Category: Speeches

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many reports of sexual offences Cleveland Police received in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those reports led to prosecutions.

    Brandon Lewis

    The number of sexual and violence against the person offences recorded by Cleveland police from 2011/12 to 2015/16 are given in the table.

    The Home Office does not hold data on the number of prosecutions resulting from offences recorded by the police. Information on crimes assigned a charge or summons outcome is available from April 2014, when data on outcomes were first collected linked specifically to their associated crimes. Previously, outcomes data supplied by forces related to the volume recorded regardless of when the crime was committed. The new method of collection was implemented to provide greater transparency and highlight how each crime recorded in any period is resolved by the police.

    The table shows the proportion of sexual and violent offences that resulted in a police charge or summons in 2014/15 and 2015/16. In addition, it shows the proportion of each offence group that has not been assigned an outcome. This is important to note, in particular for sexual offences, because length of investigations mean that the most recent year has more crimes that have yet to be assigned an outcome than the previous year.

    Not all charges or summonses will lead to a prosecution, the Ministry of Justice hold and publish data on prosecutions.

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

    Jonathan Lord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Lord on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children who receive free school meals in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey, (c) the South East and (d) the UK have achieved at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C in each year since 2010.

    Edward Timpson

    Information on the percentage of pupils who are eligible for free school meals and achieved five GCSEs at grades A*- C, in each local authority area and at regional level in England for each of the last six years is published as part of the GCSE and equivalent results, and the attainment by pupil characteristics statistical first releases (SFRs)[1] [2]. Parliamentary constituency level information is not available.

    The Department for Education produces statistics on England only. The responsibility for education statistics in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales lies with each devolved administration.

    [1] KS4 SFR 2014/15: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/493475/SFR01_2016_LA_Tables.xlsx (Table LA8)

    [2] KS4 SFR: Years: 2009/10 to 2013/14:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-attainment-by-pupil-characteristics-2014 (table 5)

    “

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people were assisted by the Homelessness Prevention Grant in 2014-15.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Homelessness prevention grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010 and assisted 220,800 in 2014-15 alone.

    The Government does not evaluate the effectiveness of local authority grants including the Homelessness Prevention Grant. As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent from Central Government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities. Since 2010, local councils have had more flexibility over how they spend the money they receive from central government. Together with the money raised through council tax and other local sources, they have considerable freedom to work with their residents to decide how best to spend available resources on local priorities.

    My Department regularly engages with a wide range of partners on homelessness prevention. We have received five written representations directly from local authorities on the future of the grant since April 2015.

  • Baroness Jolly – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Baroness Jolly – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jolly on 2015-11-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which foreign governments were consulted as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Discussions were offered to all London-based foreign diplomatic missions.

  • Seema Kennedy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Seema Kennedy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Kennedy on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of enforcement powers for court orders relating to child custody.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Government has not made any recent assessment. The family court has a wide range of enforcement powers to secure compliance with a child arrangements order.

    Where a person named in a child arrangements order breaches it without good reason, the court may make an enforcement order requiring that person to carry out unpaid work. The court may also order that person to pay financial compensation for any loss suffered by another person named in the child arrangements order. These sanctions are in addition to the general powers of the court to treat the breach of a court order as a contempt of court, which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment. The court may alternatively vary the terms of the child arrangements order (reconsidering the provisions made) if it considers this necessary to make the arrangements work in the best interests of the child.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to provide details of each of the meetings that (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department have had with the Department for Communities and Local Government since May 2015 on the impact of the local government finance settlement on local arts and culture organisations and projects.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    DCMS and CLG Ministers and officials regularly discuss matters of shared interest including arts, culture and public libraries.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what further assistance his Department plans to give the devolved legislatures for providing access to higher speed broadband services.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Superfast broadband is available to nearly 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the UK, and we are on track to reach 95% by the end of 2017, as set out in our manifesto All of the BDUK superfast broadband contracts with BT contain a claw-back mechanism so that as take-up rises above a set level of 20%, further funding is reinvested in extending coverage, which all the nations will benefit from, including Northern Ireland.

    In November, the Prime Minister announced the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) and our ambition is to set this at 10 Mbps. This will give people the legal right to request an affordable broadband connection from a designated provider, up to a reasonable cost threshold, no matter where they live.

    We are also piloting a range of alternative technology approaches to help us understand the options for extending superfast broadband further. We are also encouraging commercial suppliers to meet their commitments to provide further coverage who are themselves investing in new technology to extend coverage.

  • Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-03-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will publish the net migration statistics for 2015.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Baroness Coussins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Coussins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in discussions with examination boards about retaining accreditation routes for lesser-taught languages at GCSE and A-level.

    Lord Nash

    Government action has resulted in GCSEs and A levels in a range of community languages being continued, to ensure young people can carry on studying a diverse range of foreign languages.

    This follows a Government commitment in 2015 to protect a number of language GCSEs and A levels after the exam boards announced that from 2017 they would be withdrawing several courses.

    Since then the Government has worked with Ofqual and the exam boards and we have been successful in securing most of the less-taught languages at GCSE and A level for future years. In addition to Chinese, Italian and Russian, the languages now secure are Arabic, Bengali, Biblical Hebrew, Modern Greek, Gujarati, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish and Urdu.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consultations she has had with trades unions and staff representative organisations on the future of technical and professional recruitment planned for inclusion in the proposed Skills Plan.

    Nick Boles

    The Government is taking forward reforms to the skills system to ensure we have the technical skills that the economy needs. We will publish details of our plans for further reform of the skills system in due course and will engage with stakeholders from across the sector on these plans.