The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of her Department’s (a) Senior Civil Servants and (b) core policy civil servants are based in London.
George Eustice
As of February 2016, 89% of Defra Senior Civil Servants and 82% of core Defra policy civil servants are based in London.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 30 December 2015 (HL4261) and 2 February (HL5328), how many UK nationals or dual nationals they have succeeded in having repatriated, following incarceration by the Iranians, since 1 January.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Government is not aware of any UK nationals who have been repatriated following incarceration by the Iranians in 2016. Mr Bahman Daroshafaei, a UK/Iranian dual national who was arrested in Iran in February 2016 was released on bail later that month.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans that the national litter strategy will include beach and aquatic litter.
Rory Stewart
The Litter Strategy for England will focus on three key themes: education and awareness; punishing offenders; and better cleansing and litter infrastructure, which should lead to a reduction in the amount of litter reaching local areas, including our beaches and the aquatic environment. To develop the Litter Strategy we are working with a range of interested stakeholders, including representatives from the Marine Conversation Society, Thames21 and the Canal and Rivers Trust.
The UK Marine Strategy Part Three, published in December last year, sets out the actions we are taking to improve the marine environment. It covers measures that contribute to reducing the sources of marine litter, including sources of beach and aquatic litter, and to remove what has already reached our beaches and aquatic environment. Actions related specifically to UK beaches include Defra-funded beach cleaning schemes on priority beaches.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to include provisions in the Modern Transport Bill to (a) develop a licensing regime for the sale of safe driverless vehicles and (b) establish regulations for driverless vehicles in the testing phase.
Mr Robert Goodwill
At this stage, we have not developed plans for changes to primary road traffic legislation other than relating to motor vehicle insurance for automated vehicles. We have also announced plans to change the Highway Code and regulations to support the safe use of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles launched a consultation on these issues on 11 July.
We will consider further legislative, regulatory, and guidance changes as ADAS and automated vehicles continue to develop and reach the market, so that people and businesses can safely take advantage of the benefits that they offer.
We do not consider that legislative change is needed to facilitate testing of automated vehicle technologies; testing of automated vehicle technologies can be carried out on any UK road as long as carried out in line with UK traffic laws and guidance – further details are set out in the Code of practice for testing of automated vehicle technologies – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/automated-vehicle-technologies-testing-code-of-practice.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Donaghy on 2016-09-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether schools participating in vocational pathways to qualified teacher status as part of the apprenticeship programme will be able to choose to work in partnership with universities that provide initial teacher training as well as with school-centred initial teacher training providers and other school-led providers.
Lord Nash
To date we have not received a formal proposal from employers to develop an apprenticeship standard for entry to teaching. There are monthly opportunities for employers to submit proposals to the department for review or, from April 2017, the Institute for Apprenticeships. For existing apprenticeship standards, employers can choose their preferred provider to deliver the training requirements providing they meet the government’s quality criteria and are registered on the Skills Funding Agency’s Register of Training Organisations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he made of the number of lung cancer patients in England who have accessed the immuno-oncology drug nivolumab via private healthcare providers or other private sources of funding in the last year; and when NICE will make its final decision about NHS patients gaining access to that drug.
George Freeman
The Department does not hold the requested information concerning private healthcare or other private sources of funding.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence currently has two technology appraisals of nivolumab for lung cancer in development:
(i) Nivolumab for previously treated locally advanced or metastatic squamous non-small-cell lung cancer, with an anticipated publication date of May 2016.
(ii) Nivolumab for previously treated locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer, with an anticipated publication date of September 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils (a) in Warrington and (b) at schools in Warrington North constituency achieved GCSE grades A to C in (i) mathematics, (ii) a modern foreign language and (iii) physics in each year since 2010.
Nick Gibb
For 2010/11[1] to 2014/15[2] [3] [4] [5], the proportion of pupils achieving GCSE[6] grades A* to C entered for mathematics, a modern foreign language and physics at local authority level can be deduced from school level subject data published in the Department’s school performance tables. Information for 2009/10 is not available in the format required. Parliamentary constituency level information is not available.
[1] http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/2011/download_data.html
[2] http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/2012/download_data.html
[3] http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/2013/download_data.html
[4] http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/2014/download_data.html
[5] http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/download_data.html
[6] Full course GCSEs only
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 26014, what the baseline year is for the commitment to train 10,000 more nurses, midwives and other allied health professionals over the course of the current Parliament.
Ben Gummer
As announced by the Chancellor in the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government has committed to remove the cap on the number of students studying nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions from 1 August 2017. This will enable universities to offer up to 10,000 new training places for students to start these courses in this Parliament.
This reflects estimates on the level of unmet demand for places in the current system where, as an example, for nursing, around two out of three nursing applicants who currently apply for a place are turned down.
The Government is working with health and higher education delivery organisations to determine an appropriate baseline as part of implementing the reforms.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Steel of Aikwood on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to address the delays in dealing with applications for clearance under section 1044 of the Company Tax Act 2010 by HMRC in Newcastle due to a shortage of resources, in the light of the urgency of some of the outstanding cases.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HMRC must notify its decision on an application under section 1044 Corporation Tax Act 2010 within 30 days of its receipt.
During the six months from October 2015 to March 2016, HMRC received 1105 clearance applications under section 1044. The average time taken to reply to these applications was 15 days. Decisions on over 95% of the applications were notified within the statutory time limit.
HMRC monitors the number of clearance applications it receives in this area and the time taken to reply to them to ensure a consistent service.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Shuker on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of violations of freedom of religion or belief on women; and what his Department is doing to tackle such violations.
Mr David Lidington
There are clear examples where the impact of violations of freedom of religion or belief falls particularly heavily on women – such as treatment of women by Daesh. Under the Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy, FCO funds projects to defend freedom of religion or belief, including the protection of the rights of women. For example, the FCO recently agreed to fund a project this financial year that tackles gender- based violence and discrimination in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia.