The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are women.
Mike Penning
The percentage of senior civil servants broken down by gender is reported on an annual basis within the Department’s Diversity report. The published report for 2014/2015 can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diversity-report-2014-to-2015
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.
James Wharton
None.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the contribution of the UK’s membership of the EU to the UK’s work in identifying and detaining criminals.
James Brokenshire
Terrorism and serious organised crime are global threats that cross national borders. Our unique relationship with the EU gives UK law enforcement access to EU tools and instruments that help keep people safe and tackle serious and organised crime, but also mean we are not obliged to participate in new measures when we do not judge them to be in the national interest.
The tools and instruments that the UK participates in include Europol, an EU agency which supports cross-border police operations and intelligence sharing, and can assist in the identification of terrorist threats; the European Arrest Warrant, which allows swift extradition between EU countries of individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence; and the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), which enables law enforcement agencies around the EU to share live alerts, for example, for missing people and stolen vehicles. The UK is also in the process of implementing Prum, which will give us access to fingerprint and DNA data from other member states.
Since 2004, using the European Arrest Warrant, over 1,000 individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence have faced justice in UK courts and over 7,000 have been extradited from the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which EU intelligence-sharing agreements the UK is part of; and which intelligence-sharing agreements the UK has with other EU countries.
Mrs Theresa May
I cannot disclose specifics of agreements relating to National Security. However, the UK works closely with European counterparts in the common goal of preventing and disrupting terrorist activity. We work with Member States’ intelligence services on a bilateral basis and through the Counter Terrorism Group. We also collaborate with European partners through bilateral policy and law enforcement exchanges on counter-terrorism and exchange threat assessments and information on our respective approaches to counter terrorism. I regularly raise at Justice and Home Affairs Councils the need for better intelligence cooperation and information sharing among Member States to support our CT investigations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding she plans to make available for turnaround activity as part of the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy; and what formula or method she plans to use to allocate funding.
Nick Gibb
Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.
Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.
For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.
Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.
For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to close attainment gaps within schools in the north of England that are rated good or outstanding.
Nick Gibb
The Department’s recent White Paper, Educational excellence everywhere, sets out the action we are taking to support all pupils to reach their full potential and close the gaps in attainment that exist between different groups.
The gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is closing at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4. Our protection of the pupil premium at current rates for the remainder of the Parliament will help schools to build on this success. In 2015-16 we provided schools in the north of England with £768 million of pupil premium funding. We are supporting schools to make more effective use of the pupil premium, including by appointing a teaching school in each region to champion the use of the pupil premium. These schools will train successful school leaders to review the way schools are using the pupil premium and to act as regional hubs for effective practice.
Schools will continue to be held to account for the standard of education they provide for all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, through performance tables and Ofsted inspection. Our new headline measure of school performance, Progress 8, will encourage schools to push every child to achieve their best. The results of disadvantaged pupils will be reported separately in the school performance tables, ensuring a focus on the attainment of this group. In line with our high expectations for all pupils, performance data will emphasise the difference between disadvantaged pupils in the school and other pupils nationally, rather than focussing on gaps within the school. Data on the performance of disadvantaged pupils will feed into the risk assessment process that Ofsted uses to assess whether good and outstanding providers have declined since their last inspection. This will inform Ofsted’s prioritisation of short inspections for good schools and the identification of any concerns about outstanding schools.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department makes available for young people diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.
David Mowat
Crohn’s Disease Management in Adults, Children and Young People, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in October 2012, sets out best practice guidance for clinicians and commissioners in the diagnosis, treatment care and support of patients with Crohn’s disease. The guidance includes a number of specific recommendations concerning young people such as the need to offer age-appropriate multidisciplinary support to deal with any concerns about the disease and its treatment, including concerns about body image, living with a chronic illness, and attending school and higher education.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to help raise awareness of diabetes in (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) the UK.
Jane Ellison
The NHS Health Check programme is one of the mandatory public health functions of local authorities in England. It aims to prevent some of the biggest causes of premature death and disability in people aged 40-74.A routine part of NHS Health Check involves assessing a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes and, for those at risk, a diagnostic test to confirm whether they have the condition. This then informs a discussion on, and agreement of, the lifestyle and medical approaches best suited to managing the person’s risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.
As the National Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP) begins phased national roll out in 2016/17, the programme will be providing information that helps raise awareness of the risk factors associated with developing Type 2 Diabetes and the lifestyle changes that they can make to reduce their risk – including, if eligible attending the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. This activity is already underway in our seven demonstrator sites that the programme is working with. Within Yorkshire and the Humber, Bradford is one of these demonstrator sites.
Building on the NDPP, the Department is developing its plans to improve outcomes for those with and at risk of diabetes. These will be announced in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 on recoverable costs in medical negligence cases.
Ben Gummer
The fixed recoverable cost regime is seeking to streamline claims for clinical negligence, focusing on what is required for a fair and proportionate resolution and encouraging a process that is more resource efficient and that incentivises the right behaviours by all parties. It extends the benefits of fixed cost regimes already realised in other areas of personal injury, as recommended by Lord Justice Jackson,and is not about the number of claims being brought.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when (a) her Department and (b) the contractor G4S became aware of concerns that asylum seekers were being housed in properties with doors that are all uniform or nearly uniform in colour.
James Brokenshire
Home Office officials are working closely with our housing providers to ensure that asylum seeker accommodation is not easily identifiable. I am not aware of a uniform door colour being the practice in any other region. My officials have also spoken to our housing providers to tell them that such a practice is not acceptable.
I was first made aware of this issue when The Times contacted the Home Office in mid-January. G4S has investigated correspondence and discussions on the issue of external door colour in the North East and has confirmed that it was raised in 2012 by a Middlesbrough local councillor and was considered by the G4S audit and assurance team, no complaints from asylum seekers relating to this matter were found and a response was issued.
As I said to the House on 20 January, I instructed officials to look into this issue as a matter of urgency and I expect that the audit will be concluded on the Home Office side very shortly.