Tag: 2016

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools.

    Edward Timpson

    The Department contributed a written submission to the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s inquiry into the scale and impact of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools in 2016. This is published on the Parliament website.[1] The Committee published the report of its inquiry on 13 September, and the Government will make a formal response to the usual timetable.

    The Department does not collect information on the number of cases of sexual harassment or sexual violence either by pupils or by teachers – and it has not produced any estimates.

    The closest information held on levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence by pupils is the number of permanent and fixed period exclusions for sexual misconduct, which includes lewd behaviour, sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual bullying, sexual graffiti and sexual harassment.

    Exclusions information, broken down by reason for exclusion, is published annually by the Department in the ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England’ National Statistics release.[2]

    The 2015 National Foundation for Educational Research’s teacher voice survey is a nationally representative survey commissioned by the Department. Teachers were asked questions on a range of topics, including common forms of bullying. Sexual bullying was not included as a category, however, a minority reported that homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic bullying was common at their school. The report and data have been published by the Department.[3]

    The closest information held on sexual harassment and sexual violence by teachers relates to the number of cases of teacher misconduct relating to sexual misconduct reported to the Department. However, cases of teacher misconduct relating to sexual misconduct cover a broad range of incidents and it is not recorded whether these relate to incidents that took place on school sites.

    [1] http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/sexual-harassment-and-sexual-violence-in-schools/written/34902.pdf

    [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions

    [3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-voice-omnibus-june-2015-responses

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  • Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Allen on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the comments made by a spokesperson of his Department in an article published in The Herald newspaper on 10 January 2016, and pursuant to his oral contribution of 18 January 2016, Official Report, column 1118, if he will issue guidance to independent monitoring groups on how to contact his Department on, and how to submit evidence relating to, possible civilian casualties from air strikes in Syria and Iraq; and if he will make a statement.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Independent monitoring groups are free to contact the Ministry of Defence through the normal means of correspondence and any credible reports of civilian casualties will be investigated.

  • Liam Byrne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Liam Byrne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) effectiveness of the level of co-operation between local authorities, the emergency services and Highways England in connection with the incident on the M6 Motorway between junctions 5 and 6 on Thursday 4 February 2016.

    Andrew Jones

    The structured debrief for this incident was carried out by Highways England on 10 February and included a representative from Central Motorway Police Group.

    Three recommendations relating to multi-agency coordination resulted from this meeting and Highways England will continue to work closely with these agencies to take away the lessons learned.

  • Lord Dholakia – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Dholakia – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Dholakia on 2016-03-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations regarding Tier 2 visas on trade between India and the UK.

    Lord Bates

    The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is an independent body and its recommendations are not a statement of Government policy. We thank the MAC for their report and we are currently considering the findings carefully. We will announce our response in due course.

    Doctors from overseas make a valuable contribution to the running of our NHS and we will consider the potential impacts on them in making our decisions. The Minister for Immigration met the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and the Minister of State for Home Affairs during a visit to India in February and had wide ranging and constructive talks, including discussion of the MAC’s report on Tier 2.

    The Government fully respects the UK’s international commitments and remains strongly committed to the free trade agenda. The UK immigration system continues to support inward investment and trade.

  • Diane Abbott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Diane Abbott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect on Africa’s development needs of the recent downward revision of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa by the World Bank.

    Justine Greening

    Our assessment highlights a mixed picture: the slowdown in aggregate economic growth for SSA is dominated by a few large economies affected by the fall in commodity prices (e.g. Nigeria), but growth remains robust among some other DFID priority countries (e.g. Tanzania). DFID’s programme and policy support to African countries is designed to address the economic and human development challenges these countries face.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to provide for (a) mothers’ names to be added on marriage certificates and (b) a marriage registration system that takes account of different family circumstances where there may not be a mother and a father; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    The Marriage Registration Reform Bill, introduced by my Right Honourable Friend the Member for Meriden (Caroline Spelman) in the previous Parliamentary session, would have enabled the details of both parents of the couple to be included on the marriage certificate.

    The Home Office is continuing to develop proposals that will allow mothers’ names to be recorded on marriage certificates.

  • William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Terrence Higgins Trust’s report Shh.No Talking, published in July 2016, what steps she is taking to ensure that sufficient resources are given to local authorities and schools to ensure that sex and relationships education lessons are properly resourced and teachers are trained.

    Edward Timpson

    High quality sex and relationship education is a vital part of preparing young people for life in modern Britain. It should also help young people to make informed choices, stay safe and learn to respect themselves and others.

    Our statutory Sex and Relationship Guidance is clear that young people, whatever their developing sexuality or identity, should feel that sex and relationship education is relevant to them and sensitive to their needs.

    Sex and relationship education is compulsory in all maintained secondary schools and many primary schools also teach it in an age appropriate manner. Decisions relating to resources and teachers’ professional development rest with schools, headteachers, and teachers themselves, as they best know the needs of their staff and pupils.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of her Department.

    Caroline Dinenage

    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. However, there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that demand for school places in Solihull is met.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area, and supporting them in doing so is one of this Government’s top priorities. That is why this Government is investing £23 billion in school buildings to create 600,000 new school places, open 500 new free schools and address essential maintenance needs.

    Basic need funding is allocated to local authorities to help them to create new school places. Solihull has been allocated £17 million of basic need funding for the period 2015-18. Solihull also received £4 million between 2011 and 2015.

    Information on basic need allocations can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations-2015-to-2018

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  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of new claims for universal credit were paid within 42 days of a claim being made in the most recent 12 months for which data is available.

    Priti Patel

    The information you have requested is currently not available.

    The department does not hold information on time taken to make a payment for jobseeker’s allowance, or employment and support allowance.

    Additional breakdowns will be included in the Universal Credit official statistics as quality assurance of data from the Universal Credit systems progresses during 2016.