Tag: Khalid Mahmood

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the recorded level of gun crime was in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands between (i) January 2010 to December 2012 and (ii) January 2013 to December 2015.

Mike Penning

Offences involving firearms recorded by the police at the force area level are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on a financial year basis. The most recently published figures for the West Midlands and England are 2013/14. These are given in the table and show that between 2009/10 and 2013/14, offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) fell by 40% in both the West Midlands and in England.

Figures for 2014/15 are due to be published on 11 February 2016 in the ONS publication Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences 2014/15.

The ONS publish provisional data for England and Wales on the number of offences involving firearms in their quarterly crime statistics releases. The most recently available figures are for the year ending June 2015 and these can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-june-2015/stb-crime–ye-june-2015.html

The Home Office does not collect data on the number of people arrested in connection with offences involving firearms. The Home Office collects data on arrests by groups of crimes (for example, violence against the person, robbery) but cannot separately identify those that involved a firearm from those that did not.

Convictions data are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice has informed the Home Office that they do not hold data on the number of convictions for offences where a firearm was involved.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) arrests and (b) convictions have been made in connection with gun-related crime in the West Midlands metropolitan area in each quarter of the last five years.

Mike Penning

Offences involving firearms recorded by the police at the force area level are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on a financial year basis. The most recently published figures for the West Midlands and England are 2013/14. These are given in the table and show that between 2009/10 and 2013/14, offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) fell by 40% in both the West Midlands and in England.

Figures for 2014/15 are due to be published on 11 February 2016 in the ONS publication Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences 2014/15.

The ONS publish provisional data for England and Wales on the number of offences involving firearms in their quarterly crime statistics releases. The most recently available figures are for the year ending June 2015 and these can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-june-2015/stb-crime–ye-june-2015.html

The Home Office does not collect data on the number of people arrested in connection with offences involving firearms. The Home Office collects data on arrests by groups of crimes (for example, violence against the person, robbery) but cannot separately identify those that involved a firearm from those that did not.

Convictions data are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice has informed the Home Office that they do not hold data on the number of convictions for offences where a firearm was involved.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was spent on tackling gun crime in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands between (i) January 2010 to December 2012 and (ii) January 2013 to December 2015.

Mike Penning

Information about specific aspects of spending by the police is not held centrally by the Home Office. Birmingham is one of the areas previously supported under the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme. However, it is not possible to determine what proportion of the total programme budget was spent in this area, and in turn what proportion of this was related to tackling gun crime specifically.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to monitor air pollution levels outside schools.

Rory Stewart

The UK national monitoring network follows strict criteria for the number and location of air quality monitoring sites as set out in Annex III of the ambient air quality Directive.

These do not preclude siting monitoring outside or nearby to schools and some existing monitors are near to schools. To ensure the network meets the Directive requirements, monitoring is undertaken at a range of locations (e.g. urban background, roadside, industrial and rural locations).

Practical factors such as health and safety, access, locality to services, planning, land ownership and cost of monitoring sites are also key in siting new monitoring stations.

Many Local Authorities also conduct air quality monitoring and are free to determine their chosen approach in assessing air pollution based on local circumstances and priorities. Local Authorities are able to use monitoring methods not available to the national network due to the Directive’s requirements.

This means that they are able to design monitoring more suited to the local circumstance. However, when a new national monitoring site is required, Local Authorities will be consulted and where possible, existing sites may be shared or a new site located to meet both national and local needs. This may often mean consideration is given to siting at a local school or at a Local Authority or public building.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage nurseries to teach early language skills.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to five year olds that all registered early years providers such as maintained nurseries must follow. Within the EYFS, there are several areas of learning and development that shape the educational programme in the early years settings, one of which is communication and language.

The EYFS makes clear that children should be given opportunities to experience a rich language environment to help them develop the confidence and skills they need to express themselves and to speak and listen in a range of situations. The EYFS requires practitioners to ensure all children have the opportunities to learn and develop a good standard of English language to ensure they are ready to benefit from the opportunities available to them when they begin primary school.

We have also worked closely with 4Children to develop the What to Expect, When? guide which illustrates to parents and early years providers the tools they can use to help their children’s language development from birth to five years old, and can be found at: http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/2015/03/what-to-expect-when-a-parents-guide/

The Department for Education has also awarded £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations of which a number are supporting staff to develop strong pedagogical approaches to language development and early literacy.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage nurseries to teach early language skills.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to five year olds that all registered early years providers such as maintained nurseries must follow. Within the EYFS, there are several areas of learning and development that shape the educational programme in the early years settings, one of which is communication and language.

The EYFS makes clear that children should be given opportunities to experience a rich language environment to help them develop the confidence and skills they need to express themselves and to speak and listen in a range of situations. The EYFS requires practitioners to ensure all children have the opportunities to learn and develop a good standard of English language to ensure they are ready to benefit from the opportunities available to them when they begin primary school.

We have also worked closely with 4Children to develop the What to Expect, When? guide which illustrates to parents and early years providers the tools they can use to help their children’s language development from birth to five years old, and can be found at: http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/2015/03/what-to-expect-when-a-parents-guide/

The Department for Education has also awarded £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations of which a number are supporting staff to develop strong pedagogical approaches to language development and early literacy.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide full financial support and administrative oversight for the relatives of the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974; and if she will ensure that past and future expenses of those victims relating to investigations into those bombings are reimbursed or paid from the public purse.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Prime Minister has received correspondence from the families of the victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, requesting a special scheme be set up for funding of the families’ legal representation at the newly reopened Coroner’s inquest into the bombings. The Government is carefully considering these requests, and will respond directly to these parties in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will estimate the amount lost by businesses in Birmingham and the West Midlands conurbation as a result of congestion on the M6 motorway in each of the last five years.

Mr John Hayes

Information on the amount lost by businesses in Birmingham and the West Midlands conurbation as a result of congestion on the M6 motorway is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish an updated timetable on the development of the Institute for Apprenticeships.

Robert Halfon

The Institute for Apprenticeships will come into being in April 2017. We expect to publish further information about how the Institute will operate in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been spent from the public purse on bus services per capita in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, formerly Centro and (c) each region of England from 2009-10 to the most recent financial year for which information is available.

Andrew Jones

The attached table shows the estimated revenue spend on bus services and estimated revenue spend per capita on bus services for the English regions, West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority and Birmingham for 2009/10 to 2014/15, the years for which data are available.

The table also shows figures used to derive the total revenue spend from:

• Bus Service Operator Grant paid by Department for Transport (DfT) directly to bus operators
• Local authority expenditure on concessionary fares (from Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) estimates)
• Local authority expenditure on support to bus operators (from DCLG estimates)

The estimates do not include spend from DCLG estimates on ‘public and other transport planning, policy and strategy’ and ‘public transport management’ that could relate to bus services. It is not possible to determine the extent of spend on bus services in these categories from the DCLG figures. Also, any local authority or DfT capital spend on bus infrastructure has been excluded.

Local authority revenue spend is not available for Birmingham. They receive a proportion of the funding from West Midlands ITA to run bus services in their area that is not disaggregated in the DCLG local authority spend estimates.