Tag: Julie Elliott

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with teachers on her proposal that all schools be required to convert to academies.

Edward Timpson

The Secretary of State regularly meets teachers at a range of events while visiting schools and in meetings at the Department as well as headteacher reference groups and expert panels. In these meetings, the Secretary of State discusses the Government’s commitment to achieving educational excellence everywhere.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to promote the welfare of members of the armed forces.

Mark Lancaster

The Armed Forces Covenant ensures that those who serve and have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, are treated fairly. In June 2013 the Chancellor announced that the financial commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant would be made permanent through a £10 million fund per annum in perpetuity from 2015-16.

The Annual Report on the Armed Forces Covenant from December 2015 detailed a number of achievements of which this Government can be proud, including allocating £40 million for accommodation projects for veterans; the £200 million Forces Help to Buy Scheme; and a world class centre for excellence for the training and delivery of Defence Medical Services.

In 2016 to date under the large grants scheme we have awarded a total of almost £7.5 million to 24 projects supporting community integration, criminal justice system initiatives and the co-ordination and delivery of support. Under the small grants scheme we have awarded a total of almost £2.4 million to 150 community integration projects. Depending on the quality of the bids, we hope to be able to announce the preferred bidder for the Veterans Gateway Service in November, as well as further tranches of Covenant Grant funding.

In January 2016, the Department published the first ever Armed Forces Families Strategy, embracing seven key themes – partner employment, accommodation, children’s education and childcare, community support, specialist support, health and wellbeing, and transition. This is now routine business supporting our families.

We have reviewed our casualty and compassionate processes, and this autumn we are introducing a new reserves welfare health-check. In the last year Defence has enabled payroll deductions for Service personnel to take advantage of the savings and cheap loan facilities from selected credit unions. This facility was extended to veterans in receipt of a pension in March 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to support women who have been affected by state pension inequalities.

Justin Tomlinson

Our pension policies are providing greater choice and dignity for people in retirement, whilst also ensuring the system is sustainable for the future.

The new State Pension is being introduced for those who reach State Pension age from April 2016. Under our state pension reforms over three million women will gain an average of £11 per week more State Pension by 2030.Around 75 per cent of women (and 70 per cent of men) who reach State Pension age under the new system in the first fifteen years will have a higher value State Pension when compared to the value of the State Pension they would have received under the old system.

National Insurance credits for those who take time out of work for caring responsibilities will gain the same state pension entitlement as National Insurance contributions through earnings.

The average woman reaching State Pension age in the new State Pension is also estimated to receive 10% more State Pension over her lifetime than the average man. Women reaching State Pension in the next 40 years will on average receive more State Pension over their lifetime than women ever have before. Women affected by equalisation of State Pension age will be entitled to the same working age in-work, out-of-work and disability benefits as men.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of homelessness in the North East of England.

Mr Marcus Jones

One person without a home is one too many. That is why the Government is clear that prevention must be at the heart of everything we do to tackle homelessness. We have protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, which will amount to £315 million by 2020, to help them provide quality advice and assistance to everyone who approaches them for help.

We have also increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million and why we have just announced the new £40 million Homelessness Prevention Programme to provide an innovative approach to reducing homelessness, with prevention at its heart.

The Homelessness Prevention Programme includes;

• £20 million to establish a network of ambitious Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer areas that will give local authorities the resources to ramp up prevention and take new approaches to reduce homelessness;
• a £10 million rough sleeping grant fund for targeted prevention or early intervention for those at imminent risk of sleeping rough; and
• a new £10 million Social Impact Bond to support rough sleepers with the most complex needs which builds on the success of the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond (SIB), run by the Greater London Authority. This SIB turned round the lives of around 830 of London’s most entrenched rough sleepers over half of which have achieved accommodation, employment or reconnection outcomes.

As well as this, we announced in the Budget an additional £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living.

In the North East, Newcastle City Council has been announced as an early adopter of our Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer programme. The Council has been awarded £1 million to build on the good work they are doing in driving reform and innovation in homelessness prevention.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the Government has not yet implemented its policy to increase the Pension Protection Fund compensation cap for service over 20 years; and when he plans to implement that policy.

Justin Tomlinson

I refer the hon.Member to the answer I gave on 1 February 2016 to 24981

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to increase the number of disabled people participating in sport.

Tracey Crouch

Government is committed to increasing opportunities for disabled people to get involved in sport and physical activity. Our sport strategy, ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’, places a much greater emphasis than before on encouraging under-represented groups, including disabled people, to take part in sport and physical activity.

Sport England’s new strategy,Towards an Active Nation, which was published in May, sets out how it intends to deliver against the government’s sport strategy. It will continue to support people who already play sport but it also has a specific focus on those groups who are less likely to take part in sport and physical activity, including disabled people.

Between 2011 and 2017, Sport England is investing over £170 million to get more disabled people playing sport.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to prevent scam and nuisance calls exploiting unknowing consumers.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government takes all types of fraud, including those operating through telephones, extremely seriously.

The Government is taking forward a range of measures to tackle nuisance calls, which will increase consumer protection and choice by strengthening the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law.

Specific actions include; lowering the threshold under the the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 (PECR) to make it easier for the ICO to take action against organisations that break the law, resulting in £3,420,000 worth of fines issued; and we recently made an amendment to PECR, requiring direct marketing companies registered in the UK, to display Calling Line Identification.

The Department is also working closely with Home Office who recently launched a new joint fraud taskforce to tackle the issue of scams. Further information about the taskforce is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-secretary-launches-new-joint-fraud-taskforce

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps he plans to take to consult representatives of the higher education sector as part of his Department’s preparations for the negotiations on the UK exiting the EU.

Mr Robin Walker

The Department for Exiting the EU has engaged with a number of higher education institutions and groups including Universities UK. Over the next few months the department will continue to engage with key stakeholders in business and civil society, including universities, through a series of roundtables, bi-laterals and visits across the UK.

We have been clear that we want to create an environment in which the UK as a whole can continue to be a world leader in research, science and the tertiary education sector more broadly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require private landlords to fit safety devices on blinds to ensure children’s safety.

Brandon Lewis

Government has already taken steps to protect children, having worked with various sector bodies and lobby groups to revise the European standard EN 13120 (performance and safety requirements for internal blinds). This means all blinds placed on the market, since February 2014, have to display warning labels on the product, as well as on the packaging, and include safety devices to ensure blind cords are kept out of the reach of young children. It also imposes a maximum cord and chain length where there is a likely hood of young children (0-42 months) being present, which includes residential properties and public places like hotels, hospitals, schools, shops, places of worship and nurseries.

Local authorities also have powers, under the Housing Act 2004, to inspect properties and where hazards are identified require the landlord to rectify them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answers of 16 February 2016 to Question 26010 and 11 April 2016 to Question 32109, when he now plans to establish a reading room for hon. Members to access Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership documents.

Anna Soubry

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.