The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2014-06-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effects of the distribution of cultural funds and subsidies throughout the regions of the UK.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Funding decisions for the arts are made independently of Ministers by Arts Council England (ACE). Earlier this week, ACE announced an increase in the proportion of spend on regional arts and major partner museums.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding the Football Youth Development Programme has provided to York City FC to date.
Mrs Helen Grant
Between 1998 and 2006 Sport England invested £556,163 in York City FC for the Football Youth Development programme. No funding has been requested since 2006.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average pay for teachers was in York Unitary Authority area in 2008-09 and in each year since.
Mr David Laws
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 10 July 2013, Official Report 297W, which provided the gross average salary of full-time regular qualified teachers in service in local authority maintained schools in cash terms and real terms for York local authority, in each March, 1997 to 2009 and November 2010 to November 2011.
The gross average salary of full-time regular qualified teachers in service in publicly funded schools in cash terms and real terms for York local authority, in November 2012 is £36,300 in both cash and real terms (rounded to the nearest £100). 2013 figures will be available in late July 2014. Publicly-funded schools include both local authority maintained schools and academies. The source of this information is the November 2012 School Workforce Census.
Real terms figures were calculated from HMT GDP deflators, financial year, published on 1 April 2014 at the following web link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Turner on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, by what process Tony Blair was appointed to the post of Middle East peace envoy; and who approved that appointment.
Hugh Robertson
Tony Blair was appointed by the Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia) as the representative of the Middle East Quartet in June 2007. The Quartet principals (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, High Representative for European Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana) approved his appointment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans (a) his Department and (b) NHS England have to capture the experiences of cancer patients outside hospital settings.
Jane Ellison
NHS England now has responsibility for the Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES) and advises that it plans to continue the surveyin 2015.
Although the sample for the CPES is drawn from those who have had treatment for cancer within a hospital, the questionnaire also asks many questions about the patient’s experience outside of hospital too. For example, the initial process around diagnosis, interactions with a cancer nurse specialist (which may be outside of a hospital setting), home care and support, community nurses and care from their general practitioner. From this, it is possible to learn what the experience of cancer patients has been both inside and outside of a hospital setting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was spent on car driving lessons and tests for prisoners in 2013.
Jeremy Wright
My officials are currently working to provide the information requested but it has not proved possible to produce it in the time allowed. I will write to you in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost incurred by his Department was of appeals against employment and support allowance decisions in 2010 and in each year since.
Mike Penning
We have taken action to reduce the cost of appeals by reforming the DWP appeal process. Mandatory reconsideration, where we look again at individual decisions before it goes to a tribunal, alongside our wider reforms to streamline the system are designed to avoid the need for expensive appeals.
We have seen a significant reduction in the volume of appeals. During the first quarter of this year appeals against ESA decisions decreased by almost 90 per cent, compared to the same time last year. We expect that this will be reflected in a lower total cost incurred by this Department in 2014/15.
The operating costs incurred by the Department for appeals against ESA decisions prior to 2014/15 are as follows:
|
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
|
|
ESA Appeals |
£16,464,859 |
£19,651,619 |
£28,678,396 |
In addition to these costs the Department has paid the following amounts to HMCTS. These costs are for the number of appeals against ESA decisions that HMCTS have handled which are in excess of the volume for which they have been funded for in their baseline funding.
|
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
|
|
Total Costs payable to HMCTS |
£26,157,701 |
£29,291,646 |
£41,179,738 |
Note: Comparable data is not available prior to 2011/12.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stone of Blackheath on 2014-06-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Northover on 26 June (WA 177), what were the exact amounts of money given by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development to the Conflict Pool in the financial years 2012–13 and 2013–14; and what are the projected amounts for 2014–15 and 2015–16.
Baroness Northover
The FCO and DFID support Egypt through the Arab Partnership Economic Facility (APEF), which is funded and managed by DFID, the Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF), which is co-funded by the FCO and DFID and is managed by the FCO, and the tri-departmental (FCO, DFID, MoD) Conflict Pool. We estimate that since 2011 approximately £17m has been spent in Egypt through regional programmes funded by the APEF; due to the regional nature of this funding we are not able to further disaggregate the amounts spent. A small amount of APEF funding has been spent by the Embassy on local-level economic projects, as follows: £129,538 in 2012-2013; £784,801 in 2013-14; and £629,000 in 2014-2015. All APEF funds for 2014/15 have now been allocated.
Through the Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF), £1.5m was provided in financial year 2012-2013; £1.3m in 2013-14; and £1.3m has been allocated for 2014-15.
Through the tri-departmental (FCO, DFID, MOD) Conflict Pool (CP) £264,386 was provided in 2012-13; £458,370 in 2013-2014; and approximately £2m is allocated for 2014/15.
We are not currently able to provide projected amounts for 2015/16. From 2015/16 onwards, the Conflict Pool will be replaced by the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), which will have a global budget of £1billion. CSSF allocations by country and according to government department will be finalised in early 2015. FCO and DFID funding for the Arab Partnership for 2015/16 has not yet been agreed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reason allowing employers which wish to continue with current apprenticeship funding arrangements to do so was not listed as an option in his Department’s recent consultation on the future of apprenticeships.
Matthew Hancock
The Apprenticeships Funding Reform Technical Consultation sought evidence on the practical implications for employers of two new systems for routing apprenticeship funding: the PAYE model and the Apprenticeship Credit. The practical implications of the current system are already well understood, therefore we did not include this in the technical consultation. We are giving careful consideration to all feedback received, before announcing our next steps in the autumn.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings Ministers in his Department have had on the outsourcing of local authority children’s services since May 2010.
Mr Edward Timpson
Through its Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme the Government is supporting local authorities to take new approaches to maximise the capacity and skills brought to bear in improving services for the most vulnerable children. Part of that work involves giving local authorities greater freedom to test new delivery models and harness external ideas and expertise by allowing them to delegate children’s social care functions to external providers.
Ministers have regular internal and external meetings to discuss this policy in particular and approaches to delivering children’s social care more widely.