Tag: 2016

Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to update the guidance issued to Government departments on drafting answers to parliamentary questions.

Ben Gummer

Ministers are responsible for the answers they give to Parliamentary questions. The practice of providing links or references to published material is long standing. There are currently no plans to update the Guidance to Departments on drafting answers to Parliamentary questions given it was previously updated in the last Parliament.

01/01/2023
Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are currently taking to improve support to children with disabilities in their early years.

Lord Nash

This Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Children with disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children to access high-quality childcare.

Local authorities are required by legislation to secure early education places offering 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year olds, including those with disabilities. The Childcare Bill is delivering extended entitlement to free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. This will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year.

Early Implementers of the extended childcare entitlement will focus on key delivery issues, including access for children with SEND, in order to provide critical learning to inform national rollout.

All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2014. The SEND Code of Practice, introduced as part of the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Children and Families Act, gives guidance on how children between the ages of 0 and 25 with SEN or disabilities are to be supported and providers are statutorily required to have regard for this Code of Practice.

The Government has invested £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations this year. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEND training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND Champions grant has proven very popular amongst the workforce.

The Department funds local authorities’ high needs provision in both the early years and schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant; local authorities have reported that they are planning to spend over £90 million from their high needs budgets on children in their early years. The Spending Review provided a generous uplift in the funding early years providers will receive from April 2017 and protection for the majority of high needs funding. We recognise the critical importance of childcare to parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities; we will consider SEN funding for early years as part of wider consultations in 2016 on how we introduce a fairer funding system.

This Government is committed to helping parents with disabled children. For example, from early 2017 working parents with children under the age of 17 who have a disability will be able to access support under Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £4,000 per child, per year. This is double that offered for children without disabilities for whom support is offered until the age of 12.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 25006, for what reason the repair and maintenance costs of HMS Diamond were greater than those of the other Type 45 Destroyers.

Mr Philip Dunne

The primary cause of the greater repair and maintenance costs for HMS DIAMOND was a longer Docking Period than the other two routine docking cycles. HMS DARING and HMS DAUNTLESS are the only other Type 45 Destroyers to have completed a routine docking cycle. The additional length of the Docking Period was a reflection of the number of capability upgrades and modifications, fitted to HMS DIAMOND. This was entirely normal for a class of warship of this age and all future Docking Periods for the Class are now programmed for a similar duration.

01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in which universities the Frontline programme was promoted in (a) 2015 and (b) 2016.

Edward Timpson

Frontline was promoted at the following universities in both 2015 and 2016: Aston, Bath, Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Brunel, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Greenwich, Kings College London, Kingston, Imperial College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Leeds Beckett, Liverpool, London Metropolitan, Loughborough, LSE, Manchester, Middlesex, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary, Reading, Sheffield, SOAS, Southampton, Strathclyde, Surrey, St Andrews (not in 2016), UCL, UEA, University of East London, Warwick, Westminster, and York. In 2016, Frontline also visited Belfast, Leeds Beckett, Surrey, and UEA to promote the programme.

01/01/2023
Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what procedures are in place to ensure that (a) town councils, (b) parish councils and (c) local communities have the opportunity to influence how Section 106 contributions for highways infrastructure works are spent within their areas.

Brandon Lewis

Section 106 agreements are negotiated and agreed between a local planning authority and a developer and/or landowner along with other interested parties in the land, such as mortgage providers. National planning policy makes clear that Section 106 requirements, modifications and discharges should be transparent and available for inspection.

Local planning authorities are expected to use all of the funding they receive through planning obligations in accordance with the terms of the individual planning obligation agreement. This is to ensure that new developments are acceptable in planning terms; benefit local communities and support the provision of local infrastructure.

Planning decisions should be based on Local Plan policy unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Representations from interested third parties may constitute material considerations. Town councils, parish councils and local communities can influence infrastructure and other considerations in Local Plans through the consultation process.

The Community Infrastructure Levy was introduced to provide a faster, fairer and more transparent approach to collecting developer contributions toward infrastructure. The Government launched a review of the Levy in 2015. This review will consider a range of issues, including the relationship between the Levy and Section 106 planning obligations.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many divorces between people aged 30 and under took place in the UK in each of the last five years.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

01/01/2023
Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assistance his Department is providing to protect the wildlife and habitats of Gough Island from invasive non-native species; and what support his Department plans to give to Tristan da Cunha Council’s proposal to eradicate those species.

