Tag: John Pugh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on what date the £75 million Mayoral Investment Fund pledged as part of the Liverpool City Region Deal was paid to Liverpool City Council.

James Wharton

The Department for Communities and Local Government contributed £75 million in economic development funds as part of the Liverpool City Deal, with payments to Liverpool City Council on 30 April 2013 (£60 million) and 1 May 2014 (£15 million).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what statutory arrangements are in place to penalise rail franchises which consistently perform poorly; and how often such arrangements have been called on since 2010.

Claire Perry

Section 55 of the Railways Act 1993 (as amended) gives the Secretary of State power to make an Enforcement Order where a train operator contravenes a term of the franchise agreement. Such an Order may require the train operator to take specified steps to address the contravention and can include a requirement to pay a penalty if the Train Operator contravenes the Order.

Section 57A of the Railways Act 1993 (as amended) gives the Secretary of State a separate power to impose a penalty for contravention of a term of the franchise agreement as an alternative to making an Enforcement Order or in addition to such an Order (provided that the Order does not include a penalty provision).

Since 2010 no train operator has been required to make a payment for breach of an Enforcement Order under section 55. Some 13 Enforcement Orders under Section 55 have been issued, and one train operator has been required to make a penalty payment imposed under section 57A.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support the Government provides to research into the causes and treatment of brain tumours.

George Freeman

The Department funds the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to increase the volume of applied health research for the benefit of patients and the public, drive faster translation of basic science discoveries into tangible benefits for patients and the economy, and develop and support the people who conduct and contribute to applied health research. NIHR cancer research expenditure has risen from £101 million in 2010/11 to £135 million in 2014/15 (the latest available figure). Most of this investment (£111 million in 2014/15) is in cancer research infrastructure where spend on specific disease areas such as brain tumours cannot be separated from total infrastructure expenditure. This infrastructure including NIHR biomedical research centres and the NIHR Clinical Research Network.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government support medical and clinical research. It is an independent research funding body which receives its grant in aid from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The MRC supports research through a range of grants and personal awards to scientists in universities, medical schools and other research institutes and welcomes investigator-initiated research proposals in all areas of research relevant to human health. Between 2010/11 to 2014/15 the MRC spent £10.9 million supporting research into brain and pituitary tumours, spanning basic discovery science, translational projects to progress treatments to clinics and early clinical trials.

More brain tumour research is needed and, as announced on 18 April, Official Report, columns 258-59WH, I will be convening a working group of clinicians, charities and officials to discuss how working together with our research funding partners, we can address this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.

Sir Alan Duncan

The Aliens’ Employment Act 1955 makes it a requirement that all UK based staff recruited to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the UK must be British nationals or dual nationals where one of those nationalities is British.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.

David Mundell

The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly; all staff that join do so on an assignment, loan or secondment from other Government bodies, who remain the employers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the proportion of new build properties excluding flats that has been sold as leasehold in each of the last here years.

Gavin Barwell

The department does not hold this information. The department published an estimate of the number of leasehold dwellings in 2014. As Table 1 (see link below) shows, in 2012-13 there were approximately 1.3 million leasehold properties that were not flats. The remaining 2.8 million leasehold dwellings were flats.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/342628/Residential_Leasehold_dwellings_in_England.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many heads of academies are paid more than the Prime Minister.

Nick Gibb

The data provided to the Department by schools in the November 2014 School Workforce Census shows that 52 head teachers in academy schools in England were paid a salary of £142,500 or more.

Of the other roles within the scope of the School Workforce Census, there were fewer than five teachers in academies receiving a salary of £142,500 or more.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people were hired by Ofsted on a consultancy basis in 2015; and what the overall cost was of their employment.

Nick Gibb

These are matters for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools founded since 2015 are compliant with section 5 of the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010.

Nick Gibb

The Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010 were replaced by the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, which came into force on 5 January 2015.

58 fee paying independent schools have been registered since 1 January 2015. Not all of these have been inspected since registration. The normal procedure is for an independent school to be inspected in their first year of operation.

14 schools have had a standard inspection since registration, and two schools have had material change inspections. Three of the standard inspections do not yet have a report available due to them having taken place very recently.

Of the 11 inspection reports available, only one shows a failure to meet standard 5.

All schools will have been inspected prior to registration and judged likely to meet all of the standards. Schools are not permitted to register unless the Secretary of State is satisfied that the school is likely to meet all of the standards on registration.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.

Alok Sharma

As cleaning services in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s buildings are provided by an external contractor, we do not hold information in the form requested.

This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.