Tag: Royston Smith

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):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517766/DfE-consolidated-annual-report-and-a-counts-2014-to-2015-Web-version.pdf

For 2013-14 published accounts (page 157):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/397024/DfE_consolidated_annual_report_and_accounts_2013_to_2014.pdf

For 2012-13 published accounts (page 153):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/275186/DFE_Group_Consolidated_12-13_ARA.pdf

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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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to allow universities to attract foreign students (a) during negotiations on the UK leaving the EU and (b) after the UK has left the EU.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The precise way in which the Government will control the movement of EU nationals to the UK after the UK has left the EU is yet to be determined and will be subject to the wider negotiations on the UK’s exit from the EU. We are not going to provide a running commentary on every twist and turn of these negotiations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure refugees who arrive in the UK (a) are effectively integrated into local communities and (b) do not place a burden on local authorities.

Richard Harrington

The United Kingdom has a long and proud tradition of providing safe haven to those who genuinely need our protection. People granted refugee status are given access to the labour market and to benefits; in addition, an integration loan is available to help new refugees to integrate into UK society by offering financial support towards housing costs, employment and training.

Since 2010 we have provided over £50 million to support integration projects and activities which treat people as equal British citizens and build stronger communities where everyone can live and work successfully alongside each other.

We are working with those local authorities who have agreed to receive Syrian refugees to build systems that can meet the needs of more people more quickly whilst minimising the impact on local communities. At the Spending Review the Government committed £129 million to assist with local authority costs over years 2-5 of the scheme. The first 12 months of a refugee’s resettlement costs are fully funded by central government using the overseas aid budget.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on how the BBC defines talent for the purposes of non-disclosure of salaries and contractual payments.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Remuneration of talent is an issue for the BBC, which publishes information around its talent spend and definitions as part of its Annual Report and Accounts, which can be found here (http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/pdf/2014-15/bbc-annualreport-201415.pdf) .

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 steps her Department is taking to ensure that the UK’s energy capacity can keep up with demand.

Andrea Leadsom

The Capacity Market secures electricity capacity, mainly power plant and Demand Side Response, through competitive auctions. Targets for the auction are set to ensure there is enough capacity available to meet peak electricity demand.

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.

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 reduce motorway collisions.

Andrew Jones

The Department for Transport has not yet made an assessment of the potential for connected and autonomous vehicles to reduce motorway collisions. Research suggests that connected and autonomous vehicles will have a positive impact on safety – systems such as Advanced Emergency Braking are already acknowledged by some insurers to reduce collisions. However research in this area is limited by the extent of real world testing. The Government recognises the need to ensure that the implications of these technologies on safety are well-understood, and they can be introduced safely onto public roads. That is why the Department for Transport plans to conduct trials of driverless vehicles on the Strategic Road Network by the end of 2017, which will be delivered by Highways England. The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles also plans to do further research in this area, as part of a much wider programme of research and development that the Government is supporting to examine the issues associated with these technologies.