The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many applications to the Healthy New Towns programme were made from each region.
Jane Ellison
The Department does not hold information on the applications to the Healthy New Towns programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to the hon. Member for St Albans to Question 30489, on schools: admissions, if she will estimate the number of those new school places which are needed up to 2021 due to immigration from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries.
Edward Timpson
As set out in the written response to PQ 30489, supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places remains one of this Government’s top priorities. The basic need capital funding we allocate to local authorities to create new school places is based on their own data on school capacity and future pupil forecasts. Any increase in need for places should be reflected in the local authority’s final basic need allocation. We allocate basic need funding three years ahead to give local authorities time to plan and deliver the new places needed in their area.
The Government has committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which, when added to our investment in the free schools programme, will help to create 600,000 new places.
Beyond the information already provided to the Department by local authorities, we do not plan to commission further research on the effect of inward migration on the need for school places.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-05-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which (a) communities and (b) projects will receive funding from the English Language scheme.
Mr Marcus Jones
We are working to develop the new English language programme, including ensuring it is focused on those areas where we know women are at greatest risk of isolation and are more likely to have no or little proficiency in the English language. We will make an announcement as soon as possible.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the projected increase in defence spending during this Parliament.
Mr Philip Dunne
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to the hon. Members for South East Cambridgeshire (Lucy Frazer) and Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of further delays to the DCC go-live date on the effectiveness of smart meter rollout.
Jesse Norman
The Data and Communications Company is in the final stages of testing the national new data and communications infrastructure for smart metering. It is important to get this right to ensure a good consumer experience from the outset.
In parallel, the roll out continues to make good progress. Consumers are able to receive smart meters ahead of the national infrastructure going live and more than 3.6 million smart meters are already operating in homes and businesses across the country.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-11-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to ensure that all academy schools, their leaders, boards of directors, advisers and heads of department, adhere to all aspects of equality legislation in the UK.
Lord Nash
Academy trusts, and the academies they run, are required to adhere to all aspects of equality legislation. The Department’s model funding agreement for academy trusts, available on GOV.UK, states that the academy trust must ensure the academy promotes principles that support equality of opportunity for all. The Education Funding Agency is responsible, on behalf of the Secretary of State, for holding academy trusts to account for meeting the terms of their funding agreements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the implementation of European Professional Cards for doctors does not inhibit his Department’s ability to perform background checks on doctors from European countries and to ensure that they meet the medical qualification standards required by the NHS.
Ben Gummer
The European Professional Card (EPC) will not be introduced for doctors until 2018 at the earliest. The European Commission will review the effectiveness of the EPC process for the first wave of professions, which includes nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists, before any decision is taken to extend the EPC to other professions.
In the United Kingdom, independent health regulators are responsible for performing checks on health professionals from European countries to ensure that they meet agreed standards of fitness to practise. For doctors, this role is undertaken by the General Medical Council.
Although under the EPC system the responsibility for carrying out initial background checks will transfer to the home regulator of the professional, UK regulators will continue to be able to carry out registration checks, and can require additional information if there are any justifiable doubts about a registrant’s application or fitness to practise.
The UK Government has negotiated new safeguards to ensure that the high standards we expect from staff in this country are met by those from elsewhere in Europe who come to work here. These include:
– the introduction of an EU-wide alert mechanism which regulators will use to inform other countries of professionals who have been restricted from practising; and
– applying language controls for healthcare professionals from the EU so that regulators are able to ensure that professionals have the necessary knowledge of English before they are able to work in the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on 5 November 2015, Official Report, column 1834, what steps he has taken to exploit the opportunities arising from future international services at Stratford International Station, once Crossrail arrives at that station.
Claire Perry
Crossrail services will serve Stratford domestic station, rather than the Stratford International station which is operated by HS1 Ltd. The Department for Transport has no powers to specify that an international operator – whether current or future – must stop at Stratford International station.
It is possible that an international operator may be able to produce a positive business case for using Stratford International station with the arrival of Crossrail. If this is the case, that operator would need to discuss their proposal with, amongst others, HS1 Ltd.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which agency or organisation undertook the release dispersion and deposition modelling and radiological dose assessment of each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
Penny Mordaunt
The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support the Government is making available to the French authorities to ensure that people living in refugee camps in Northern France have access to adequate healthcare provision.
James Brokenshire
The management of the migrant camps in Calais, including healthcare provision is the responsibility of the French Government.
The French Government has recently stated that there are approximately 3,700 migrants living in the Calais camp and 1,050 in Dunkirk. The UK Government does not routinely assess the numbers of migrants in northern France or hold a breakdown of the ages of migrants.
The UK has funded a project aimed at identifying and protecting vulnerable people in the Calais migrant camp. The project is being delivered by the French NGO Terre D’Asile.
In addition, France has opened 102 reflection centres away from Calais and Dunkirk to help migrants with their asylum options and the UK is contributing towards the funding of this programme.