Tag: 2016

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if the Government will postpone the replacement of student maintenance grants with maintenance loans until a sharia-compliant finance product is available for such loans.

    Joseph Johnson

    Maintenance grants will be replaced by increased maintenance loans for eligible students starting full-time courses in the 2016/17 academic year. The Government supports the introduction of a Sharia-compliant ‘Takaful’ alternative finance product. Subject to Parliament, the Government hopes to introduce the system through new legislation.

  • Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on how many occasions he or officials of his Department have met representatives of high street bookmakers to discuss gambling since May 2015.

    David Evennett

    Details of my and the Minister for Sport and Tourism’s meetings with representatives of the bookmaking industry are available via the Department’s transparency returns, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/search?q=quarterly+ministerial+returns&filter_organisations%5B%5D=department-for-culture-media-sport

    In addition, my officials have met representatives of bookmakers on numerous occasions to discuss issues related to gambling.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the introduction of the National Living Wage on the level of child poverty in (a) Ashfield constituency and (b) Nottinghamshire.

    Nick Boles

    The Government has made no such assessment.

    The Government is committed to working to eliminate child poverty and improving life chances for children. This includes making work pay, in which the National Living Wage has an important part to play, and also through our wider reforms to support parents to move into work, increase their earnings, and keep more of what they earn.

    The National Living Wage will benefit over 1 million low paid workers this year and 2.9 million directly by 2020. The introduction of the National Living Wage will mean that a full-time worker aged 25 or over previously on the National Minimum Wage will see their annual earnings increase by £910.

  • Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the under-occupancy penalty on families with severely disabled children.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The rules allow severely disabled children who are normally expected to share a bedroom with another child to have a bedroom of their own.

    This easement applies when a severely disabled child is in receipt of the middle or higher rate care component of Disability Living Allowance and their disabilities would mean that they would disturb the sleep of the other child; or there is a potential threat of violence. This easement applies across both the private and social rented sectors.

    Discretionary Housing Payments are available for those who do not satisfy these conditions.

  • Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wendy Morton on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of (a) eviction notices and (b) legal action related to the clearance of sites of unauthorised encampments in England in 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    Enforcement action against unauthorised encampments is primarily a matter for local authorities, landowners and the police. The Department does not collect information centrally on the total costs of such clearances.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguard rescue teams have been deployed to inland flooding incidents in the past two years; and how many times those teams were called out to such incidents in the past two years.

    Mr John Hayes

    The capability to specifically record inland flood/civil contingencies flooding incidents has only been available in Her Majesty’s Coastguards Incident Management System since September 2014 as Coastguard Operations Centres transitioned incrementally into its national network. On the basis of the records available, at least 31 teams on 13 occasions have been deployed to inland flooding incidents in the past two years.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-10-13.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the process used by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments in drawing up its advice on appointments to be taken by former Ministers and former civil servants.

    Ben Gummer

    I refer the honourable gentleman to my answer of 17th October, given in response to PQ 47620.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase retention levels of science teachers in funded secondary schools; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    Teacher retention rates have remained stable for over a decade. The Department does not hold data at subject level on retention rates, but approximately 90 per cent of all teachers are still in service in the year after they qualify, and 72 per cent of those who qualified in 2009 were still in teaching five years later. Over the longer term, over 60 per cent of teachers remain in service 10 years after qualifying.

    It is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers. That is why we have made significant policy interventions in the areas that teachers tell us matter most, such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload. We have appointed behaviour expert Tom Bennett to lead a review to ensure new teachers are fully trained in dealing with disruptive children and to consider all of the challenges of managing behaviour in schools.

    We have established three groups to address the biggest concerns that teachers raised in the workload challenge: marking, planning and data management. The groups will create principles for practice and make specific recommendations for action. All three groups are due to report to Ministers in 2016 and we are commissioning a biennial survey to track teacher workload, starting in the spring of 2016.

    In 2015, the Prime Minister announced a £67m package that will help us to recruit an additional 2,500 mathematics and physics teachers and to improve the knowledge and skills of 15,000 existing teachers in those subjects.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff at which grades were involved in the recent investigation into Google’s tax arrangements.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not disclose details of its work on the affairs of particular taxpayers.

    HMRC’s Large Business directorate now deploys 2,600 staff – over 600 more than when it was formed in April 2014.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civil law suits have been brought against his Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.

    Mark Lancaster

    The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost