Tag: Parliamentary Question

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kennedy of Cradley on 2016-05-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of powdered or vaporised alcohol and its availability.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government is taking action to ensure that alcohol in a powdered or vapourised form is subject to controls under the Licensing Act 2003 through a clause in the Policing and Crime Bill currently before Parliament.

This amends the definition of alcohol to cover its form in any state. We are not aware of powdered alcohol being sold in the UK. Vaporised alcohol is sold as a novelty item and its sale has not been widespread across the UK. Licensing authorities treat it in the same way as liquid alcohol for licensing purposes.

01/01/2023

Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-07-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of teachers left that profession (1) less than one year from starting teaching, and (2) within five years of starting teaching, between 2011 and 2016.

Lord Nash

We recognise that it is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers – that is why we have made policy interventions in the areas that teachers tell us matter most such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload.

The Department publishes statistics showing the percentage of qualified teachers who enter teaching within a year of completing their training and who remain in service each year afterwards. This information is available in Table 8 of the ‘School Workforce in England: November 2015’ statistical release which was published on June 30^th 2016.

The latest statistics show that 87% of qualified teachers that entered service during 2014 were still in post one year later. The following table shows the one-year retention rate has remained within one percentage point of this level during the last five years.

Year qualified	Recorded in service by	Still in post after one year
2010	November 2010	87%
2011	November 2011	88%
2012	November 2012	88%
2013	November 2013	87%
2014	November 2014	87%

The latest available statistics also show that 70% of qualified teachers that entered service during 2010 were still in post five years later.

Year qualified	Recorded in service by	Still in post after five years
2006	March 2007	73%
2007	March 2008	74%
2008	March 2009	74%
2009	March 2010	72%
2010	November 2010	70%

Over the longer-term five year retention rate has remained stable, of the cohort of newly qualified teachers who entered teaching in 1996, 71% were still teaching in the state-funded sector five-years later.

01/01/2023

Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which private consultancy firm her Department holds a contract with; what the value is of each such contract; and what services are being provided by each of those consultancy firms.

Rory Stewart

Detail on DFID contracts is available via the Contracts Finder website.

01/01/2023
Imran Hussain – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of withdrawal of ESOL Plus mandated funding on the ability of refugees in the UK to access ESOL courses.

Nick Boles

The decision to withdraw the 2015/16 ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding was taken in the knowledge that providers could use their adult skills budget to continue to provide ESOL training for jobseekers and therefore mitigate any adverse impact. Our data showed that the numbers of claimants being referred to ESOL Plus (Mandation) provision was significantly lower than originally anticipated.

Adults who are granted refugee status or humanitarian protection become eligible for skills funding through the adult skills budget, as any other English resident and are not subject to the normal 3 year qualifying period.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of his Department’s budget for employment support has been allocated to the Work and Health Programme for each of the next four years.

Priti Patel

In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced a new Work and Health Programme to provide specialist support for claimants with health conditions or disabilities and those unemployed for over 2 years after current Work Programme and Work Choice contracts end.

The Department is currently undertaking its normal prioritisation process to determine how funding secured at the Spending Review is allocated on an annual basis.

01/01/2023
Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what amount of additional funding her Department has allocated to Ofsted to carry out local area inspections of provisions for children with special educational needs and disability; and if so, what amount has been allocated for each of the next three years.

Edward Timpson

Local authorities have made good progress complying with the statutory special educational needs duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 since they came into force in September 2014. We continue to monitor progress.

All local authorities have published a Local Offer of the services and support available to children and young people in their area with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Responsibility for publishing and maintaining Local Offers lies with each local authority. The Department supports local authorities to help make sure they meet all statutory requirements for their Local Offer, and that the quality of services continues to improve.

In summer 2014, the Department conducted a review of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and plan templates from half of local authorities. The majority of the EHC plan templates we reviewed were judged likely to meet the requirements in the SEND Code of Practice. Where changes were needed, this was often due to inaccurate labelling of the required sections. Feedback was provided to individual local authorities alongside information to all local authorities about the key areas for focus. Since September 2014, EHC plans have been continually monitored. Where individual EHC plans are considered not to be fully compliant, advice on improvement is provided to the local authority.

Figures returned by local authorities and published in the Statements of SEN and EHC plans Statistical First Release[1] in May 2015 show that, of the 1,360 new EHC plans issued between 1 September 2014 and 15 January 2015, 64.3% were within the statutory 20 week time limit when excluding exception cases.

The Department for Education is providing specific additional funding to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to support their inspection of the effectiveness of local areas in fulfilling their new SEND duties. We are in the process of setting individual budgets as part of our internal business planning process.

Ofsted and CQC conducted pilots as part of their wider consultation on their inspection proposals. These pilots explored different approaches to securing evidence in what is a complex area, involving a range of education, social care, and health providers at the local level. Ofsted and CQC will publish their response to the consultation on these new inspection arrangements in spring 2016. In addition, they will evaluate the impact of inspections, which will begin later in 2016.

The Department draws on a wide range of evidence to determine whether the SEND provisions of the Children and Families Act have improved outcomes for children. Our intention is that a combination of local accountability measures; data and analysis; and independent inspection will show how the SEND system is performing and whether outcomes are improving for children and young people.

The SEND inspections will evaluate local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people. We will draw on a wide range of statistics[2], including information on educational attainment, absence and exclusions and research into families and young people’s experience of the new system.

A summary of the available data on SEN and disability is available at

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/472575/Special_educational_needs-_an_analysis_and_summary_of_data_sources.pdf

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen

“

01/01/2023
Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full-time equivalent staff are employed within his Department’s Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit.

Priti Patel

Child Maintenance Group currently has 33.01 full-time equivalent staff working within the Financial Investigations Unit.

01/01/2023
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the transparency and governance arrangements of the NHS Strategic Projects Team.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We are advised that NHS England is awaiting finalisation of its review of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group contract with UnitingCare LLP before considering what action might be required with regard to the Strategic Projects Team.

We understand that NHS England will not be making any commitments on any other current procurements until the review is complete and NHS England has had time to consider the findings.

01/01/2023
Nadine Dorries – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nadine Dorries on 2016-04-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s policies to tackle bank fraud and scams; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin

The Government takes all types of fraud, including those targeted at banks’ customers, extremely seriously.

The Home Office is the lead Government department on crime, including fraud, and crime prevention overall. In February 2016, the Home Secretary announced a new Joint Fraud Taskforce. The Taskforce is a collaboration of banks, law enforcement and Government. This is the first time these organisations have come together to tackle fraud, and particularly to focus on those issues that have been considered too difficult for a single organisation to manage alone. The Taskforce seeks to identify the issues that will make the biggest difference to our collective fight against fraud.

01/01/2023
Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale on 2016-05-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to become a founding donor of the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies at its launch at the World Humanitarian Summit, and how much they intend to donate in 2016.

Baroness Verma

The UK has played a leading role in the development of the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, which was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit on 23rd May. The UK has committed to provide £30 million in support over two years to the new fund as a founding donor, which was announced by the International Development Secretary at the fund’s launch event at the World Humanitarian Summit.

01/01/2023