The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Attorney General, what recent steps the Crown Prosecution Service has taken to improve the conviction rate for rape and domestic violence.
Robert Buckland
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the oral question from the Hon. Member for Delyn earlier today.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull on 2016-01-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the timescale for carrying out reviews of post-16 education and training institutions.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Individual area reviews are expected to take about four months, the timescale being dependent on the number of colleges and complexity of the local issues involved in each area. The overall review process has been divided into five waves of area reviews and is scheduled to be completed by March 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2016 to Question 26625, on the Twynham Learning Federation, for what reason it is not possible to place the documents in the Library prior to publication on the Department’s website in May.
Edward Timpson
As previously agreed, the application will be published alongside other successful direct free school applications in May 2016. This is in line with the established timetable of publishing applications three months after each announcement. However, the Secretary of State and Twynham Learning Federation have exceptionally agreed to also place a copy of the application and the decision letter signed by Sir David Carter, the former Regional Schools Commissioner for the South West in the House of Commons library. This will be done as soon as both commercially sensitive information and personal information, that may contravene the Data Protection Act, has been redacted. We will write to the Honourable Member when this has been done.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Herbert on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the amount of Common Agricultural Policy funding that (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland will receive in each year between 2014 and 2020.
George Eustice
The tables in the attached show, for Pillar 1 (direct payments) and Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), allocations for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Manzoor on 2016-04-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, how many households containing children had an underpayment or non-payment of benefit as a result of official error.
Lord Freud
DWP is unable to provide a breakdown of the number of official errors at the Local Authority level. This is because the estimation of the rate and monetary value of official errors in a particular benefit is based on a sample of cases rather than the entire caseload for that benefit, and this sample is not large enough to split at the Local Authority level.
DWP does not gather information on the number of children in a household when evaluating the rate of fraud and error in any particular benefit.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National pupil projections statistics release, published on 22 July 2015, if she will publish the (a) assumptions and (b) estimated total migration figures that were used in the calculation of the (i) migrant component of the principal population projection and (ii) high migrant variant in Table 3a of that data release.
Nick Gibb
The national pupil projections are only produced for the whole of England and do not break down projected pupil numbers by local education authority or region. They are derived from the 2012-based national population projections for England produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)[1] who used assumptions which were considered to best reflect demographic patterns at that time.
The ONS uses assumptions on the levels of future fertility, net migration and life expectancy in the production of their population projections. They use central assumptions for the principal projections and alternative high and low assumptions to produce variant projections.
New national pupil projections, based on the ONS’s mid-2014 national population projections[2], are scheduled to be published on 14 July 2016. The timing and content of National Statistics releases are a matter for the Head of Profession for statistics. The month of publication was pre-announced in 2015 and the specific date of publication was pre-announced on 26 February 2016.
[1] Mid-2012 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2013-11-06
[2] Mid-2014 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2015-10-29
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the level of drugs in prisons.
Mr Sam Gyimah
The Justice Secretary is clear that safety is fundamental to the proper functioning of our justice system and a vital part of our reform plans. There are a number of factors, including the availability of drugs in prisons, which must be tackled in order to make our prisons safe and places of rehabilitation.
We have introduced tough new laws which will see those who smuggle packages over prison walls, including new psychoactive substances, face up to two years in prison. Those who involve themselves in the distribution of drugs in our prisons should know that they could face prosecution and extra time behind bars. We have a range of security measures and searching techniques in place to detect drugs, and to prevent smuggling into prisons.
I am looking closely at this important issue, and will be setting our further plans in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-10-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of support services for people with complex needs when entering the labour market; and what steps they are taking to make recruitment processes accessible for all.
Lord Freud
We have been engaging with a variety of stakeholders and partners, including those with an interest in people with complex needs, to understand their view of current employment support. We will soon publish a Green Paper to explore a range of options for long-term reform across different sectors enabling everyone to realise their aspirations, regardless of their health condition or disability.
The Government is committed to enabling all disabled people to fulfil their potential. Work is an important part of this, and the Government wants all disabled people and people with a long term health condition to go as far as their talents will take them.
We are supporting this through Access to Work, which has specialist teams to provide a dedicated service to particular groups of people including those with complex needs.
Our new Disability Confident employer scheme went live on 14 July 2016. When employers sign up as Disability Confident they are asked to make specific meaningful offers of opportunities for disabled people such as jobs, apprenticeships, internships, and work experience opportunities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2015-10-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that at least 1,000 refugees are resettled in the UK before Christmas 2015.
Richard Harrington
The Government has committed to resettling 20,000 Syrian Refugees in the lifetime of this Parliament. The Prime Minister has said that we want to see 1,000 brought to the UK by Christmas.
The Government is working closely with local authorities; international delivery partners and the voluntary sector, putting in place the plans and structures to deliver this and ensuring the system is scaled up in a way that protects the interests of all concerned.
Details on numbers will be published in the regular quarterly immigration statistics.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.75 of the National Security and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, which (a) government departments and (b) commercial partners will be represented on the new delivery body for nuclear submarine procurement and support; and to which government department that body will report.
Mr Philip Dunne
Options for the composition of the new organisation will be developed and assessed for a decision in 2016. The Ministry of Defence will remain in control of the Successor submarine programme.