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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to increase the proportion of men going to university.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with the potential has the opportunity to benefit from higher education, irrespective of their background or gender.

    In the last academic year we saw record numbers of applicants and entrants to higher education, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    In our recent guidance to the Director of Fair Access, we asked him to include among his areas of focus support for white working class boys who are among the groups with the lowest participation rates. Universities expect to spend more than £745 million through access agreements agreed with the Director of Fair Access on measures to improve access and success for students from disadvantaged backgrounds – up significantly from £404 million in 2009.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the academy trusts approved to receive the Northern Fund for academy sponsors in the second competition which concluded in February 2016 operated schools which had not been inspected by Ofsted since becoming an academy.

    Edward Timpson

    Nine academy trusts were approved to receive the Northern Fund from the two competitions. All nine trusts (five in the first competition, and four in the second) were operating one or more schools that had not been inspected by Ofsted since becoming an academy at the time decisions were taken to award funding. Equally, all nine trusts had one of more schools that had been inspected at the time decisions were taken to award funding.

    Academy trusts will, at any point in time, be likely to have a mixture of academies, some of which will have been inspected as academies and some not. That is the nature of the inspection arrangements, and is why we considered a broad set of factors, including the overall performance of the trusts, to assess whether the Northern Fund would enhance their capacity and capability to improve underperforming schools.

  • Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the current work priorities are of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

    Ben Gummer

    The IPA was formed on 01 January 2016, merging the existing Cabinet Office Major Projects Authority and HM Treasury’s Infrastructure UK. The IPA reports jointly to HMT and the Cabinet Office – and brings together the strengths of both departments – increasing co-operation and alignment in the centre of government on infrastructure and major projects.

    The Authority’s 6 key priorities are;

    1. To set the right policy environment for projects to succeed
    2. To give the market confidence to deliver
    3. To ensue projects and programmes are set up for success from the outset
    4. To ensure projects and programmes deliver their intended benefits
    5. To promote the right operating environment for project delivery
    6. To developing world-class project delivery & project finance capabilities across government
  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent from the public purse on the payment of social security benefits to non-UK citizens in each non-European Economic Area country for each year from 1997-98 to 2014-15.

    Priti Patel

    The full information requested is not held centrally.

    The Department for Work and Pensions checks the nationality and immigration status of benefit claimants to ensure the benefit is paid properly and to prevent fraud. While this information is used, it is not recorded as part of the benefit payment administrative systems.

    Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables are published on Gov.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474453/expenditure-by-country-and-region-2014-15.xlsx

    Please note that these figures include a breakdown for UK regions and a combined figure for expenditure abroad or where the region is unknown. Expenditure is not broken down by nationality.

    “

  • Angela Rayner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Angela Rayner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 1.57 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on research and development by industry of converting innovation grants into interest-paying loans.

    Joseph Johnson

    Access to finance remains an important challenge for innovative enterprises. We want to broaden the type of financial support available for innovation. Other European countries like France, Finland and The Netherlands offer financial products in their policy mix for business innovation. We are seeking to learn from these approaches. In doing this, we will engage with businesses to better understand their needs and support access to sufficient financing throughout the lifecycle of innovative projects.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether new guidance has been issued to her Department on drafting responses to written parliamentary questions.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education regularly refreshes its internal guidance on drafting responses to written parliamentary questions to ensure that it is up to date.

  • Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to ascertain the reason for a large number of whales becoming stranded on the east coast of the UK in 2016; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    Mass stranding events of whales are rare and ascertaining what causes them can be difficult. This is why Defra, in conjunction with the Devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales, funds the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP). Although it is still too early to draw any conclusions on what may have caused the recent mass strandings of sperm whales in the North Sea, the CSIP will be working with stranding networks in Germany and the Netherlands over the coming months to try to identify the potential cause.

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has held with pharmacy patients on the closure of community pharmacies.

    Alistair Burt

    Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

    The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public health services to the benefit of patients and the public.

    Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim. We are not able to assess which pharmacies may close or the number of people who may lose their jobs, because we do not know the financial viability of individual businesses or the extent to which they derive income from services commissioned locally by the NHS or local authorities or have non-NHS related income.

    We are consulting the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and others, including patient and public representatives on our proposals. An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, in how many public private partnerships in (a) the UK and (b) Birmingham the Government is involved as a (i) party to the contract and (ii) statutory actor.

    Greg Hands

    HM Treasury collects and publishes data on centrally supported PFI and PF2 (the UK Government’s main form of PPPs) projects. The most recent collection recorded projects as at 31st March 2015. This can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-finance-initiative-and-private-finance-2-projects-2015-summary-data. This publication has the information requested on projects in the UK and Birmingham.

    HM Treasury does not hold information on ‘statutory actors’ in PFI and PF2 projects, however the published data does show the contracting parties, equity holders and special purpose vehicle responsible for managing the project.

  • Craig Williams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Craig Williams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Williams on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department’s review of Atos contracts will be completed by summer 2016.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Atos contracts with an annual spend over £10 million with central Government are currently being reviewed. Data collection was completed by the end of April. Interviews with departments and Atos are taking place. Interviews are expected to be completed by mid-June 2016.

    The Cabinet Office will write to the PAC summarising the findings of the review and it will be completed in summer 2016.