Tag: 2016

  • 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 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons academy schools are not subject to public sector pay and terms.

    Edward Timpson

    The reformed national pay and terms and conditions arrangements allow all schools considerable flexibility over the pay of their teachers.

    Staff at academies are employees of academy trusts, companies limited by guarantee with charitable status. Whilst academy trusts are classified as public sector bodies, their staff are not employees of the Crown. Academies have more control over their budgets so that they can meet their school’s needs more effectively and have the flexibility to reward the best teachers and excellent performance. These are the reasons they are not included within the statutory national pay and terms and conditions arrangements, which includes the current one per cent cap on pay increases.

    Many academies have pay systems that mirror the provisions of the statutory national arrangements and many converter academy staff have ‘Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations’ rights that preserve their entitlement to the national pay and terms and conditions arrangements.

  • 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 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what routine responsibilities are required of Amey by Highways England in its maintenance and response contract for the East Midlands.

    Andrew Jones

    The Maintenance and Response (M&R) Contractor for Area 7. Amey Highways Ltd, will be required to undertake cyclic and reactive maintenance, incident response, severe weather response and traffic management across the East Midlands and Lincolnshire. This includes :

    Cyclic and reactive maintenance:

    • Schedule and deliver the annual programme of cyclical work to meet requirements in the most efficient and effective way
    • Carry out defect repairs to the requirements for each asset type

    Incident Response:

    • Attend incident, assess and advise Area 7 Control
    • Make safe and clear up, including environmental containment
    • Act as lead if other parts of the Highways England supply chain is used
    • Carry out associated defect repairs
    • Act as the on-road incident support function for Area 7
    • Be Principal Contractor if other contractors are used

    Severe Weather Response:

    • Provide severe weather response for winter, flooding and high winds
    • Work with Highways England on weather intelligence to be prepared and proactive
    • Provide trained driver / operatives to cover the full winter service
    • Maintain vehicles and equipment
    • Provide fuel used by fleet and management of salt

    Traffic Management (TM):

    • Provide TM for all M&R cyclical work
    • Provide TM for all reactive work, including incidents
    • Provide TM for Highways England activities and Support Services, including inspections and technical survey work
    • Provide TM for events when requested

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a bicycle highway code.

    Andrew Jones

    Sections 59 – 82 of the Highway Code cover “Rules for Cyclists” which includes sections on road junctions, roundabouts and crossing the road. In addition Annex 1 of the code “You and your bike” covers information and rules about you and using your bicycle on the road. There are no plans to publish a cycling specific excerpt of the Highway Code. To help cyclists further, the Department is providing £50 million over the next four years to support Bikeability cycle training in schools in England (outside London). This funding will help to increase children’s road awareness, encourage active travel and improve future motorists’ empathy for more vulnerable road users.

  • Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will introduce measures to prevent companies based in tax havens from purchasing assets during privatisations.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government seeks to ensure value for money for the taxpayer in conducting asset sales. This includes running sales on a competitive basis that are open to a wide range of potential buyers. The Government has no plans to change the existing arrangements governing participation in the sale of government assets.

  • Ann Coffey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ann Coffey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Coffey on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to create a new legal status of guardian of the property and affairs of a missing person by 1 December 2016.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    We will bring forward legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

  • Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what role they are proposing to give Parliament in scrutinising the outcome of the negotiations relating to the UK leaving the EU, prior to the final conclusion of those negotiations.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Government will comply with all the constitutional and legal obligations that apply to the deal that we will negotiate with the EU.

  • Robert Jenrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Robert Jenrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Jenrick on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total funding for Southwell Minster School was in 2014-15.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    We do not estimate budgets at an individual school level for future years as they are subject to change depending on pupil numbers, characteristics and the LA funding formula. We do not hold the information requested, but we do publish the allocations at individual school level for the current academic year every October.

    The following table details the individual school budget and the per pupil funding rates for Southwell Minster School in Newark. These have been sourced wherever possible up to 2012-2013 from published Section 251 statements, which detail local authority spending at school level, and from published school and academy allocations for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16.

    Minster Southwell School

    Total pupils

    Total Funding (£)

    Per pupil (£)

    2010-11

    1,645

    6,701,451

    4,074

    2011-12

    1,623

    7,097,554

    4,373

    2012-13

    1,599

    7,172,496

    4,486

    2013-14

    1,622

    7,397,407

    4,561

    2014-15

    1,611

    7,187,045

    4,461

    2015-16

    1,591

    7,093,649

    4,459

  • Lord Naseby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Naseby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the grant awarded to Action on Smoking and Health for 2015–16 relates to activities to be delivered beyond the end of the financial year; and, as the grant conditions stipulate that such activities must be delivered prior to that day, whether they will investigate.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The proposed budget estimates received from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) for each of the last five years for a Section 64 grant is attached. Commercially sensitive information has been redacted.

    As the agreed project outputs make clear, the 2015-16 Section 64 grant funding awarded to ASH will be spent in the current financial year, including work relating to preparation for legislation coming into force later in 2016.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Sums paid to Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) staff for overtime for the last 24 months, for which figures are available, were as follows:

    £000s

    January

    February

    March

    April

    May

    June

    July

    August

    September

    October

    November

    December

    2014

    –

    5.1

    10.9

    2.6

    6.8

    4.3

    7.3

    23.7

    7.0

    7.1

    3.7

    10.8

    2015

    2.2

    3.9

    28.0

    6.2

    31.0

    5.8

    4.3

    8.3

    6.6

    4.3

    8.6

    7.1

    2016

    6.3

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    DCMS is the smallest government department, with 509 full time equivalent (FTE) permanent employees (as of 31 January 2016). Overtime is a cost-effective way of managing peaks in workload in order to reduce the need for contractors or adding to the department’s headcount. Annual expenditure on overtime accounts for just under 0.3% of the DCMS paybill.

    DCMS has responsibility for high profile policy, which includes staging national First World War commemoration events – this is reflected in our overtime figures for August 2014 and May 2015.

    Recent machinery of government changes has also seen DCMS take on additional policy areas, including the digital economy unit, digital inclusion, data protection, the sponsorship of the National Archives and the Information Commissioner. The figure for March 2015 reflects the addition of the 2014-15 total overtime cost for the Digital Economy Unit following its Machinery of Government transfer to DCMS; monthly analysis of this sum is not available.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential economic benefits to the Calder Valley of a high speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester.

    Andrew Jones

    Since the publication of the March 2015 Northern Transport Strategy, the Government and Transport for the North have been taking forward a programme of work on an ambitious Northern Powerhouse Rail vision. Parallel work is also taking place to understand the capability of the North’s road network.

    Detailed analysis has not yet been carried out on the potential benefits of high speed rail links between particular locations across the Pennines. However the recent Budget allocated £60million to help develop the options for a High Speed 3 route between Leeds and Manchester.