Tag: Nicholas Brown

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of teachers who have qualified in the last 10 years have left the teaching profession within (a) two, (b) five and (c) 10 years; and what steps he is taking to encourage greater teacher retention.

    Mr David Laws

    The following table provides the proportion of full and part-time teachers that qualified in the stated year, entered service in the publicly funded sector in England the year after and were no longer in such service two, five and ten years later. It is not known whether the teachers who are recorded as out of service have left service permanently or are teaching in another country or sector of education.

    Year qualified1

    Newly qualified entrants entering service2

    Year entered service3

    Out of service 2 years later

    Out of service 5 years later

    Out of service 10 years later4

    2000

    17,400

    2000-01

    15%

    27%

    34%

    2005

    26,000

    2005-06

    15%

    22%

    2008

    25,000

    2008-09

    14%

    Source: Database of Teacher Records (DTR)

    1 Calendar year in which the teachers qualified.

    2 Teachers in part-time service are under-recorded on the DTR by between 10% and 20% and therefore these figures may be underestimated.

    3 Financial year during which the teachers entered service.

    4 The length of service may not have been continuous; for example not all of those shown as teaching 10 years after entering service in 1997-98 may have taught continuously for 10 years, some may have taken periods of time outside of the maintained sector.

    The Government is committed to making teaching a profession which can attract and retain the very best people. We are taking every possible step to reduce the amount of central prescription and bureaucracy placed on teachers, freeing them up to act as autonomous professionals. And we are giving headteachers more flexibility to recruit, train and retain the best teachers, including through new school-based training programmes and greater pay flexibility which will allow heads to ensure that high-performing teachers are rewarded appropriately.

    Teacher vacancy rates continue to remain low and have been around 1% or below (of all teaching posts) since 2000. In November 2013 there were 750 vacancies for full-time permanent teachers in state-funded schools – a rate of 0.2%.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people were training for teaching qualifications in each year since 2003.

    Mr David Laws

    The initial teacher training (ITT) census provides provisional figures on the number of new entrants who have started, or expect to start, an ITT programme in England in that academic year; for previous years the final figures are included.

    Figures from 2003 to present are publicly available.

    Statistics from May 2010 onwards are available on GOV.UK:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-teacher-training#census-data

    Archived statistics are available on the National Archives:

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http:/www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations the Government has made to the government of Qatar about working conditions for those constructing FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums.

    Hugh Robertson

    I raised concerns about migrant workers’ conditions with the Qatari authorities during my visit to Doha on 8-9 January. Our Ambassador and other officials have raised the issue on previous occasions and will continue to do so.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many Regional Growth Fund bids were submitted by each local enterprise partnership area in the most recent bidding round; and how many of these were successful.

    Michael Fallon

    133 bids were submitted to Round 5 of the Regional Growth Fund. Three of these bids withdrew and one was for less than the £1 million bidding threshold.

    129 bids were therefore appraised, of which 98 were projects and 31 were programmes. Of these, 13 programmes and 37 projects were selected. Programmes may cover a number of Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas and some are national in scope so are not represented in the following table.

    The following table shows the number of Round 5 project bids by LEP area with the number of bids that were selected for funding. Project bids originating from an area covered by more than one LEP are shown at the bottom of the table.

    LEP Round 5 Projects

    Applications

    Selected

    Black Country

    1

    0

    Cheshire and Warrington

    5

    1

    Coast to Capital

    2

    1

    Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

    5

    0

    Coventry and Warwickshire

    2

    2

    Cumbria

    1

    0

    Enterprise M3

    1

    1

    Gloucestershire

    1

    1

    Greater Birmingham and Solihull

    6

    3

    Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough

    1

    0

    Greater Lincolnshire

    1

    0

    Greater Manchester

    5

    2

    Heart of the South West

    13

    3

    Hertfordshire

    1

    0

    Humber

    2

    1

    Lancashire

    4

    1

    Leeds City Region

    3

    2

    Leicester and Leicestershire

    2

    0

    Liverpool City Region

    5

    3

    London

    3

    0

    New Anglia

    1

    0

    North Eastern

    7

    5

    Sheffield City Region

    2

    0

    South East

    1

    0

    South East Midlands

    2

    2

    Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire

    1

    0

    Swindon and Wiltshire

    2

    1

    Tees Valley

    8

    6

    Thames Valley Berkshire

    1

    0

    West of England

    2

    0

    York and North Yorkshire

    1

    0

    Project bids from an area covered by more than one LEP:

    Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, & Sheffield City Region

    1

    0

    Greater Birmingham and Solihull & Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire

    1

    1

    Greater Birmingham and Solihull & Worcestershire

    1

    0

    Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough & New Anglia

    1

    0

    Northamptonshire & South East Midlands

    2

    1

    Grand Total

    98

    37

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, how much Local Growth Fund finance has been requested within all local enterprise partnerships’ strategic economic plans; what estimate he has made of private investment that will be leveraged through strategic economic plans; and what estimate he has made of European match-funding.

