UKPOL.CO.UK

Tag: 2016

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish to discuss the consultation process for the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Development Plan.

    James Wharton

    The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities is currently involved in the preparation of a Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Development Plan working with the 10 metropolitan councils in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s area. We understand that this is intended to become a joint development plan document.

    A local authority may arrange for the discharge of any of its functions by a committee, sub-committee, an officer or by any other local authority. The ten local authorities have delegated responsibility for the “coordination” of the Greater Manchester Strategic Framework to Association of Greater Manchester Authorities Executive Board, a committee of the Combined Authority. Under these current arrangements, it is for each individual authority to decide how to engage its members in the production of the document.

    Each local planning authority must also comply with section 18 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, which requires them to prepare a Statement of Community Involvement which should explain how they will engage local communities and other interested parties in producing development plan documents and determining planning applications. This should be published on the local planning authority’s website and it is the authority’s responsibility to ensure that any Development Plan Document is prepared in accordance with it.

    It would not be appropriate for me to meet to discuss the detail of a plan in preparation.

  • Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the distribution of teacher training places in the (a) North Staffordshire sub-region and (b) West Midlands region.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education has changed the approach to initial teacher training (ITT) allocations for the 2016 to 2017 academic year. The National College for Teaching and Leadership are not allocating a specific number of places to individual organisations for postgraduate ITT courses due to start in the 2016 to 2017 academic year. Instead, eligible schools, school-centred initial teacher training providers (SCITTs) and higher education institutions (HEIs) will be able to recruit as many trainees as they feel they need (subject to a limited number of controls), until the overall system has recruited a sufficient number.

    School Direct lead schools, SCITTs and universities across all regions have been given greater freedom for the 2016/17 academic year to manage their recruitment according to local need.

    We are monitoring regional recruitment across all subjects, including the West Midlands region. However, as School Direct and SCITT partnerships cover large geographical areas, we are not monitoring recruitment at a sub-regional level.

    To date, the only challenge in geographical distribution of ITT places has been found in the London region in recruitment to primary, which was recruiting slower than other regions. In this case we have allowed school led routes (i.e. School Direct (tuition fee) and SCITTs) in this region to continue to recruit to primary courses to ensure that enough trainees are recruited. For all other regions, recruitment is broadly the same as in 2015/16 with some areas showing an increase.

    We are prepared to use reserve recruitment controls in other subjects, or for other regions, as required.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he made of the potential effect of the changes to personal injury law and procedure on levels of employment in the legal sector before making his announcement of such changes in the Autumn Statement; and if he will make a statement.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Ministry of Justice will launch a public consultation in due course on the details of the policy. This will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether employers who pay the proposed apprenticeship levy and provide training will be able to use levy vouchers in their own organisations.

    Nick Boles

    Employers will be free to spend levy money on apprenticeships training which they judge best meets their needs. If the employer is a registered training provider, they could use the levy money on in-house training which meets the required quality standards for an apprenticeship.

    Where an employer wishes to provide their own in-house training, they must be registered on the Skills Funding Agency’s Register of Training Organisations. All providers are subject to inspection and reports by Ofsted on apprenticeship training provision.

  • Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-05-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures are in place to ensure that the appropriate health services, mental health services and sexual health services are available to asylum seekers dispersed to (a) current dispersal areas, (b) new dispersal areas and (c) Scotland.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office maintains an active partnership with local governments across the UK, including those in Scotland, and funds Strategic Migration Partnerships to plan for the most appropriate dispersal of asylum seekers. The partnerships consider the impact on communities and local services so that adjustments to dispersal patterns can be made where appropriate.

    Free access to NHS healthcare is provided to asylum seekers. Asylum Health Teams are commissioned by NHS England and Scotland to provide healthcare and screening. Strategic Migration Partnerships work with Care Commissioning Groups to plan for the health care needs of asylum seekers in their regions.

    All children are entitled to free primary and secondary education. To enable access to education, internal checks are in place to triage applications involving children of school age for priority dispersal into permanent accommodation. Strategic Migration Partnerships discuss education provision as part of their local authority engagement. Asylum seekers are able to access legal advice via the Legal Aid system and are provided details of local solicitors as part of their induction into their dispersal region.

    Local authorities are consulted before asylum seekers are placed in their area, so that the potential impact on communities and local services is fully considered. During discussions on widening dispersal in Scotland we are and will continue to ensure that Local Authority leads and partners on health and education, as well as the Scottish Government and the Scottish Law Society, are involved to address any concerns and to ensure the close and successful partnership working in Glasgow is replicated elsewhere.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the UN on forced organ harvesting in China.

    Alok Sharma

    The Government has no plans to make representations to the UN on organ harvesting in China. We pay close attention to the human rights situation in China, including allegations of organ harvesting and encourage China to implement its public commitment to stop the use of organs from prisoners. Our current assessment of the human rights situation in China can be found in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 44948, what the ratio of (a) nurses and (b) midwives is to administrators in the NHS.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The ratio of nurses to administrators in the National Health Service is 2.6:1. The number of nurses includes health visitors as they are qualified and registered nurses.

    The ratio of midwives to administrators in the NHS is 1:5.1.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles of track Network Rail expects to electrify in Control Period 5.

    Claire Perry

    The Government has learned the lessons from Labour’s failure to invest in electrifying our railways. We remain committed to our modernisation programme of over 850 miles of electrification and have already electrified more than five times the route length that Labour oversaw between 1997 to 2010.

    Sir Peter Hendy’s review of the rail upgrade programme details that the vast majority of programmes and projects will go ahead for delivery by 2019 (the end of Control Period 5).

    However, some schemes are more immature in their development and, whilst schemes in this category will have significant delivery within Control Period 5, these schemes will span more than one control period.

  • 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 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2016 to Question 23346, how many of the breaches referred to related to documents categorised before April 2014 as (a) top secret, (b) secret, (c) confidential, (d) restricted, (e) protected and (f) unclassified; and how many such breaches related to documents categorised after April 2014 as (i) top secret, (ii) secret and (iii) official-sensitive or official.

    Mark Lancaster

    We do not hold information centrally about when the documents were originally classified. However, the classification of the information at the time the security breaches occurred is listed in the table below:

    Document Classification

    2014

    2015

    Top Secret

    2

    0

    Secret

    15

    18

    Confidential

    8

    9

    Restricted

    37

    13

    Protected

    0

    0

    Unclassified

    1

    0

    Official Sensitive

    18

    43

    Official

    0

    0

    Unknown

    1

    2

    Total

    82

    85

    These figures include all incidents involving documents in hard copy or stored on magnetic media i.e. CD’s. They include incidents involving the sending of documents over a transmission media not approved for the classification of the document.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Hungarian government on the sale of residency bonds through off-shore companies.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) has had no discussions with the Hungarian government on this issue.