The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when negotiations with EU member states on the future of EU citizens in the UK will begin.
Mr Robert Goodwill
When the Prime Minister decides to trigger the formal process for the UK’s departure from the EU, the issue of the future status of EU nationals in the UK will form part of those negotiations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Parish on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which local authorities have breached legal air quality limits in the last year.
Dr Thérèse Coffey
Defra uses both monitoring and modelling to assess air quality in the UK. Currently, 156 monitoring stations in the national network report near-real-time data on five key pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Information about these sites and modelled data is available on Defra’s UK-Air website.
Latest compliance data show that the UK is meeting the EU limit values for all pollutants covered by the European air quality Directives other than those for NO2.
That is why in December last year, the Government published the national air quality plan for reducing NO2 concentrations through a new programme of Clean Air Zones in five cities in England, including Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton, as well as Birmingham and Derby, along with the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in London. The plan combines targeted local and national measures and continued investment in clean technologies.
The councils which were observed to have exceedances of the annual mean NO2 limit value in 2015 are in the attached table.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department has taken to promote Energy Efficiency Week; how her Department has worked with non-governmental organisations on such initiatives; and what the cost to the public purse was of those initiatives.
Andrea Leadsom
Big Energy Saving Week is a Great Britain wide consumer awareness raising campaign run ahead of winter in partnership with respected partner organisations Citizens Advice and the Energy Saving Trust (EST), with around £300,000 funding provided by DECC.
The campaign was delivered 26-30 October 2015 and focussed on supporting consumers to understand how they can save money by switching tariff, supplier and payment method and improving energy efficiency, through hundreds of face to face outreach events run by Citizens Advice offices and a national, regional and social media campaign delivered by EST.
The last campaign in October 2014 was a big success with over 500 events nationwide reaching an estimated 100,000 consumers face to face or through dedicated helplines with many millions more reached through a complementary media campaign.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the portrait of Oliver Porter by Sir Anthony van Dyck donated to the nation by the Duke of Northumberland is hung in Bowes Museum; and what discussions were held on hanging that portrait in a museum which is free to the public.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Individuals donating work to the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) Scheme, administered by the Arts Council, can specify which institution will receive it. In the case of the Portrait of Oliver Porter by Sir Anthony van Dyck, it was made a condition of the offer that the painting be allocated to the Bowes Museum. The painting is a significant acquisition for the North-East and will feature in the Bowes Museum’s forthcoming major exhibition, The English Rose – Feminine Beauty from Van Dyck to Sargent, which opens in May 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Turner on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the cost efficiency of the NHS in Wales compared with England.
Alun Cairns
The Welsh Government is responsible for the NHS in Wales. It is up to the Welsh Government to decide how best to use their funding and deliver health services in Wales.
The UK Government is happy to share good practice with the Welsh Government to help ensure people living in Wales receive high quality healthcare.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-01-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account her Department will take of women (a) with mental health needs, (b) who are homeless, (c) who are living in poverty and (d) who have other complex needs in its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
Karen Bradley
The Government will shortly publish an updated Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy which will set out how we will support all victims of VAWG, including those with mental health needs, those who are homeless or living in poverty and those who have other complex needs, by doing more to prevent these crimes from happening, intervening earlier, and continuing to improve the protection for victims and to bring offenders to justice.
The Government has already committed £40m for domestic abuse services including refuges between 2016 and 2020, provided a £2m grant to Women’s Aid and SafeLives to support a new domestic abuse early intervention project, protected funding of over £6.4m to 86 female Rape Support Centres for 2016/17, and committed to a further year of funding to support the local provision of 144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers for 2016/17.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will direct Highways England to give evidence to the public hearing on 18 March 2016 organised by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner into closures and delays on the M6 on 4 and 5 February 2016.
Andrew Jones
Highways England is aware of the public hearing and has agreed to attend and give evidence.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Addington on 2016-03-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the announced changes to the initial teacher training criteria, why the suggested content was not made compulsory.
Lord Nash
The initial teacher training (ITT) criteria document contains both statutory guidance and accompanying advice from the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). Accredited ITT providers must have regard to the statutory guidance when carrying out their duties relating to ITT. The criteria are made under The Education (School Teachers’ Qualifications) (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/1662). They set out criteria which providers must ensure that candidates meet when they seek to gain a training place, and programme design, management and quality assurance criteria that must be met by those ITT providers in the design and delivery of their programmes. There are criteria specific to employment-based ITT routes.
The accompanying advice is designed to help training providers understand and interpret the statutory criteria. Ofsted uses the supporting advice when it inspects ITT providers under the relevant initial teacher education framework for inspection. The content of ITT is not specified by the criteria and supporting advice, except that providers must ensure that programmes are designed to enable trainee teachers to be assessed as meeting the relevant standards (the Teachers’ Standards). No changes have been made to the ITT criteria recently; the last change was made in June 2015 (Criterion C2.2). This removed the previously specified age ranges, allowing providers greater scope to work with schools to determine the age range that their programmes would be designed to cover, within the specified primary, middle, and secondary phases.
On 16 March, NCTL combined the statutory guidance and supporting advice into a single document to improve clarity. Some routine and minor amendments were made to the supporting advice to assist ITT providers. These related to safeguarding arrangements, middle years programmes, and secondary subjects that are typically offered in schools in only one Key Stage. NCTL also included advice for ITT providers on the Government’s Prevent strategy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will meet representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign.
Justin Tomlinson
The Secretary of State has met with a number of his constituents who have raised this issue, and he will be meeting with Tim Loughton, who has been involved in the WASPI campaign, very soon. He is clear that there are no plans to change policy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-06-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 6 June (HL Deb, col 626), on how many occasions since its inception has the Pensions Regulator used provisions for dawn raids, and how it determines the circumstances in which such provisions should be employed.
Baroness Altmann
The Pensions Regulator has a power to request information which it exercises regularly and successfully. This means that it is often not necessary to use the powers under section 73 (inspection) or section 78 (warrants) of the Pensions Act 2004.
Under section 78, a justice of the peace may issue a warrant where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there are –
or that
This power is only used in extreme circumstances, and such cases usually involve suspicions of wider criminal activity. Since 2004, the Regulator has used its powers to either inspect premises or issue a warrant on five occasions.