The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of men in Scotland who reach state pension age in 2016-17 will receive the full flat rate of the new state pension.
Justin Tomlinson
The Department cannot model the impact of the new State Pension at a regional or country specific level. Results for the whole of Great Britain can be found at:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what training is provided to teachers on working with children who have autism spectrum disorder.
Edward Timpson
The Department has contracted with the Autism Education Trust since 2011 to deliver autism training to education professionals. The Trust has now trained more than 90,000 education professionals. The Department is also funding work by the National Autistic Society to provide information and advice to parents and professionals on exclusions, and work to integrate into the Autism Education Trust training the learning from a previous project by Ambitious about Autism on strategies for supporting transition from school to college for students with autism.
We have also supported Nasen’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Gateway (www.sendgateway.org.uk). This offers education professionals free, easy access to high quality information, resources and training for meeting the needs of children with SEND, including those with autism. In 2015-16, the Department also funded Nasen to develop a free universal offer of SEN Continuous Professional Development for teachers.
The National College for Teaching and Leadership has produced a series of specialist online courses, one of which focuses on autism. The training materials are designed to support teachers in mainstream schools who want to improve their skills in teaching pupils with SEND. The training materials can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/lamb.
In order to be awarded qualified teacher status, trainees must satisfy the Teachers’ Standards, which include a requirement that they have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND, and are able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them.
Following Sir Andrew Carter’s independent review of the quality and effectiveness of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses, the Secretary of State appointed an independent working group made up of expert representatives from the sector to develop a framework of core ITT content. This includes considering Sir Andrew’s recommendations around the SEND content of the proposed framework. The working group is due to report to the Department soon. We will consider their recommendations carefully and determine how they should be taken forward.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Chinese government on the detention and charging of Tibetan education advocate Tashi Wangchuk; and what response he has received to those representations.
Mr Hugo Swire
We plan to raise the case of Tashi Wangchuk at the next round of the UK-China human rights dialogue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges on the use of simple home-cooked food to reduce diabetes.
Nicola Blackwood
There have been no discussions with the royal colleges on the use of simple, home cooked food to reduce diabetes.
Current dietary advice to people who have diabetes is the same as for the general population – that they should enjoy a healthy, balanced diet based on theeat well plate, the national healthy eating guide.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-10-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the current levels of, and recent increases in, the total remuneration paid to the executive heads of the major charities in England and Wales.
Lord Ashton of Hyde
Charity trustees, almost all of whom are unpaid, set levels of executive remuneration and must do so acting in the best interests of the charity. A 2014 study by The National Council for Voluntary Organisations found that senior executives in charities were generally paid substantially less than for similar roles in the public or private sectors. Charities are legally required to provide details of the number of staff in pay bands over £60,000 in their publicly available annual reports, and many charities go further in their accountability and publish full details as a matter of good practice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the Government’s priorities are for the Syria Donor Conference in February 2016.
Mr Desmond Swayne
The core priority of the “Supporting Syria and the Region (London 2016)” Conference is to raise significant new funding to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of all those affected by the crisis within Syria and to support neighbouring countries who have shown enormous generosity in hosting refugees. Both emergency 2016 funding and longer term funding in subsequent years are needed given the protracted nature of the conflict.
The Conference must also address the longer-term needs of those affected by the crisis through supporting the creation of jobs and providing education, offering those that have been forced to flee their homes greater hope for the future.
The Conference should maintain pressure on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and respect International Humanitarian Law, highlighting the deliberate and systematic abuses that continue to perpetuate the humanitarian crisis. Looking ahead, it will need to ensure the international community is well prepared to support a coordinated stabilisation effort.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Grey-Thompson on 2016-02-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the responses received on the NHS mandate consultation asked for an improvement in wheelchair services.
Lord Prior of Brampton
At least 170 responses were received that called for improvements to National Health Service wheelchair services. It should be noted that due to limitations in the analysis of large volumes of unstructured e-mail data received during the consultation it is possible that this is an under-estimate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are based in London.
Brandon Lewis
97.6% of the Department’s senior civil servants are based in London.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of assessment reports conducted by contractors for Scottish claimants of (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payments did not meet the contractual standard required in each of the last four quarters for which information is available.
Priti Patel
The information you have requested Is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether coal is being stockpiled in any location in the UK.
Andrea Leadsom
DECC publishes data on coal stocks held in the UK. The latest data show, that at the end of February 2016, 11,981 thousand tonnes were held in stocks. This includes stocks held at electricity generators, ports and undistributed stocks held at coal mines. The data is not available split by region.
Source: Energy Trends Table 2.6, March 2016, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-section-2-energy-trends
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