The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2015-11-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the economic cost of the shortage of Certificate of Professional Competence qualified drivers.
Andrew Jones
The Department for Transport has not made an estimate on the economic effect of a potential driver shortage. It is aware of extensive reports about pressures on wages, the recruitment of drivers from outside the UK and delayed deliveries.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many disabled housing association residents moved out of their property in each year since 2009-10.
Brandon Lewis
The number of disabled social housing tenants (including housing association tenants) who have moved out of their property in each year since 2005-6 is shown in the attached table.
These figures show that the number of social tenants who have moved has fluctuated over time, but the proportion of social renters who have moved has remained relatively constant.
The reasons for these moves are not known although we expect some disabled social tenants will have moved to better (e.g. adapted) accommodation. Some will have moved from a different tenure i.e.from owner occupation or the private rented sector), while others will have moved from another social housing property.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-03-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will estimate the change in the number of jobs that will be lost in the solar industry as a result of the early closure of the renewables obligation.
Andrea Leadsom
The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not maintain data on the number of jobs in the solar industry. In order to support the path to subsidy-free solar deployment, we have decided to keep the Feed-in-Tariff scheme open, and expect that the scheme could support 15,000-23,000 jobs in the sector.
We expect subsidy-free solar to be an increasingly attractive option. Lightsource, the biggest solar developer in the UK, have said publically that they will be installing and connecting subsidy-free sites in 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on regionalisation of the initial teacher training programme.
Nick Gibb
We are monitoring recruitment at a regional level in all subjects to ensure that the regional balance of initial teacher training (ITT) provision is maintained. We reserve the right to control recruitment in particular regions for all ITT routes and courses. It is important to maintain the regional balance of ITT provision and consequently we may use recruitment controls to prevent significant geographical variation in the distribution of provision compared to previous years. However, we will not operate with regional targets.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2015-10-19.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the homelessness prevention grant will continue to be paid to local authorities after the phasing out of the core local government grant.
Greg Hands
We want a radical reshaping of the relationship between central and local government, ending the merry go round of clawing back local taxes into Whitehall and handing them out again in the form of grants. We will do this by giving local government full retention of its Business Rates by 2020, meaning all income from local taxes will go towards funding local services. We will work closely with the sector over the coming weeks and months to ensure local people have more control over how their money is spent. This will mean looking at the grants that currently go from central government to local authorities, and the range of responsibilities central government asks local government to deliver. There will still be redistribution between councils so that councils don’t lose out just because their area starts from a weaker position. We will set out more detail at the Spending Review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the homelessness prevention grant.
Mr Marcus Jones
The Homelessness Prevention Grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010.