Tag: Chi Onwurah

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the portrait of Oliver Porter by Sir Anthony van Dyck donated to the nation by the Duke of Northumberland is hung in Bowes Museum; and what discussions were held on hanging that portrait in a museum which is free to the public.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Individuals donating work to the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) Scheme, administered by the Arts Council, can specify which institution will receive it. In the case of the Portrait of Oliver Porter by Sir Anthony van Dyck, it was made a condition of the offer that the painting be allocated to the Bowes Museum. The painting is a significant acquisition for the North-East and will feature in the Bowes Museum’s forthcoming major exhibition, The English Rose – Feminine Beauty from Van Dyck to Sargent, which opens in May 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to his Department’s rural satellite broadband voucher scheme, what estimate he has made of the average cost of (a) installation and (b) a 12 months subscription to 2 megabit rural satellite broadband services.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The initiative will be administered by local authorities who will provide a code to eligible homes and businesses upon request. The code does not have a specific fixed value, but when used to obtain a satellite broadband service from one of the selected retail service providers, the use of the code will reduce the total cost (i.e. installation and commissioning costs plus 12 monthly subscriptions) by around £350.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons school reserves are included in local authority balance sheet reserves.

Mr Marcus Jones

The reserves of local authority maintained schools are included in local authority balance sheet reserves. This is because those schools are subject to a level of local authority control. However the reserves of local authority maintained schools are ringfenced, which means that they cannot be diverted for non-schools purposes. The reserves of academies and free schools are not included in local authority balance sheet reserves.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-01-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether (a) all and (b) part of the funding for universal technology schools count as public sector borrowing for the purposes of calculating the national debt.

Greg Hands

The Department for Education provides capital funding to support the construction of new University Technical Colleges and allocates resource funding to support day to day running costs.

This funding impacts on public sector borrowing and public sector net debt in the same way as other central government spending.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 22981, if he will ask Ofcom to publish an assessment of whether the 26 per cent of BT’s ducts identified as being empty in the report, Telecoms infrastructure access – sample survey of duct access, published in March 2009, reflected the proportion of BT’s ducts that were able to have fibre blown through them without further civil works in the superfast broadband rollout.

Mr Edward Vaizey

I understand from Ofcom that the sample surveyed in the Ofcom report ‘Telecoms infrastructure access – sample survey of duct access’, published in March 2009, provided an indicative rather than representative assessment of the potential spare capacity in BT’s ducts.

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.