Category: Speeches

  • Aidan Burley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Aidan Burley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Aidan Burley on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many apprenticeships commenced in each sector in (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) Staffordshire in the last 12 months.

    Matthew Hancock

    Information on the number of Apprenticeship starts by Sector Subject Area and geography is published in a supplementary table to a Statistical First Release (SFR):

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships–2

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/308418/apprenticeship-starts-by-region-and-sector-subject-area.xls

    “

  • Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Harriet Harman on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the three most popular instruments are for secondary school children in England who are learning an instrument in school.

    Elizabeth Truss

    The information requested is not held by the Department for Education. A recent report[1] published by Arts Council England shows that in the academic year 2012/13, 437,975 pupils in years 1-9 received free whole class ensemble teaching. This is 8.6% of the national cohort. 430,998 pupils were in years 1-6 (12.4% of the cohort) and 6,977 were in years 7-9 (0.4% of the cohort).

    Many other children learn instruments in and out of school, but these figures are not collected or held centrally.

    [1]http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/music-education-hubs/

    “

  • Wayne David – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Wayne David – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wayne David on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the recently employed additional staff in passport offices are estimated to cost.

    James Brokenshire

    Her Majesty’s Passport Office have been training and redeploying staff from
    other duties within the Agency, from other parts of the wider Home Office, and
    in the case of one individual another Government department, to meet the
    exceptional levels of passport demand. There will be some additional costs
    relating to staff where they will be temporarily working away from their normal
    workplace and where overtime is worked by staff from other parts of the
    Department. At this time it is not possible to put a reliable estimate on
    these additional costs.

  • Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Walley on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to meet representatives of Cuadrilla and other members of the shale gas industry.

    Dan Rogerson

    The Secretary of State has no such planned engagements at present but always welcomes meeting a broad range of organisations to understand their needs and concerns. The UK Government is committed to the development of the shale gas industry in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what military or civilian personnel in his Department of what rank or grade have been reprimanded for failing to deliver an ICT hosting environment for Capita as part of the Recruiting Partnering Project.

    Anna Soubry

    No personnel have been reprimanded in connection with the delivery of the Recruiting Partnering Project.

    An ICT hosting platform is being provided for Capita.

  • Lindsay Roy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Lindsay Roy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lindsay Roy on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what estimate he has made of the number of homeless (a) single people and (b) families in Scotland.

    David Mundell

    Homelessness statistics in Scotland are published by the Scottish Government who gather the information from local authorities.

    The last such publication was on 25 March 2014 and is available at:

    http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables/HomelessOcttoDec2013.

    “

  • Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints her Department has received regarding delays to the issuing of a passport in each of the last four years.

    James Brokenshire

    The table below shows the number of complaints related to delays in receiving a
    passport.

    Year

    Number of complaints relating to delays

    2010

    1253

    2011

    1341

    2012

    1513

    2013

    1437

  • Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) 20 highest and (b) 20 lowest value contracts awarded by his Department were in each financial year since 2009-10.

    Mr Francis Maude

    Under this Government’s transparency programme, contracts are published on Contracts Finder which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

    “

  • Kevin Brennan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Kevin Brennan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department takes to (a) monitor how the grants awarded through the Sponsor Capacity Fund are used and (b) recoup grants from the Sponsor Capacity Fund where the recipients do not go on to sponsor any academies or use the money in an inappropriate way.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    Academy sponsors who receive the Sponsor Capacity Fund are required to sign a Grant Funding Agreement, agreeing to adhere to the terms and conditions of grant. They are required to submit an Annual Certification of Expenditure, signed by their auditors, and a final report detailing what has been achieved through use of the grant.

    If they fail to comply with any of the conditions of grant, or are deemed to be in breach of it, they are required to return the grant to the Department.

  • Andrea Leadsom – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrea Leadsom – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrea Leadsom on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to work with police forces across the country to protect children from online sexual exploitation.

    Norman Baker

    The Government is committed to preventing online child abuse. Details of the Government plans to strengthen the protection of children from online sexual exploitation were published last summer in the Action Plan of the National Group to tackle Sexual Violence Against Children and Vulnerable People. Copies will be placed in the House Library and can be found at the following link;

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/230443
    /Sexual_Violence_against_Children_and_Vulnerable_People.pdf

    The Child Exploitation Online Protection Command of the National Crime Agency (NCA-CEOP) is the UK’s national law enforcement agency committed to preventing and tackling the sexual abuse of children both online and offline. In 2012/13, NCA-CEOP safeguarded and protected 790 children, an increase of 85% on the previous year.

    The NCA-CEOP Command works closely with all 43 police forces in England and Wales, Police Scotland and PSNI.

    In January 2013, the police created a National Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan which sought to improve the police response to all forms of CSE both online and offline. Each force has now completed a benchmarking exercise, allowing them to understand and improve their capability to deal with CSE.

    HMIC are close to completing an inspection into the policing of online sexual exploitation and should be publishing their findings in the near future. This will help us identify best practice and also where the service needs to improve to deal with the proliferation of indecent images on the internet and grooming.