The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information her Department holds on the number of people aged between 18 and 25 who have taken a gap year over the last five years.
Mr Rob Wilson
The Department does not hold this information.
Local Authorities hold data on NEETS (not in employment, education or training) but this data does not specify those on gap years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of fixing recoverable costs in medical negligence cases to a maximum of £250,000 on a claimant’s ability to pursue a case.
Ben Gummer
Over the past 10 years claimant legal costs as a percentage of damages paid by the National Health Service have increased from 32% to 52%. We believe that claimant legal costs are disproportionate to the value of the damages paid, sometimes representing up to 299% for lower value claims, and disproportionate to the defendant costs. Ultimately this all comes out money for front line services. The proposal for fixed recoverable cost in lower value clinical negligence claims was suggested by Lord Justice Jackson in his report Reform of Civil Litigation Funding and Costs in England and Wales.
The Department is working closely with partners and interested parties to develop a proposal to introduce fixed recoverable costs for clinical negligence claims. The Department’s proposal in the consultation is a maximum threshold level of £250,000, based on Lord Justice Jackson’s original proposal and with a view to covering at least 80% of all claims. We welcome views on the proposal from all sectors. The results of a pre-consultation exercise with a number of key stakeholders, including representatives of claimant lawyers, and the consultation documentation, including the Impact Assessment, will be published early 2016 subject to relevant Committee clearances.
The level of potential savings will ultimately depend upon the final maximum threshold level proposed. By making legal costs proportionate to the damages paid we would hope to save circa £80 million per annum. The Department is also working with various clinical groups looking at how the current level of incidents can be reduced. In terms of maternity our target to reduce avoidable harm by 50% and save 6,000 lives.
The Department sees the fixed recoverable cost work as part of an overall strategic approach aimed at improving patient safety, improving customer care and improving litigation. Improving patient safety and reducing the incidents of harm is a key element of this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many RAF missions have been flown over Syria.
Penny Mordaunt
I can confirm that from November 2014 until 10 January 2016 the RAF has conducted 324 missions over Syria.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding her Department plans to allocate to support the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project.
Nick Gibb
Every young person should be taught about the Holocaust and the lessons it teaches us today. In recognition of its significance, the Holocaust is compulsory within the national curriculum.
For the past ten years the Department for Education has funded the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project which has taken more than 28,000 students to visit the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.
The Department will continue to promote, support and fund the teaching of the Holocaust.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are women.
Joseph Johnson
Within the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills HQ, 46% of senior civil service posts are held by women. At Director General and Director level, 51% of posts are held by women.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-24.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to further reform the Bank of England.
Harriett Baldwin
The Government has set out its plans for reform of the Bank of England in the Bank of England and Financial Services Bill, which is currently progressing through Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment the NHS has made of the potential health risks of exposure to formaldehyde used in the manufacture of everyday products.
Jane Ellison
Consumer products are subject to the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 which demands that "No producer shall supply or place a consumer product on the market unless the product is a safe product.”
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) applies in the workplace when hazardous substances are manufactured, used or where processes are undertaken that generate hazardous substances. COSHH requires the employer to carry out a risk assessment to establish what, if any, hazards are associated with products/processes employees are using/undertaking and then put measures in place to control exposure to those hazards.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, 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.
Andrew Selous
Money received from the European Social Fund (ESF) by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Co-financing Programme is published in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts on gov.uk. The latest accounts can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/434548/NOMS_AR14_15_report_accounts_Final_WEB.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which military exercises UK armed forces have been involved in that have (a) included other EU member states and (b) been EU-led.
Penny Mordaunt
Exercises with international Allies and partners are critical to improving our Armed Forces’ interoperability on deployment and enhancing collective Defence through NATO. Last year we saw an excellent example of this in NATO’s Exercise Trident Juncture, the biggest military exercise in 10 years. Although the EU does not lead large scale military operations like NATO, it does support the interoperability of our Armed Forces through its battlegroup framework and small scale exercises led by its Member States. The UK will hold the leadership of the battlegroup in the second half of this year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take under the Northern Powerhouse schools strategy to expand the best academy chains in the North; what the timetable is for that expansion; and how much funding will be allocated for that expansion.
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.