UK under the Dublin family reunion process.

    We have seconded a UK official to Greece; we have a long-standing secondee working in Italy and we have seconded another official to the French Interior Ministry to support these efforts. We have established a dedicated team in the Home Office Dublin Unit to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children.

    Between 1 January and 1 October 2016 over 140 unaccompanied children were accepted for transfer, compared to around 20 children in the whole of 2015.Transfer requests from Member States involving children under the Dublin Regulation are now generally processed within 10 days. Children can then be transferred within weeks and are now arriving in the UK on an almost weekly basis.The Home Secretary made clear on the 10th October that we will transfer as many minors as possible to the UK, who are eligible under the Dublin Regulation before the camp clearance starts.

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether burbots are extinct within the UK.

    George Eustice

    Burbot were last reported in the UK in the early 1970s and the species has not been recorded since in the British Isles.

    Various factors are likely to have contributed to the demise of the species, including the impacts of climate and environmental change. However, a precise cause remains unclear.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many magistrates have been recruited in each month since May 2015.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The requested information is provided in the table below. The greater number of appointments towards the latter part of the year reflects the timing of the annual forecasting process through which the need for new magistrates is determined. Becoming a magistrate remains highly sought after and competition for vacancies tends to be strong.

    Month

    Appointments

    May

    0

    June

    15

    July

    73

    August

    52

    September

    50

    October

    106

    November

    104

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of (1) all multi-academy trusts, and (2) multi-academy trusts with at least five schools, achieve above average value added.

    Earl of Courtown

    Value added scores are routinely published for individual schools as part of the department’s performance tables, which include the functionality to filter results by an academy sponsor.

    The department does not publish a summary of value added scores for each academy chain or multi-academy trust. Simple aggregations of performance measures can lead to misleading conclusions about performance within a chain since they will often reflect the type of schools that have entered into the chain relationship.

    Earlier this year, the department published a statistical working paper to consider how these issues may be addressed and invited comments from users. This can be found in the attachment to this answer.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-01-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2016 to Question 21322, what advice has been issued to UK banks and building societies offering second charge mortgages in territory outside the UK.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government is not aware of any formal advice that has been issued to banks or building societies offering second charge mortgages in territories outside the UK.