Tag: Nicholas Brown

  • 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 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people classed as homeless will be defined as vulnerable under the proposed mechanism within universal credit to pay housing benefit directly to landlords.

    Steve Webb

    We do not want to automatically label any claimant as financially incapable. Alternative payment arrangements (including payments to landlords) are assessed on their individual merits. The nature of the accommodation status of a claimant is one of a number of factors to be considered when assessing the necessity for an alternative payment arrangement, and this is set out in the operating guidance we published in February last year.

  • 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 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department issues on what criteria schools should use when deciding whether to employ an individual who does not possess a formal teaching qualification as a teacher.

    Mr David Laws

    The Department for Education does not issue guidance prescribing the criteria that schools should use when employing teaching staff.

    The latest school workforce statistics (November 2013) show that the overwhelming majority (96%) of teachers in state-funded schools hold qualified teacher status.

    Headteachers are best-placed to make decisions about the qualifications, skills and experience they need in their teaching staff. They are held to account for those decisions through inspection and the publication of school performance data.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the potential implications of Scottish independence for the regions on either side of the English-Scottish border.

    Mr Alistair Carmichael

    I refer the Rt Hon Gentleman to the answer I gave to the Member for Penrith and The Border earlier today.

  • 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.