Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Calum Kerr on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies focuses on (a) girls, (b) children with disabilities and (c) other marginalised children.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK has played a leading role in the development of Education Cannot Wait – a fund for education in emergencies. A key focus for Education Cannot Wait will be on ensuring that marginalised children and young people are able to access a quality education. This includes refugees and internally displaced children, as well as children facing barriers to their education because of their gender, disability or other factors. This focus is reflected in the Fund’s indicative headline results, which commits to providing “Inclusive education [that] reaches the most marginalised children and young people in crises” with a target of “100% of supported education opportunities demonstrate an increase in education for girls, disabled and those in remote locations”. The UK will continue to engage closely during Education Cannot Wait’s inception phase, to ensure that this commitment is fully reflected in its final design and results frameworks.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides to multi-academy trusts to ensure governance and leadership structures are able to support effective expansion.

    Edward Timpson

    Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) have an important role to play in encouraging and supporting high performing schools to extend their influence by growing Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and recruiting new sponsors to their region. The RSCs support schools and other organisations to become sponsors and grow effectively by offering practical one-to-one advice and facilitating supportive networks between MATs. They are also able to commission additional support for trusts where that is required, for example, from local Teaching School Alliances.

    As set out in our White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere, in the future MAT support will be system-led, and there will be a role for larger and more experienced trusts in supporting growing trusts as they develop. The Department is taking a number of steps to support MATs with leadership and governance, including:

    • a MAT CEO development programme;

    • redesigning a National Professional Qualification in leadership; and

    • funding the academy ambassadors programme that has resulted in over 240 experienced business leaders providing support to MATs by joining trust boards as non-executives.

    We are committing funding for 5 years to provide long term stability to help many more volunteers find a school or MAT that is looking for someone with their skills.

    The Government has allocated £300 million that will be available to support schools to convert and, in particular, support sponsors to turn around failing schools. A further £300 million will be available to support strong and effective multi-academy trusts to grow and improve.

  • Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in developing a new formula for school funding; and when the new formula will be applied.

    Lord Nash

    In July, the Secretary of State committed to introduce national funding formulae for schools and high needs from financial year 2018-19. We are considering the options carefully, taking into account the need to give schools and local authorities stability, and the importance of getting these historic reforms right. We will set out detailed proposals later in the autumn, and make decisions early next year, for the new system to be in place from April 2018.

  • David Hanson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on ensuring that policy and border staff share information on the illegal wildlife trade with Interpol, Europol and World Customs Organisation.

    James Brokenshire

    Border Force are in regular contact with all the Organisations listed and regularly use their systems to communicate and share Intelligence on IWT to the global community .They are also represented on the EU Enforcement Working group that covers the Illegal wildlife trade.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-11-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the cost-effectiveness of the Government’s spending on infrastructure since 2010.

    Greg Hands

    In 2010, the government launched the Infrastructure Cost Review seeking to improve the cost effective delivery of infrastructure projects and programmes. In 2014, the Cost Review reported savings of around 15% – worth around £3billion per annum – by addressing a number of drivers of high costs. But more can and is being done, working closely with infrastructure clients from public and private sectors to continue to bear down on costs and improve delivery performance.

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the longest length of time is that a person has spent in an immigration holding or detention centre in the last five years.

    James Brokenshire

    Information on the length of detention has been published since quarter 1 (January to March) 2010.

    The longest time a person has been detained in the immigration estate – a foreign criminal who left detention and was returned to Algeria in Q1 2012 – was 2,319 days. The individual in this case had accumulated 14 convictions from 32 offences committed between 1998 and 2004, including – but not limited to – convictions for firearms/ shotguns/offensive weapons, drug offences, offences relating to police/courts/prisons and theft. He was continuously non-compliant with the Home Office and Algerian authorities, using a false identity and nationality, which frustrated attempts to obtain travel documentation to facilitate his deportation. His continued non-compliance, deception and a history of absconding led to detention being prolonged. This information does not include those held in prisons solely under Immigration Act powers.

    The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within the Immigration Statistics release on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-01-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to table 2.7 on page 85 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, which Departments will fund the cross-government overseas development aid spending set out in that table in each of the five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

    Greg Hands

    As set out in the strategy for official development assistance “UK Aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest”, published on 23 November, meeting our responsibilities to the world’s poorest while also serving and protecting the UK’s interests and security, requires us to harness skills from across government.

    The cross government ODA funding in “Table 2.7: Department for International Development (DFID)” is part of DFID’s total DEL settlement. DFID will transfer this to other government departments and cross government funds to spend on activities that can be classified as Official Development Assistance (ODA) according to the OECD definition.

  • Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department’s wellness strategy is.

    Harriett Baldwin

    HM Treasury takes the wellness of its staff seriously. Wellness is incorporated within the Treasury’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing policy.

    In 2015/16 the following wellness initiatives were given priority:

    • reducing levels of sickness absence relating to Mental and Behavioural Disorders (including stress, depression, anxiety) and Musculoskeletal Disorders;

    • increasing the usage of the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP); and

      In addition the Treasury has signed up to two key external initiatives:

    • the Public Health Responsibility Deal. Every April the Treasury reports to the Dept of Health on the activities carried out to meet the six pledges signed up to; and

    • the ‘Time to Change’ pledge. Following this a Mental Wellbeing Network was set up and a range of associated activities take place focusing on improving the mental wellbeing of Treasury employees.

      In addition we support and provide reasonable adjustments for a variety of physical and mental conditions and requirements.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to improve the assessment process for personal independence payments.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Since its inception, the system of assessing claimants’ eligibility for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) has been continually reviewed and refined in order to improve its efficiency, effectiveness and the claimant experience. We have worked extensively with PIP assessment providers and disability rights groups to make improvements to guidance, training and audit procedures in order to ensure a quality service.

    The Government’s response to Paul Gray’s independent review of the process can be found at:

    www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478224/pip-assessment-first-independent-review-second-response.pdf

    The Government has committed in legislation to a further independent review which will report by April 2017.

    “

  • Michael Dugher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Michael Dugher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the high street vacancy rate was in (a) England and (b) each region of England in each of the last six years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    My Department does not collect or publish data relating to high street vacancy rates. There are several commercial sources of shop vacancy rates data available, including the Local Data Company and Springboard, (http://info.localdatacompany.com/vacancy-rate-report-h1-2015-summary-download) who publish overall trends in the public domain.