Category: Speeches

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to mitigate the cost to local authorities of schools that are in deficit transferring to academy status.

    Edward Timpson

    Deficits for schools which convert to become sponsored academies remain with the local authority. These deficits remain with their local authority as these schools were the responsibility of the authority when they were found to be failing or underperforming and it is the authority’s responsibility for ensuring the school managed its expenditure satisfactorily. Guidance on how deficits for converter and sponsored academies are dealt with is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/416430/School_balances_on_conversion_submission.pdf

    Local authorities are responsible for ensuring the financial viability of maintained schools and ensuring any deficits are cleared within 3 years.

    “

  • David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36277, how many requests have been made for asylum applications to be transferred for consideration by the UK from (a) Greece and (b) Italy since UK experts were deployed to support the respective Dublin units.

    James Brokenshire

    Whilst all asylum claims including those accepted under Dublin III are registered on the Home Office Case Information Database (CID), this data is not currently held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

  • Alison McGovern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Alison McGovern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve ambulance response times.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Review is working to reform and improve the provision of urgent and emergency care in England. As part of the review, NHS England is considering how to improve responses to 999 calls and patient outcomes under the Ambulance Response Programme. We expect the programme will report its findings in autumn 2016.

  • Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that providers of his Department’s services (a) better understand the demands of the local labour market and (b) reach out to employers to encourage them to consider disabled applicants.

    Damian Hinds

    The Department has teams of performance managers who work with providers to ensure they keep to their contracted obligations, which include an understanding of the demands of their local labour market and consideration of disabled applicants.

    There are specific programmes which support disabled people with entering or retaining work, and through which providers can work with local employers. These include Work Programme, Work Choice, and Specialist Employability Support.

    Additionally, Disability Confident was launched in July 2013. Disability Confident supports this Government’s commitment to halve the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people by focusing on the role of employers, who have a crucial role to play in ensuring disabled people are recruited, retained and developed in their careers. When employers sign up as Disability Confident, they are asked to make specific meaningful offers of opportunities for disabled people such as jobs, apprenticeships, internships, and work experience opportunities. So far, over 1900 businesses have signed up to the new Disability Confident scheme, with this number growing daily.

  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the airport security at Hurghada and Safaga airports in Egypt.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government’s first priority is the safety and security of British citizens. We keep aviation security arrangements under close review and we will act where we need to, as we have done in the case of Sharm el-Sheikh. It would be inappropriate to comment in detail on security arrangements.

  • Lord Patten – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Patten – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have a policy about the number of children a family or individual should have; and if so, what it is.

    Baroness Altmann

    The Government does not have a policy on the number of children a family or individual should have.

  • Lord Donoughue – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Donoughue – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Donoughue on 2016-01-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are arrangements in place to prevent funding from the Department for International Development’s 2014–16 Programme Partnership Arrangement indirectly subsidising other elements of charities’ expenditure.

    Earl of Courtown

    Programme Partnership Arrangement funding is provided to organisations to meet objectives set out in robust performance frameworks, agreed between the organisation and DFID, but it is not tied to specific initiatives or interventions. Organisations formally report against these performance frameworks on an annual basis.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was spent on child and adolescent mental health services in (a) England, (b) London, (c) each London boroughs and (d) each London health trust in each year since 2010.

    Alistair Burt

    The information is not available in the format requested. The following table presents the available information which is taken from reference costs – the average unit cost to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to NHS patients.

    Estimated costs to NHS trusts and foundation trusts1 of providing child and adolescent mental health services2, 2010-11 to 2014-15

    Name

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    England

    371.0

    450.2

    486.7

    539.4

    611.6

    London

    104.9

    118.3

    112.2

    133.5

    135.3

    Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust

    4.1

    14.2

    11.0

    12.7

    11.4

    Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

    14.9

    13.2

    14.0

    18.1

    16.6

    East London NHS Foundation Trust

    11.7

    14.7

    12.9

    17.5

    17.2

    Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

    –

    –

    –

    0.6

    0.6

    Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust

    –

    0.3

    –

    –

    –

    Islington Primary Care Trust

    4.1

    –

    –

    –

    –

    North East London NHS Foundation Trust

    14.5

    16.3

    13.1

    17.1

    15.7

    North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

    0.2

    0.3

    0.3

    0.3

    0.3

    Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

    9.3

    7.6

    6.9

    7.0

    7.6

    Richmond and Twickenham Primary Care Trust

    0.2

    –

    –

    –

    –

    Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

    1.0

    1.6

    1.9

    2.3

    0.6

    South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

    22.4

    27.2

    26.8

    30.7

    29.4

    South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust

    9.8

    8.5

    8.6

    10.7

    11.9

    Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

    6.2

    5.9

    5.0

    4.9

    10.4

    The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust

    –

    5.9

    2.7

    5.2

    3.6

    West London Mental Health NHS Trust

    6.6

    2.6

    9.0

    6.3

    10.1

    Source: Reference costs, Department of Health

    Notes:

    1. Reference costs were also collected from primary care trusts before 2011-12, after which they transferred their provider functions. Primary care trusts were abolished on 31 March 2013.
    2. The costs of providing child and adolescent mental health services in admitted, day care, outpatient and community settings for children and young people who have difficulties with their emotional or behavioural wellbeing are included. The costs of providing other specialist services to children and young people, such as drug and alcohol, or eating disorder services, are excluded.
    3. It is not possible to provide the information by London borough.
  • – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by on 2016-02-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the minimum amount of special educational needs teaching required to fulfil the Teacher Standards of having a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils

    Lord Nash

    The Teachers’ Standards set a clear baseline of expectations for the professional practice and conduct of teachers and define the minimum level of practice expected of teachers in England.

    Head teachers and other appraisers should use their professional judgement to assess teachers to a level that is consistent with what should reasonably be expected of a teacher given their role and level of experience and the specific demands of the setting in which they are working.

  • Paul Beresford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Paul Beresford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Beresford on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what meetings the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has had with the professional photographic sector since June 2015; and if he will request that the DVLA meets representatives of the Photo Marketing Association to discuss the future provision of digital ID photographs.

    Andrew Jones

    The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has met with representatives of the professional photographic sector on six occasions since June 2015. My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the minister with responsibility for the DVLA and DVLA officials are due to meet with the Photo Marketing Association on 27 April.