Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle underperformance in schools in Greater Manchester.

    Nick Gibb

    The Government is committed to educational excellence everywhere. The Education and Adoption Bill includes powers designed to help raise standards in Greater Manchester, ensuring that all failing maintained schools become academies with strong sponsors and coasting schools will be challenged to improve. The Regional Schools Commissioner has already prioritised Greater Manchester for the Northern Fund and brought a new, high-performing sponsor into the area. Where standards are unacceptably low in academies, she has held sponsors and academy trusts to account and has used the Secretary of State’s powers to issue Pre-Termination Warning Notices (PTWNs) to trusts that have failed to drive forward the necessary improvements at pace.

    The department publishes all PTWNs at:

    www.gov.uk/government/collections/letters-to-academies-about-poor-performance#termination-notices

    “

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether appointments to the posts of NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprint Leaders were subject to open selection.

    George Freeman

    Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas have been determined by local health and care services coming together in ways that make sense for their local areas, in order to transform the way that health and care is planned and delivered for their populations.

    Following local discussions about who is best placed to play the role of footprint leaders, together with discussions with national bodies, 41 of the 44 planning areas have identified and agreed leaders.

    They are mostly a mix of trust chief executive officers, clinical commissioning group leaders and local government executives.

  • Deidre Brock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Deidre Brock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of street level cabinets served by a fibre enabled exchange that are not planned to be upgraded for fibre broadband in commercially viable areas.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    BT’s commercial deployment programme is still ongoing. We will not have access to information on the proportion of cabinets that remain to be upgraded in commercial areas until this is completed.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people who drive heavy goods vehicles in city centres receive training that specifically addresses the risks of urban driving.

    Andrew Jones

    The importance of being aware of vulnerable road users is tested during the process of a professional driver passing their test and gaining their heavy goods vehicle driving licence.

    Additionally, all professional drivers of heavy goods vehicles have to complete ongoing Driver Professional Certificate training of 35 hours spread over a 5-year period. This periodic training includes a wide range of topics, including awareness of vulnerable road users in urban areas or city centres.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been granted asylum in the UK on the grounds of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of religion in each year since 2010.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    When an individual makes an asylum claim on religious grounds it is recorded in the interview records and any written representations they provide. Data on asylum claims on religious grounds is not systematically recorded on the Casework Information Database (CID) and therefore it is not possible to provide a breakdown of information in this way without individual analysis of thousands of casework files at disproportionate cost.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost of using external agencies for recruitment to senior Civil Service posts in his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department uses external recruitment agencies to support appointments to the Senior Civil Service (SCS). The table below shows the costs of SCS appointments that have been made where a recruitment agency was involved, for each financial year since 2010/11.

    Year

    Spend

    1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011

    £45,673

    1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012

    £160,404

    1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013

    £49,275

    1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014

    £76,973

    1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015

    £68,906

    1 April 2015 – November 2015

    £7,450
  • Charlotte Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Charlotte Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many prosecutions there have been for tachograph violations in each year since 2010.

    Andrew Jones

    The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency takes non-compliance with drivers hour’s regulations very seriously and deals appropriately with anyone who attempts to undermine public safety by not taking the required breaks. This includes taking prohibition and prosecution action.

    DVSA is determined to tackle the small minority of operators and drivers who choose to break the rules, and it has effective measures in place to catch offenders quickly.

    DVSA carry out investigations based on intelligence and information from the public and the haulage industry, as well as conducting checks across the strategic road network, using technology such as ANPR cameras, as well as enforcement officers at the roadside and at DVSA check sites

    The figures below show the amount of prosecutions for tachograph violations in each year since 2010, with figures also included for 2008/09 and 2009/10 to provide context.

    Heavy Goods Vehicle

    2008/09

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    Drivers Hours

    3,913

    2,717

    2,211

    2,346

    2,130

    2,219

    1,518

    Tacho records

    2,046

    1,391

    1,153

    1,619

    1,664

    1,831

    1,343

    Public Service Vehicle

    2008/09

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    Drivers Hours

    326

    107

    87

    458

    293

    119

    149

    Tacho records

    219

    122

    58

    409

    218

    106

    148

    Light Goods Vehicle

    2008/09

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    Drivers Hours

    38

    23

    43

    25

    15

    35

    33

    Tacho records

    20

    19

    25

    15

    13

    6

    20

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether trade union groups based abroad will be eligible to bid for funding from the Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy.

    Mr David Lidington

    Any individual or organisation can apply to the fund. All parties that submit bids are subject to due diligence checks to ensure they have the capacity/ability to deliver their proposed project in line with the funds objecitves. This applies to all Foreign and Commonwealth Office programme funds. Bids will be rigorously assessed against the criteria set out in our programme guidance and strategy, available online.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK civilian personnel are currently deployed on military operations; and in what capacity such personnel are deployed.

    Penny Mordaunt

    There are 84 UK civilian personnel currently deployed on behalf of the Ministry of Defence on military operations. 26 of those are deployed as UK civil servants undertaking a range of essential roles including policy, legal and scientific advice, financial and commercial services, and delivery of the Government’s ex gratia redundancy and intimidation schemes for locally employed civilians. 58 of those 84 are deployed as contractors, undertaking a range of support roles.

    In both cases, the roles are undertaken principally in Kabul and locations across the Gulf.

  • Mark Williams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Mark Williams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Williams on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what value of dairy produce was imported from each country of origin in each of the last five years.

    George Eustice

    The HMRC data has been provided on a ‘country of despatch’ basis, rather than the requested ‘country of origin’ basis, as ‘country of despatch’ trade data is considered a more accurate representation of actual levels of trade.

    The table below shows the value of dairy produce imported into the UK, for the last five years, according to HMRC trade statistics:

    £/million

    Country

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    *2015

    Irish Republic

    689.1

    662.6

    767.3

    702.6

    594.1

    France

    484.2

    510.0

    559.5

    568.4

    392.0

    Germany

    286.3

    283.5

    336.5

    345.1

    241.4

    Netherlands

    169.2

    237.2

    277.2

    252.1

    187.3

    Belgium

    216.3

    209.5

    239.4

    196.0

    142.0

    Italy

    174.1

    162.4

    168.5

    174.5

    111.9

    Denmark

    214.1

    195.1

    153.1

    160.0

    70.7

    Greece

    44.8

    44.9

    53.7

    60.7

    70.2

    Poland

    28.4

    31.9

    42.0

    43.4

    41.2

    Spain

    31.8

    36.8

    44.3

    39.6

    31.9

    Cyprus

    16.3

    17.2

    20.4

    26.6

    22.2

    Others

    96.8

    95.9

    102.6

    134.7

    91.9

    Grand Total

    2,451.4

    2,487.0

    2,764.4

    2,703.6

    1,996.9

    Source: HM Revenue and Customs. Data prepared by the Food & Trade Statistics team, Great British Food Unit, Defra.

    *2015 data are subject to amendments. Totals may not add up to the sum of their components due to rounding.