Tag: Stephen Timms

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his policy is on supporting all new armed forces recruits who arrive without A* to C passes in GCSE English and mathematics to gain such qualifications; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence does not make financial provision to improve the Functional Skills (FS) of recruits before they are selected to join the UK Armed Forces.

For those who join the UK Armed Forces, there are clearly identified routes to ensure acceptable levels of FS. Over 95% of all recruits, no matter what their age or prior qualifications, enrol in an Apprenticeship Programme each year. Apprenticeships ensure that Service personnel (SP) will gain level 2 in literacy and numeracy – which is the equivalent to GCSE level. The Armed Forces also offer courses in a wide range of skills, such as engineering, information and communications technology (ICT), construction, driving, and animal care.

All recruits aged under 18 receive key skills education in literacy and numeracy, should they need it, and all are enrolled onto apprenticeships. The Armed Forces remain the UK’s largest apprenticeship provider, equipping young people with valuable and transferable skills for life. Ofsted regularly inspects our care of newly joined young recruits, and we are very proud of the standards we achieve.

Since September 2012, Defence has adopted FS qualifications (FS (English) and FS (Mathematics)) as the accredited measures of literacy and numeracy skills for all SP accessing in-Service literacy and numeracy provision. Defence FS provision will be (in most cases) a blend of in-house and external provision. FS provision and qualifications have been available and publicly funded in England since September 2010, with the single Services funding the following elements:

Specialist manpower. Sufficient in-house specialist practitioners to meet the FS requirements that are not met from external or Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency funded providers and, co-ordinate the delivery of that provision across their Service.

FS staff training. Training for in-house specialist practitioners and support staff to meet the required professional standards, where this is not externally funded.

Trainee costs. All direct and indirect costs incurred by Initial Training Establishments, where training has to be extended to cover FS provision to meet the minimum FS Entry Level 3 standard, by the start of Phase 2 training.

FS resources. FS support materials, essential ICT, audio-visual equipment and associated consumables, and any other essential resource costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse has been of removing to India by sea those people who have been refused leave to remain in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire

The mode of transport for persons for persons subject to enforced removal from the UK is not published within official national migration statistics. To establish this figure over a 5 year period would require a manual examination of records within the Home Office Case Information Database (CID) which could only be done at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016, to Question 35962, what estimate he has made of the number of tenants with spare rooms who have moved to smaller accommodation following removal of the subsidy.

Justin Tomlinson

The information requested is not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36333, on employment schemes, how much was spent on each of the programmes referred to in that Answer in the most recent financial year for which data is available.

Priti Patel

The most recent actual spend data available is for the financial year 2014-15, a breakdown of spend on the Employment Programmes listed in the answer to Question 36333 can be found in the attached table.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is offering to small and medium-sized enterprises to assist with the cost of setting up an apprenticeship programme.

Nick Boles

The government provides £1,500 per apprentice to smaller employers taking on new apprentices aged 16-24 through the Apprenticeships Grant for Employers. Additional support provided for employers includes funding training for 16-18 year old apprentices, those young people who are aged 19-24 who have been in the care of the Local Authority, apprentices with additional learning needs, and apprentices who don’t have the level of English and maths that is required to meet the minimum standard. Further funding detail and provisional funding rates are due to be published in June.

Since April, employers have not been required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for almost all apprentices aged under 25 up to the Upper Secondary Threshold (£827 per week in 2016-17).

This change makes the business case for apprenticeships even stronger, reducing the cost of employing a young apprentice by over £500 a year on a salary of £12,000, and over £1,000 a year on a salary of £16,000.

Employers can access information about employing an apprentice on the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/take-on-an-apprentice

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that armed forces recruits aged between 16 and 19 without a GCSE in mathematics or English are prepared for later life outside the armed forces.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) provides Service personnel with a range of educational, learning and development opportunities with our Learning Centres employing English and mathematics tutors who are employed to teach in numeracy and literacy. Over 95% of recruits are enrolled into an Apprenticeship Programme each year, regardless of their age, which ensures that Service personnel gain a Level 2 in numeracy and literacy. This is the equivalent of a GCSE.

It is an Ofsted goal that we encourage our people to achieve maths and English GCSE. The Ministry of Defence does actively encourage our Personnel to gain GCSE maths and English, and provides many opportunities for them to do this in their career with classes run in learning and development centres using part time Service instructors; or using distance learning programmes for exams sat on operational units and in shore bases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve the performance of multi-academy trusts in which disadvantaged pupils perform below the national average for attainment and improvement.

Edward Timpson

Academies working together in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) are able to share resources and expertise to support disadvantaged pupils. The department’s analysis shows, as does that of the Sutton Trust, that there are MATs that can perform significantly above average despite high percentages of their pupils being disadvantaged.

We remain committed to achieving educational excellence everywhere and where there is underperformance, the academy system enables us to take swift action to tackle it. In addition, we are targeting £2.5 billion a year of pupil premium funding to support the most disadvantaged pupils.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of how many degree apprenticeship places will be taken up by 2020.

Robert Halfon

Degree Apprenticeships are designed by groups of employers working with higher education institutions and will be driven by employer demand.

We therefore do not use a top-down estimate of how many Degree Apprenticeships will be taken up by 2020, as part of our overall commitment to 3 million starts.

Degree Apprenticeships provide a valuable route for people to obtain a degree-level qualification alongside training for a career, with employment from day one.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academies have been removed from their multi academy trust on the initiative of (a) Regional School Commissioner and (b) Minister in each of the last three years.

Edward Timpson

The following table shows the number of academies that have been removed from MATs in the last three academic years.

Academic Year	Number of academies
2013/14	3
2014/15	38
2015/16	38

Academies and free schools removed from trusts in 2013/14, prior to the appointment of regional schools commissioners, would have had ministerial approval. Since September 2014, RSCs would have made this decision in the majority of cases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress the Government has made to reduce the disability employment gap.

Penny Mordaunt

We recognise that the gap between the employment rates of disabled people and non-disabled people remains too large.

Last year the Work and Health Unit was established to lead the drive for improving work and health outcomes for people with health conditions and disabilities, as well as improving support for people absent from work through ill health and those at risk of leaving workforce.

The Unit has begun work to build the evidence base of what works to support disabled people and people with health conditions to obtain and remain in work.

We plan to produce a Green Paper later this year that will explore a range of ways to improve the prospects and transform the lives of disabled people and people with long term health conditions by removing barriers that prevent them from working, and helping ensure that they are able to obtain and remain in work.