Tag: Stephen Timms

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the state aid approval in relation to BDUK requires BT to provide Wholesale Open Access to other communication providers for ducts and poles built with BDUK funding which are (i) over one km in length and cost more than £50,000 to build and (ii) less than one km in length and cost less than £50,000 to build.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The UK 2012 state aid Decision applied different wholesale access conditions to new and existing infrastructure. On new infrastructure over one km in length and costing more than £50,000 to build, BT must provide access for any purpose, while on existing infrastructure and on new infrastructure less than one km in length or costing less than £50,000 to build, the primary use must be retail services (with business services only permitted where it supports the primary objective.) Both cases exceed what is required by Ofcom under regulation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many state playing fields were sold in each year since 2010.

Edward Timpson

This government will only give local authorities and schools permission to dispose of school playing fields if the sports and curriculum needs of the school can continue to be met. All proceeds of any sales must be put back into improving sports or educational facilities

It is not the government or the department that instigates the disposal of school playing fields. It is the schools themselves and their local authorities that propose to convert these often surplus or unused fields to invest in school sport or education.

Details of school playing field sales are not held centrally. Schools and local authorities only need to seek consent from the department to dispose of a school playing field. Disposal includes leasing to a third party provider. We have published a list of departmental decisions on applications for consent to dispose of school playing field land since May 2010, which can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-land-decisions-about-disposals

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to encourage academies to join high-performing rather than under-performing multi-academy trusts; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson

Regional Schools Commissioners (RSC) are supporting the development of high-performing multi-academy trusts (MAT). MATs enable academies to realise a wide range of benefits and provide the formal structure in which high-performing schools can support under-performing schools to improve.

Where there are concerns about the performance of an academy, the RSC may decide that the support of a new academy trust is needed to bring about the necessary improvements. In selecting a new trust, the RSC will evaluate its capacity, including the performance of the trust’s existing academies and its ability to provide the support required.

In order to move an underperforming academy to a new trust, the RSC may be able to use the termination powers set out in the academy’s funding agreement to require the academy to move without the agreement of the academy or the existing trust. The Education and Adoption Bill will give RSCs stronger, more consistent powers to do this with all failing and coasting academies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in which universities the Frontline programme was promoted in (a) 2015 and (b) 2016.

Edward Timpson

Frontline was promoted at the following universities in both 2015 and 2016: Aston, Bath, Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Brunel, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Greenwich, Kings College London, Kingston, Imperial College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Leeds Beckett, Liverpool, London Metropolitan, Loughborough, LSE, Manchester, Middlesex, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary, Reading, Sheffield, SOAS, Southampton, Strathclyde, Surrey, St Andrews (not in 2016), UCL, UEA, University of East London, Warwick, Westminster, and York. In 2016, Frontline also visited Belfast, Leeds Beckett, Surrey, and UEA to promote the programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that Work Programme providers are alert to the mental health needs of clients.

Priti Patel

Work Programme providers have the freedom to deliver tailored support appropriate to the individual needs of all participants. This includes participants with health conditions for whom many providers employ advisers with the relevant skills and knowledge to provide specialist support or otherwise engage specialist sub-contractors.

The Department operates a robust performance management and checking regime to ensure all providers deliver the standards and performance we expect.

To the end of December 2015, around 17,000 participants who were claiming Employment and Support Allowance at the time of referral and have declared a mental or behavioural disorder as their primary health condition have been supported into sustained employment through the Work Programme

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy that new academies should not join under-performing multi-academy trusts.

Edward Timpson

Regional Schools Commissioners (RSC) are supporting the development of high-performing multi-academy trusts (MATs). MATs will play a crucial role in the future school system, enabling academies to realise a wide range of benefits and providing the formal structure in which high-performing schools can support under-performing schools to improve.

RSCs are responsible for approving new academies and intervening in underperforming academies and free schools in their area. In assessing schools proposals for becoming academies, RSCs will ensure schools joining existing trusts are matched to the right MATs, according to their need, the trust’s capacity and how together they will secure long term success. New academies will be matched with MATs who are able to evidence good or better performance and capacity for sustained improvement.

With MATs taking on an increasingly important role, it is important that parents and the wider system can access information on how well they are leading their schools. Therefore, as we outlined in the recent White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, we will launch new accountability measures for MATs, publishing MAT performance tables in addition to the continued publication of, and focus on, inspection and performance data at individual school level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage the retention of social workers in that profession.

Edward Timpson

This Government has invested over £700m in social worker training and improvement since 2010. Programmes like Step Up to Social Work, Frontline and the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment are all focussed on bringing high quality people into social work and supporting them in their first year. Early evidence suggest that this investment is paying off: the first findings from a three-year longitudinal evaluation of Step Up cohorts 1 and 2 indicate that 84% cohort 1 Step Up graduates identified in the study were still practising in child and family social work after three years (compared to 65% of all social work education graduates in 2013-14 who were employed as social workers six months after leaving their course).

As well as supporting high quality training and development of social workers, we are developing a national, practice-focused, career pathway based on the skills and knowledge that social workers should display at all levels in their career and incentivising new teaching partnership arrangements between employers and higher education institutions to improve recruitment, retention and development of social workers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Government response to the International Development Committee’s Third Report of Session 2014-15, UK’s development work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, what progress she has made on providing support from the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund to people-to-people projects in Palestine involving people of all faiths.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK has supported several people-to-people projects through the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) which have now come to an end. We are open to considering further support through the CSSF for strong co-existence projects that bring Israelis and Palestinians together, where these would deliver a positive impact, represent value for money, and follow the requirements for how CSSF funds may be used.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2016 to Question 34911, which contracted employment support initiatives other than the Work Programme and Work Choice are included in the figure for the total budget for Contract Employment Programmes for 2016-17 given in that Answer.

Priti Patel

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2016 to Question 34911 programmes included within the Contracted Employment Programmes budget for 2016-17 are:

• Work Programme (as previously shown);
• Youth Support, which includes:

o Youth Engagement Fund;

o Youth Contract Wage Incentive.

• Pre and Post Work Programme Support, which includes:

o New Enterprise Allowance;

o English Language Requirement;

o Community Work Placement.

• Specialist Disability Programmes, which includes:

o Work Choice including Remploy (as previously shown);

o Residential Training

o Specialist Employability Support.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason the school specific factors and historic grant factors elements of the payment by the Education Funding Authority to the King David School, Manchester, were reduced by over £1 million in 2013-14.

Mr Sam Gyimah

In 2012-13 King David School received £1.1 million in School Specific factors and Historic Grant funding. For 2013-14 local funding formulae were simplified and the number of allowable formula factors was reduced. This meant that any funding previously allocated through other factors such as Historic Grants had to be moved into one of the allowable factors. Manchester LA chose to distribute this funding at pupil level in 2013-14 using the Age Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) factor, the sum of money allocated to the school for each pupil according to age. As such, King David School received an increase of £630,000 in AWPU for 2013-14. Schools were also protected against losses from the introduction of the new formula using a minimum funding guarantee (MFG). In 2013-14 King David School received an increase of £430,000 under the MFG. Overall pre-16 School Budget share funding (including MFG) for the school was £3,239,833 for 596 pupils in 2012-13 and £3,236,489 for 586 pupils in 2013-14.