Tag: Richard Burden

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the take-up of creative subjects in secondary schools.

Nick Gibb

The Government believes that every child should experience a high quality education throughout their time at school including in creative subjects such as music, art and design. All state-funded schools must provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society.

In maintained schools music and art and design are compulsory subjects within the national curriculum for 5-14 year olds. Maintained schools are also required to teach their pupils dance, as part of the PE curriculum for 5-14 year olds and drama, as part of the English curriculum for 5-16 year olds.

We have reformed GCSEs to make them more rigorous and to match expectations in the highest performing jurisdictions around the world. Since the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) was first introduced the proportion of pupils in state-funded schools taking at least one GCSE in an arts subject has increased, rising from 46 per cent in 2011 to 50 per cent in 2015. From September 2016, schools will be teaching new gold standard GCSEs in music, dance, drama and art and design and new AS and A levels in music, dance and drama and theatre.

Between 2012-16, the Department invested over £460 million in a diverse portfolio of arts and music education programmes that are designed to improve access to the arts for all children, regardless of their background, and to develop talent across the country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-07-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with (a) LEAP Academy Trust, (b) teaching trade unions, (c) staff and (d) students and parents on the future viability of Baverstock Academy; and what steps she is taking to ensure that that school remains open.

Edward Timpson

Leap Academy Trust has formally requested that the Secretary of State agree to terminate their funding agreement. No decision has yet been made. The Secretary of State will need to be confident that a robust plan is in place to ensure pupils’ education continues without disruption. In the meantime, our priority is to stabilise the academy in terms of school improvement and outcomes for pupils and the future of the staff.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assistance his Department provides to local authorities to help tackle (a) homelessness and (b) the root causes of homelessness.

Mr Marcus Jones

One person without a home is one too many. That is why the Government is clear that prevention must be at the heart of everything we do to tackle homelessness. We will be investing £500 million in work to prevent and relieve homelessness across this Parliament. This includes protecting homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, which will amount to £315 million by 2019-20, to help them continue to provide quality advice and assistance to everyone who approaches them for help. Since 2010, local authorities have helped prevent or relieve over one million cases of homelessness.

Homelessness is rarely a housing issue alone. The causes are varied and driven by issues such as health, education, justice, welfare, and employment. That is why we have increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million, including a new £10 million Social Impact Bond to support rough sleepers with the most complex needs. This builds on the success of the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond, run by the Greater London Authority to turn round the lives around of 830 of London’s most entrenched rough sleepers. Over half have achieved accommodation, employment or reconnection outcomes.

In addition we have invested £15 million to improve outcomes for young people through the Fair Chance Fund. This funding is turning around the lives of around 1,900 18 to 25 year olds with complex and overlapping needs, by supporting them into accommodation, education, training and employment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department takes to ensure that government projects are delivered on time and within budget.

Ben Gummer

All projects are ultimately the responsibility of individual government departments. However, with £400 billion in the Infrastructure Pipeline and £400 billion in the Major Projects Portfolio, the Cabinet Office has a central team, the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA), to support departments to deliver on time and within budget. The IPA provides expertise and practical help, a supportive environment to enable major projects to succeed, and manages an independent assurance process to ensure projects are delivered to time and within budget.

• IPA deploys expert commercial, financial and delivery support
• IPA delivers independent high quality assurance and oversight
• IPA develops standards, insights and tools, developing the project leadership and project finance professions
• IPA delivers key finance schemes (PF2 & guarantees) to enable key projects to proceed

The IPA works with all partners in infrastructure and major projects – government departments, project teams, HMT, Cabinet Office, and the private sector – to do this. The IPA reports jointly to HMT and Cabinet Office Ministers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings (a) Ministers of her Department and (b) officials of HM Prison Service have had with drone manufacturers in each quarter of each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Details of all ministerial meetings with external companies are published on gov.uk. Information on officials’ meetings is not held centrally.

We remain vigilant to all incidents involving drones and take the threat they pose to prison security very seriously. We have already introduced new legislation to further strengthen our powers, so that anyone found using a drone in an attempt to get contraband into prisons can be punished with a sentence of up to two years imprisonment. We take a zero tolerance approach to smuggling of contraband into prisons and work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure those caught are prosecuted.

A range of methods to counter the threat posed by drones are continuously being trialled and evaluated for their effectiveness across the prison estate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on funding the independent review on the future of the Manston airfield.

Andrew Jones

The Department for Transport spent £75,000 to undertake an independent review of the Compulsory Purchase Order process regarding Manston airfield.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost of testing all vehicles for emissions for (a) each car and (b) in total; and whether the Government will finance the total programme.

Andrew Jones

The cost of the evaluation programme are still being developed, but it is estimated that testing could cost up to £15,000 per vehicle.

We have approved a budget of £675,000 from public funds to ensure that this important work can proceed. However, we have also agreed with ministers in Germany and in France that we will collaborate and secure best value for the taxpayer.

The UK programme will consider, without bias, vehicles from 19 manufacturers. The programme will assess approximately 70 different models. However, we have been in contact with ministers in Germany and in France and we have agreed that we should work cooperatively to ensure that we rationalise our respective test programmes to avoid duplication of testing.

The cost of recalling the vehicles in the UK will be met by Volkswagen group and will not fall to the public purse.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for the junior doctors’ strikes due to commence on 1 December 2015; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of such strikes on NHS services.

Ben Gummer

We are pleased that the British Medical Association (BMA) agreed to suspend the strike. NHS Employers agreed to the extension of the timeframe for the BMA to commence any industrial action by four weeks to 13 January 2016. NHS Employers and the Department have agreed within this timetable to temporarily suspend plans to introduce new contracts to allow negotiations to progress.

We know staff right across the National Health Service worked incredibly hard to ensure that the NHS had robust contingency plans to deal with the anticipated industrial action and that patients will be disappointed if their operations or appointments had to be cancelled or delayed. Our absolute priority was to ensure that patients were not put at risk or harmed. We always wanted talks not strikes and we are committed to meaningful negotiations to agree a new national contract that is fair, safe which put patients first every day of the week.

Negotiations will be on the basis of a memorandum of understanding between the parties which acknowledges a shared responsibility for the safety of patients and junior doctors and the desire to achieve and implement without undue delay a contractual framework that provides fair reward and a safe working environment for junior doctors throughout the week.

We now have the opportunity to work together to develop a new national contract that helps to meet our shared ambition to make NHS care the safest and highest quality in the world.

The agreement can be found on the ACAS website at:

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5557

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what work his Department is undertaking with local authorities to ensure that (a) provision of women’s refuges is increased to meet greater demand and (b) such refuges provide residents with the support they need.

Mr Marcus Jones

We are committed to ensuring that no victim of domestic abuse is turned away from the support they need. That is why in the Summer Budget we launched a £3 million fund to increase provision of safe accommodation with specialist support, including refuges, and to provide services to help victims access this support. The recent Spending Review announced a new dedicated, long term fund of £40 million over the next four years offering support to victims of domestic abuse. This increased funding complements the Government’s wider approach and support for Violence Against Women and Girls services, which will be set out in the forthcoming refresh of this strategy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on bilateral relations of recent decisions by China to construct new islands on coral reefs in disputed waters.

Mr Hugo Swire

Whilst the UK takes no position on the underlying sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, we are concerned about the impact of any unilateral actions, such as large scale land reclamation, and the risk these may pose to freedom of navigation and regional stability.

We have raised these issues with China through our regular bilateral dialogue. We have also called on all parties to exercise restraint and pursue the settlement of disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to refrain from activity likely to raise tensions.