Tag: Royston Smith

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 steps her Department is taking to enable environmental health officers to assess excessive noise in a neighbourhood on a daily basis.

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 2016-06-24.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what framework determines what will be included in the 2021 census.

Matthew Hancock

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the proposed changes to university admissions for foreign students will be tailored to different (a) courses offered and (b) educational institutions.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government will shortly launch a consultation on the proposals announced by the Home Secretary. The consultation will include looking at whether our student immigration rules should be tailored to the quality of the institution.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take in the forthcoming Charter Review to include the BBC within the remit of Freedom of Information legislation.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The BBC is currently subject to the Freedom of Information Act, with some exceptions. This issue is one of many we are looking at as part of Charter Review.

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 steps his Department is taking to increase participation in the arts by people from low income backgrounds.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to experience and participate in culture and the arts whatever their background and the Prime Minister acknowledged the importance of this in a speech in January 2016 on life chances. Government is maintaining the same level of funding for Arts Council England throughout the next spending period which will include support for arts programmes in areas where participation is low.

Arts Council England funds a number of community arts organisations that look to engage disadvantaged people, such as Cinderford Artspace and Helix Arts which focus on encouraging unemployed adults and employed people on low incomes to participate in the arts. Arts Council England also places responsibility on every funded organisation to make their programme of work more reflective of the communities they serve.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to encourage consumers to buy local produce.

George Eustice

The Great British Food Campaign celebrates the best of the UK’s food and drink, focusing particularly on our unique Protected Food Name products such as Traditionally Farmed Gloucestershire Old Spots Pork and Fenland Celery. Through Great British Food we aim to encourage consumers to think more carefully about the provenance of the food that they eat and to consider choosing innovative British produce as part of a balanced healthy diet.

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 increase energy efficiency.

Andrew Jones

Connected and autonomous vehicles could potentially have significant impacts on factors that affect the overall energy consumption and energy efficiency of road transport. The Department for Transport is currently conducting research to explore the energy 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 Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles also plans to do further research in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost is per patient attending a GP’s surgery in Southampton.

Alistair Burt

The requested information is not collected.

NHS England advises that general practitioners (GPs) are funded per head of population to deliver GP medical services. The Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will be commissioning primary care on behalf of NHS England from 1 April 2016 and NHS England confirms across the CCG’s forecast population this funding is £124 per head of population.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Since 2012 we have provided £500 per pupil funding to secondary schools for year 7 pupils who did not meet the expected standard in reading or mathematics at primary school. This funding enables schools to deliver additional support, such as individual tuition or intensive support in small groups, for those pupils that most need it.

It is not possible to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level, as the first cohort of pupils to benefit from this funding in 2012 will now be in year 10 and have not yet entered GCSEs.

We provide advice and guidance to schools on how they should use their funding and have published guidance on literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies which schools can consult when making decisions on how to spend their funding. Schools must publish details of how they spend their year 7 catch-up premium funding on the school website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in Southampton were diagnosed with autism in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Alistair Burt

The Department co-ordinates the Cross Government Autism Strategy originally published as Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives in 2010 and updated as Think Autism in 2014. The on-going actions of the strategy focus on assisting local implementation and multi-agency planning to deliver the aims of the 2009 Autism Act and help people with autism access services and support, and reach their potential. In support of the strategy, statutory guidance was co-ordinated by the Department and issued to local authorities and the National Health Service in 2010 and 2015.

Figures on the numbers of people diagnosed with autism in different parts of the country are not collected centrally.