Tag: Gareth Thomas

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what monitoring his Department undertakes of the number of homes built on surplus public land sold for housing development; and if he will make a statement.

Gavin Barwell

The current objective of the Public Land for Housing Programme is to release land with capacity for 160,000 much needed homes.

Although this is the primary objective, we plan to collect data from departments to monitor the development of sites up to completion. This will include the number of homes granted planning permission for each site and when construction starts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria are used to require local authorities to contract out the statutory children’s social work services; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson

The following local authorities are currently rated as ‘inadequate’ under Ofsted’s Single Inspection Framework:

Birmingham, Bromley, Buckinghamshire, Coventry, Cumbria, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Knowsley, Lambeth, Lancashire, Leicester City, Manchester, Norfolk, Reading, Rotherham, Sandwell, Slough, Somerset, Sunderland, Surrey, Torbay, Wandsworth, West Berkshire and Wirral.

The Government does not use set criteria to require local authorities to contract out their statutory children’s social care services.

The Department for Education has statutory powers to intervene in local authority children’s services under section 497A of the Education Act 1996. This legislation allows the Department to remove day-to-day operational control of children’s services from the local authority, for a period of time, if the Secretary of State believes that the local authority is failing to secure its relevant statutory functions by delivering children’s services to the required standard.

As a matter of policy, the Government has decided that any authority rated by Ofsted as ‘inadequate’ across all the key judgements in any one Ofsted inspection is deemed to be failing ‘systemically’, and any authority that is rated inadequate twice overall in any five year period is deemed to be failing persistently.

In these circumstances the Secretary of State appoints a children’s services commissioner to review services and then provide advice to the Secretary of State on whether they should remain in local authority control.

Once the Secretary of State has received the commissioner’s advice, she will decide whether to direct the authority to enter into a contract with a third party – for instance a Children’s Services Trust – to deliver those services on its behalf.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which agreed EU directives have not yet been transposed directly into UK law; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Penning

There are no EU directives related to the Ministry of Defence’s responsibilities awaiting transposition into UK law.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when the future high streets forum has met in the last two years; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Percy

The Future High Street Forum was set up to provide joint business and government leadership to better enable our high streets and town centres to adapt and compete in the face of changing consumer and social trends. It advises the government in the formation and delivery of policies to support high streets and town centres and comprises a wide range of organisations that are involved in the high street.

The Forum’s Executive Board has met 6 times in the past two years, including three times in 2016 so far.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that local authorities can access cross-border, transnational and inter-regional co-operation funds from EU cohesion funding after the UK leaves the EU; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Percy

The Chancellor’s statement of 3 October 2016 set out guarantees for local authorities’ funding for cross-border, transnational and inter-regional cooperation projects subject to certain conditions. The Treasury will guarantee funding for those projects which are signed after the Autumn Statement, but before the UK leaves the EU, provided that they provide strong value for money and are in line with domestic strategic priorities. This guarantee will apply even where those projects continue after the UK has left the EU. The Chancellor’s statement has provided certainty for local authorities and other UK participants in European Territorial Cooperation programmes.

Leaving the EU means that we can decide how to deliver the policy priorities currently delivered by EU funding programmes. We will consult closely with stakeholders, including local authorities, to review all EU funding schemes in the round, to ensure that any on-going funding commitments best serve the UK‘s national interest, while ensuring appropriate investor certainty.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will exempt housing co-operatives from the right to buy scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis

Under the voluntary agreement with the National Housing Federation, there will be a presumption that housing associations will sell tenants the property in which they live, but there will be some broad circumstances where a housing association can exercise discretion to decline a sale. These circumstances include properties held by co-operative housing associations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has received from civilian business jet wage of RAF Northolt in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Dunne

Receipts in respect of RAF Notholt comprise two elements: income from civilian aircraft business and other aviation-associated activity. The data available for these two elements covering the last five financial years (FY) is shown in the following table:

Financial Year	Civilian Aircraft Business	Other Aviation activity	TOTAL
2010-11	£6.5 million (estimated)	£3.1 million	£9.6 million
2011-12	£8.1 million	£3.1 million	£11.2 million
2012-13	£4.9 million	£3.1 million	£8.0 million
2013-14	£6.0 million	£3.4 million	£9.4 million
2014-15	£6.8 million	Not yet available	To be confirmed

The reduction from FY2011-12 to FY2012-13 was due to the loss of additional revenues from utilisation of a hanger by a commercial operator.

Data regarding the other aviation-associated activity for FY2014-15 has not been verified and I will write to the hon. Member, and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House, as soon as the information is available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding the National Citizen Service received in each of the last five years; how much it is estimated to receive in each of the next three years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Rob Wilson

The table below shows the funding provided by Government for delivery of National Citizen Service since the programme started in 2011.

Year	Government Funding
2011/12	£21 million
2012/13	£62 million
2013/14	£84 million
2014/15	£130 million

More than £1 billion has been committed to the further expansion of NCS in this Parliament. The annual funding arrangements were announced in the 2015 Autumn statement and Spending Review.

We want to extend the benefits of NCS to young people of all backgrounds.

Government funding means that it never costs more than £50 to participate in this unique experience, and independent evaluations have shown a return of up to £3.98 for every £1 invested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lorries were (a) routinely searched and (b) searched for illegal immigrants at English ports in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire

This information is not held centrally.

Border Force operates a multi-layered search regime using a range of interventions to screen all freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed ports.

This includes the use of specialist technologies such as Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging devices, heartbeat monitors and carbon dioxide detectors as well as physical searches by sniffer dogs, Border Force staff and specialist search contractors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he, his Ministers or his officials have had with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Taiwan’s intention to join that bank; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Hugo Swire

Neither I, other Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers, nor my officials have discussed Taiwan’s intention to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with representatives of that Bank.