Category: Speeches

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the number of secondary school pupils who have been unable to participate in a school trip directly related to a statutory aspect of the national curriculum in each of the last three years.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department does not collect data on the number of pupils who are unable to participate in school trips related to a statutory aspect of the national curriculum. All schools have a duty to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum which, for maintained schools includes the national curriculum. It is the responsibility of schools to decide how best to teach the curriculum and this includes whether school trips could help enhance pupils’ experience and education and allow pupils to achieve better outcomes.

  • Chris Law – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Chris Law – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Law on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether lease contracts on buildings currently housing HM Passport Office interview offices that are facing closure would allow for the proposed timeframe of office closures to be extended.

    James Brokenshire

    Sites which host flexible interview teams are operated by Her Majesty’s Passport Office as managed office space. Rental agreements vary, but most require one month notice.

    In Blackburn, Bristol, Crawley, Leicester and Sheffield HM Passport Office holds a licence to occupy the premises until September 2018, with an opportunity to break the licence in September 2016.

    A date to cease interviewing in March 2016 has been set to enable staff to work with the Home Office career transition service and focus on finding alternative employment prior to the offices being decommissioned.

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on waste oil collection services in rural areas of the proposed changes to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.

    Rory Stewart

    The changes referred to do not amend the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. The changes made are to the ‘Environmental Guidance On Waste Incineration’, which now clarifies that small waste oil burners used to burn waste oil must meet the requirements of Chapter IV of the Industrial Emissions Directive or switch to non-waste fuels. This guidance can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-permitting-guidance-the-waste-incineration-directive/environmental-permitting-guidance-waste-incineration.

    A consultation on the changes to the guidance was undertaken between 14 September and 26 October last year. A summary of responses can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487892/waste-incineration-consult-sum-resp.pdf.

    The impact assessment for the changes to this guidance considered some sensitivities on the price of crude oil with regard to collection fees only. The impact assessment can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487895/waste-incineration-consult-ep-ia.pdf.

    “

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on ensuring that co-ordinated school place planning is retained in the event of all state schools becoming academies.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities (LAs) have a legal obligation to ensure that there are sufficient local schools to provide a primary and secondary place for all children needing one. Supporting LAs to do this continues to be one of the Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021, which, alongside investment in the free schools programme, we expect to create 600,000 new places. This is on top of the £5 billion the Coalition Government spent between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create 600,000 additional places between 2010 and 2015.

    LAs have always relied on their strong relationships with local schools to deliver the places needed and this will remain the case in a fully academised system. For example, many local authorities are recognising the opportunity that the free schools programme provides and are encouraging new and existing high quality education providers to apply to set up a new school in their area. We encourage all local authorities to do likewise.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the current average response times are for ambulances responding to C1 and C2 incidents.

    Jane Ellison

    Category C1 and category C2 are terms used by London Ambulance Service to describe the first two categories of green calls.

    Green calls are lower acuity calls where there is still a need for an ambulance, but in slower time scales than life-threatening or more urgent calls. They are usually split into four categories and the response times for these are agreed and set locally.

    Data on green call performance is not centrally held.

  • Henry Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Henry Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2016-06-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to tackle late payment of suppliers by businesses.

    Anna Soubry

    We are implementing a package of measures to support a cultural change to tackle late payment, including the Small Business Commissioner, the duty for large businesses to report on payment practices and support for the voluntary Prompt Payment Code. The Regulations to give effect to the duty to report will be laid for debate early in 2017.

  • Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to reduce overcrowding on passenger rail services.

    Paul Maynard

    This Government is making the biggest investment in our railways since the Victorian era, enabling more trains and longer trains to operate on many of our busiest routes. Since 2010, more than 563 new carriages have been brought into service in England and Wales, and a further 5032 are planned to enter service by the end of 2020.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the 1,000 refugees that are to be resettled in the UK by Christmas will be transported to the UK.

    Lord Bates

    The 1,000 Syrian refugees that we expect to be resettled in the UK before Christmas will be brought to the UK using a combination of scheduled and charter flights.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the history curriculum in state schools is comprised of British history.

    Nick Gibb

    All young people should, as part of a broad and balanced education, acquire a firm grasp of the history of the country in which they live, and learn how different events and periods relate to each other. That is why the history curriculum, taught in maintained schools for key stages 1 to 3 from September 2014, sets out, within a clear chronological framework, the core knowledge that will enable pupils to know and understand the history of Britain from its first settlers to the development of the institutions that help to define our national life today.

    The new GCSE content criteria require a minimum of 40 per cent British history, an increase from the 25 per cent required under the previous GCSE. The A level content criteria require a minimum of 20 per cent British history. The new GCSE will be taught from 2016, with first examination in 2018. The new A level has been taught since September 2015, with first examination in 2017.

    Alongside geography, history is one of the two subjects in the humanities pillar of the EBacc. The EBacc consists of the core group of subjects that provide a rigorous academic education and the government’s goal is that, in time, 90 per cent of pupils will enter GCSEs in the EBacc subjects. The numbers studying GCSE history had been stagnant for a decade before the introduction of the EBacc. With the introduction of the EBac performance measures the proportion of the cohort entered for history in state fundedschools has risen from 30 per cent of pupils in 2010 to a provisional figure of 40 per cent in 2015.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what impact assessment her Department has conducted of the proposed increase in the rate of VAT for solar and other renewables to 20 per cent.

    Andrea Leadsom

    This is a measure led by HMRC and currently only a proposal being consulted on. If following consultation this change is introduced, we will carefully consider its impact.