Category: Speeches

Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what funding his Department has provided for big data projects in the last 10 years.

Joseph Johnson

The Government recognises the potential of Big Data and is taking steps to ensure the UK is at the forefront of research and innovation in this field.

Figures are only available from 2011, and since that time, the Government has invested over £520 million in developing the UK’s big data and high-performance computing capital infrastructure.

This includes major investments in specialist centres such as the Alan Turing Institute, the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, the Higgs Centre for Innovation, and the Hartree Centre at the Daresbury Science & Innovation Campus.

01/01/2023
Lord Willis of Knaresborough – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough on 2016-05-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Strategic Advisory Group for the Research Councils will be established, what will be its membership, and what are its terms of reference.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government encourages Research Councils to work closely with other Research Councils and their communities. With regards to the Global Challenges Research Fund, Research Councils are establishing an advisory group – as they do with other areas of research. Details of the group can be found on the Research Councils UK website: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/media/news/160526/.

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01/01/2023

Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-07-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many postgraduate students in England were enrolled in two-year masters’ degree courses to study (1) applied art and design, (2) art and design, (3) drama, (4) media, film or TV, (5) music, (6) dance, (7) performing arts, and (8) design and technology, in (a) 2009–10, (b) 2010–11, (c) 2011–12, (d) 2012–13, (e) 2013–14, (f) 2014–15, and (g) 2015–16.

Earl of Courtown

Information on enrolments at UK Higher Education Institutions is collected and published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and the latest academic year for which data are available is 2014/15.

The Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) is the classification of subjects used by HESA. The specific breakdown of subjects requested is not available using the JACS classification, so a breakdown of the Creative Arts and Design category has been provided as an alternative.

The government is for the first time introducing a new £10,000 master’s loan to support those wishing to progress into postgraduate study.

First year enrolments¹ to two-year masters² degree courses in Creative Arts and Design subjects. English³ Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Academic years 2009/10 to 2014/15:

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
Fine art	625	610	700	630	695	700
Design studies	1,025	1,135	1,090	1,085	1,225	1,125
Music	710	700	680	675	680	630
Drama	165	190	205	250	230	255
Dance	55	45	45	35	65	50
Cinematics & photography	350	335	370	445	375	200
Crafts	15	15	20	5	20	10
Imaginative writing	400	360	380	495	370	345
Others in creative arts & design	90	120	105	125	90	110

Total (Creative arts & design)	3,425	3,515	3,595	3,745	3,750	3,425
Total (all subjects)	39,200	32,995	35,475	33,630	32,885	33,965

Source: BIS analysis of the HESA Student Record

Note: All figures are rounded to the nearest 5.

Figures are Full-Person-Equivalents (FPE), so if someone is jointly studying Fine art and Design studies, they would count as 0.5 FPE within each category.
Figures relate to students with an expected study length of less than or equal to two years, but more than one year.
For consistency across years, the Open University is counted as an English HEI.

01/01/2023

Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of people in the UK who have been trafficked.

Sarah Newton

The Home Office and Ministry of Justice jointly fund the Adult Victims of Modern Slavery Care and Coordination Contract in England and Wales. Since July 2011, The Salvation Army has been delivering this service. The total Government funding over this period has been:

Year	Funding
2011-2012
(July-June)	£2.3 million
2012-2013
(Jul-Jun)	£3.8 million
2013-2014
(July-June)	£3.9 million
2014-2015
(July -March)	£4 million
2015-2016
(April -March)	£9 million

The Home Office estimates that in 2013 there were between 10,000 and 13,000 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK.

In 2015 there were 3,266 of victims of human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – the UK’s framework for referring and supporting victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.

In addition, 427 potential victims of modern slavery were identified in England and Wales via the “duty to notify” requirement which requires specified public bodies to report to the Government all potential adult victims of modern slavery encountered in England and Wales who do not wish to be referred to the NRM. Similar provisions will shortly be in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

01/01/2023

Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how the Government plans to use its position on the UN Security Council to facilitate diplomatic negotiations on protecting civilians in Syria.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Protection of civilians in Syria, as well as those who have been forced to flee the country, is a priority for the UK. In the UN Security Council the UK has co-sponsored a number of humanitarian resolutions that call for an end to: indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the use of barrel bombs; starvation as a method of warfare; and obstruction of the flow of humanitarian aid. Specifically, the UK played a key role in negotiating UN Security Council Resolution 2191, which has allowed the UN and its partners to deliver aid across Syria’s borders to people who were previously denied access, including food for 2.1 million people and medical supplies for 2.5 million people. The UK will use its seat on the UN Security Council to push proactively for a renewal of Resolution 2191.

