The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Woodcock on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) flying hours and (b) air shows were flown by the Nimrod MRA4 aircraft prior to their decommissioning.
Mr Philip Dunne
As the Nimrod MRA4 aircraft was never in RAF service, the Ministry of Defence does not hold information regarding the aircraft’s flying hours or appearance at air shows when operated by BAE Systems.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-05-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the role of his Department is planned to be in implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review on Antimicrobial Resistance.
Jane Ellison
The final report of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance is expected shortly. The Department is leading on the cross-departmental response to the report. A group of senior officials has been meeting regularly to ensure the necessary coordination.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate has he made of the (a) number and (b) value of programmes commissioned under his Department’s Dynamic Purchasing System in (i) Dudley, (ii) the Black Country and (iii) the West Midlands.
Justin Tomlinson
The number of contracts awarded under the Dynamic Purchasing System in the West Midlands (Black Country, Birmingham and Solihull, Mercia and Midland Shires Districts) is 13, with total value of £328,040.60.
This includes 4 Contracts awarded within the Black Country District with a total value of £32, 514, one of which was to support Dudley claimants exclusively. The Dudley contract value was £2625.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding has been provided to the Rapid Response Service to support those affected by the closure of SSI Redcar in 2015.
Damian Hinds
The Department’s Rapid Response Service formed part of the SSI Task force set up to provide support to former SSI and supply chain workers.
The Rapid Response Service spend of £2.1M formed part of the overall package of £46m Government funding made available to help people back to work through a range of support measures.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the finding by The Times and the British Medical Journal that the board of a Clinical Commissioning Group in Birmingham awarded a £1.7 million contract to a company in which a number of its board members were shareholders or held a senior position.
Lord Prior of Brampton
We are aware of the reports in The Times and The British Medical Journal.
Birmingham South Central CCG has provided assurances that it has robust and transparent governance arrangements in place that are in line with NHS England guidelines.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what account he has made of the reason for the failure to meet ambulance response time targets for Red 1 999 emergencies between June 2015 and September 2015; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
Ambulance services are experiencing a significant increase in demand compared with previous years.
NHS England and trusts are responding to this challenge with a number of measures including the Ambulance Response Programme which enables trusts to provide a more clinically appropriate response to patients.In 2014/15, there were 1,048,500 more ambulance journeys compared with 2009/10 (2,800 per day). There are now almost 2,000 more paramedics compared to 2010.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what strategy they have in place to increase retention of teachers in the profession.
Lord Nash
Teacher retention rates have remained stable for over a decade and the turnover rate in teaching is lower than for the economy as a whole. Approximately 90% of all teachers are still in service in the year after they qualify and 72% of those who qualified in 2009 were still in teaching five years later. Over 60 percent of teachers remain in service 10 years after qualifying.
The Government recognises that it is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers. That is why we have made policy interventions in areas such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload.
The Department has appointed behaviour expert Tom Bennett to lead a review to ensure new teachers are fully trained in managing behaviour in 21st century schools.
Three groups have been established to address the biggest concerns that teachers raised in the workload challenge: marking, planning and data management. All three groups are due to report in Spring 2016 and the Department is commissioning a biennial survey to track teacher workload, starting in Spring 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Drake on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase private pension saving by the self-employed.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The 2005 Turner Commission recommended that the self-employed should be able to join a pension in an easy and cost-effective fashion. Therefore the Government-backed pension provider, the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) offers low-charge pension schemes to the self-employed, as well as to all employers.
Automatic enrolment has been a huge success to date with almost 6 million eligible workers people now enrolled. We will be reviewing automatic enrolment in 2017. We are keen to identify issues that should be addressed within the review and will be working with stakeholders to determine its scope.
The Government also recognises that the self-employed might benefit from saving in different ways to employees. In 2011 the Government introduced carry forward of annual allowances, which allow individuals with irregular earnings to use any unused Annual Allowance from the previous three years to contribute more to their pension in particular years, if this suits them better than making more regular pension contributions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many prosecutions have occurred or proceedings been commenced as the result of the seizure of illegally imported puppies taken into the Dogs Trust’s care via its pilot quarantine initiative since the start of that pilot.
George Eustice
Local Authorities are responsible for the prosecution of individuals illegally importing puppies into Great Britain. In addition Port of Dover Police can issue formal warnings for illegal landing of puppies including where animals have been concealed. It is for the local authority concerned to decide if it wishes to undertake a prosecution in any of the cases of illegal importation identified during the pilot.
The Dogs Trust pilot quarantine initiative began on 2 December 2015 and is expected to continue until the end of May 2016. As explained in my reply to the honourable Member for North Durham, Kevan Jones, on 11 March 2016, PQ UIN 30363, the Animal and Plant Health Agency will carry out an assessment of the effectiveness of the initiative following its conclusion. This assessment will be made publicly available and will be based on information provided by all parties involved in the pilot. This will include a summary of all enforcement action that has been taken. The report may not, however, be able to comment on investigations that may be underway.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2016 to Question 31889, whether local authorities can instruct academy schools to admit children to meet their legal obligation; and whether it is her policy that local authorities will be able to instruct academy schools to admit children to meet their legal obligation under the proposed fully academised system.
Nick Gibb
Academy schools are their own admission authorities as are maintained voluntary aided and foundation schools. Such schools set their own admission policies and can only change them after consulting local people. Local authorities (LAs) can object to the Schools Adjudicator about an admission policy or a reduction in an admission number but cannot determine how many pupils such schools must admit.
LAs are able to launch a competition for a new free school and, in certain circumstances, place children through the local fair access protocol or, where a school does not agree to admit a child, seek to direct admission.
All state-funded schools are required to participate in the local in-year fair access protocol. Protocols allocate places to children who are unplaced by the start of the school year. Legislation also provides local authorities with powers to seek to direct the admission of children to maintained schools for which they are not the admission authority. Academy funding agreements contain similar direction powers.
Directions can be sought when there is no other school place within a reasonable distance or where a looked after child has been refused a place.
The Schools Adjudicator decides directions for maintained schools while the Education Funding Agency decides directions for academies on behalf of the Secretary of State.