Tag: Maria Eagle

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people employed by the Metropolitan Police Service are former employees of News International.

Mike Penning

The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of people employed by the Metropolitan Police Service who were former employees of News International.

Individual police forces in England and Wales are responsible for deciding when and how they run their recruitment and selection processes.

Decisions on whether to recruit individuals are for the chief officer of the police force concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on what the £1 million funding provided to the City of Hull to create a legacy as part of its status as the 2017 UK City of Culture was spent.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Of the £1 million extra funding announced in November 2015, half will support the Hull Culture Company to make the 2017 City of Culture year a sucess, and to produce benefits for the local community beyond 2017, ensuring that arts and culture remain at the heart of the local authority’s strategy, and encouraging young people and hard to reach groups to engage with the artistic programme. The remaining 0.5m of this funding will support the promotion and management of the UK City of Culture 2021 competition.

DCMS is investing £1.5 million in the Ferens Gallery to help them host the Turner Prize that year, and the Gallery will receive a further £0.5m from ACE for refurbishment. Arts Council England is also providing £3.1 million to three ACE-funded organisations -Artlink, Freedom Festival and Hull Truck Theatre – that will play a key role in the 2017 events. Hull Museums, now among ACE’s Major Partner Museums, have been awarded £2.5m between now and 2018; and an extra £3 million from ACE will help raise the profile of culture in the city and promote new partnerships throughout 2017. This amounts to over £11 million and does not include additional investment that may come from other bodies such as the BBC.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 92 of the Budget 2016, what steps he is taking to respond to planned changes to his Capital DEL in 2019-20.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Departmental budgets were set out at Spending Review 2015. Budget 2016 set out that around £1.5 billion capital investment in areas such as housing, schools and transport will be accelerated.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many places of worship have received financial support from his Department for essential roof repairs since 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Listed places of worship represent some of the nation’s finest heritage. Since 2015 DCMS has provided £30m of financial support to 502 places of worship across the UK for essential roof repairs. Applications opened for a further funding round of £25m in December 2015. Successful applicants will be announced in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the maximum travelling time for a 16 to 18 year-old pupil to access sixth form education if it is not available in their local authority area; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The statutory responsibility for transport to education and training for 16- to 19-year-olds rests with local authorities, including those students who attend school or college in a neighbouring local authority area. Most students receive a discount or concession but it is for local authorities, along with local transport providers and schools or colleges, to decide whether to provide support and which students are eligible. These decisions are best made locally in light of local needs, the resources available, and other local circumstances.

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund is also available to support young people with the costs associated with attending education or training, and transport is the biggest single area of expenditure for which this fund is used. Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding how to distribute their bursary allocations to students, and for establishing what criteria to use.

Local authorities are encouraged to take travelling times into account when considering post-16 transport arrangements. There is an expectation of 75 minutes as a maximum travelling time each way to and from school or college but this is not a mandatory requirement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department plans to publish the draft BBC Charter.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The government is in the process of drafting the Royal Charter and we expect to publish a draft version in the coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what criteria he will use to determine eligibility for discounted travel as part of the local discount scheme when tolls on the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges are introduced.

Andrew Jones

Following the previous Chancellor’s further statement in July 2015 that the Government is looking at extending Mersey Gateway bridge toll discounts to residents of Chester West & Chester and Warrington, officials are currently working through what the proposed further extension means for the scheme both by way of the cost to the Department but also and importantly what this would do to the commercial structure of the contracts already signed for the scheme. Once this is clear we will be able to provide more information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his departmental expenditure was on travel for (a) military staff, (b) civilian staff and (c) Ministers in each of the previous five years.

Mark Lancaster

This information is not available in the format requested. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) routinely distinguishes between military and civilian travel and subsistence costs only where these are reimbursed to the individual under our pay and claim arrangements.

Overall departmental expenditure on travel and subsistence has, however, been as follows:

Financial Year	Expenditure
2010-11	£226 million
2011-12	£213 million
2012-13	£213 million
2013-14	£212 million
2014-15	£221 million

Expenditure by the Defence Ministers on travel and subsistence has been as follows.

Financial Year	Expenditure
2010-11	£297,126
2011-12	£295,922
2012-13	£225,300
2013-14	£262,184
2014-15	£259,849

Note: This expenditure includes road transport, rail travel, international and domestic flights and the notional costs of travel in RAF aircraft where they have been available.

Travel by the Defence Ministers and all departmental staff makes a key contribution to achieving Defence objectives. The MOD has sites in many parts of the country, and internationally, and staff need to travel between them. For example, travel enables Ministers and senior leaders to visit troops on operations or to hold discussions with other governments aimed at reducing conflict.

We have achieved savings of over £60 million a year in non-operational travel since 2009-10 and plan to make further savings of 10% over the rest of this Parliament. These savings will be delivered in a number of ways, including a reduction in travel where the business need can be met by alternative arrangements such as video or audio conferencing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 33 of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, how many posts he plans to lose in each section of his Department.

Mark Lancaster

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 30 November 2015 to Questions 17752, 17733 and 17735.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons it is proposed to retire HMS Ocean in 2018; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Dunne

When HMS OCEAN entered service in 1998 she had a specified service life, based on her build specification, of 20 years.

The decision to retire HMS Ocean is consistent with the intent expressed in paragraph 2.A.5 in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010. As part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 the Royal Navy will retain two landing Platform Dock vessels in the fleet.