Category: Speeches

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2014, Official Report, column 789-90W, on special educational needs, what support his Department is providing to Nasen.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The Department for Education is providing funding of £918,000 to Nasen over two years to develop a special educational needs (SEN) gateway. This will provide professionals with access to free high-quality SEN resources and training materials to support children with SEN and disabilities.

    The gateway will be designed primarily for educational professionals in schools, colleges and other educational settings rather than for parents, although they will be able access the gateway. It is due to be launched in May 2014.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help workers in the oil industry to seek employment in the Falkland Islands.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The Honourable Member will understand that employment in the oil industry is primarily a commercial matter for the companies involved. However, the UK Government offers advice and support to those people and companies who wish to avail themselves of the varied economic opportunities in the Falkland Islands.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the budgets for criminal justice and emergency services will be devolved to Police and Crime Commissioners; and what the total budget is that Police and Crime Commissioners will inherit.

    Damian Green

    There are no current plans to transfer responsibility, and the budgets, for the criminal justice system or the emergency services to Police and Crime Commissioners.

    The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act contains a duty to cooperate for Police and Crime Commissioners and criminal justice partners which – although broad – sets the framework for Commissioners to play a substantial local leadership role. Commissioners are taking a prominent role in local justice matters and are, for example, taking seats (sometimes even as Chair) at their local criminal justice boards.

    The Government is further extending the remit of PCCs who will assume responsibility for commissioning local victims’ services in October 2014 – complementing their other responsibilities to respond to local views and needs when drawing up plans to cut crime.

    The Government is also driving collaboration between local emergency services to deliver more effective services and better value for money for the public. We are providing funding through the Home Office Police Innovation Fund and DCLG’s Transformation Challenge Award and Fire Transformation Fund to support emergency services collaboration projects.

  • Elfyn Llwyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Elfyn Llwyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Elfyn Llwyd on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to ensure that there will not be delays in the delivery of court reports to magistrates’ courts in Wales and England following the introduction of the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda.

    Jeremy Wright

    We are engaging with the magistracy and sentencers to ensure they are fully informed of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms and associated implications. The new National Probation Service (NPS) will be responsible for advice to courts and, prior to sentence, the NPS will advise courts on sentencing options for cases as part of a pre-sentence report (in accordance with the reserved function of giving assistance to any court in determining the appropriate sentence to pass, under Section 4 of the Offender Management Act 2007).

    As now, the three categories of pre-sentence report, Standard Delivery (SDR), Fast Delivery (FDR), and Same Day (or Oral) reports will allow Courts the flexibility to deliver sentencing decisions in the appropriate timeframe, depending on each individual case, reducing the number of adjournments and expediting the criminal justice process. The new Risk of Serious Recidivism (RSR) tool will be used to inform the allocation of cases to new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) or the NPS and complements the pre-sentence report process. The RSR will be straightforward to use and aims to reduce bureaucracy in the report writing process. We will ensure through the contracting process that CRCs work closely with the NPS so that cases where the offender is under CRC supervision are brought before the courts speedily and effectively.

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what funding is currently allocated to the Youth Contract; and what proportion of that funding is allocated for wage incentives.

    Esther McVey

    Our 2014/15 budget allocation for Youth Contract is £183.75m, of which £42.55m is currently allocated to Wage Incentives (23.2%).

  • Andy Sawford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Andy Sawford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Sawford on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he expects to announce the allocation of additional support to local authorities in England to support corporate counter-fraud activity.

    Brandon Lewis

    We are currently working with a range of representatives from across the sector to identify the most effective mechanism for distributing the £16.6 million over 2014/15 – 2015/16 across local government to help local government combat fraud. We intend to make an announcement about our plans for this investment later in the spring.

  • Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost to the average UK saver of delaying the pensions charge cap from April 2014 to April 2015.

    Steve Webb

    There has been no delay to the default fund charge cap. The Government has announced that it will put in place a charge cap set at 0.75% of funds under management for the default funds of all schemes used for automatic enrolment from April 2015. This means we will deliver on the timetable in our consultation document to have a full cap for all qualifying schemes in place by April 2015.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Fiona Bruce – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Written Statement of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 1417WS, on qualifications reform, and the Answer of 7 April 2014, Official Report, column 42W, on in vitro fertilisation, whether the study of the human genome as part of the revised content for GCSEs in science will involve pupils learning that genomic DNA is only found in the cell nucleus and that mitochondrial DNA is not part of the genome.

    Elizabeth Truss

    The requirement that students study the genome and gene expression in the revised GCSE combined science and GCSE biology criteria covers all organisms, and is not specific to the human genome. It is therefore given at a level of generality that applies to all living things. The only specific reference in this section of the criteria to the human genome is in the context of the statement that requires students to be able to discuss the potential importance for medicine of our increasing understanding of the human genome.

    In developing their specifications which meet these criteria, Awarding Organisations may choose to include microorganisms, humans or any other organism when they cover the genome and gene expression.

  • John Healey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Healey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what is the average (a) social rent and (b) Affordable Rent is for units funded under the Affordable Homes Programme in each region of the UK.

    Kris Hopkins

    The information is not centrally held in the form requested.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital attendances there were from the (a) adult male, (b) adult female, (c) youth male, (d) youth female and (e) total prison estate in each of the last four years.

    Norman Lamb

    This information is not collected centrally by the Department or NHS England.