    Greg Clark

    Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have shown a high level of ambition in their proposals, and the Local Growth Fund (LGF) is between 3-4 times over-subscribed. The amount of private sector leverage put forward varies by LEP and by project, and this is part of the current discussions with LEPs.

    In addition to the competitive element, the Local Growth Fund contains £170m of resource funding to match against skills and employability activity supported by EU Structural Investment Funds. The amount of LGF match made available will depend on EU funding allocation agreed with each LEP.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what criteria he will use to assess local enterprise partnerships strategic economic plans for funding under the Local Growth Deal.

    Greg Clark

    The criteria the Government will be using to assess Strategic Economic Plans and bids for the Local Growth Fund were published in July 2013 and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/growth-deals-initial-guidance-for-local-enterprise-partnerships

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria he will use to assess requests for extra powers from local enterprise partnerships and combined authorities.

    Kris Hopkins

    The Government is currently negotiating a ‘Growth Deal’ with every Local Enterprise Partnership, based on the Strategic Economic Plans they submitted in March 2014. The criteria being used to assess the plans are set out in the guidance published in July 2013. These are: ambition and rationale for intervention; value for money; and deliverability and risk. Combined authorities, where they exist, are represented in Local Enterprise Partnerships and will have been involved in the development of the Strategic Economic Plans.

    Notwithstanding, as I indicated to the rt. hon. Member in my answers to him of 3 April 2014, Official Report, Column 778W and 6 May 2014, Official Report, Column 24W, we should be cautious about any measure which had the effect of transferring power upwards away from elected local councils. Decentralisation should devolve power to the lowest appropriate level.

    Combined authorities are relatively new bodies. They now should focus on using the functions and powers that they currently have and prove themselves on delivering local growth; we do not intend to repeat the “function creep” mistakes of the Regional Development Agencies which just became unwieldy and unfocused, taking on too much and failing to deliver.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the under occupancy penalty on households where children have been removed by children’s services on a temporary basis under child protection regulations.

    Esther McVey

    Children who have been temporarily taken into care under child protection regulations are not assessed as part of the household with regards to the size criteria in both the social and private rented sectors.

    This means a bedroom will not be allocated for any children taken into protective care. However, a child can be treated as a member of the claimant’s household if they spend part of a benefit week in a claimant’s house and the local authority considers it reasonable to include them as part of that household.

    Where people are temporarily under occupying, they can apply for additional help through Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) scheme for which we have provided funding of £345 million over the last 2 years. Guidance to Local Authorities on awarding a DHP covers circumstances where a child is temporarily away from home. Where appropriate, claimants could therefore apply for a DHP in child protection cases.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 87W, on holiday leave, what assessment his Department has made of the conclusions of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s Report entitled Give us a Break on the lack of awareness and denial of paid holiday entitlement to UK workers.

    Jenny Willott

    The Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s Report, Give us a Break, was a formal submission to the Ministerial Review of Workplace Rights, Compliance and Enforcement and therefore this Department assessed the report along with other submissions to the review. The written Ministerial Statement following the review was laid in parliament on 10th July 2012. We continually review a broad range of evidence. As outlined in reply of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 87W, the right to paid annual leave is an important right, and we would urge workers who feel they are not receiving it to contact the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (0800 917 2368) or Acas (www.acas.org.uk) for free and confidential advice.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to record and identify instances where non-pharmacological treatments have caused adverse reactions in patients.

    Norman Lamb

    Reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are collected by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Commission for Human Medicines through the spontaneous reporting scheme; the Yellow Card Scheme. The scheme has been in place since 1964 and collects ADR reports from across the whole United Kingdom and includes all medicines, including non-pharmacological treatments such as herbal and homeopathic medicines.

    Reports are received from healthcare professionals and members of the public on a voluntary basis. However there is a legal requirement for pharmaceutical companies to report suspected ADRs to their products. The MHRA receives approximately 30,000 ADR reports per year. All reports received are rapidly entered onto the MHRA’s ADR database for assessment by a team of medical, pharmaceutical and scientific assessors. The purpose of the scheme is to provide an early warning that the safety of a product may require further investigation and the scheme has a proven track record of identifying safety issues.

    National Health Service organisations will also record details of adverse incidents in local risk management systems and other datasets such as the Hospital Episodes Statistics datasets. Many of these systems rely on accurate coding to enable data extract and analysis, and codes specific to non pharmacological treatments may not always be available.