The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the UK’s current CPI and RPI inflation rates.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
CPI inflation was 0.1 per cent in November 2015 and RPI inflation was 1.1 per cent. Low inflation is being driven by falling food and energy prices, and we continue to see a combination of low prices, rising pay packets and record high employment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on how many occasions his Department has been notified by external consultants or other third parties of breaches by employees or subcontractors of those consultants of document retention or security policies relating to confidential or secure materials in each of the last two years.
Mr David Lidington
Our records show 57 breaches by commercial third party suppliers in handling secure materials for the years in question. This is broken down by year as follows:
2014/15 – 47
2015/16 – 10
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has rigorous formal procedures for reporting, investigating and monitoring any incidents involving the loss or compromise of sensitive data for which it is responsible. Our policies and procedures are designed to ensure that we are compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 and HMG’s Security Policy Framework. Responsibility for this compliance is shared with Suppliers through appropriate contract terms and conditions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jowell on 2016-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what policies they intend to implement in recognition of the contribution of the first 1,000 days of a child’s life to its subsequent academic and other attainment.
Lord Nash
As the Prime Minister made clear in his speech on 11 January 2016, the government understands the importance of those first crucial years of life and that we need to get parenting and the early years right if we are to improve children’s life chances. The government will be publishing a Life Chances strategy in the spring which will set out a comprehensive plan to fight disadvantage and extend opportunity, including policies to give children the best start in life.
The government is already implementing a range of policies which recognise the contribution of the first 1001 days of a child’s life to its subsequent academic and other attainment, which are detailed below.
Healthy Child Programme
The evidence based Healthy Child Programme is the universal service offered to every family. Delivered by health visitors, the programme centres on a series of screening tests, immunisations, developmental reviews, and information and guidance to support families of children aged 0-5 years. Since October 2015 there have been five mandated child development reviews, to provide a national standard format to ensure universal coverage and ongoing improvements in public health. Effective implementation of the Healthy Child Programme should lead to readiness for school and improved learning.
Best Start in Life programme
One of Public Health England’s (PHE) national priorities is to ensure that every child has the best start in life, so that they are ready to learn at age two and ready for school at five. The Best Start in Life programme provides national leadership to support local areas to take a whole system approach to commission and provide evidence based services and interventions which improve child health outcomes and reduce inequalities. PHE also has has also published a range of professional guidance for best practice to support families in the first 1001 days.
Integrated Review (IR)
In 2013, DfE ran a joint Integrated Review pilot with the Department of Health (DH) which focused on two-year-olds in registered childcare settings. This was to test out the most effective way of undertaking the early years progress check with the universal DH Healthy Child Programme and providing parents with a holistic review of their child’s development. In 2015, we provided funding to support the roll out of the IR by all local authorities in England. We are currently piloting the second phase of the IR with eight local authority pilot areas to test different local models of how early years practitioners can collaborate with health professionals to identify parents of two year-olds not in registered childcare settings, so that their children can also benefit from an Integrated Review.
Early Learning for Two Year Olds
There is a strong body of evidence that shows good quality childcare and pre-school provision, especially from age two and upwards, has positive benefits on children’s all round attainment and behaviour. For this reason the government introduced the early learning for two-year-olds programme in September 2013 for 130,000 of the most disadvantaged children in England. In September 2014, the programme was later expanded to 260,000 of the most disadvantaged children in England. The programme is becoming increasingly popular amongst eligible parents.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-11.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of his proposals to abolish Class 2 National Insurance contributions on low-earning theatre actors and workers.
Mr David Gauke
The Chancellor announced at Budget that Class 2 National Insurance contributions will be abolished in April 2018. This will simplify the outdated and complex self-employed National Insurance system, giving self-employed NICs payers an annual tax cut of £134 on average. This will benefit 3.4 million self-employed people – including those who work in the theatre.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-04-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether education will be exempt from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement; and if he will make a statement.
Anna Soubry
We have protected public services, including education, in all of our trade agreements and will continue to do so in the EU-US free trade agreement, also known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is non-negotiable.
The Government remains committed to providing the best quality education for all children and young people. TTIP will not change this. The government of the day, not our trade partners, will always set the rules governing how the education system is run.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Aberdare on 2016-05-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what role the new Institute for Apprenticeships will have in regulating the quality of apprenticeships, and what powers it will have to undertake that role.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The role of the Institute for Apprenticeships will be to ensure the quality of apprenticeship standards.
Apprenticeships will only attract funding from government or the levy if they are against an approved standard or framework. Each standard will contain a plan for how the apprenticeship will be assessed. Although this will be approved by the Institute, the Institute will not assess the apprenticeship training itself: the register of training providers is owned by the Skills Funding Agency and Ofsted will continue to inspect providers.
The Institute will, however, need to ensure there is consistency between the levels of assessment being applied, as part of its role in approving standards and assessment plans.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s distributed ledger technology benefits payments trial, whether restrictions are placed on where benefit recipients can spend their benefits payments; whether benefit recipients’ spending will be tracked; what information is given to benefit recipients taking part in that trial about the potential risks to their privacy; what incentives are provided to benefit recipients to take part in that trial; what data analysis is being carried out as part of that trial and how that analysis complies with Government guidelines on conducting data science projects; and when his Department plans to publish the privacy impact assessment on that trial.
Damian Hinds
The DWP works continuously with industry partners to identify and test new innovations that could save taxpayer money, safeguard information and better protect payments to customers.
The DWP is undertaking some small scale research involving blockchain technology which is expected to last 3-6 months with the results available in the last quarter of 2016. It uses a private permissioned distributed ledger to allow participants to store their transactions, including payments from DWP. Those transactions can then be viewed securely on a mobile application so that they can, if they wish, monitor and allocate their spending into categories, check their available balance and plan future spending. There are currently about 12 people in the trial which we expect to increase to around 24 people by the close.
The participants in the trial have complete control over their data and how it is used; the government does not receive or see any of that data. The DWP takes privacy and security extremely seriously and this will form part of the learning from the trial.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the conclusion in the Flood Resilience Review, published in September 2016, that a 20 to 30 per cent increase in winter rainfall is possible over the next 10 years.
Dr Thérèse Coffey
The National Flood Resilience Review identified that over the next 10 years we could see extreme rainfall events that could be up to 20-30 per cent higher than recent past extreme rainfall events.
The Environment Agency will use 20 and 30 per cent extreme rainfall scenarios with local detailed models used to design new flood risk management schemes.
The scenarios will also be considered for wider flood incident planning and operational readiness that might be needed by relevant responders.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what work his Department has commissioned to identify the number of exchange-only lines on the telecom network that are incompatible with fibre to the cabinet broadband technology.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The vast majority of phone lines across the UK connect to the nearest telephone exchange via a street cabinet, which can be upgraded to deliver fibre broadband. Estimates are not available of the number of premises served by exchange only lines which connect directly to the local exchange rather than via one of BT’s street cabinets. There are a variety of reasons why exchange only lines are created. For example, for rural exchanges serving few premises where there was no need for cabinets, or for urban exchanges where it may have been a more cost-effective. Exchange only lines present a greater engineering challenge to deliver fibre broadband than those connected via street cabinets but technical solutions are available. One solution is to rearrange the existing network, lay new cables to reroute lines to new cabinets. This technique was developed as part of the BDUK Superfast Broadband Programme, and the number of exchange only lines is reducing all the time as roll out under the programme continues.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-11-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the job titles of those officials within the Department of Health currently assessing the application for grant funding made by Action on Smoking and Health.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The assessment of the grant application for funding from Action on Smoking and Health is undertaken by members of the Tobacco Control policy team.