Tag: Chi Onwurah

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of state (a) primary and (b) secondary students who are learning a musical instrument; and how many such students are learning that musical instrument for free.

Nick Gibb

Music is compulsory for all children in key stages 1-3 in maintained schools. One of the requirements of the National Curriculum is that pupils are taught to play musical instruments. Schools are not permitted to charge for teaching that is required by the National Curriculum.

The Government is investing £75m in 2015-16 in a network of music education hubs. Music education hubs have four core roles, one of which is to ensure that every child aged 5-18 learns to play a musical instrument through whole class ensemble teaching. Data published by Arts Council England in March 2015 showed that 596,820 pupils in the academic year 2013/14 learned to play an instrument through whole class ensemble teaching. This teaching is provided free for pupils.

The data is available here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/Music_Education_Hubs_2014_Report_final_March_2015.pdf.

Arts Council England will publish data for the 2014-15 academic year in due course. This will include more extensive data on the number of pupils who have singing or instrumental lessons.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes to the subsidy profile for the Northern Rail franchise on the quality of rail services.

Claire Perry

Thanks to the work of this Government, the hon. Lady’s constituents will benefit from a transformed rail service under the new franchise. In addition, this improvement for passengers will be provided while improving the value for money of the operation for the benefit of all tax payers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to review the rating system for fibre networks in order to remove disadvantages for new operators.

Mr Marcus Jones

All properties including new and existing fibre telecom networks are valued for business rates to the same standard of annual rental value. Rateable values are assessed independently by the Valuation Office Agency and may be challenged in the courts. The Upper Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the European Commission have all supported the Valuation Office Agency’s valuation method for telecom networks.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of moving television from broadcast spectrum to other delivery mechanisms.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The most recent assessment was made by the independent regulator, Ofcom, in their report: The Future of Free to View TV (May 2014). This is a fast moving market and as it evolves, the Government will keep these issues under review.

Detailed spectrum planning is a matter for Ofcom.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many full-time equivalent staff of his Department are working on the Digital Single Market.

Mr Edward Vaizey

There a number of departments across Whitehall who work on aspects of the Digital Single Market (DSM) including the Department for Culture Media and Sport, the Home Office and HM Treasury. And, within the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) there are a number of policy areas that are involved directly or indirectly in aspects of the Digital Single Market including the Intellectual Property Office, Competition and Consumer Policy and Advanced Manufacturing and Services.

BIS leads on behalf of Government and coordinates activity across those departments with an interest. There is a core team of five FTEs who act as the hub for all of this work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Department for Communities and Local Government on how to replace the funding potentially lost to public sector organisations for rooftop rental as a result of the changes to rooftop valuation proposed in the Digital Economy Bill.

Matt Hancock

Government remains committed to a Code that is fit for a digital economy, delivers improved coverage and connectivity for the UK, and greater investment in UK infrastructure . The revised Electronic Communications Code has been developed in discussion with colleagues across Government including the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether public consultations or surveys were undertaken in the former Department for Energy and Climate Change to ascertain whether people trusted and understood the data-sharing element of the Warm Home Discount Scheme in the run-up to implementing that scheme.

Jesse Norman

The Warm Home Discount consultation, published in December 2011, included questions on data sharing.

Prior to the Warm Home Discount, the Energy Rebate Scheme, which ran for one year, used data-matching (of DWP and energy suppliers’ data) to identify a group of pensioners likely to be vulnerable to fuel poverty, so that their electricity supplier could award a one-off rebate to their electricity bill. This earlier scheme ran for one year.

DWP Social Researchers carried out a small-scale qualitative evaluation of the scheme, involving telephone interviews with customers to investigate reactions to their personal data being used in this way – this includeding issues around privacy, security and data sharing, and the broader concept of data use in Government.

The findings of the research and consultation responses can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of annual funding cycles on the ability of further education and sixth form colleges to undertake financial planning; what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on that matter; what plans the Government has to change those funding cycles to reflect Government spending review cycles; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Sam Gyimah

16-19 funding is that it is based on the level of recruitment institutions delivered in the previous year. That means institutions’ funding keeps pace with changing student numbers with the minimum delay. The Government has no plans to change the 16-19 funding system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will issue a response to the Federation of Small Businesses report, entitled Reassured, optimised, transformed: driving digital small business, published in September 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy, and Anna Soubry, the Small Firms Minister, participated in roundtable discussions on September 10th when the report was launched. We do not propose to formally respond to the FSB report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consumer organisations have been involved in the work of the Open Banking Working Group; and when that group is expected to report.

Harriett Baldwin

A list of the Open Banking Working Group (OBWG) participants was published on 23 November, setting out the organisations which are directly involved in designing the detailed framework for the open Application Programming Interface (API) standard in UK banking by the end of the year. The OBWG will publish its final report on 30 December. More detail is available on the Open Data Institute’s website.

A number of consumer organisations have participated in the development of the framework for the open API standard: the Money Advice Service is a direct member of the OBWG, and Citizens Advice and Which? have participated in discussions about its design.