The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-12-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will introduce a National Defence Medal; and if he will make a statement.
Mark Lancaster
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14 December 2015 to Question 19127 to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Melanie Onn).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the provision of rural bus services in West Yorkshire.
Andrew Jones
Decisions about the provision of bus services requiring local government subsidy are a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities.
The majority of public funding for local bus services is via block grant provided to local authorities in England from the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, my Department also provides around £40m of Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) funding directly to English local authorities to help deliver bus services, of which over £2 million goes to West Yorkshire.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-03-07.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential savings for Government departments due to the falling price of oil over the course of this Parliament.
Damian Hinds
No such estimate has been made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential economic benefits to the Calder Valley of accelerating the upgrade of the M62 to a four-lane smart motorway between junctions 20 and 25.
Andrew Jones
The recent Budget announced that funding had been brought forward to enable Highways England to accelerate the smart motorway investment for the M62 Junction 10 to 12 scheme by two years, and to accelerate delivery of the M62 Junction 20 to 25 smart motorway.
Design development work on these schemes is at the very earliest stage, and as such the analysis of the full economic potential of this investment is still being developed as part of the business case.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to increase tourism in Yorkshire from (a) domestic and (b) foreign visitors.
David Evennett
Yorkshire had a record breaking year for inbound tourism in 2014 following the Grand Depart, and there were 1.29 million visits from international tourists to the region in 2015. Domestic overnight trips to Yorkshire were also strong in 2015: £1.92 billion was spent by these tourists in that year – an 11% increase on spending in 2014. Yorkshire also benefited from the £1m staycation campaign run early in 2016 to attract domestic visitors to the area following that winter’s floods.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-07-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of trends in construction of affordable homes within Calderdale since 2010.
Gavin Barwell
The department publishes statistics on affordable housing supply in each English local authority area in Live Table 1008, which is available to download from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the West Yorkshire police force has made on piloting and evaluating the use by police officers of body-worn cameras.
Brandon Lewis
We know that the majority of forces in England and Wales use Body Worn Video (BWV) to some extent. The deployment of BWV is an operational decision for chief officers. However, we are aware that West Yorkshire Police are operating a phased rollout of body worn video cameras to frontline officers following an initial pilot, with officers in the Bradford and Calderdale districts already equipped.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that school (a) staff and (b) pupils are protected from violence in schools.
Edward Timpson
Any violence in schools is deplorable. The Department issues health and safety advice designed to help schools meet their statutory obligations. The employer in a school has the overall responsibility of ensuring that reasonable steps are taken to ensure staff and pupils are not being exposed to risks to their health and safety, including making the school secure.
We have appointed Tom Bennett, an expert in behaviour, to look at improving training for new teachers, to deal with school disruption and more widely at what needs to be done to improve behaviour in schools.
Schools should be safe and secure environments. Combined figures relating to the number of exclusions for physical assault against pupils and adults and verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against pupils and adults show a decrease for fixed period exclusions in recent years. We have given powers to schools to search pupils and confiscate inappropriate items. Schools continue to be vigilant and I expect that they will take all the necessary steps to ensure staff and pupils are appropriately protected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-11-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department spent on educational materials for prisons in 2014-15.
Nick Boles
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills funds the Skills Funding Agency to administer and deliver education in the majority of adult prisons in England via the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS).
The OLASS budget for 2014-15 was £145.6m. This figure includes funding for the National Careers Service in custody. It excludes a number of private prisons where the operator is responsible for providing education under their contract with the National Offender Management Service.
The OLASS budget includes funding to cover the provision of educational materials. The costs of those materials are not collected separately.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-12-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the economic benefits to the Calder Valley of the award of the new Northern rail franchise.
Andrew Jones
The Calder Valley route between Manchester and Bradford will see more trains and faster journeys, with the weekday service frequency between Bradford and Manchester being enhanced by 50% (from two to three trains per hour), a significant increase in evening services, a doubling of Sunday service frequency from one to two trains per hour, and new direct links from Bradford to Manchester Airport and from Bradford to Liverpool.
Add this to the withdrawal of all Pacers by the end of 2019, an investment of £400 million in 281 brand newcarriages (some of which will operate on the new Bradford-Manchester Airport and Bradford-Liverpool services), and the refurbishment of the rest of the Northern fleet, we expect these enhancements to result in very substantial economic benefits for the area.