The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many agency staff were contracted to cover classes in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.
Nick Gibb
The Department collects details of all teachers working in state funded schools through the annual School Workforce Census. However, this census does not separately identify agency teachers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-11-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what aid her Department is providing to Indonesia to assist with tackling forest fires.
Mr Desmond Swayne
The UK is providing technical support through a number of channels. For example, the UK Climate Change Unit in Indonesia has funded the World Resource Institute’s Global Forest and Fire Watch which provides free real-time information on fire spots, linking these data to land licensing and land type. In addition, the UK’s Forest Land-Use and Governance (FLAG) programme in Indonesia is funding longer-term fire prevention work through civil society, private sector and government, focusing on transparency, accountability and spatial planning to resolve the land governance issues that lead to fires.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance NHS England provides for prescribing therapeutic support for children in care; and what funding is available within the Government’s mental health budget for the provision of such support.
Alistair Burt
NHS England is not responsible for providing guidance on prescribing and treatment of therapeutic support for children in care, this is the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
The Government is committed to making the full £1.4 billion investment available over the course of this Parliament to improve mental health services for children and young people.
In line with NHS England’s guidance to support the development of Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing all clinical commissioning groups have produced plans that have now been assured and funding allocated for implementation. These LTPs required all key partners to agree locally how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations and should cover the whole spectrum of need, which includes improving access to mental health services for vulnerable groups such as children in care, so that they can receive high quality mental health care when they need it.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has made to the negotiating bodies on ensuring the Government retains its ability to make public policy decisions in the public interest under investor state dispute settlement mechanisms.
Anna Soubry
The Government believes that investment protection treaties should not undermine the ability of states to make public policy decisions in the public interest. The European Union (EU) has competence to negotiate investment treaties on behalf of the EU and its Member States. The European Commission’s policy is that investment protection provisions should ensure a high level of protection for investors while fully preserving the right of governments to regulate and pursue legitimate public policy objectives, such as the protection of health, safety, or the environment, and has sought negotiating mandates from the Council of Ministers on this basis. The UK fully supports this approach, which has been adopted in recently negotiated Free Trade Agreements, such as the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Government has to publish the outcome of its consultation with local authorities on the resettling of child refugees under the Immigration Act 2016.
James Brokenshire
The UK Government takes it’s responsibility in all cases involving children seriously and we will continue to ensure that all unaccompanied children are provided with appropriate care, regardless of their route to the UK.
It is important that we work with local authorities to understand their capacity to support all unaccompanied children and ensure their needs can be met. That is why my officials are working closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education to ensure consultation with local authorities is consistent and coordinated across all resettlement and relocation programmes. Consultation with local government partners will take place over the coming weeks and Parliament will be updated in due course.
We are keen to ensure that there is a more equitable distribution of unaccompanied children across the UK and that no local authority is required to take more children than they can support.
The Home Office provides funding to local authorities for the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and recently announced new enhanced rates to support the transfer scheme. We will continue to measure the impacts on local authorities, but are clear that funding for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and refugees must be aligned, regardless of the route of entry for the child.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to increase the number of teachers in training.
Nick Gibb
The Government is investing heavily in the future of our teaching profession. Between now and 2020, we have committed to spending more than £1.3bn on initiatives aimed at attracting more people into the profession.
Teaching remains a profession that is attracting the brightest and best new graduates as well as career changers. We achieved 94% of our postgraduate ITT target for 2015/16, of which 7% was additional recruitment beyond the target in primary, English, history and PE. Although we recognise that teacher recruitment remains challenging, particularly in some priority subjects and in certain areas of the country, we are nevertheless confident that overall recruitment to ITT remains strong.
We have already put in place a number of measures aimed at attracting more top graduates into teaching, particularly in the core academic subjects that help children reach their full potential. We are continuing to offer generous financial incentives, including prestigious scholarships, worth up to £30,000 tax-free for trainees with top degrees in priority subjects.
In March 2015, the Prime Minister announced a package of up to £67m to recruit an additional 2,500 maths and physics teachers and to train 15,000 existing non-specialist teachers in those subjects over the term of this Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-10-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the evidential basis is for the proposition that freezing the repayment threshold for plan 2 student loans is likely to result in student loans being repaid to a greater extent than under the current terms.
Joseph Johnson
Estimates of the impact of freezing the repayment thresholds for borrowers are illustrated in the consultation document, which has been published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/freezing-the-student-loan-repayment-threshold
These are based on analysis using the Department’s Student Loan Repayment Model: further details on the model are available at the Department’s website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplified-student-loan-repayment-model
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect of the removal of eligibility for Renewables Obligations Certificates on businesses seeking to develop onshore wind farms.
Andrea Leadsom
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield to Question 22287 on Wind Power, on 18 January 2016:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will issue guidance to rail companies to ensure they publicise passenger rights for compensation for disruption caused by the recent floods in Northern England.
Claire Perry
We are committed to improving compensation arrangements for delayed rail passengers. That is why we are introducing requirements in all new franchise agreements to both require that train operators make reasonable endeavours to make passengers aware of their rights to claim compensation and also to implement Delay/Repay. It is noteworthy that under Delay/Repay, which will apply to the new Northern and TPE franchises to start in April this year, there are no exclusions for delays outside the control of the rail industry, such as exceptionally severe weather conditions.
This winter’s unprecedented weather conditions have caused disruption to services. Network Rail have been working hard to repair tracks in these atrocious conditions. We remain absolutely committed to getting all lines able to run full services as soon as possible and thank passengers for their patience whilst emergency repairs are made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received from patient groups on the contaminated blood compensation consultation.
Jane Ellison
The respondents to the contaminated blood compensation consultation are not required to identify their association with any group. The Government response to the consultation will set out the number of respondents from specific patient groups, where that information has been provided.