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  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase secondary school places in London.

    Nick Gibb

    Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area, and supporting them to do so is one of this Government’s top priorities. This is why the Government is investing £23 billion overall in school buildings to create 600,000 new school places, open 500 new free schools and address essential maintenance needs.

    Basic need funding is allocated to local authorities to help them to create new school places. This Government has allocated £960 million to local authorities in London for places needed between 2015 and 2018, including at secondary level. This is in addition to the £2 billion London received between 2011 and 2015, almost 40% of the total funding provided to local authorities to help create new places in this period.

    This funding has helped to create 155,000 new school places between 2010 and 2014. Of these new places, over 30,000 have been created in 52 open free schools. There are over 60 approved new schools due to open in London in future academic years.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will discuss with the Secretary of State for Defence how the best examples of literacy and numeracy education carried out in initial basic training in HM Armed Forces can be introduced to assist underachieving pupils in attaining GCSE grade C in English and mathematics.

    Nick Gibb

    The Government is committed to raising standards of literacy and numeracy for all pupils. We have strengthened the teaching of reading through rigorous phonics methods and placed greater emphasis within the primary curriculum and assessment on secure grasp of the essentials such as grammar, punctuation and spelling and fluency in mental and written calculation. We provide funding to secondary schools to help pupils catch up quickly and have announced resits for year 7 pupils in reading and mathematics.

    Our reforms to mathematics and English at GCSE offer greater assurance that pupils with these qualifications will have the literacy and numeracy skills they need in employment, and we now require every 16-19 year old without a good pass in GCSE English and maths to study these subjects as part of their 16-19 programme.

    In every aspect of this work the Department for Education is active in looking for ways to improve literacy and numeracy. We will look with interest at the work of the Armed Forces in this area.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many higher education institutions have had their funding allocated by the National College of Teaching and Leadership reduced as a consequence of training more teachers than places allocated in each academic year since 2010-11.

    Nick Gibb

    We have not reduced the funding for any higher education institutions (HEIs) as a consequence of training more teachers than places allocated since 2010-11.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of teaching vacancies at the start of September 2016.

    Nick Gibb

    The department collects the number of teacher vacancies in November each year. The November 2015 collection is still underway as schools, Local Authorities and Academy Trusts have until the end of January 2016 to provide their workforce data.

    The latest available data on the number of vacancies in schools is from the November 2014 School Workforce Census which was published in July 2015 and is available from table 14 at the following web link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014

    The published data shows that 0.3% of teaching posts in state funded schools in England were vacant in November 2014.

    “

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the financial savings to schools in (a) Pendle, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West as a result of its memorandum of understanding with Microsoft announced on 13 January 2016.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Due to this agreement with Microsoft, which runs until June 2018, schools stand to save an estimated £30 million. The agreement also gives them greater flexibility in their use of Microsoft software.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any personnel from UK Reaper Squadrons have been deployed to (a) Libya, (b) Kenya and (c) Somalia in the last three years.

    Penny Mordaunt

    UK Reapers are currently operational in Iraq and Syria. No UK Reapers have been deployed to Libya, and no personnel from UK Reaper Squadrons have been deployed to Libya, Kenya or Somalia in the last three years.

  • Yasmin Qureshi – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Yasmin Qureshi – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Caroline principles are applied to any further targeted killing carried out in self-defence of the UK.

    Penny Mordaunt

    In taking any action in self-defence of the UK, we will take account of well-established principles of self-defence. As the Attorney General pointed out to the Justice Select Committee on 15 September 2015, the Caroline case goes back to the 19th century and was concerned with very different circumstances to those facing us now. However as the Attorney General also made clear, the principles still apply and action in self-defence may be lawful in relation to an attack which has not yet materialised but is imminent. In addition any such action must, like all other action in self-defence, comply with the requirements of necessity and proportionality.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions his Department held with its French counterpart on the potential effect on Anglo-French defence contracts of a British exit from the EU.

    Mr Julian Brazier

    None.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance his Department has issued on the standard, quality and nutritional content of food served to UK armed forces.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    All food procured for Ministry of Defence (MOD) personnel must comply with MOD food quality standards. These standards comply with all UK and EU production standards, Farm Assurance or equivalent. The Defence Food Quality Standards (DFQS) establishes the minimum quality criteria that the Department requires a supplier to deliver. It sets the standard of what food and ingredients should be provided as part of the contracts to provide nutritious and balanced meals to Service Personnel. The DFQS publication is available online through the gov.uk website at:

    (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/479299/20151006-DFQS-V12-U.pdf).

    The MOD requires all of its food suppliers to comply with both EU and National legislation whilst operating to industry standards and monitors the suppliers’ compliance with the DFQS through a combination of product testing and conducting inspections of their premises/production facilities.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on whether there has been an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in respect of the case of Sergeant Blackman.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Department was notified by Sergeant Blackman’s legal team that an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission was submitted in late 2015. The Department will continue to co-operate fully with Sergeant Blackman’s lawyers and will respond expeditiously to any enquiries the Commission may raise with it. This has included the release of the classified documents referred to during the Westminster Hall debate on 16 September 2015.