01/01/2023

Gordon Marsden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff by full-time equivalence there were in his Department in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2012-13 and (c) 2014-15; and how many staff by full-time equivalence he expects there will be in his Department in (i) 2015-16, (ii) 2016-17 and (iii) 2017-18.

Joseph Johnson

The staff figures (full-time equivalent) for 2010/11, 2012/13 and 2014/15 are set out below:

Year	FTE (Core BIS only, not UKTI)	*Source/Notes*
2010/11	2,781	Published in the BIS Annual Report & Accounts 2011 (Core Dept (3,373) minus UKTI (592))
2012/13	2,692	Published in the BIS Annual Report & Accounts 2014/15
2014/15	2,627	Published in the BIS Annual Report & Accounts 2014/15

In the further years of this Parliament, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is expecting to make further headcount reductions in the core Department, in line with our Spending Review settlement and our efficiency programme ambitions. The exact figures for full time equivalents in these years are not available at this stage.

01/01/2023

Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison staff have been dismissed in each year since 2010; what the reasons were for each such dismissal; and how many prison staff have received custodial sentences for crimes committed while working in prisons since 2010.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Information on the number of staff dismissed from public sector Prison Service Establishments, broken down by reason for dismissal, in each year since 2009/10 is contained in the table below. Information on dismissals is published in the NOMS Workforce Bulletin by financial year and to maintain consistency with that information the figures provided in the table are a further breakdown of the published numbers.

Data on the number of custodial sentences for crimes committed while working in prisons is not available because information held centrally relates to the internal disciplinary process which may include those staff that have been dismissed for being in receipt of a criminal conviction, but the centrally held data would not show those staff who had also received a custodial sentence.

Staff Dismissed From Public Sector Prison Service Establishments 2009/10 to September 2015

	Conduct	Medical Inefficiency	Poor Performance	Unsatisfactory Attendance	Breach of Contract and Others	Total
2009/10	120	210	20	20	~	380
2010/11	140	210	20	30	~	400
2011/12	110	290	10	20	~	430
2012/13	120	270	10	20	~	420
2013/14	110	310	~	10	~	440
2014/15	80	430	10	20	~	550
Apr-Sep 2015	40	220	10	10	~	280

01/01/2023

Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to implement the recommendations of the Mental Health Taskforce’s report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016.

Alistair Burt

The Government welcomes and accepts the recommendations from the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. The Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21: by the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality.

Investment in mental health rose to its highest ever level, an estimated £11.7 billion, in 2014/15. The £1 billion of additional investment announced by the Prime Minister last month will be in place by 2020/21 and builds on the £280 million per year of new funding for children and young people’s mental health announced last year. This funding will make an important contribution to plugging the gap and fulfilling the Taskforce’s recommendations, helping one million additional children, young people and adults to access high quality care by 2020/21.

How new investment for NHS priority recommendations is identified and implemented will be for NHS England to determine as part of the planning and allocations process. We anticipate that the majority of commitments outlined in this report will be delivered through clinical commissioning groups.

Further guidance will be issued shortly as part of the new Sustainability and Transformation Planning process: this will set expectations for how funding will be invested to deliver on the Taskforce recommendations for the NHS and how areas will be supported to deliver them over the following four years.

01/01/2023
Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on treasuring commercial flights to Sharm el Sheikh.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government is continuing to work towards a resumption of direct flights as soon as possible.

01/01/2023
Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-04-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to allow the exchange of tax information of UK-listed companies with developing countries.

Mr David Gauke

The UK supports efforts to improve tax transparency. We initiated international work on country-by-country (CbC) reporting during our G8 Presidency in 2013, calling on the OECD to develop a framework for CbC reporting to tax authorities as part of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. This important initiative will enhance transparency between business and tax authorities, including those of developing countries.

The UK has published regulations on 26 February 2016 implementing the OECD CbC reporting framework.

We have also signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement which allows from the automatic exchange of the OECD CbC reports between relevant tax authorities. All countries are free to enter into international agreements so that they can exchange reports under the Multilateral Convention, bilateral double tax conventions or tax information exchange agreements.

01/01/2023