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Tag: 2016

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many small applications for house-building have been made in Torridge and West Devon constituency since 2010.

    Brandon Lewis

    Separate figures for the numbers of planning applications received for house-building are not collected by the department. Figures are, however, available on the number of decisions made: these show that 1,224 decisions were made on applications for minor housing developments within the Torridge and West Devon constituency between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2016. Minor housing developments are defined as those including fewer than ten dwellings and where the site has an area of less than one hectare.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of offences under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in each of the last five years.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The information requested can be found on GOV.UK.

  • Baroness Hollins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Hollins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hollins on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for requiring NHS Trusts to conduct reviews of deaths of people with learning disabilities as part of investigating all unexpected deaths, as suggested by the recent Mazars report, in addition to the National Learning Disabilities Mortality Review process.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The revised Serious Incident Framework published in March 2015 has sought to simplify the incident management process and ensure that serious incidents are identified correctly, investigated thoroughly and, most importantly, learned from to prevent the likelihood of similar incidents happening again. The NHS England Serious Incident Framework 2015 applies to NHS-commissioned services for those with learning disabilities. A copy is attached.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the additional cost to rural broadband subscribers of paying separately for satellite broadband and telephony; and what the impact of such costs is on the rural economy.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Our Satellite Broadband Scheme offers homes and businesses in some of the most remote areas of the UK a subsidised satellite broadband connection if they are currently unable to obtain an affordable broadband service of at least 2 Mbps.

    The benefits of broadband are clear – and that is why we have introduced this subsidised offer to meet the Universal Service Commitment – which gives a first year only subsidy for a basic package capped at £400.

    The total number of premises eligible for the universal service commitment subsidy had been substantially reduced, from around 11% in 2010 to around 1% by the end of 2015, as a result of roll-out superfast broadband by the commercial sector and through publicly-funded programmes.

  • David Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    David Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding his Department has allowed to arts groups in the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency in each of the last three years.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Morecambe and Lunesdale has enjoyed record levels of funding over the past three years – £105,182 in 2013/14; £164,390 in 2014/15; and £321,295 in 2015/16 (year to date to 7th March).

    This investment from Arts Council England has supported a number of exciting projects, including Lancaster Arts Partnership First Fridays, the Mirrored Minds Research and Development project.

  • Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure young people are not disproportionately affected by reductions in government expenditure.

    Damian Hinds

    The Government published distributional analysis to accompany Budget 2016 which shows that spending is focused towards households with children and young people, who will receive around £1,500 more per person per year in 2019-20 than working age households without children or young people.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he had discussions with HSBC before its announcement of 16 May 2016 on moving offshore 490 roles currently based in Sheffield; and if he will make a statement.

    Anna Soubry

    This is a commercial matter for HSBC – Ministers in the Department had no discussions with HSBC prior to their 16 May 2016 announcement. We recognise that this will be a worrying time for the workforce and, since HSBC’s announcement, I have spoken to the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership who will now be working with local partners to ensure that suitable support is available for any HSBC worker made redundant as a result of this announcement.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many complaints her Department has received about consultations relating to new free schools.

    Edward Timpson

    Free schools trusts are required, under Section 10 of the Academies Act 2010, to consult those they think appropriate on whether to enter into a Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State to open the school, and to have due regard to the outcome of that consultation. The duty to consult rests solely with the trust and the Department does not direct trusts on how to execute their duty.

    Complaints about a particular consultation can be made directly to the Department. However the total number of complaints received relating to free school consultations is not recorded.

  • Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to update the guidance issued to Government departments on drafting answers to parliamentary questions.

    Ben Gummer

    Ministers are responsible for the answers they give to Parliamentary questions. The practice of providing links or references to published material is long standing. There are currently no plans to update the Guidance to Departments on drafting answers to Parliamentary questions given it was previously updated in the last Parliament.

  • Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are currently taking to improve support to children with disabilities in their early years.

    Lord Nash

    This Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Children with disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children to access high-quality childcare.

    Local authorities are required by legislation to secure early education places offering 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year olds, including those with disabilities. The Childcare Bill is delivering extended entitlement to free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. This will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year.

    Early Implementers of the extended childcare entitlement will focus on key delivery issues, including access for children with SEND, in order to provide critical learning to inform national rollout.

    All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2014. The SEND Code of Practice, introduced as part of the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Children and Families Act, gives guidance on how children between the ages of 0 and 25 with SEN or disabilities are to be supported and providers are statutorily required to have regard for this Code of Practice.

    The Government has invested £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations this year. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEND training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND Champions grant has proven very popular amongst the workforce.

    The Department funds local authorities’ high needs provision in both the early years and schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant; local authorities have reported that they are planning to spend over £90 million from their high needs budgets on children in their early years. The Spending Review provided a generous uplift in the funding early years providers will receive from April 2017 and protection for the majority of high needs funding. We recognise the critical importance of childcare to parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities; we will consider SEN funding for early years as part of wider consultations in 2016 on how we introduce a fairer funding system.

    This Government is committed to helping parents with disabled children. For example, from early 2017 working parents with children under the age of 17 who have a disability will be able to access support under Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £4,000 per child, per year. This is double that offered for children without disabilities for whom support is offered until the age of 12.