Tag: David Mackintosh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people leaving sixth form are fully aware of all further education options open to them.

Mr Sam Gyimah

We are taking a number of steps to ensure that the full range of education and training options are widely understood by young people. Schools are legally required to secure independent careers guidance for pupils up to the age of 18. This must include information on the full range of education and training options, including apprenticeships.

Destination measures are a key tool to assess how well schools and colleges prepare their students to make a successful transition into the next stage of education or training, or employment. The key stage 5 measure looks at activity in the year after the young person took A level or other level 3 qualifications. Destination measures will be one of the headline performance measures in the 2016 performance tables if the data are robust enough. They are taken into account by Ofsted during school inspections.

However, the range of information that young people receive remains too narrow and we want to ensure that young people hear much more consistently about the merits of alternatives to academic routes and are aware of all the routes to higher skills and into the workplace. The government intends to bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity that will require schools to allow other education and training providers the opportunity to talk to students about their offer on school premises.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what work her Department is carrying out using its funding priorities to encourage gender equality around the world.

Mr Nick Hurd

Promoting the rights of girls and women is a priority for the UK’s development programme. The UK Aid strategy states that ‘Throughout all its development spending, the government will continue to prioritise the needs of girls and women, which has been fundamental to the UK’s approach to development’ (para 3.2.1).

DFID’s Strategic Vision for Girls and Women (published in 2011, refreshed in 2013) sets out how UK Aid is being used to unlock the potential of girls and women, to stop poverty before it starts. To reinforce this, the Gender Equality Act was passed in the UK law on 13th May 2014. Through the Act there is a legal requirement to consider, before providing development assistance and alongside other considerations, how the assistance will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taken to encourage the use of solar power in new building developments in England.

Andrea Leadsom

Solar power is a good option for developers looking to improve the efficiency and sustainability of their building stock. We encourage such installations by allowing solar power on new building developments to qualify for the Feed-in-Tariff scheme, and through Building Regulations that set demanding energy performance targets for new buildings.

The Regulations were strengthened most recently in April 2014, to a level that means builders increasingly have to consider the use of renewable technologies in their designs. These could be solar panels, or they could be other types of renewables, which might be more appropriate depending on the location.

As the costs of panels continue to fall, we expect developers will increasingly see the value of installing solar power on new buildings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the implementation of Ofcom’s recommendations related to BT and Openreach.

Matt Hancock

It is for Ofcom to implement its recommendations for the relationship between BT Group and Openreach. Nine out of ten homes and businesses now have access to superfast broadband, but our goal is to make sure the UK builds the right infrastructure to maintain our position as a world leading digital nation. We welcome Ofcom’s determination to tackle these issues.

We are clear that a more independent Openreach is needed to benefit consumers and the UK’s digital infrastructure. Swift and clear action is needed to give certainty to consumers, industry and investors in the UK’s broadband infrastructure and to deliver rapid improvements in the level of investment and service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what work the Ministerial Working Group for Homelessness has conducted since its last meeting.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness re-convened on 13 January, bringing together key Departments to coordinate policy across Government to prevent more households becoming homeless. The group will meet again shortly to agree its priorities and future work programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what improvements will be introduced on the West Coast Main Line after High Speed 2 comes into operation.

Claire Perry

Network Rail leads the industry long term planning process, and works with the Department for Transport, local transport authorities and operators to identify and consider future options for capacity improvement across the rail network as a whole.

Work is currently underway to consider how to manage and make best use of capacity on the West Coast Main Line once services on the first phase of HS2 are scheduled to start operating in 2026/27. This will include consideration of how any released capacity on the West Coast Main Line might be best used to serve places on the “classic” network.

In due course, the government will consider the options that are identified by this work. These options will feed into the government’s decisions on rail investment for the periods 2019-2024 and beyond, taking into account the recommendations of the Hendy, Bowe and Shaw reports.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made in encouraging diversity in leadership positions in the culture sector.

Mr Edward Vaizey

In the recently published Culture White Paper we made it clear that more needs to be done to encourage diversity in leadership positions. From this year, Arts Council England will publish data on leadership looking at the diversity profile of Chief Executives, Artistic Directors and Chairs of the organisations that they fund. In December 2015, the Arts Council announced four new strategic funds for diversity, totalling £8.6 million. This included £2.1 million for the Elevate fund which has been created to develop the strength, management and governance of diverse-led organisations outside the Arts Council’s National Portfolio. A new £2.6 million Change Makers fund will fund long-term relationships between National Portfolio Organisations and aspiring arts leaders from the BME and deaf and disabled communities, providing valuable experience to individuals. Both of these funds are now open for applications.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding priorities her Department has in Bangladesh.

Mr Desmond Swayne

Our priorities in Bangladesh reflect those of the wider UKAid Strategy:

• Strengthening peace, security and governance
• Building Bangladesh’s resilience to climate change and strengthening disaster preparedness
• Tackling extreme poverty, in both rural and urban areas and improving the quality of education and health services
• Promoting economic prosperity and inclusive growth, ensuring that no one in Bangladesh is left behind.

Running through all of these priorities is a commitment across all of our work to support women’s empowerment and addressing early marriage, promoting voice and choice for all girls

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to raise awareness of World AIDS Day before 1 December 2016.

Jane Ellison

In preparation for World AIDS Day 2016 Public Health England (PHE) will publish the annual HIV in the UK situation report and associated data tables in mid-November 2016. This report will include the latest HIV epidemiology for the United Kingdom, providing national and local systems essential information to inform their World AIDS Day 2016 awareness campaigns. Alongside this HIV Prevention England, co-ordinated by Terrence Higgins Trust and commissioned by PHE will provide a national HIV testing campaign ‘HIV Testing week’. This will commence prior to World AIDS Day and run for one week from the 19 November 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-09-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to ensure that the forthcoming review of fair funding for early years education will include measures to help close the attainment gap at age five.

Caroline Dinenage

This Government is committed to narrowing the gap in attainment between the most disadvantaged children and their peers, including in the early years. We will be investing over £1 billion more per year by 2019-20 to fund our commitments on the early years entitlements – this includes £300 million per year from 2017-18 for a significant increase to the hourly rate paid for the two, three and four year old entitlements.

The 2014-15 Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results tell us that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development continues to increase – 66% in 2015, compared to 60% in 2014 and 52% in 2013. Furthermore, a higher proportion of children eligible for free school meals are achieving a good level of development – 51% in 2015 compared to 45% in 2014.

We need to continue this improvement. This is why we propose an additional needs factor in our new early years national funding formula, in order to channel funding towards local authorities with a higher relative proportion of children with additional needs. Our consultation on early years funding reform is currently open, and I would encourage my Honourable Friend and his constituents to submit their views.

The Government already provides additional funding for the most disadvantaged three- and four-year olds through the Early Years Pupil Premium. This will continue as a separate funding stream, additional to the early years national funding formula.