Tag: Royston Smith

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.

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 at GPs’ surgeries nationally.

Alistair Burt

This information is not collected in the format requested. However, data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre shows that the total expenditure on General Practice in England in 2013/14 was £8,753 million. NHS England estimates that there are 340 million general practitioner consultations each year. As an average, this would work out as £25.74 per patient attendance.

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 effect of pupil premium on ensuring children who are classed as behind reach their expected grades at Key Stages 1 to 4.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Government is determined to deliver educational excellence everywhere so that every child, regardless of background, reaches their full potential.

Information on the proportion of low achieving disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard at key stage 4 is available from the KS2-4 transition matrices for disadvantaged pupils[1] on RAISEonline. These show progression from sub-levels at key stage 2 to grades at key stage 4 for a range of subjects, for both disadvantaged and other pupils. Similar information is not published regularly for progression between other key stages.

In 2015 the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee reviewed the pupil premium and concluded that while it is too early to assess the full impact of the funding, there is evidence that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has started to narrow.

The Department for Education’s gap index provides a more accurate measure over time in light of changes to assessments. It shows that attainment has risen and the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed – by 7.1 per cent at key stage 2 and 6.6 per cent at key stage 4 since 2011, the year the pupil premium was introduced.

This means better prospects and a more prosperous life as an adult for this group of pupils. But we refuse to accept second best for any young person, which is why we are continuing the pupil premium at current rates for the duration of this parliament, providing funding to support schools to continue improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

[1] https://www.raiseonline.org/OpenDocument.aspx?document=381%20

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