Category: Speeches

  • Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Calum Kerr on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies focuses on (a) girls, (b) children with disabilities and (c) other marginalised children.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK has played a leading role in the development of Education Cannot Wait – a fund for education in emergencies. A key focus for Education Cannot Wait will be on ensuring that marginalised children and young people are able to access a quality education. This includes refugees and internally displaced children, as well as children facing barriers to their education because of their gender, disability or other factors. This focus is reflected in the Fund’s indicative headline results, which commits to providing “Inclusive education [that] reaches the most marginalised children and young people in crises” with a target of “100% of supported education opportunities demonstrate an increase in education for girls, disabled and those in remote locations”. The UK will continue to engage closely during Education Cannot Wait’s inception phase, to ensure that this commitment is fully reflected in its final design and results frameworks.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides to multi-academy trusts to ensure governance and leadership structures are able to support effective expansion.

    Edward Timpson

    Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) have an important role to play in encouraging and supporting high performing schools to extend their influence by growing Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and recruiting new sponsors to their region. The RSCs support schools and other organisations to become sponsors and grow effectively by offering practical one-to-one advice and facilitating supportive networks between MATs. They are also able to commission additional support for trusts where that is required, for example, from local Teaching School Alliances.

    As set out in our White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere, in the future MAT support will be system-led, and there will be a role for larger and more experienced trusts in supporting growing trusts as they develop. The Department is taking a number of steps to support MATs with leadership and governance, including:

    • a MAT CEO development programme;

    • redesigning a National Professional Qualification in leadership; and

    • funding the academy ambassadors programme that has resulted in over 240 experienced business leaders providing support to MATs by joining trust boards as non-executives.

    We are committing funding for 5 years to provide long term stability to help many more volunteers find a school or MAT that is looking for someone with their skills.

    The Government has allocated £300 million that will be available to support schools to convert and, in particular, support sponsors to turn around failing schools. A further £300 million will be available to support strong and effective multi-academy trusts to grow and improve.

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

    Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in developing a new formula for school funding; and when the new formula will be applied.

    Lord Nash

    In July, the Secretary of State committed to introduce national funding formulae for schools and high needs from financial year 2018-19. We are considering the options carefully, taking into account the need to give schools and local authorities stability, and the importance of getting these historic reforms right. We will set out detailed proposals later in the autumn, and make decisions early next year, for the new system to be in place from April 2018.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Dan Jarvis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons the triple lock on pensions does not apply to disability war pensions.

    Mark Lancaster

    Compensation payments under the War Pensions Scheme are uprated annually in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure. This is the same measure the Department for Work and Pensions uses for uprating social security disability benefits and is in keeping with other public service schemes. Our approach ensures consistency with the measure of inflation used by the Bank of England.

    The triple lock applies only to the State Pension. Members of the Armed Forces will therefore benefit from the triple lock once they reach State Pension age.

  • Carolyn Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Carolyn Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carolyn Harris on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information he holds on the public satisfaction rating of HM Land Registry.

    Anna Soubry

    Reports from Quarter 2 2015 show that the customer satisfaction score from the customer satisfaction survey is currently 95%.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to encourage other participants in the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference to (a) increase access to accredited quality non-formal education for Syrian refugee children in host countries in that region and (b) ensure that funding for Syrian refugee education is sustained beyond short-term humanitarian support.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4th February, 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. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.

    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. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answers of 18 November 2015 to Question 16782 and of 11 December 2015 to Questions 19723 and 19724, if he will estimate how many miles of local authority road are in poor structural condition in England.

    Andrew Jones

    I refer the Hon Member to my previous answers to Questions 16782, 19723 and 19724.

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=16782

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=19723

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-12-11/19724/

    “

  • The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-03-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they expect the UK to face a power deficit in winter 2016–17, and if so, what action they are taking to prevent electricity shortages.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The UK will not face a power deficit in winter 2016/17. National Grid has the right tools they need to manage the system and will ensure that they continue to do so.

    National Grid has already procured 3.6GW of reserve capacity for next winter and, in January, the Capacity Market Transitional Arrangements auction bought 800MW of demand side response capacity for winter 16/17 which will also help secure the system. In addition, National Grid has the option to procure further demand side balancing reserve for 2016/17.

  • Michael Dugher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Michael Dugher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the high street vacancy rate was in (a) England and (b) each region of England in each of the last six years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    My Department does not collect or publish data relating to high street vacancy rates. There are several commercial sources of shop vacancy rates data available, including the Local Data Company and Springboard, (http://info.localdatacompany.com/vacancy-rate-report-h1-2015-summary-download) who publish overall trends in the public domain.

  • Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the petition entitled Introduce Helen’s Law, published on the change.org website, what steps his Department is taking to encourage prisoners to reveal information about the crimes they have committed.

    Andrew Selous

    Staff in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) work with individual prisoners on a daily basis to address their risks and needs. A vital part of that activity is encouraging prisoners to acknowledge their responsibility for all their previous crimes.

    NOMS staff will also take appropriate action where prisoners disclose information either of additional offences or of aspects of their offences that were previously unknown.

    The Parole Board already takes into account offenders’ co-operation in identifying the location of a victim’s remains when determining whether they should be released; however, Ministers have asked the Parole Board to consider whether its guidelines in this area should be strengthened.