The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many tenants who receive social security benefits have paid cash for properties sold under the Right to Buy scheme to date.
Brandon Lewis
The information requested is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Monitor plans to create a new maternity tariff for multiple pregnancies which more closely meets the costs associated with delivering the best practice care pathways outlined by NICE and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; and if he will make a statement.
Ben Gummer
Monitor and NHS England are working with providers on a bottom-up costing exercise for maternity services.Returns are due in mid-November and analysis over the following couple of months will help to ensure that the tariffs are improved to more closely reflect the costs of service delivery. This will help inform prices for 2017/18.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans for his Department’s Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development Fund to be used to support efforts to reduce still births and neonatal deaths in multiple pregnancies.
Ben Gummer
There are no specific plans for the Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development (IESD) fund to support efforts to reduce still births and neonatal deaths in multiple pregnancies. The IESD fund provides for funding for voluntary sector projects that are able to demonstrate a clear focus on supporting and driving forward new ideas, excellence or the undertaking of strategic developments in voluntary sector capacity and capability in health and care.
The fund does not have a particular focus on reducing still births and neonatal deaths in multiple pregnancies, but aims to support projects with the potential to have national significance in any area of health and care, particularly where statutory services can be complemented and high quality health and care outcomes achieved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance she has given to Ofsted about age-appropriate questioning of pupils regarding sexuality and transsexualism during inspections.
Mr David Laws
No guidance has been given by the Department for Education on this matter as the issuing of guidance to Ofsted inspectors is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy that VAT should be applied to sixth form colleges in the same terms as mainstream schools with sixth forms.
Mr David Laws
Ministers have said publicly (since December 2013) that they are sympathetic to sixth form colleges’ requests for assistance towards their VAT costs, but that it is not affordable to provide this in financial years 2014-15 or 2015-16.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will ensure that the change in definition of ambulance in Government Amendment 43 of the House of Lords Committee stage of the Deregulation Bill will continue to permit private ambulance and medical providers to operate (a) conventional ambulances and (b) fast response cars and motorbikes under blue lights.
Mr Oliver Letwin
The relevant clause now contained in the Deregulation Bill is not intended to have any effect on the existing legal status of ambulances, including those used by the private or voluntary sector. Conventional ambulances may continue to use blue lights and be exempt from certain road traffic provisions when responding to emergencies. The amendments in the Bill continue to allow vehicles dispatched by the NHS ambulance services (including vehicles that private ambulance and medical providers operate), that are not ambulances, by allowing them to use blue lights and extending the road traffic exemptions to them.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance she has given to Ofsted on (a) respecting the religious ethos of faith schools and the legal framewirk governing them, (b) exemptions for faith schools under the Equality Act 2010 and (c) the requirements of the law governing assemblies and religious education.
Mr Edward Timpson
It is for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools to determine what advice or guidance inspectors need to inspect particular matters, drawing on relevant guidance that has been issued to schools by the Department for Education and on statutory requirements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will investigate reports by parents of pupils at Grindon Hall Christian School and Durham Free School that complaints to Ofsted about age-inappropriate and religiously hostile questioning of their children by inspectors were not investigated.
Mr David Laws
Any complaints about the conduct of Ofsted inspectors are a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector. I understand that Ofsted is investigating matters raised by the schools and by some parents and will respond to these in due course.
Below is the text of the speech made by Gerald Howarth, the then Conservative MP for Cannock and Burntwood, in the House of Commons on 20 November 1985.
Unlike my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West (Sir J. Page), I did not take a bath last week or this week for the purpose of conversion. I took a bath to listen to “Yesterday in Parliament” to find out what had gone on while I was doing my correspondence.
I shall vote with great confidence against the motion. Although I have been privileged to be a Member of the House for only two and half years, I believe that the intrusion of the cameras would be a grave mistake and would destroy the essential character of this place. I believe that it would turn the House into a television studio and theatre. The microphones do not intrude, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Thanet, North (Mr. Gale) so ably explained, the cameras would intrude a great deal.
We should no longer be looking to you, Mr. Speaker, and we should no longer be looking to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Heffer). Some strange alliances have been formed today. I agree with everything that the hon. Member for Walton has said, which must embarrass the hon. Gentleman as much as it embarrassed my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Sir J. Farr) to agree with all that was said by my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr. Heath). The television cameras would intrude; the intimacy of the Chamber would be lost. It would become a studio or theatre. The press would interpret our proceedings. As the hon. Member for Walton so ably explained, it would choose the little nuggets that it wanted to televise.
This motion should be rejected out of hand. We should preserve the traditions of this great House. Those who want to hear our proceedings should listen to them on the radio. Better still, they should come and see us in action.
Below is the text of the speech made by Gerald Howarth in the House of Commons on 21 April 2016.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much indeed for calling me, and I hope that in the event that the Whip on duty on the delegated legislation Committee that I am supposed now to be attending chastises me, you may come to my aid. I am delighted to join my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in, once again, saluting Her Majesty’s extraordinary, dedicated service to the nation and to the Commonwealth, and in wishing her many happy returns on her 90th birthday.
I do so as the Member privileged to represent Aldershot, home of the British Army, and I am authorised by the most senior officer in Aldershot, Lieutenant General James Bashall, to associate the garrison most warmly with today’s tributes. Her Majesty is head of her armed forces, Colonel-in-Chief of 17 British Army regiments and of 24 Commonwealth regiments. Soldiers, sailors and airmen, like Members of Parliament, swear an oath of allegiance to the sovereign. It is she they serve, and that bond between the sovereign and the men and women of the armed forces is a very special one, not least because in her is personified the ideal of service and duty. Although King George II was the last sovereign to lead his forces into battle—in the battle of Dettingen, in 1743—Elizabeth II has led from the front by example, as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said, not least in upholding her commitment to defend the faith, our Christian faith. My own modest commission in the Royal Air Force volunteer reserve hangs prominently on my study wall, to remind me of the duty I owe to my sovereign.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister knows how important the support of a spouse is as he discharges his duties, and I am sure that he obtains advice, welcome and sometimes perhaps unwelcome, from his spouse—I certainly do. It is therefore right today that we should reflect also on the support that His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh has given the Queen throughout her life. Although we have not been privileged to know the nature of any advice he may have had the temerity to proffer to Her Majesty, we can be sure that his immense reservoir of common sense and capacity for candid, plain speaking, which has so endeared him to the British people, will have been an added blessing to her.
As others have said, not least the Leader of the Opposition, Her Majesty does have a wonderful sense of humour. I recall the story, as many others may do, of the Privy Council meeting where, unfortunately, a Cabinet Minister’s telephone had not been switched off. When it rang, the Cabinet Minister took the phone out of her handbag and duly moved away to answer it. When she had finished the call, Her Majesty turned to her and said, “Somebody important, was it?”
Finally, Mr Speaker, I conclude with the admirable editorial in this week’s Country Life, which has just relocated to Farnborough in my constituency: It said:
“Often accused in the past of being too traditional, it is now her old-fashioned values and steadfastness that have made her someone to be admired and emulated the world over. Her long reign and vast accumulated wisdom have helped to stabilise relations across the world, especially within the Commonwealth.”
We owe Her Majesty a great debt of gratitude. God save the Queen.