The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) Tornados and (b) Typhoons are fitted with the TCAAS II Collision Warning System.
Mr Philip Dunne
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 3 February 2016 to Question 24361 and on 1 February 2016 to Question 24213, to the hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Ms Thornberry).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to publish the Government’s proposals for implementing the recommendations of the independent Mental Health Taskforce.
Alistair Burt
We welcome the publication of the independent Mental Health Taskforce report and accept its recommendations. We will work with NHS England, other health arm’s length bodies and across government to agree how to take these forward.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential economic benefits to the Calder Valley of accelerating the upgrade of the M62 to a four-lane smart motorway between junctions 20 and 25.
Andrew Jones
The recent Budget announced that funding had been brought forward to enable Highways England to accelerate the smart motorway investment for the M62 Junction 10 to 12 scheme by two years, and to accelerate delivery of the M62 Junction 20 to 25 smart motorway.
Design development work on these schemes is at the very earliest stage, and as such the analysis of the full economic potential of this investment is still being developed as part of the business case.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the implication for his policies on a future nuclear deterrent of the development of the Boeing Echo Voyager and other new drone technology.
Mr Philip Dunne
We dedicate considerable resources to assessing these emerging capabilities. Despite potential advancements in technology the detection of submarines will remain extremely difficult. It would not be appropriate to go into specific detail of the steps taken to mitigate against these threats but we assess that our current and future submarine fleet remains safe and secure.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many agency staff were contracted to cover classes in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.
Nick Gibb
The Department collects details of all teachers working in state funded schools through the annual School Workforce Census. However, this census does not separately identify agency teachers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of making selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery available on the NHS for young people with cerebral palsy.
David Mowat
NHS England currently has in place a programme called Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE). This is designed to enable a limited number of patients to access treatments that are not funded by the National Health Service, but nonetheless show significant promise for the future, while new clinical and patient experience data are collected within a formal evaluation programme. The benefits of Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) procedures are currently being assessed through this scheme.
The SDR CtE is supported in five designated hospital trusts across the country. There are two main phases for any treatments entered into NHS England’s CtE programme. The first phase of the SDR CtE concluded in March 2016. During this phase a predetermined number of patients were recruited within a few selected centres across England and a formal evaluation programme was established.
The second phase – the analysis phase – has now commenced. Once the CtE evaluation report is available, NHS England’s published policy for access to SDR will be reviewed. NHS England expects to receive an evaluation report in March 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harris of Haringey on 2016-10-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to opt in to the new Europol regulation; and if so, when.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The UK remains a full member of Europol, and because of our Justice and Home Affairs opt-in, we have the option to seek to opt-in to Europol’s new legislative framework that comes into force on 1st May 2017. This option remains open to us while we are a member of the EU. The Government is actively considering whether to opt-in to the new Europol Regulation. We will inform Parliament of our decision in due course in the usual way.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the length of time it is taking the British Virgin Island government to respond to its consultation on a public register of beneficial ownership.
James Duddridge
The BVI Government issued a public consultation document in November 2013, seeking public opinion on whether or not the BVI should adopt a central register of beneficial ownership. The consultation process concluded in March 2014 and this was followed by a review and analysis of the submissions. The results were published in February 2015. Since then the BVI Government has been working with the financial services industry to develop proposals which led to the Statement made by the Premier in the House of Assembly on 3 November on changes to the BVI Business Companies Act and Anti Money Laundering legislation. We will continue to work with the BVI authorities so that the changes to their systems meet the three criteria that the Government has set out.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish from the migrant sponsorship management system the number of Tier 2 and 5 visas granted annually to each sponsor employer, and the number of Tier 4 visas issued annually to each educational establishment.
Lord Bates
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they are able to provide to schools in rural areas with attached swimming pools where the age weighted pupil unit is not sufficient to support the operation of such facilities.
Lord Nash
The Department distributes revenue funding to local authorities through the Dedicated Schools Grant. Each local authority receives a fixed level of schools revenue funding per pupil. The local authority is then responsible for designing a local funding formula, in consultation with its schools forum, which must include an age-weight pupil unit (per pupil funding attracted by each pupil at a school) of at least £2,000 per pupil for primary schools, and £3,000 for secondary schools. In consultation with its school forum, the local authority has the flexibility to set rates higher than these minimum levels. There are two further optional factors that are particularly relevant for rural schools: the lump sum and the sparsity factor. It is for individual schools to manage their budgets within the total provided to them, determined by the local formula.
The Department publishes all local authorities’ funding formulae on GOV.UK.