Category: Speeches

  • Jason McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jason McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that local authorities provide sufficient short breaks to children with life-shortening conditions in England.

    Edward Timpson

    Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available, how they are responding to the needs of local parent carers, and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.

    Between April 2011 and March 2015, the government made available £800 million to local authorities for short break provision, along with an additional £80 million of capital funding for equipment and infrastructure.

    Between April 2015 and March 2016, we awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children, and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing, and taking up short breaks for disabled children. The Department for Education has allocated £200m funding over the next 4 years to support innovation and improvement to children’s social work practice. We are currently considering how we can use some of this funding to support local innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children and their families and for making services more accessible.

    The Department’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Advisory Team is continuing to offer support and challenge to local authorities to help make sure they meet all of their statutory requirements and that quality continues to improve. From this summer, there will be opportunities through the new Ofsted/Care Quality Commission SEND inspections framework for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND, including their need for short breaks services. In addition, Together for Short lives, the UK charity for children and young people with life limiting conditions, received £551,029 from the Department for Education over a 3 year period – between April 2013 and March 2016, to help ensure children and young people with life limiting conditions benefited from the SEND reforms.

  • Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when she expects the Dormant Assets Commission to report.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The Commission on Dormant Assets is expected to report its findings and recommendations to Government in December 2016.

  • Alasdair McDonnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Alasdair McDonnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alasdair McDonnell on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the implications are for the (a) PEACE and (b) INTERREG IVA programmes in (i) the UK and (ii) Northern Ireland of a UK decision to leave the EU.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government is focused on delivering a successful renegotiation.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2015 to Question 13962, when he most recently made representations to his Ethiopian counterpart on the detention of Andargachew Tsege.

    James Duddridge

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Philip Hammond) wrote to Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros on 10 December about Andargachew Tsege’s continued detention. He made clear that Mr Tsege should have access to a lawyer, and be allowed to challenge his detention through a legal process.

  • Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to curb gang culture across the UK.

    Lord Bates

    Ending gang violence and exploitation is a priority for the Government and on 13 January 2016 we published a paper setting out our refreshed approach. This has a twin focus concerned with both reducing violence, including knife crime, and protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitation by gangs. The full refreshed approach can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ending-gang-violence-and-exploitation.

    This builds on our work since 2012 when we introduced the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme aimed and targeted at supporting local areas building their resilience and ability to respond to gangs. Since 2012, we have worked with 52 local areas facing problems associated with gangs through supporting peer reviews to identify the main local challenges.

  • Caroline Nokes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Nokes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Nokes on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve the teaching of personal, social, health and economic education and sex and relationship education in schools that Ofsted inspectors have assessed as requiring improvement in the teaching of those subjects.

    Edward Timpson

    This Government believes that all children should have the opportunity to receive a high quality and appropriate sex and relationship education (SRE). SRE is compulsory in all maintained secondary schools and many primary schools also teach it in an age-appropriate way. The Government also expects academies and free schools to deliver SRE as part of their provision of a broad and balanced curriculum.

    Any state-funded school teaching SRE must have regard to the Secretary of State’s SRE guidance (2000). The Department does not collect data about the number of schools that follow the guidance. The Department has received requests about updating the existing SRE guidance which we will carefully consider.

    Ofsted does not inspect individual curriculum subjects. However, aspects of Personal Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education and SRE will inform its judgment on personal development, behaviour and welfare. Inspectors must also consider the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils. Schools have responsibility for acting upon the inspection reports they receive and any weaknesses will be considered when the school is next inspected.

    Initial Teacher Training is currently determined by the Teachers’ Standards, which all trainee teachers must be able to demonstrate by the end of their training. The Standards set out the key principles of good subject pedagogy and the importance of subject knowledge development across the curriculum. Schools and headteachers are best placed to determine which staff learning activities will be most beneficial for their schools and we expect them to lead the personal development of their teachers to improve the quality of all round teaching.

    The Department supports schools’ efforts to improve PSHE teaching, by drawing schools’ attention to a range of high quality PSHE education teaching resources, including quality resources, lesson plans, a programme of study, factsheets and case studies. These resources are kite-marked by the PSHE Association to ensure that schools can trust the materials they use and improve their teaching.

  • Melanie Onn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Melanie Onn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will estimate the change in the number of jobs that will be lost in the solar industry as a result of the early closure of the renewables obligation.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not maintain data on the number of jobs in the solar industry. In order to support the path to subsidy-free solar deployment, we have decided to keep the Feed-in-Tariff scheme open, and expect that the scheme could support 15,000-23,000 jobs in the sector.

    We expect subsidy-free solar to be an increasingly attractive option. Lightsource, the biggest solar developer in the UK, have said publically that they will be installing and connecting subsidy-free sites in 2016.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether regulations are in place to ensure that (a) town councils, (b) parish councils and (c) local communities have access to itemised expenditure on any associated administrative, legal, design, preparatory or maintenance works associated with individual highways infrastructure works within their areas on which Section 106 contributions have been spent.

    Brandon Lewis

    Section 106 agreements are negotiated and agreed between a local planning authority and a developer and/or landowner along with other interested parties in the land, such as mortgage providers. National planning policy makes clear that Section 106 requirements, modifications and discharges should be transparent and available for inspection.

    Local planning authorities are expected to use all of the funding they receive through planning obligations in accordance with the terms of the individual planning obligation agreement. This is to ensure that new developments are acceptable in planning terms; benefit local communities and support the provision of local infrastructure.

    Planning decisions should be based on Local Plan policy unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Representations from interested third parties may constitute material considerations. Town councils, parish councils and local communities can influence infrastructure and other considerations in Local Plans through the consultation process.

    The Community Infrastructure Levy was introduced to provide a faster, fairer and more transparent approach to collecting developer contributions toward infrastructure. The Government launched a review of the Levy in 2015. This review will consider a range of issues, including the relationship between the Levy and Section 106 planning obligations.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library copies of his letter to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Northfield of 4 May 2016 on local government and ethical procurement.

    Matthew Hancock

    I will place this correspondence in the Library as requested, following the end of the pre-referendum period.

  • Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, which power stations are equipped with black start capability; and how many such stations are in each constituent part of the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    National Grid is responsible for maintaining a Black Start capability for the Great Britain national electricity transmission system and contracts with certain large power stations to provide this service within defined geographic zones.

    For both security reasons and due to commercial sensitivities, information on which power stations have black start contracts is not publicly available.