Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the conclusion by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) that there was no consistent evidence that the Troubled Families Programme had any significant or systematic impact on those families which took part in the programme, what evidence they have for the statement by the Communities Minister, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, on 17 October that this programme has transformed the lives of thousands of families”; and what is their response to the NIESR report National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme.”

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The NIESR Impact Study was just one of 6 reports comprising the independent evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme. The evaluation found that the programme had many positive achievements. These include:

    • Families feeling more confident and optimistic about being able to cope in the future

    • Joining up local services for families by encouraging a single keyworker approach to work with the whole family on all of its problems

    • Raising the quality and capacity of local data systems

    • Better joint working with partners such as Jobcentre Plus

    The data shows that nearly 120,000 of the families on this programme saw their lives improve – more children attending school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour significantly cut and, in more than 18,000 families, an adult holding down a job. The evaluation does not dispute this fact.

    Unsurprisingly, the ambitious and innovative impact study which used national administrative datasets to track changes in families circumstances over comparatively short time periods, was unable to specifically attribute positive outcomes achieved in employment, youth crime or school attendance to the Troubled Families Programme.

    This was because at that time the level of change achieved was not significantly different from that seen in a group of families not on the programme with whom comparisons were made. This is not the same, however, as saying that the evaluation shows family outcomes did not improve, as some have wrongly inferred.

    Of course, we will continue to review all evidence of how the programme is working, to learn from it and see if there’s more we can do to help families facing such multiple problems. In fact, we have already adapted the new programme in a number of ways, including extending the length of time over which family outcomes will be tracked – from 12 months to 5 years.

  • Lord Truscott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Truscott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2015-11-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the value for money of the estimated £46 million of public funds provided to Kids Company over the last 15 years.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Kids Company delivered important work for vulnerable young people and received support from successive governments over a 15 year period, beginning in 2002.

  • Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Dunlop on 2 December (HL3879), whether they will publish the draft Bill for setting up the Historical Investigations Unit and other legacy bodies that was presented to political parties at those negotiations, and why they did not provide that information in that answer.

    Lord Dunlop

    The matter of how best to move forward and achieve broad consensus in support of legislation to establish the legacy bodies, including whether to publish the draft Bill, is currently being considered.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether universities keep and make available statistics regarding the number of students who are caught having someone else write their work for them, broken down by academic year.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism.

    There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations.

    Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism.

    The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health on making more land available at the proposed site for Harperbury Free School to enable the planning application for that site to proceed with a site large enough to meet local planning officers’ requirements.

    Edward Timpson

    Approval to build the school on the site is subject to the views of the Local Planning Authority. They first raised concerns, alongside a range of other concerns arising from its location in the Green Belt, to my officials in March 2015.

    Discussions between officials at both Departments did identify that two adjacent properties could be purchased to provide additional car parking. However, the nature of the sale of the remainder of the former hospital site to a residential developer meant that further land could not be released for the school. Even if additional land were made available, there remain substantial risks associated with developing this Green Belt site.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received from NICE on the potential merits of a European relative effectiveness assessment to inform health technology appraisals.

    George Freeman

    In October 2015, the Department nominated the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a partner organisation in the planned third Joint Action on Health Technology Assessment (HTA).

    NICE has advised that it has had a number of discussions with European Commission officials, as well as other partner organisations, about NICE’s participation in this planned Joint Action.

    The Department is responsible for the policy framework for the assessment of health technologies and officials remain in close contact with NICE regarding the European Union collaboration in HTA, including the proposals for the production of joint products as part of the third Joint Action.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many disabled people joined the workforce in each sector in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academy schools are (a) in the process of being re-brokered and (b) awaiting re-brokering.

    Edward Timpson

    There have been 130 academies and free schools (2% of academies) moved from a trust that had not been able to secure necessary improvements, to a strong sponsor. Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are looking at the appropriate action to take with those that currently have no formal action, working with trusts to improve school performance or looking at sponsor solutions where they feel that the trust is not meeting the required standards.

    The table below shows the numbers of academies which have been re-brokered to other academy sponsors, split by academic year.

    Academic Year

    Number of academies re-brokered to other academy sponsors

    2011/12

    2

    2012/13

    2

    2013/14

    13

    2014/15

    64

    2015/16

    49

    Total

    130

    There are 38 academies in the process of moving from a trust that has not been able to secure necessary improvements, to a strong sponsor.

    The Department does not hold information on the number of academies which are awaiting re-brokerage. RSCs will work with schools in a number of ways before considering moving them to a new sponsor.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much progress her Department expects to make towards eliminating fuel poverty by the end of this Parliament.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The 2030 target, now enshrined in law, requires Government to improve as many fuel poor homes as reasonably practicable to Band C energy efficiency standard by 2030.

    We have also set an interim fuel poverty milestone for 2020, to get as many fuel poor households as reasonably practicable into Band E.

    The Government will be guided by the fuel poverty strategy published in March 2015 which sets out a clear policy of working towards improving energy efficiency standards in the homes of the fuel poor.

    We intend to focus the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Warm Home Discount more effectively on the fuel poor, and will consult on our future approach. Between them they will provide around £1billion of support each year.

    The latest available statistics indicate that, in 2013, 2.35 million households were in fuel poverty in England of which 2.04 million were Band E or above. The next fuel poverty statistical release is due on 30th June 2016.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people are registered with diabetes in (a) Burnley constituency and (b) Lancashire.

    Nicola Blackwood

    Diagnosed diabetes prevalence in England is taken from the Quality and Outcomes Framework and represents all patients aged 17 and over who have been diagnosed with diabetes and included on General Practice (GP) registers. Data are available by GP practices, clinical commissioning group and for England.

    Estimated number of people with diabetes in Burnley and Lancashire*

    2014

    Number

    Prevalence

    Burnley

    5,392

    7.0%

    Lancashire

    64,212

    6.7%

    * Diagnosed diabetes prevalence is not available by local authority and has been estimated by aggregating GP practice level data where the postcode of the main practice falls within the local authority boundary.

    Source: Quality and Outcomes Framework 2014/15. NHS Digital is the trading name of the Health and Social Care Information Centre.