Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help London’s small technology companies and to protect technology talent.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    We are committed to ensuring that Britain is the best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas and start a business, including small tech businesses. Innovate UK provides support to businesses across the UK with around 60% of its grant funding going to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to help them to develop new ideas and recruit and retain tech talent. We are supporting more companies to do research and development through the UK’s R&D Tax Credits scheme. The total of R&D support claimed rose to £2.45bn in 2014-15, an increase of £675m (38%) on the previous year.

    An example of a specific activity in London is Tech City UK (TCUK), funded by Government, who focus their efforts to accelerate the growth of digital businesses at all stages of their development across the UK. TCUK creates a positive culture in relation to digital technology and technological entrepreneurship, and fosters the right policy and business environment for start-up and high-growth entrepreneurial businesses. It does this by connecting entrepreneurs to other businesses and investors, whilst also providing a vital feedback loop to government to ensure that policy development is fit for purpose.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-10-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to fund Bikeability beyond 2015.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Funding for Bikeability is currently confirmed until the end of March 2016. We will take a decision on future funding for the Bikeability programme beyond March 2016 following the outcome of the Spending Review.

  • Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Goverment is providing for mature students who wish to enter the teaching profession; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    Mature students are an important source of new teachers and bring relevant knowledge and skills from their previous employment. In 2015/16, 21 per cent of new entrants to initial teacher training (ITT) courses were aged 30 or over. To attract more potential career changers, our marketing campaign, ‘Your Future, Their Future’, uses a range of media, including television advertising, national newspaper advertising and targeted digital and print communications. As part of this we will be running the ‘New Year New Career’ sub-campaign, which is dedicated to attracting career changers, throughout January 2016.

    We provide support specifically for career changers to make the transition to teaching, especially in the subjects where they are needed the most, including:

    • The School Direct (salaried) route is specifically targeted at career changers with three years’ work experience and allows them to earn a salary whilst they train to teach. We provide grant funding to schools to subsidise the costs of salary and training for trainees on this route.
    • For ITT 2016/17, we are working with 18 School Direct lead schools to develop and recruit to part-time and abridged School Direct (salaried) courses in maths and physics starting in September 2016. The aim of this pilot is to test whether schools can attract more career changers by offering flexible training routes which meet the needs of different individuals.

    In addition, career changers can access extensive support that is available for all ITT candidates. This includes bursaries or scholarships of up to £30,000 tax-free; advice and guidance from the expert advisers on the Get Into Teaching Line; help with arranging school experience to assist with their ITT application; and access to our free Train to Teach events.

    Those who wish to teach secondary biology, geography, maths, physics, chemistry, languages or computing are also eligible for our enhanced Premier Plus service. This includes tailored advice from a dedicated adviser, including the practicalities that often affect career changers, such as childcare funding. Applicants who wish to teach these subjects can also access funded Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses, through which they can boost or refresh their subject knowledge.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria were used to determine who in South Lakeland was entitled to £500 flood compensation payments.

    James Wharton

    South Lakeland District Council are responsible for determining the criteria for distribution and entitlement to the £500 flood compensation payments.

    The funding came from a central government funding scheme (the Communities and Business Recovery Scheme) for Cumbria and Lancashire flood affected households.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of coal burnt in UK coal-fired power stations came from Colombia in 2015.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Full year figures for 2015 are not currently available. In the first 9 months of 2015 (January to September) 1, 32% of imported steam coal, which is predominately used by power stations, came from Columbia.

    [1] Coal Imports ET2.4: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487870/ET_Dec_15.pdf

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  • Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Murrison on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when his Department’s guidance to overseas missions on hospitality for senior UK figures was last reviewed.

    Mr David Lidington

    Overseas Missions provide hospitality to guests to support the Government’s objectives overseas.

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s guidance to staff on visits by Parliamentarians to our posts overseas was reviewed and updated in 2015.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Governor of the Bank of England on the potential use of helicopter funds in the UK economy.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Chancellor of the Exchequer has frequent discussions with the Governor of the Bank of England on a wide range of issues relating to the UK economy.

  • William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of children in households whose income is below the threshold for receiving free school meals; and how many such children have at least one parent who is a national from another EEA member state.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    In January 2015 there were 1,198,494 children known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals. All these children were in households whose income was below the threshold for receiving free school meals.

    We do not hold any information on the nationality of the parents of these children.

  • Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his counterparts in the Iranian government on violations of human rights through executions, torture and arbitrary arrests in that country.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK regularly raises our human rights concerns with the Iranian authorities, both in London and Tehran, and will continue to do so. Iran’s human rights record remains a serious cause for concern, particularly its use of the death penalty, torture, treatment of prisoners (including appropriate access to medical care) and restrictions on the freedom of religion and belief. We continue to urge Iran to abide by its international commitments to ensure all Iranians enjoy the rights and freedoms they are entitled to.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of (a) fuel efficiency and (b) journey times of buses.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department has not carried out a recent detailed assessment of trends in the level of the fuel efficiency of buses. However, information on average journey times for buses is collected as part of the National Travel Survey and can be found in table NTS0311 at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/456304/nts0311.xls

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