Tag: Gareth Johnson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of what the average journey time southbound between junction 30 and junction 2 on the M25, between the hours of (a) 6am to 9am, (b) 11am to 2pm and (c) 4pm to 7pm in each of the last six months.

Andrew Jones

Average journey time data between J3 and J30 travelling northbound and between J30 – J2 southbound on the M25 is not available. Highways England measures average journey times between J2 – J30 northbound and between J29 – J1B southbound on the M25. Average monthly journey times between July and December 2015 for the morning peak, inter-peak and evening peak periods are set out in the table below. All of these average monthly journey times are quicker than comparable data for journeys prior to the introduction of Dart Charge in November 2014.

Month	Time	Northbound J2 – J30	Southbound J29 – J1B
July*	6am – 9am	10:13	12:12
11am – 2pm	15:23	12:17
4pm – 7pm	16:52	12:51
August	6am – 9am	09:22	10:43
	11am – 2pm	18:27	12:01
	4pm – 7pm	18:34	10:55
September	6am – 9am	09:48	11:55
	11am – 2pm	11:11	10:49
	4pm – 7pm	15:26	11:32
October	6am – 9am	10:58	12:00
	11am – 2pm	13:25	11:27
	4pm – 7pm	15:33	13:17
November	6am – 9am	11:42	12:15
	11am – 2pm	10:40	11:55
	4pm – 7pm	18:23	13:14
December**	6am – 9am	10:53	12:40
	11am – 2pm	12:26	11:18
	4pm – 7pm	22:41	17:04

* Speed limit increase on 27th July.

** The technology used to monitor journey times at Junction 1B became faulty in the southbound direction on 5 December. This means southbound December data is for 01/12/15 to 05/12/15

All of these average monthly journey times are quicker than comparable data for journeys prior to the introduction of Dart Charge in November 2014.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of young people from Dartford who went to university in the last five years.

Joseph Johnson

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publishes data on the entry rates for full-time undergraduate courses by parliamentary constituency. UCAS does not publish data on the number of entrants by parliamentary constituency, only entry rates.

Latest statistics from the 2015 UCAS End of Cycle Report for the Dartford constituency are provided in the table. The entry rate is given as the proportion of 18 year olds that accepted a place during a UCAS application cycle.

Table: Higher Education entry rates for 18 year olds from the Dartford Constituency
2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
28.6%	23.2%	29.9%	27.3%	32.5%

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what further plans he has to extend the scope for police officers to give evidence via video link during trials.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Use of video in criminal cases provides efficiencies which benefit all criminal justice agencies, and support victims and witnesses. In particular video links allow police officers to give evidence to the court from a police station, rather than attending a courthouse, making significant savings in working hours for the police.

The use of video within Police Forces is well established for the giving of evidence. HMCTS is also working with Police Forces to extend the use of video to applications for search warrants and other warrants.

The Government is investing over £700m to modernise the courts and tribunals. This investment will not only mean an extension in the extent of video usage by police, but also an increase in benefits.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) GCSE, (b) AS and (c) A-level exam results have (i) increased, (ii) decreased and (iii) stayed the same following an appeal in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb

These are matters for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have therefore asked its Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey to write directly to the Honourable Member. A copy of her replies will be placed in the House of Commons Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to increase the numbers of primary and secondary school places in Dartford.

Edward Timpson

Supporting local authorities to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of this Government’s top priorities. That’s why we’ve committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which along with our investment in the free schools programme we expect to deliver 600,000 new places.

Kent County Council, which is responsible for school places in Dartford, received £115 million in basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, helping to create nearly 17,000 new places between 2010 and 2015. Of these, around 8,700 were primary places and around 8,200 were secondary. Kent has also been allocated £144 million to create the additional places required by September 2019.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the availability of category C prison spaces in the South East.

Andrew Selous

This Government will always ensure that we have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts. We are investing £1.3 billion to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it even more efficient and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure that exams are marked accurately on the first occasion.

Nick Gibb

These are matters for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have therefore asked its Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey to write directly to the Honourable Member. A copy of her replies will be placed in the House of Commons Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of places available in local authority maintained nurseries in (a) Dartford and (b) Kent.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare and early education places, and make this report available and accessible to parents. The Department does not hold borough-level estimates centrally of the number of places in local authority maintained nursery schools. However, the number of pupils attending local authority maintained nurseries can be found in the statistical first release and underlying data published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015

The Local authority and regional tables: SFR16/2015 (Table 7b)[1] indicates that 90 pupils were registered as attending local authority maintained nursery schools in Kent in 2015.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445755/SFR16_2015_LA_tables.xlsx

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much Network Rail has paid to Southeastern trains in compensation in the last (a) 12 months, (b) three years and (d) five years.

Claire Perry

This information is published on Network Rail’s website – http://www.networkrail.co.uk/transparency/datasets/ – covering the years 11-12 to 14-15.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) GCSE, (b) AS and (c) A-level exam results have been appealed against in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb

These are matters for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have therefore asked its Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey to write directly to the Honourable Member. A copy of her replies will be placed in the House of Commons Library.