The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government plans to take to celebrate HM the Queen’s 90th birthday.
John Penrose
Representatives of the Government will be attending a number of events to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday including a National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral and The Queen’s Birthday Parade on Horseguards Parade.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what effect recent reductions in fuel duty have had on economic growth.
Damian Hinds
The government recognises the link between low fuel prices and economic growth, which is why we have frozen fuel duty for the sixth year in a row.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what infrastructure the UK has in place to ensure that households and businesses do not face energy shortages in the next (a) five and (b) 10 years.
Andrea Leadsom
In addition to the generation capacity within the market, National Grid has already procured 3.6GW of reserve capacity for next winter and, in January, the Capacity Market Transitional Arrangements auction bought 800MW of demand side response capacity for winter 16/17 which will also help secure the system.
In the medium to long term, the capacity market will ensure we have the electricity infrastructure to prevent energy shortages. On 1 March 2016, DECC announced that we are consulting on changes to the CM, to buy more capacity and earlier; tighten the sanctions on those who fail to deliver on their obligations; and bolster energy security in the short–term, by holding a new auction bringing forward the first Capacity Market delivery year to 2017/18.
We are confident that the Capacity Market is the right mechanism to bring forward the necessary new capacity as older, less efficient plants close.
Furthermore, Hinkley will be the first new nuclear power plant built in the UK for 20 years. Once up and running in 2025, it will provide 3.2 Giga Watts of secure, base-load and low carbon electricity for around 60 years, meeting 7% of the UK’s energy needs.
GB also has 4GW of electricity interconnection infrastructure across 4 interconnectors to France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Around 7GW of projects are currently proceeding through Ofgem’s cap and floor regulatory regime, with a further 1GW progressing under the “merchant-exempt” route, more than doubling our capacity in the early 2020s. Ofgem will open a further cap and floor application window at the end of March.
As for gas, GB has a total gas infrastructure deliverability of around 700 mcm/d compared to average winter demand of 290 mcm/d (record demand 465 mcm/d, Dec 2010) giving a surplus capacity against average winter demand of 410 mcm/d.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential for driverless cars to improve the efficiency of use of road space on motorways.
Andrew Jones
Connected and autonomous vehicles could potentially have significant impacts on traffic flow and road network efficiency. The government recognises that this is an important issue and needs to be better understood to properly inform long-term policy and investment decisions. For this reason, the Department for Transport is currently conducting research to explore the traffic flow impacts of connected and autonomous vehicles. This work is ongoing, and forms part of a much wider programme of research and development that the Government is supporting to examine the issues associated with these technologies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what the annual catering bill is for the House of Commons.
Tom Brake
Income from sales by catering services for the financial year 2014/15 was £9.4 million against costs of £11.8 million, which represents a net total cost for the annual catering bill for the House of Commons of £2.4 million. Figures for 2015/16 will be published in July 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will issue guidance to schools on the terminology used for children who do not reach the national standard grade under the proposed reforms to Key Stage 2.
Nick Gibb
Schools have been informed that pupil outcomes will be described as meeting or not meeting the expected standard in the Key Stage 2 (KS2) tests. Pupils who do not meet the expected standard in the teacher assessment of writing will be awarded one of a number of standards: Foundations for the expected standard, Early development of the expected standard, Growing development of the expected standard or Working towards the expected standard. The Standards and Testing Agency will provide additional guidance on scaled scores in July 2016.
Schools are required to report to parents of year 6 children their child’s scaled scores for the KS2 tests; whether they have met the expected standard or not; and their teacher assessed standards for English writing, English reading, mathematics and science. Schools are also required to give parents more general information about the child’s achievements, general progress and attendance record. This is intended to give a more comprehensive view of a child’s overall achievements at the end of the key stage than just their attainment in the national curriculum assessments. The Department does not prescribe the terminology to be used in these reports.
We expect schools to ensure that children’s achievements are reported in a professional and appropriate manner.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to tackle loneliness among people with dementia.
Alistair Burt
Loneliness is a complex problem and affects people in many different ways. There is no single solution that can tackle loneliness and many of the solutions to combatting it lie within local communities. Examples of emerging practice are provided on the Social Care Institute for Excellence Prevention Library.
The Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 set out a vision for a society where the public thinks and feels differently about dementia. It raises the importance of social action solutions such as peer support and befriending services which can also provide practical and emotional support to people with dementia and carers to reduce isolation and prevent crisis.
The Prime Minister’s 2020 Challenge, promotes dementia friendly communities, which are helping to support people with dementia to live more independent and fulfilling lives in their own communities, for longer. Currently, there are around 140 communities across England. Towns, cities and villages have signed up to Alzheimer’s Society’s foundation-stage recognition process for dementia friendly communities and there are over 1.5 million Dementia Friends.
The Cross Government Autism Strategy originally published as Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives in 2010 and updated as Think Autism in 2014 has done much to encourage innovation to break down social isolation by helping autistic people, their families and carers access health, social care, other public services, and peer support. Recently the Department has been working with the Autism Alliance UK, the largest network of autism charities, on the Connect to Autism project. It encourages local organisations, services and companies to become Autism Champions through training staff in autism awareness with a view to helping people who have autism overcome the anxiety and loneliness they can suffer in many everyday environments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided to The Future Leaders Trust in each of the last three years.
Nick Gibb
The total funding provided by the Department to The Future Leaders Trust in each of the last three years is available via the links below. The accounts for 2015-16 will be published in July 2016.
For 2014-15 published accounts (page 235):
For 2013-14 published accounts (page 157):
For 2012-13 published accounts (page 153):
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what powers environmental health officers have to assess excessive noise from residential and commercial properties on a street level.
Rory Stewart
Local authorities have a range of powers available to them to assess excessive noise from residential and commercial properties. These are set out in various pieces of legislation, including the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Noise Act 1996.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency training programme in increasing availability of motorcycle assessors.
Andrew Jones
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) evaluates the effectiveness of its examiner training programme by monitoring the waiting times for both modules of the motorcycle practical test. This enables the agency to balance the demand for tests with the number of motorcycle examiners, which directly affects the availability of motorcycle test appointments. This is measured against the agency’s commitment to maintain or improve upon a six-week annual average waiting time for practical motorcycle tests.
In addition, the progress against this commitment, the demand for tests and the examiner training programme are discussed in a wider forum at a monthly Service Management Group for Vocational and Motorcycle testing. Specific issues are escalated in this forum as necessary.
Waiting times for last year and the first two months of this year are shown in the table below, it should be noted that motorcycle testing is affected by seasonal variation and waiting times inevitably rise in the summer months when demand is higher.
|
Commitment: 6 weeks |
Year 2015/16 |
Year to Date April – May 2016 |
|
MC Mod 1 |
4.7 |
6.8 |
|
MC Mod 2 |
3.9 |
5.5 |