The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 13 January (HL4703 and HL4704), whether they will place in the Library of the House a list of the grounds for retention linked to the relevant retention instruments.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
I refer the noble Lord to the response to HL4704.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent discussions his Department has held with local authorities on cyber-security.
Matthew Hancock
The Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA) in the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office works with a range of government partners to deliver the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP). OCSIA has been working closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to support local government cyber security. This includes working with individual councils, the Society of IT Management (SOCITM), the Society of Local Authority Chief Executive (SOLACE) and the Local Government Association (LGA). This financial year the NSCP funded team within DCLG has delivered regional workshops for local government leaders with further workshops planned later this year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Mackinlay on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the HGV road user levy.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Government published an assessment of the effectiveness of the HGV levy in a written statement on 15 June 2015. The levy was introduced, on time, in April 2014. It raised £192.5m in its first year, with £46.5m of that coming from foreign hauliers. Compliance in Great Britain is high at around 95%, and over 3,000 fixed penalties were issued in the first year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-04-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they plan to take to redress the gender balance in engineering, construction and transport apprenticeships.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Inspiration starts at school. Schools are legally required to secure the independent advice and guidance that all young people need when making career choices. Through the Careers and Enterprise Company, Enterprise Advisers work directly with schools to develop effective links with other local businesses to equip young people with the skills they need.
We are encouraging more young women to enter science and engineering careers, including apprenticeships. The annual Tomorrow’s Engineers Week (TEWeek) encourages them, to consider a career in engineering. The Your Life campaign inspires young people to study maths and physics as a gateway to STEM careers. The STEM Ambassadors programme is a network of over 28,000 volunteers working with schools across the UK, 40% of whom are women.
The construction sector is working with the Construction Leadership Council to highlight the opportunities the sector offers. Women into Construction, an independent not-for-profit organization, provides bespoke support to women wishing to work in the construction industry and assists contractors in recruiting motivated and trained women.
We are launching a new communications campaign in May aimed at promoting the benefits of apprenticeships. Our promotional campaigns include role models of successful female apprentices in sectors where they are under-represented.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-05-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to provide (a) refuges and (b) other support to family members in rural areas experiencing domestic abuse and other relationship problems; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Marcus Jones
Domestic Abuse is a devastating crime and we are determined to ensure that no one is turned away from the support they need irrespective of where they live. Government has committed £80 million of extra funding up to 2020 to tackle violence against women and girls. In the strategy to end violence against women and girls published on 8 March, we set out our ambition to improve services for women suffering from domestic abuse committing to a new Statement of Expectations to set out for the first time what we expect from local areas. To support this, we are launching a new two year fund, which will be open to local authorities across the country including those from rural areas, to bid for funding for refuges and other forms of accommodation based support and to help local areas take the steps they need to meet the National Statement.
This builds on the £3.5 million funding in 2015/16 and is on top of the £10 million funding to strengthen the provision of safe accommodation in the last spending review period. The Government does recognise the distinct challenges faced by victims of domestic abuse in rural areas and has supported bids for funding from rural areas for example Suffolk, Shropshire and Somerset.
Our Troubled Families Programme is about transforming the way local services support families with multiple problems. It incentivises services to come together, working with and understanding the needs of the whole family instead of constantly reacting to their individual problems. 29% of families in entry to the programme between 2012 and 2015 were experiencing domestic violence or abuse.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-07-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recourse there is for individuals who have been prevented from earning a wage due to the time taken for the processing of Disclosure and Barring Service certificate applications.
Sarah Newton
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has a target to issue 95% of certificates within 8 weeks, which it is close to achieving. The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner.
DBS will liaise with the police on behalf of a customer who is experiencing delays when their enhanced level DBS application is with the police to undertake statutory checks. In these cases DBS will aim to resolve the customer’s issues as quickly as possible, and keep the customer informed until resolution. However, the DBS cannot provide financial remedy for any complaint about police actions including the timescales taken by the police to complete a check. It would be up to individual police forces to comment on any local redress policies.
If the delay is due to maladministration on behalf of DBS, the DBS redress policy is designed to ensure that the person who is the subject of that maladministration is not disadvantaged. Further information can be found on the DBS website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service/about/complaints-procedure
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Will Quince on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the trends in the level of uptake of (a) creative, (b) artistic and (c) technical subjects at GCSE since June 2015.
Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not define GCSE subjects as ‘technical’ or ‘creative’.
Provisional information on the proportion of pupils entered for at least one arts GCSE between 2009/10 and 2015/16 is published as part of the ‘Provisional GCSE and equivalent results in England’ statistical first release (SFR)[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-results-2015-to-2016-provisional (Table 1c)
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the document, Fixing the Foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation, Cm 9098, when he will intervene in local authorities that do not produce local plans.
Brandon Lewis
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement of 21 July, HCWS172, which clarified that in cases where no Local Plan has been produced by early 2017, the Government will intervene to arrange for the plan to be written, in consultation with local people, to accelerate production of the Local Plan.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he plans to reply to the letter of 26 November 2015 from the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West regarding mass executions in Saudi Arabia.
Mr David Lidington
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) received the letter from the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier) on 27 November 2015. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) will respond to the hon. Member by 24 December.
FCO Ministers aim to respond to all correspondence from Members of this House, both written and electronic, within 20 working days of receipt, in line with Cabinet Office guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441892/Cabinet_Office_Guidance_on_correspondence.pdf
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether new apprenticeship standards will be grouped within the same sectors as the frameworks they are replacing to ensure continuity with previously recorded data.
Nick Boles
Employer designed apprenticeship standards focus on the knowledge, skills and behaviour required to achieve full competence in an individual occupation. There is no requirement for employers to replicate particular frameworks or pathways within them, as the priority is creating apprenticeships that meet employers’ needs. To ensure we can track developments in apprenticeship standards – for example, take up in particular sectors or regions – we are currently maintaining the current sector subject area classifications and allocate new standards to them to ensure continuity with previously recorded data.