Category: Speeches

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which Scottish airports will benefit from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government announced on 6 June that a Public Service Obligation will be established on the air route between Dundee Airport and London Stansted Airport from 1 July 2014 for a two-year period, with support from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund announced in last year’s Spending Round.

    The Scottish devolved administration or regional body may apply for access to this fund to maintain an air link from other Scottish airports to London, where there is a risk that an existing link may be lost, and where the case for a Public Service Obligation has been made.

    The Chancellor announced in this year’s Budget that the funding would be doubled to £20 million per year, and also extended to allow for the support for start-up aid for new air routes from UK regional airports. European Union aviation State aid guidelines allow for provision of start-up aid to facilitate start-up of new routes from airports which handle fewer than five million passengers per annum. This will therefore cover all Scotland’s airports apart from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

    The Department for Transport is working with the Treasury to develop guidance that will clarify how the Government will ordinarily expect to interpret the European Union guidelines, and explain how the funding process will work.

  • Mr Andy Slaughter – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mr Andy Slaughter – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Andy Slaughter on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start centres have fewer staff now than in May 2010.

    Elizabeth Truss

    Local authorities are responsible for, and retain the flexibility for, children’s centres provision in their area. They have a statutory duty to consult if any changes are planned and to ensure there is a sufficient number of children’s centres to meet the needs of their local communities.

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of passport applications have been dealt with within the target timescale in each of the last 12 months.

    James Brokenshire

    Expected service standards for passport applications are given at
    www.gov.uk.

    Information in respect of the Member’s constituency is not available and the
    cost of collating it would be disproportionate.

    The table below shows the proportions of UK passport applications in each of
    the last 12 months which have been processed within the published service
    standards.

    2013

    % straightforward applications processed within the published timescales

    % non-straightforward applications processed within the published timescales

    June

    100%

    97.8%

    July

    100%

    96.9%

    August

    100%

    96.4%

    September

    100%

    96.0%

    October

    100%

    95.9%

    November

    99.99%

    96.5%

    December

    99.99%

    96.3%

    2014

    January

    99.99%

    96.8%

    February

    99.98%

    98.1%

    March

    99.95%

    96.8%

    April

    98.59%

    99.6%

    May

    92.26%

    93.9%

  • Robert Halfon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Robert Halfon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Halfon on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the punctuality levels of train services between Harlow Town train station and London Liverpool Street station have been over the last 10 years.

    Stephen Hammond

    The Department does not hold such information to the level required. We do not routinely measure punctuality (or any other performance measure) by individual line or route; it is the franchise as a whole we measure.

  • Gerald Kaufman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gerald Kaufman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Kaufman on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she intends to reply to the letter to the Immigration and Security Minister dated 7 April 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr M Frimpong.

    James Brokenshire

    I wrote to the Rt. Hon. Member on 20 May 2014.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Adam Afriyie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on encouraging computer science and programming in UK schools.

    Elizabeth Truss

    As part of the reforms to the national curriculum, the Department for Education is strengthening the teaching of computing in schools by replacing information and communications technology with computing. The new programmes of study for computing, which will be taught in maintained schools from September 2014, have a much greater emphasis on computer science. For example, pupils at key stage 1 will be taught to create and debug simple programs and key stage 3 pupils will be taught to use two or more programming languages.

    We also working with exam boards and sector experts to review the computer science GCSE and A level so that they reflect and build upon the changes made to the curriculum. The inclusion of computer science in the English Baccalaureate will provide further encouragement for pupils to take up the subject at GCSE level. We are also providing funding for several projects to help teachers acquire the necessary subject knowledge and skills to teach the new computing curriculum.

    We are funding the British Computer Society to build a network of 400 ‘Master Teachers’, create online teach-yourself resources and deliver 800 in-school workshops to help primary school teachers improve their subject knowledge. A further £500,000 competitive match-funded scheme was announced on 4 February to support excellent computing teaching and lever additional investment and engagement from business.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on contracts for consultancy groups on the Bost Agri-Business Park and Airfield projects in Afghanistan in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012 and (d) 2013.

    Justine Greening

    I refer the Hon. member to the answer that I gave to him on 5 March 2013, Official Report, Col 967 – 968W.

  • Mr Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mr Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Frank Field on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was paid in service charges to housing associations for adaptations to accommodation for disabled tenants in the last year for which figures are available.

    Esther McVey

    The information requested is not available. Information about service charges paid by all tenants is not collected.

    Eligible service charges for Housing Benefit would not include the cost of making an adaptation.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Transforming Rehabilitation programme risk register.

    Jeremy Wright

    The Transforming Rehabilitation Programme’s risk register is a live document whichthe Department maintains to actively monitor all risks to the successful delivery of the Programme. It is good Government practice to challenge proposals robustly internally and we need to maintain a mechanism to do this to ensure we implement these reforms to the highest standard. It is firmly in the public interest that this process is not inhibited. For this reason there are no plans to publish the risk register.

  • Mr Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mr Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Barry Sheerman on 2014-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of free schools approved to date are faith schools.

    Edward Timpson

    37 of 142 open mainstream free schools have a faith designation (26%); this compares to 34% of all state-funded mainstream schools.