Tag: Jim Cunningham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Attorney General, if he will publish an estimate of the costs attributed to the Department for Education in cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by the former Treasury Solicitor’s Department in each year since 2010.

Robert Buckland

The Treasury Solicitor’s Department was renamed the Government Legal Department (GLD) on 1 April 2015. It is primarily funded through the fees it charges for its legal services. It provides Litigation, Employment, Commercial and Advisory legal services to the Department for Education (DfE). The fees charged to DfE for this work, including the cost of disbursements, are as follows:

Financial year	Fees (excluding VAT) £
2010-11	4,208,845
2011-12	4,499,546
2012-13	4,805,840
2013-14	4,409,976
2014-15	4,098,629

Providing information on the costs attributed to cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would incur disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual exercise to identify those historical cases that relate to FOI.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of work capability assessments conducted in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Priti Patel

The cost of work capability assessments in the last five years were:

April 2010 – March 2011 – £112.8m

April 2011 – March 2012 – £112.4m

April 2012 – March 2013 – £114.3m

April 2013 – March 2014 – £57.3m

April 2014 – March 2015 – £82m

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many freedom of information requests were (a) granted and (b) refused by his Department in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

Departmental Freedom of Information performance statistics have been published by the Ministry of Justice since 2010. These include the number of requests that were granted in full, partially withheld and fully withheld. They are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the exemption of academy school staff from the one per cent public sector pay rise limit.

Edward Timpson

The reformed national pay and terms and conditions arrangements allow all schools considerable flexibility over the pay of their teachers.

Staff at academies are employees of academy trusts, companies limited by guarantee with charitable status. Whilst academy trusts are classified as public sector bodies, their staff are not employees of the Crown. Academies have more control over their budgets so that they can meet their school’s needs more effectively and have the flexibility to reward the best teachers and excellent performance. These are the reasons they are not included within the statutory national pay and terms and conditions arrangements, which includes the current one per cent cap on pay increases.

Many academies have pay systems that mirror the provisions of the statutory national arrangements and many converter academy staff have ‘Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations’ rights that preserve their entitlement to the national pay and terms and conditions arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people aged under 18 have been referred to the Channel programme in each year since 2011.

Mr John Hayes

Channel has been operational nationally since April 2012. The Home Office does not currently publish data on the Channel Programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many offices were operated by the (a) Skills Funding Agency and (b) Education Funding Agency in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Boles

In response to your question:-

Year	EFA	SFA
April 2012	11 sites	21 sites
April 2013	11 sites	18 sites
April 2014	7 sites	20 sites
April 2015	6 sites*	21 sites
April 2016	6 sites*	15 sites

* In addition a small number of EFA staff are based at a satellite office in Bristol

EFA is co-located on all sites with other parts of the Department for Education and the reduction in the number of sites since 2012 was part of a DfE wide change programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she has received from (a) schools and (b) colleges on the reduction of knives and other weapons at such institutions; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

We have received no formal representations from schools and colleges on this matter. However reducing violence and tackling knife crime is a priority for this Government and we are delivering a range of measures to strengthen our response to this issue including strengthening the criminal justice and policing response; strengthening controls on knife sales; building resilience in young people, families and communities; and improving prevention and early intervention.

Last month we supported the Metropolitan Police Service and twelve other police forces who undertook coordinated action against knife crime. This involved targeting habitual knife carriers, weapon sweeps, test purchases of knives from identified retailers, and use of surrender bins.

We also jointly hosted a meeting with the Metropolitan Police and National Policing Lead aimed at retailers selling knives on 24 February. We want to work with retailers to ensure they are doing all they can to ensure the responsible sale of knives, in particular to under-18s.

But we recognise there is more to do. Last year we introduced the new measure that those convicted of carrying a knife more than once are automatically sent to prison and our new Modern Crime Prevention Strategy will shortly set out measures we are taking to prevent knives from being used on our streets in the first place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many full-time equivalent officials in his Department have worked on devolution deals in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

James Wharton

The first devolution deal was agreed with Greater Manchester in November 2014. Since then, the agenda has expanded and accelerated and the Government has resourced accordingly. Devolution is cross-governmental and supported by officials in all relevant departments. The Cities and Local Growth Unit is a joint BIS-DCLG team that supports areas in developing and agreeing devolution deals with the Government. It has over 150 full-time equivalent staff—over 70 of whom are based in DCLG—working on a range of local growth agendas and has six local teams based across the country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32366, what assessment he has made of trends in the proportion of the NHS budget spent on general practice over the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

Overall National Health Service investment increased from £97.47 billion in 2010/11 to £110.56 billion in 2014/15, the last five years for which data is available. Over the same period, spending on general practice increased by £651 million in cash terms. The percentage of total NHS spend on general practice decreased from 8.6% to 8.1%.

NHS England has committed to increasing the funding it invests in primary medical care by an average of 4.5% each year until 2020/21.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what forecast his Department has made of the cost of legal fees for the High Speed 2 project over the next five years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Department has appointed a joint team of solicitors/parliamentary agents from Winckworth Sherwood and Eversheds LLP to provide support in relation to the HS2 Phase One hybrid Bill. The value of the contract as agreed with Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group is £10.5m. The contract duration is from March 2012 until six months after Royal Assent.

The Department has also appointed a joint team of solicitors/parliamentary agents from Winckworth Sherwood and Eversheds LLP to support the preparation of the HS2 Phase 2a hybrid bill, which is expected to be deposited in 2017. The value of the contract as agreed with Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group is £4.2m over three years, with the opportunity to extend the contract for an additional one or two years, subject to approval.

The Department also continues to instruct a number of barristers to support the HS2 project. However, the use of barristers is demand led and so the total cost of fees over the next five years is not possible to forecast.