Tag: Jim Cunningham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many of his Department’s civil servants were based in Coventry in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Mark Francois

My Department has not had any civil servants based in Coventry in the last five years, or in fact since the department was created under the last Labour government.

My Department has 16 offices across England, with staff working to drive up housing supply, increase the number of home owners, boost local growth and support strong communities with excellent public services. We have 69 employees in the West Midlands in our Birmingham office.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) unsuccessful and (b) successful applications there were for planning permission for residential homes in each of the last five years.

Brandon Lewis

We publish statistics on our website concerning dwellings. In the results attached we have used figures from ‘Table 2.5 s78 planning appeals – dwellings decided & allowed’ on the Planning Inspectorate Statistics page. Below is a link to this page.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planning-inspectorate-statistics

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has received from businesses expressing concern at the result of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.

Anna Soubry

My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has been keeping in close contact with business since the referendum. My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State made a series of calls on Friday immediately following the result including to the major business representative bodies. On Tuesday, 28 June 2016, my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State held a business roundtable with the UK’s largest business organisations, and representatives from our most important industries. Further such roundtables will be held over the coming weeks.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2016 to Question 41323, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of teachers leaving state-funded schools between 2011 and 2015; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb

The proportion of teachers leaving the profession has remained at around 10% a year since 1996. However, there are more qualified teachers than ever before with 440,000 in 2011 compared to 456,900 in 2015.

We recognise that it is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers – that is why we have made policy interventions in the areas that teachers tell us matter most such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload.

We asked Tom Bennett, a behaviour expert, to chair an expert group to develop core content on behaviour management for the framework of content for initial teacher training, and the group’s recommendations were published last week.

We set up three independent review groups to address unnecessary workload in the key areas of marking, planning and data management. The groups reported early this year, and set out clear principles about what should happen in schools to reduce unnecessary workload in these areas. The Government has accepted all the relevant recommendations made by the groups, and we will continue to work with the teaching profession to make sure they have the ongoing support they need to continue reducing unnecessary teacher workload.

We have recently conducted the first biennial Teacher Workload Survey, which will allow us to track teacher workload over the coming years. The results of the first survey will be published later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, when he expects negotiations between the UK and EU on the UK leaving the EU to begin; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robin Walker

We need a UK approach and clear objectives for negotiations. It’s in everyone’s interests that we establish that before we trigger Article 50. The process for leaving the EU and determining our future relationship will clearly not be brief or straightforward, so we need to take time to think through our objectives and approach. We want to get the best deal for Britain, not the quickest one.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total amount paid in compensation to people affected by the High Speed 2 project was in each of the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

The total amount paid for land and property to people affected by the HS2 project in the last twelve months is £125,953,179 with a further £3,345,403 in compensation payments associated with the statutory blight regime. The combined total expenditure in the past 12 months was £129,298,582.

The monthly expenditure in the last year was as follows:

Month	Land and Property Expenditure	Statutory Blight Compensation
Sep-15	£5,296,600	£444,072
Oct-15	£6,781,500	£436,980
Nov-15	£10,988,700	£321,579
Dec-15	£12,969,010	£490,082
Jan-16	£8,581,370	£474,675
Feb-16	£8,856,450
Mar-16	£15,201,825	£251,119
Apr-16	£12,030,678	£346,051
May-16	£7,624,530	£237,814
Jun-16	£11,032,550	£242,986
Jul-16	£15,309,681	£5,604
Aug-16	£11,280,285	£94,441
Total	£125,953,179	£3,345,403

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if his Department will conduct a review into the export of UK arms to Saudi Arabia; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Garnier

Her Majesty’s Government is satisfied that we are not in breach of our international obligations. A licence will not be issued, to Saudi Arabia or any other destination, if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. The position is kept under constant review as each licence application is considered carefully on a case-by-case basis but there are no plans to commission a further review of the export of UK arms to Saudi Arabia.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of full-time equivalent officials based in her Department who are working on selective education policies; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb

There are a total of 16 full-time equivalent staff working on the Schools that work for everyone consultation, including policy proposals on selective education.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of levels of food insecurity in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

The UK currently has a high degree of food security as shown by the UK Food Security Assessment (published in 2010 and reviewed in 2012) which analysed the different global factors affecting UK food supply.

Global food security is dependent on a number of factors including increasing production sustainably, reducing waste and ensuring open markets around the world to facilitate trade.

Following a period of higher food price inflation retail food prices have fallen by 7.0% since their peak in February 2014. The proportion of household income spent on food has remained stable at 11% for 2015/16 compared to 2008/09.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the regularity of incursions into UK airspace by foreign jets; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Penning

The airspace around and approaching the UK is permanently monitored on a 24 hour basis. There have been no unauthorised incursions by any foreign military aircraft into sovereign air space around the UK, which projects 12 miles off shore or to mutually agreed mid-points between adjacent nations over narrow straits such as the Straits of Dover. The UK civil air traffic region and the NATO Air Policing Area, which the UK has responsibility for monitoring, include large areas of international airspace through which foreign military traffic may legally transit.