Tag: Jeff Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effect on consumers of the practice by certain mobile phone companies of enforcing a two-week wait before customers can receive their unlock codes in order to change provider.

Matt Hancock

At Autumn Statement 2015, we challenged the mobile phone industry to improve their handset unlocking practices; since then operators have committed to unlocking many more of their customers’ handsets for free, and as of this autumn, no major mobile provider will charge a customer to unlock their phone outside of an initial contract period.

During the Government assessment of handset unlocking practices in early 2016, the major mobile providers were challenged on their turnaround times for issuing unlock codes. Although many providers state that it can take up to 10 working days to issue an unlock code, this is only in the instance that the provider has to contact the handset manufacturer to obtain the unlocking code. In the majority of cases, providers are able to issue unlock codes within 1-3 working days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people under the age of (a) 18 and (b) 16 reported to hospital having taken more than the recommended daily allowance of non-prescription painkillers in (i) the last 12 months and (ii) each of the last three years.

Jane Ellison

This information is not collected centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students have studied at least one arts subject at A-level in Manchester, Withington constituency in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb

The number of A level examination entries (including arts[1] subjects) by local authority and state funded schools are published in the A level and equivalent results statistical first releases (SFR)[2]^,[3]^,[4]^,[5]^,[6].

The information requested by parliamentary constituency is not available.

[1] Arts subjects are included under the categories Art and Design, Media, Film and Television Studies and Music.

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-a-level-and-equivalent-examination-results-in-england-academic-year-2011-to-2012 (Table 12a)

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-level-3-results-england-2012-to-2013-revised (Table 13a)

[4] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-level-3-results-2013-to-2014-revised (Table 13a)

[5] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-level-3-results-2014-to-2015-revised (Table 13a)

[6] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-level-3-results-2015-to-2016-provisional (Table 10)

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was allocated to schools for supporting children with learning difficulties in (a) Manchester, Withington constituency and (b) Greater Manchester in each of the last three years.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Funding for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) is allocated to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant, which includes both funding to be delegated to mainstream schools, and funding for the additional costs associated with educating children and young people with high needs.

Schools are funded through a formula set by their local authority, and local authorities are required to delegate funds to a level that enables schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN up to £6,000 per annum. It is for individual schools to decide how they allocate their overall budget to ensure they meet the specific needs of children with learning difficulties.

For those pupils whose additional support costs more than £6,000 the local authority pays top-up funding to the schools from their high needs budget. Top-up funding rates are for local authorities to agree with their schools.

The high needs allocation, within the dedicated schools grant, for the Greater Manchester local authorities in each of the last three years were as set out below:

	2013-14 (£million)	2014-15 (£million)	2015-16 (£million)
Bolton	25.83	27.15	27.55
Bury	22.50	24.08	24.17
Manchester	59.83	63.34	64.07
Oldham	23.54	24.90	25.58
Salford	22.10	22.75	22.82
Stockport	27.62	29.04	29.44
Tameside	25.82	27.14	28.23
Trafford	13.81	14.79	14.73
Wigan	22.88	23.34	24.08

We do not hold information on the total funding for supporting children with learning difficulties allocated to schools in the Manchester, Withington constituency or in the Greater Manchester area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students have studied at least two arts subjects at GCSE level in Manchester, Withington constituency in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb

The requested information is given in the table below:

Number of pupils at the end of KS4 entering at least two arts[1] subjects at GCSE (incl. equivalents) in Manchester LA

Year[2]	Pupils entering at least two arts subjects at GCSE
2011/12	323
2012/13	304
2013/14	312
2014/15	532
2015/16	355

Source: KS4 Performance Tables

The information required by parliamentary constituency is not available.

[1] Includes: Applied Art & Design, Art & Design, Drama, Performing Arts, Media/Film/TV Studies, Music and Dance. Does not include History of Art and Creative Writing.

[2] Data is provisional for 2016, all other years are final.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students currently receive the NHS bursary in (a) England and (b) Manchester, Withington constituency.

Ben Gummer

The latest available figures provided by the NHS Business Services Authority show that there were 99,549 students attending a university in England who received an NHS Bursary payment in the financial year 2014/15. Of the students receiving an NHS Bursary payment, 48 provided their current address with a postcode in the Withington constituency of Greater Manchester.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many GCSE entries for arts subjects there have been from students in Manchester, Withington constituency in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb

The requested information is given in the table below:

Number of entries in arts¹ subject GCSEs (incl. equivalents) from pupils at the end of KS4 in Manchester LA

Year2	Number of entries in GCSE Arts subjects
2011/12	1,953
2012/13	1,954
2013/14	2,260
2014/15	2,968
2015/16	2,515

Source: KS4 Performance Tables Notes: Includes: Applied Art & Design, Art & Design, Drama, Performing Arts, Media/Film/TV Studies, Music and Dance. Does not include History of Art and Creative Writing. Data is provisional for 2016, all other years are final.

The information required by parliamentary constituency is not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were serving prison sentences for offences related to cannabis in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous

Prior to June 2015, information held centrally on prisoners serving sentences for drug related offences was not sufficiently detailed to identify offences relating to cannabis as opposed to other drugs. Providing data back to 2010 could therefore only be done at disproportionate cost.

According to centrally held data, as at 30 June 2015 (latest available), there were 1,363 offenders in prison custody for cannabis related offences in England and Wales. This number includes all offenders who have had their offence categorised as a ‘drug offence’ and in which cannabis is explicitly stated in their offence description. This number does not include instances where cannabis may have been a contributing factor to the main offence committed.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it the Government’s policy to require local authorities to collect data on the number of children who have experienced abuse and neglect.

Edward Timpson

The Government collects and publishes ‘Characteristics of children in need’ statistics annually. This includes data on the number of children in need where the primary need identified at assessment is abuse or neglect, the number of assessments undertaken by children’s social care services where different types of abuse and neglect are a factor, and the number of children on child protection plans by different categories of abuse and neglect.

The statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 1 March 2016 to Question 27610, on Volkswagen, what response he has received from Volkswagen on the difference in compensation offered to US and UK customers.

Andrew Jones

We continue to engage with Volkswagen on the issue of compensation for UK consumers. The Secretary of State summoned the Managing Director of VW UK to a further meeting earlier this month to discuss the issue. Volkswagen’s position is that there is no evidence that drivers in the UK have suffered a loss, and so they maintain there is no need for compensation.