The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West left teaching profession in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (v) 2015.
Nick Gibb
The information requested is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-01-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether local record management instructions exist to augment paragraph 2.11.2 of JSP441 Defence Records Management Policy and Procedures at (a) MOD Grantown-on-Spey, (b) MOD Llanrwst, (c) MOD Fairbourne and (d) MOD Crickhowell.
Mark Lancaster
In accordance with JSP441, para 2.11.2, the Senior Information Officer (SIO) is to ensure that local management instructions exist to augment those contained in JSP 441 and that they are to be reviewed to ensure consistency with JSP 441. At all of the establishments listed the relevant SIO provides guidance and all staff undertake annual IT training.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-01-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) UK and (b) other maritime patrol aircraft are currently based at RAF Lossiemouth; and how much longer he anticipates this will be the case.
Penny Mordaunt
There are no Maritime Patrol Aircraft currently based at RAF Lossiemouth.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Defence Procurement (Philip Dunne) to question 17832 from the hon. Member for Garston and Halewood (Maria Eagle) on 3 December 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many disabled people will move into work as a result of changes to the employment and allowance work-related activity group; and what research he has conducted into the effects of those changes.
Priti Patel
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the welfare policies in the Bill on 20th July last year.
Whilst the policy is intended to provide the right incentives to help individuals back into work, it is not possible to quantify based on behavioral changes which are difficult to assess.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure compliance with safety regulations and basic standards of hygiene at abortion clinics.
Jane Ellison
One representation has been received in relation to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection of BPAS Richmond. The CQC is responsible for ensuring that requirements under the Health and Social Care (HSC) Act 2008 are met by the providers of termination of pregnancy services including meeting the fundamental standards of quality and safety as set out in Part 3 to the 2014 Regulations, and Regulation 20 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, which is specific to independent sector termination of pregnancy providers. The CQC is responsible for ensuring that the requirements under the HSC Act 2008 are maintained through a system of monitoring and, where appropriate, inspection visits. It is for the CQC and the provider to address required and recommended actions identified following an inspection.
Independent sector providers are also required to comply with the Department of Health’s Required Standard Operating Procedures.
Departmental officials meet regularly with representatives from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) but have not met since the CQC report on BPAS Richmond was published.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering on 2016-04-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have chosen not to implement provisions relating to joint audit and increased tendering as set out in EU Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation 537/2014 on statutory auditing.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government does intend to implement provisions relating to increased tendering as part of the implementation of the EU Audit Regulation and Directive. This is in line with the recommendations of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The provision on joint audit in the EU Regulation would act as an exemption from having to retender with the frequency envisaged by the CMA. The government consulted on the implementation of the audit directive including this option, and concluded the option should not be taken up.
Joint audit is not a practice followed in the UK, though it is expressly permitted by the Companies and legislation on some other entities. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has consulted on whether to take up this derogation. In response to our discussion document in December 2014 on auditor regulation, only 4 of 25 respondents supported its implementation.
It is unclear that increased joint audit would encourage competition. The option in the EU Regulation could result in prolonged audit engagements (up to 24 years) and fewer changes in auditor. This would be contrary to the objective of the CMA and the Regulation, which is to increase retendering and rotation of auditors not less.
The CMA considered the impact of joint audits on competition and concluded that promoting joint audits would have little effect on barriers to entry, expansion and selection. The CMA’s conclusions were based on views provided by a range of stakeholders. The CMA was not able to quantify the potential cost of imposing joint audits, but did state that they believed that across the market the costs would be potentially significant. They state that a lot of weight was placed on the views of investors, who were almost universally opposed to joint audits on the grounds of additional costs and risks to audit quality.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civil servants in his Department are paid through limited companies.
Mark Lancaster
No civil servants employed by the Ministry of Defence are paid through limited companies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to implement the actions identified for it in the Government’s Ending Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016-2020, published in March 2016; and when a member of staff from her Department last attended a Violence against Women and Girls Stakeholder Meeting chaired by the Home Office.
Rory Stewart
DFID has made significant progress in scaling up efforts to address violence against women and girls, nearly doubling our programming, from 64 programmes in 2012 to 127 in 2016, and working with partners across all sectors. Our £36 million programme to end Child, Early and Forced Marriage is helping thousands of girls escape losing any choice or control over their future. We have committed £8 million to support AmplifyChange, an initiative to support civil society activists to end child marriage and address a broader range of gender issues. In 2015 we provided £2.25 million of support to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and Girls which provides grants to organisations across the world to tackle gender-based violence.
ICAI published its review of DFID’s efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls on Tuesday 17 May 2016. This review gave DFID’s performance a ‘Green’ rating, the highest achievable. The UK and DFID’s new Secretary of State will continue to lead the global effort to improve the lives of women and girls.
The last Home Office chaired Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Stakeholder Meeting took place on July 11 2016. No officials from other departments were invited to this meeting. However, one of the action points arising from this meeting was to invite other departments in future. An official from DFID’s VAWG Team will attend the next meeting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Eaton on 2016-10-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendation in the recent report from the charity Sense, Realising Aspirations for All, to break the link between welfare benefits and access to employment by making support voluntary and available to all disabled people, regardless of the benefits they claim.
Lord Freud
We welcome the Sense report, Realising Aspirations for All and its findings. We want all disabled and people with a long term health condition to fulfil their potential and achieve their aspirations.
We will soon publish a Green Paper on work and health and conduct a consultation to understand how every individual can have the opportunity to work and share in the economic and health benefits that work brings, regardless of their health condition or disability. We will continue to engage with Sense and other key stakeholders as part of the Green Paper consultation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Cashman on 2015-10-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what specific plans they have to ensure that plans to deliver the Global Goals for sustainable development agreed by the UN in September take account of the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
Baroness Verma
The Global Goals for Sustainable Development offer a historic opportunity to eradicate extreme poverty and ensure no one is left behind. To realise this opportunity we will prioritise the interests of the world’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.
The UK will listen and respond to the voices of those left furthest behind, such as LGBTI people; hold ourselves and each other accountable for designing policies and building inclusive institutions; take steps to enable all LGBTI people to have opportunity and reach their full potential; challenge the social barriers that deny people opportunity and limit their potential, including discrimination and exclusion based on sexual identity, and, support a data revolution to assess whether targets are being met by all LGBTI peoples.
A note describing DFID’s specific approach to LGBTI rights, will be published on UK Government website by the end of 2015.