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Tag: 2016

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much has been spent under each cost heading by UK defence attachés in each year since 2010.

    Mike Penning

    The following information shows Ministry of Defence previous spending for the Defence Attaché and Advisor Network from Financial Year 2010-11 to 2015-16. The information is not available to give an accurate breakdown by cost heading for each Defence Attaché. These figures do not include costs associated with British Defence Section United States as those costs cannot be broken down by cost heading.

    Financial Year

    Personnel

    Equipment Support Costs

    Infrastructure Costs

    Inventory/ Other Consumption

    Net Interest Payable

    Other Costs

    Receipts and other Income

    Total RDEL

    2010-11

    £21,296,462

    £452,981

    £12,661,662

    £410,753

    -£1,217

    £8,924,225

    -£110,851

    £43,634,016

    2011-12

    £22,017,758

    £353,361

    £1,496,946

    £360,208

    -£2,260

    £17,188,040

    -£97,264

    £41,316,790

    2012-13

    £21,782,956

    £646,092

    £1,432,271

    £272,149

    -£2,507

    £17,023,974

    -£296,291

    £40,858,644

    2013-14

    £22,819,582

    £270,350

    £1,424,211

    £386,100

    -£3,023

    £17,099,861

    -£213,642

    £41,783,439

    2014-15

    £23,919,518

    £283,823

    £1,822,433

    £347,263

    -£3,538

    £18,705,945

    -£136,778

    £44,938,665

    2015-16

    £25,974,993

    £292,365

    £1,634,154

    £968,244

    -£1,973

    £16,844,778

    £4,443

    £45,717,004
  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions his Department has been notified by external consultants or other third parties of breaches by employees or subcontractors of those consultants of document retention or security policies relating to confidential or secure materials.

    Mark Lancaster

    In the calendar year 2014 the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was notified of 142 breaches involving document retention or security policies relating to confidential or secure materials by external consultants or other third parties respectively.

    In the calendar year 2015 the MOD was notified of 144 breaches involving document retention or security policies relating to confidential or secure materials by external consultants or other third parties.

    The MOD treats the security of its information very seriously and requires all breaches – however minor – to be reported. All such incidents are subjected to an initial security risk assessment, with further action taken on a proportionate basis.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 25769, on aviation: emergencies, whether he has received recent reports of further developments relating to the unplanned emergency landing of American Airlines flight AA109 at Heathrow.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    I received no further reports relating to the flight in question.

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2016-03-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the National Security Council has been involved in establishing the national requirement of 19 destroyers and frigates, and whether close allies were also consulted.

    Earl Howe

    The National Security Council was consulted at each stage of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). It gave direction on the full strategic approach required from Defence, rather than individual capability planning decisions. This Review also featured unprecedented levels of consultation with our closest allies.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which Government minister will be responsible for distributing the £80 million Violence Against Women and Girls Transformation Fund.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government is providing £80 million of dedicated funding up to 2020 to tackle violence against women and girls. This funding will provide core support for refuges and other accommodation-based services, a network of rape support centres and national helplines, and from April 2017 will also include a new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Service Transformation Fund.

    The VAWG Service Transformation fund will support local programmes which encourage new approaches that incorporate early intervention, establish and embed the best ways to help victims and their families, and prevent perpetrators from re-offending. Criteria for applications to the fund will support these aims. Full details of the how the fund will be administered and the criteria for applications will be published in due course.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to review staffing and training levels for particular services in cases where payments for agency staff are capped.

    Alistair Burt

    The agency cap, introduced in November 2015 covers all staff in trusts and foundation trusts.

    It is the responsibility of local employers, with their knowledge of service needs, to determine the numbers and skill mix needed to deliver quality care, patient safety and efficiency. They will do this for each service, taking into account local factors such as acuity and case mix.

    It is Health Education England’s responsibility to ensure that there is sufficient future supply of staff, including those needed in specialist fields, to meet the workforce requirements of the English health system.

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what footprint and locations within Defence Business Services his Department is planning for inclusion in the corporate services integration and innovation provider contract.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Ministry of Defence is currently examining options for the future of Defence Business Services (DBS) as part of the Future DBS Programme. No final decisions have been taken on whether any elements of DBS’ current operations will be outsourced and therefore which locations might be affected.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the framework for her Department’s 25-year plan for the environment; and what the timetable will be for (a) consulting on the plan and (b) publishing the final plan.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    We will publish a 25 Year Environment Framework this autumn, starting off a period of public engagement to help shape the 25 Year Environment Plan which we aim to publish in 2017.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the Ofsted budget has been allocated for the purpose of carrying out local area inspections of provision for children with special educational needs and disability for each of the next three years.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities have made good progress complying with the statutory special educational needs duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 since they came into force in September 2014. We continue to monitor progress.

    All local authorities have published a Local Offer of the services and support available to children and young people in their area with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Responsibility for publishing and maintaining Local Offers lies with each local authority. The Department supports local authorities to help make sure they meet all statutory requirements for their Local Offer, and that the quality of services continues to improve.

    In summer 2014, the Department conducted a review of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and plan templates from half of local authorities. The majority of the EHC plan templates we reviewed were judged likely to meet the requirements in the SEND Code of Practice. Where changes were needed, this was often due to inaccurate labelling of the required sections. Feedback was provided to individual local authorities alongside information to all local authorities about the key areas for focus. Since September 2014, EHC plans have been continually monitored. Where individual EHC plans are considered not to be fully compliant, advice on improvement is provided to the local authority.

    Figures returned by local authorities and published in the Statements of SEN and EHC plans Statistical First Release[1] in May 2015 show that, of the 1,360 new EHC plans issued between 1 September 2014 and 15 January 2015, 64.3% were within the statutory 20 week time limit when excluding exception cases.

    The Department for Education is providing specific additional funding to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to support their inspection of the effectiveness of local areas in fulfilling their new SEND duties. We are in the process of setting individual budgets as part of our internal business planning process.

    Ofsted and CQC conducted pilots as part of their wider consultation on their inspection proposals. These pilots explored different approaches to securing evidence in what is a complex area, involving a range of education, social care, and health providers at the local level. Ofsted and CQC will publish their response to the consultation on these new inspection arrangements in spring 2016. In addition, they will evaluate the impact of inspections, which will begin later in 2016.

    The Department draws on a wide range of evidence to determine whether the SEND provisions of the Children and Families Act have improved outcomes for children. Our intention is that a combination of local accountability measures; data and analysis; and independent inspection will show how the SEND system is performing and whether outcomes are improving for children and young people.

    The SEND inspections will evaluate local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people. We will draw on a wide range of statistics[2], including information on educational attainment, absence and exclusions and research into families and young people’s experience of the new system.

    A summary of the available data on SEN and disability is available at

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/472575/Special_educational_needs-_an_analysis_and_summary_of_data_sources.pdf

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015

    [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen

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  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when each allocated route under the Regional Air Connectivity Fund will be launched.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Funding through the Regional Air Connectivity Fund is now available to the 11 successful bids. The start dates of the successful routes are a matter for the airlines. Flybe have announced start dates for their air services from Norwich to Exeter and Southampton to Lyon which will commence operations in March and May respectively. Funding will only be paid to airlines upon the service being provided.