The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all European funding for schemes to improve the employability of prisoners has been protected for the duration of their funding period.
Mr Sam Gyimah
As the Chancellor set out on 13 August, all structural and investment fund projects signed before the Autumn Statement will be fully funded, even when these projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Hepburn on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average hospital waiting time was for NHS patients in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK in each year since 2005.
Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. Information has been published since August 2007 on the numbers of patients still waiting within 18 weeks and more than 18 weeks to start consultant-led elective treatment at the end of each month. Information has also been published about average median waiting times to start consultant-led elective treatment nationally since August 2007 and locally since April 2009. This is provided in the attached table for National Health Service commissioning organisations and regions which most closely match those requested. Health is a devolved matter in the rest of the United Kingdom.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Ministers in the Scottish Government on the transfer of air passenger duty to that government.
Mr Robert Goodwill
No such discussion have taken place. Decisions on taxation, including Air Passenger Duty, are of course a matter for HM Treasury.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans his Department has to publish a national strategy for English for speakers of other languages for England.
Nick Boles
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Communities and Local Government work together to support the policy ambitions of state-funded ESOL: to enable unemployed people on benefits to get the skills they need to get into and stay in work; and to support the integration of long-standing migrant communities and particularly those individuals most at risk of isolation from services and wider society.
There are no plans to publish a national strategy. We fund ESOL through the Adult Education Budget, and colleges and training providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use this budget to meet the needs of their local communities. It is therefore their responsibility to plan which ESOL courses they deliver locally, within their resources.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-03-16.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.123 of the Budget 2016, whether the (a) proposed legislation to make it easier for local authorities to work together to create new garden towns and (b) consultation on a second wave of Compulsory Purchase Order reforms will apply to Wales.
Greg Hands
Housing and planning in Wales are the responsibility of the Welsh Government.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the total cost was of maintaining the UK Permanent Representation to the EU in each of the last five years.
Mr David Lidington
We cannot provide a figure for the total cost of maintaining the UK Permanent Representation to the EU (UKRep) in each of the last five years, except at disproportionate cost.
The budgets involved are aggregated in different ways, normally across HMG’s Brussels platform as a whole, which consists of UKRep, the British Embassy in Belgium, including UKTI and Consular operations, the UK Joint Delegation to NATO and Corporate Services Benelux.
Administrative resource spend, which includes, but is not limited to, Locally Engaged staff salaries, travel costs, telecoms, catering and entertainment and IT, is shared across the Brussels platform and difficult to disaggregate. Facilities management costs (eg security, reception, cleaning) are also shared across the Brussels platform and difficult to disaggregate. The rent spent on the offices which house UKRep and the British Embassy is aggregated. Salaries and allowances paid to UK-based staff working at UKRep are captured in further separate budgets, and would involve significant resource to disaggregate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2016-05-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are providing support to the central bank of Yemen to avert financial collapse.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) is a key Yemeni institution. We have made sure that the economy and the state of the CBY are not ignored during the peace talks in Kuwait. We continue to lobby the Government of Yemen and the Houthis and Pro-Saleh General People’s Congress at the highest levels to emphasise the seriousness of the economic situation, including pressing for all Yemeni parties to cooperate, take ownership of the issues, and ensure key institutions such as the CBY are protected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the results of the post-occupancy data on schools built under wave 1 of the Priority Schools Building Programme will be published before wave 2 begins.
Edward Timpson
The Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) is rebuilding and/or refurbishing those school buildings in the worst condition across the country. We expect to deliver the vast majority of the new school buildings in Phase 1 by the end of 2017, two years earlier than originally planned. Work on schools in Phase 2 of the programme has recently begun and good progress is being made.
The Department is collecting a range of post-occupancy data on schools under Phase 1. For post-occupancy evaluation to be truly representative, schools need to be operational for a full year to experience all the seasons. The results of the post-occupancy exercise will be published once it is complete. Lessons learnt on Phase 1 are being transferred to Phase 2 of the PSBP.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.
Kris Hopkins
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 20082, what the (a) dates, (b) locations and (c) organisations of the 19 visits and meetings referred to in that Answer were.
Alistair Burt
Details of the 19 visits to or meetings with mental health trusts undertaken by Simon Stevens and Sir Bruce Keogh since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively are given on the attached table Details of meetings with and visits to mental health trusts undertaken by Simon Stevens and Sir Bruce Keogh since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively of NHS England.