David Evennett

The Government is aware of the threat to the seabirds of Gough Island posed by invasive mice and plants. Research and scoping work has concluded that it should be possible to eradicate both the mice and the invasive groundcover which present the two main threats to the island’s biodiversity. Together with colleagues across government, we are currently reviewing the options for addressing the problem and the necessary action to ensure the protection of these rare and endangered species and to protect the World Heritage Site status of Gough Island.

01/01/2023
Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the emergency services can be contacted in areas where mobile phone service is poor or non-existent.

Matt Hancock

Improving mobile connectivity across the UK, including in rural and hard to reach areas, is a priority for the Government and the December 2014 landmark agreement with industry guarantees that each mobile network operator will provide voice and SMS text coverage to 90% of the UK’s landmass by end 2017. Additionally, Telefonica has a licence obligation to deliver indoor 4G coverage to 98% of UK premises, also by end 2017. Taken together these obligations will cut complete not spots by two thirds, resulting in 98% of the UK landmass with mobile coverage.

This coverage would be available to all mobile phone users for emergency 999 calls as the Code of Practice for the Public Emergency Call Service requires that a caller from a mobile phone is able to roam onto another mobile network to make an emergency call if they have no signal from their own provider.

Furthermore, the Government recognises the importance of public call boxes as a means of calling the emergency services. Ofcom requires that there is a period of consultation before a public call box is removed and that one of the factors to be considered by the relevant public body is the potential importance of the call box to contact the emergency services.

01/01/2023

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which stakeholders were invited to the first meeting of the new Strategic Oversight Board.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The invitee list for the first Strategic Oversight Board meeting which took place on 18 November 2015 is below:

Name	Organisation
Professor the Lord Ara Darzi of Denham (Chair)	Imperial College London
Andrew Morris	Farr Institute
Anna Beckett	Care Quality Commission
Arvind Madan	Primary Care
Bethan George	Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group
Cynthia Clark	Patients 4 Data
Dame Sally Davies	Department of Health
Dawn Monaghan	Information Commissioner’s Office
Dr Aisling Burnand	Association of Medical Research Charities
Dr Ben Goldacre	Bad Science
Dr Grant Ingrams	British Medical Association
Dr Janet Valentine	Clinical Practice Research Datalink
Dr Mike Knapton	British Heart Foundation
Eve Roodhouse	Health and Social Care Information Centre
Gary Leeming	Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network
Gerard Crofton-Martin	Healthwatch England
Jeremy Taylor	National Voices
John Newton	Public Health England
Katherine Rake	Healthwatch England
Katie Farrington	Office of National Data Guardian
Lisa Harrod-Rothwell	NHS England
Louise Wood	Association of Medical Research Charities
Neil Stutchbury	Monitor
Nicola Perrin	Wellcome Trust
Paul Bate	Care Quality Commission
Prof John Appleby	The Kings Fund
Prof Nigel Mathers	Royal College of General Practitioners
Prof Simon Wessley	Royal College of Psychiatrists
Prof Sue Bailey	Royal College of Psychiatrists
Ronan O’Connor	NHS England
Ros Roughton	NHS England
Sarah Schofield	West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group
Sir Bruce Keogh	NHS England
Sir Cyril Chantler	UCL Partners
Steven Black	Monitor

01/01/2023

Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of whether Daesh are committing genocide in Syria.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The situation is desperate for many communities within Syria and Iraq. We condemn in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Daesh against Christians, Mandeans, Yezidis, and other minorities, as well as the majority Muslim population in Syria and Iraq who continue to bear the brunt of Daesh’s brutality.

It is a long-standing Government policy that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred are a matter for the international judicial system rather than governments or other non-judicial bodies. Our approach is to seek an end to all violations of International Humanitarian Law and to prevent their further escalation, irrespective of whether these violations fit the definition of specific international crimes.

Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology. That’s why the UK is playing a leading role in a Global Coalition of more than 65 countries and international organisations to respond to Daesh’s inhumanity.

01/01/2023