The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on the rollout of broadband for schools; and if he will make a statement.
Elizabeth Truss
The Department for Education does not procure and install broadband on behalf of schools. Headteachers manage their own budgets and are best placed to decide on their broadband requirements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what representations (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have received on the use of constraint in secure colleges.
Jeremy Wright
During the passage of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill through this House my officials and I have received representations from Members of the House and a number of stakeholders on the use of reasonable force for the purposes of ensuring good order and discipline in Secure Colleges.
The Bill provides for the use of force by a custody officer in discharging his or her duties, but only in circumstances authorised by Secure College rules. At Report stage on 16 May 2014 I announced that we will be consulting on the approach to the Rules, while the Bill is still before Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were placed in local authority care in each of the last 10 years.
James Brokenshire
Figures for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASCs) placed in Local Authority care are not available from published statistics.
In 2012 and 2013 there were 1,125 and 1,174 applications received from UASCs, excluding dependants.
Figures on a comparable basis are not available for previous years.
The Home Office publishes statistics on asylum applications from UASCs in tables as_08 and as_08_q (Asylum data tables Volume 2) of the release Immigration Statistics available from:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2013
This release is available from the Library of the House.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of how many properties at risk of flooding in (a) Windsor constituency and (b) the Thames Valley that will not be covered by the new Flood Re scheme.
Dan Rogerson
The assessment of the impact the scope of the Flood Re Scheme will have was done at a UK level. There was no specific assessment for individual constituencies or regions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on the introduction of legally binding pre-nuptial agreements.
Simon Hughes
The Law Commission published its report on Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements on 27 February 2014.
The report focuses on clarifying the law in the areas of financial ‘need’ and nuptial agreements and makes 3 broad recommendations:
1. that written guidance is produced on financial need;
2. that the feasibility is assessed of producing numerical guidance to help couples to calculate the likely financial outcome of divorce or dissolution; and
3. that pre-nuptial agreements are made statutorily binding.
The Government is grateful to the Law Commission for their hard work on this complex area of law.
The Government is giving the report careful consideration. An interim response will be published by August 2014 and a full response by February 2015. These are the timescales established in protocol between the Law Commission and Government.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of London Midland’s current rolling stock is within the scope of the company’s fleet maintenance contract with Siemens.
Stephen Hammond
Prior to the delivery of the new class 350/3 trains ordered in 2012 , 74 trains (45% of the London Midland fleet) was maintained by Siemens; upon completion of delivery, 84 trains (49% of the fleet) will be maintained by Siemens.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jake Berry on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been allocated from the £200 million fund to repair potholes to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to repair potholes in Darwen.
Mr Robert Goodwill
From the £200 million to help fix potholes on the local road network announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the March 2014 Budget, £168 million will be for local authorities in England. This funding will be made available through a bidding exercise and it will be for Blackburn and Darwen Council to submit a bid to the Department. Guidance on how councils can apply for this funding will be made available in the coming weeks.
The Department for Transport has agreed to provide £90.1 million to Lancashire County Council for road maintenance during the financial years from 2011/12 to 2014/15. This funding can be used to help repair potholes.
Rossendale falls within Lancashire County Council’s area of responsibility and we do not allocate any funds directly to the Borough Council for road maintenance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2014-06-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the Department for International Development’s spending on research and development is devoted to developing new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for HIV.
Baroness Northover
The Research and Evidence Division within DFID spent £320 million during the financial year 2013-14. Research spend covers a wide range of different types of research across a number of themes including agriculture, climate and environment, education, governance, conflict and social development, growth and health research.
The total spent on developing new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and microbicides for HIV was £4.5m during the financial year 2013-14. Funding was provided to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM). This amount represented 1.4% of the total Research and Evidence Division spend.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proposals he has to tackle worklessness among social housing tenants.
Esther McVey
Jobcentre Plus provides personalised support to help all unemployed people, including social housing tenants, into work. If claimants are at risk of long term unemployment, they are referred to tailored help offered by the Work Programme.
Where Jobcentre Plus District Managers identify gaps in skills or other provision they have discretion to work with partner organisations, like social landlords, to support the provision of extra help to meet particular needs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2014-06-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many, and which, local authorities have made representations to the Department for Education asking it to legislate to extend the power to outsource children’s social work functions, including child protection, under the Children and Young Persons Act 2008.
Lord Nash
Formal representations concerning outsourcing of social care functions, potentially including child protection, have been made by Staffordshire, Kingston, and Richmond local authorities. In addition a number of informal discussions on this topic have taken place with other local authorities.