The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of (1) the effect of immigration, and (2) the effect of immigration from the EU, on the UK’s GDP per head in the last 10 years.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
No such estimate has been made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the London Power Tunnels Project is (a) on schedule for completion in 2018 and (b) within budget.
Andrea Leadsom
National Grid has said that:
The London Power Tunnels Project is on schedule for completion in 2018 with all significant work completed in 2017 a year ahead of the original programme.
The London Power Tunnels Project is currently within budget.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) who holds responsibility for training magistrates and (b) how many magistrates have received training on the use of (i) slavery and trafficking risk orders and (ii) slavery and trafficking prevention orders.
Mr Shailesh Vara
Judicial training is the responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice and is exercised through the Judicial College.
To fulfil their judicial decision making responsibilities magistrates, their legal advisers and District Judges (Magistrates’ Courts) receive comprehensive induction and continuation training in across the jurisdictions, which includes new legislation.
It is not however possible to identify where magistrates have received standalone or direct training on the use of slavery and trafficking risk orders or slavery and trafficking prevention orders.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jopling on 2016-09-13.
To ask the Leader of the House what explanation she has received from the Department for Education concerning its failure to answer by 9 September two Questions for Written Answer that were asked on 19 July (HL1338) and 21 July (HL1440).
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park):
I regularly stress to departments the importance of giving timely answers to Questions for Written Answer. My office immediately approach departments who have not responded to questions after 10 working days, and remain in contact with them until the questions are answered. This process has been followed in both of the cases to which the noble Lord refers.
In the case of the Ministry of Justice question, I am informed that the delay related the process of transferring it to the right department for response. After discussion it was transferred to the Cabinet Office, who will provide a substantive answer by close of play this week. As regards the Department for Education questions, I am informed that the delay related to gathering complex data spanning a long period and the need to obtain clearance from across government. Both of the questions concerned have now been answered.
Regarding timely replies more generally, I have recently written to the three departments with the greatest proportion of late responses in the last session and I regularly set out the House’s expectations as they apply to QWAs to my frontbench team. Notwithstanding the cases referenced above, I am pleased to say that the proportion of on-time responses from the Ministry of Justice rose from 74% of questions in 2014-15 to 87% in 2015-16; while the Department for Education answered well over 90% of questions on time in both sessions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2016 to Question 21765, on birds: census, when she plans to publish her Department’s internal allocations.
Rory Stewart
Defra’s Business Planning process is still underway. At this time it would not be appropriate to comment on how this translates into internal allocations for both the core Department and its Network Bodies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 2.2.72 of his Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15, for which roles responsibility has been transferred from military to civilian personnel since 2010.
Mark Lancaster
The potential for non-operational Armed Forces roles to be filled by civilian personnel is routinely considered under the Whole Force Approach. However, details of these changes are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of her Departments (a) Senior Civil Servants and (b) core policy civil servants are based in London.
Nick Gibb
As at 29 February 2016, 73% of the Department’s senior civil servants and 65% of the Department’s core policy civil servants were based in London.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ring-fence special education funding within their new national funding formula.
Lord Nash
We are currently consulting on arrangements for new national formulae for schools and high needs funding (funding to provide high cost support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities). Both funding streams, along with early years funding, make up the dedicated schools grant (DSG), which is ring-fenced so that local authorities can only spend it on specified elements of education. The DSG will continue to be ring-fenced when the national funding formulae are in place. We have also protected the schools and high needs budgets in this Parliament. This year we are adding £92.5 million to local authorities’ 2016-17 high needs allocations.
At the Budget we also announced that we will provide £500 million over the Spending Review period, on top of per pupil protection, to speed up implementation of the national funding formula for schools and get extra funding quicker to those schools that need it most.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Cash on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with (a) Big Six and (b) other electricity generators on the effect on the electricity market of (i) existing and (ii) new combined cycle gas turbine generation.
Andrea Leadsom
DECC officials regularly meet with electricity generators to discuss the electricity market, including the outlook for their existing gas power stations as well as prospects for any planned investment in new gas power stations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has provided administrative support to WaterAid in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Nick Hurd
WaterAid received over £24million of DFID funding from April 2013 to March 2016. We have so far committed £4.7million in funding for April 2016 to March 2018.
DFID funding has contributed to WaterAid directly reaching more than 2 million people with safe water and over 3 million people with sanitation in the last year alone. In addition, our Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) funding, effective from 2011 until the end of 2016, enabled WaterAid to improve their overall organisational effectiveness by supporting them to develop stronger Monitoring and Evaluation systems; improve their Value for Money framework and supported growth and innovation throughout the organisation.