Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and which local authority areas in England have no schools with sixth form provision.

    Nick Boles

    As at 22 March 2016, two local authority areas in England, City of London and Isles of Scilly, have no state funded schools with sixth form provision.

    This information is publically available through the EduBase system run by the Department for Education, available at: http://www.education.gov.uk/edubase/home.xhtml.

    “

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to (a) shorten the immigration appeals process and (b) reduce the number of immigration appeals.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    Immigration appeals are determined by the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) which are administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

    HMCTS works with the Home Office and others to monitor and continuously improve appeal processes and timeliness.

    The Immigration Act 2014 simplified the appeals system, reducing the number of decisions that can be appealed. For the quarter October to December 2015, 18,368 appeals were received – a 29% reduction when compared with the same quarter in 2014.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking child refugees of each (a) gender and (b) age group who are currently in EU member states.

    James Brokenshire

    The UK Government does not hold information on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking child refugees in EU Member States by (a) gender and (b) age group.

    This is collected by each Member State and compiled by Eurostat. It is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

    The UK Government is currently consulting with France, Italy and Greece to establish how best we can implement the recent Lord Dubs’ amendment to the Immigration Bill. This will include an assessment of numbers and needs of unaccompanied children in these Member States.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether UK ground personnel based in Saudi Arabia have witnessed the (a) movement, (b) transport or (c) storage of cluster munitions in that country.

    Michael Fallon

    No.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the potential effect of the decreasing uptake of languages at A-level on (a) the uptake of language courses at university and (b) the number of language graduates training to be language teachers.

    Nick Gibb

    The decline in the study of modern foreign languages started in 2004 when the former Government removed the compulsory study of languages from the Key Stage 4 curriculum. By 2010 fewer than half – 43 per cent – of pupils took a GCSE in a modern foreign language, down from 76 per cent of pupils in 2000. The inclusion of a modern foreign or ancient language in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) increased the number of students studying at least one language at GCSE between 2010 and 2015. This has increased the pool of students able to progress to study languages at A level and beyond. The Government will publish their response to the EBacc consultation in due course and is already incentivising the take-up of language A levels in the 16-19 performance tables through the facilitating subject measure.

    To support prospective students’ choice of degree we are making improvements to the information they can access, particularly on the employment outcomes they can expect from their Higher Education (HE) studies. This should allow students to understand better the advantages of studying a language at university. Furthermore, provisions in the Higher Education and Reform Bill, currently before Parliament, will allow Government, in future, to instruct the HE regulator to incentivise or protect the supply of courses, such as language courses, which are economically and culturally important.

    We are also encouraging the best language graduates to enter the teaching profession, through financial incentives such as a bursary of £25,000 for trainees with a first class or 2:1 degree in languages.

  • Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what arrangements are in place to monitor Babcock’s performance and safety record.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Babcock is a key supplier to the Ministry of Defenceand the company’s relationship with the Department is managed at a strategic level through a key supplier representative. This role is currently undertaken by the Chief of Materiel (Fleet) within Defence Equipment and Support, who engages with Babcock on a regular basis. Project and safety performance reviews form a significant element of these discussions.

    With regards to safety, appropriate measures are in place to reduce risk and these are rigorously monitored to ensure that any emerging issues are identified and addressed.

  • Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karen Buck on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of outstanding child maintenance arrears owed in respect of cases using the 2012 statutory maintenance scheme where the arrears were (a) accrued under the 2012 scheme and (b) transferred from the 1993 and 2003 statutory schemes.

    Priti Patel

    a) As at August 2015, outstanding maintenance arrears stood at £35.1 million. More details can be found on page 6 of the Child Maintenance Service 2012 Scheme experimental statistics which can be accessed online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/2012-statutory-child-maintenance-scheme-aug-2013-to-aug-2015-experimental.

    b) Information on the amount of arrears in respect of the 1993 and 2003 Schemes transitioned from the 1993 and 2003 systems to the 2012 system will be published in the 1993 / 2003 Client Fund Accounts due for release shortly after the accounts have been audited by the National Audit Office.

    Previous publications can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-maintenance-client-funds-accounts

    “

  • Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burgon on 2015-12-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which organisations in addition to Rothschilds and the Governor of the Bank of England provided him with advice on whether the Government should sell its stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government has been consistently clear that its policy in respect of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to return the bank to the private sector in full. The advice received from Rothschilds and the Governor of the Bank of England relates specifically to the appropriate timing of an initial share sale.

    UK Financial Investments (UKFI) is responsible for the execution of share sales, and advised the Chancellor in August 2015 that it would be appropriate to conduct the first sale of the Government’s shareholding in RBS. On 3 August 2015, UKFI sold approximately 5.4% of the bank via an accelerated bookbuilding process.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers have taken severance and redundancy packages in each month since May 2015.

    Andrew Selous

    Information on the number of Band 3 Officers who received severance payments between May and September 2015 is contained in the table below.

    Prison Officers Taking Severance Payments – May to September 2015

    Year

    Month

    Severance Leavers

    2015

    May

    20

    Jun

    20

    Jul

    10

    Aug

    20

    Sep1

    ~

    Total

    70

    1 Information on severance payments received in September 2015 is incomplete.

    Severance payments include payments for voluntary exit, redundancy, and payments as compensation for ill health retirements.

    No Band 3 Prison Officers received redundancy payments during this period.

    All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures.

    ~ denotes suppressed values of 5 or fewer or calculations based on a population of 5 or fewer. Low numbers are suppressed, in conjunction with the rounding policy to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to maintain a strong commercial bus market in northern regions of the UK.

    Andrew Jones

    The forthcoming Buses Bill will provide local transport authorities, including those in the North, with a range of tools that will enable them to improve their bus services by introducing new franchising powers and stronger partnership arrangements, as well as a step change in the information available to passengers.

    The Government is also supporting bus services outside London – including in the North – with some £250 million a year of funding through the Bus Service Operators Grant system.