Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to ensure that unemployed people who volunteer for the Help to Work Scheme do not do the same work as offenders on community service orders.

Esther McVey

These are two entirely different schemes and we would expect the requirements of placements for offenders to be very different. The welfare to work companies we have contracted to provide Community Work Placements are experienced at delivering different programmes across different areas of Government.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what records his Department maintains of instances where a teacher has had a sexual relationship with a student under the age of 16 years in (a) maintained schools and (b) independent schools.

Mr Edward Timpson

Since April 2012, where a teacher has been dismissed, or resigned in the face of dismissal, as a result of serious misconduct all schools have had a statutory duty to consider referring the matter to the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). The NCTL acts as the regulator of the teaching profession on behalf of the Secretary of State. It is responsible for determining whether the referred individual should be prohibited from teaching on the grounds of unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that might bring the profession into disrepute and/or conviction of a relevant offence. Information about cases considered by NCTL is not held in the format requested and to obtain the information requested would incur disproportionate cost.

In addition to the NCTL process for regulating teachers, the Department’s Independent Education and Boarding Team (IEBT) administer the wider regulatory system for independent schools. This team can receive information about allegations of abuse from a variety of sources, including Ofsted, local authorities, parents and the police. The Department’s records show that there have been 5 referrals since April 2012 and 2 from January 2009 to March 2012 where sexual abuse of a pupil by an adult working at the school was a factor. When such referrals are received, the Department’s role is not to investigate the allegations, which are a matter for the local authority and the police, but to determine whether the school is meeting the independent school standards, and take action to ensure it does so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has given to local authorities about churches and same sex marriage.

Karen Bradley

Guidance on how to certify a building for religious worship and register for
the solemnization of marriages was issued on 18 February 2014 by the General
Register Office and is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/281332
/D0550_F78L.pdf

The guidance sets out the different options that are available for places of
worship and registration for the solemnisation of marriage. Registration of
individual places of worship takes place through local registration services
attached to local authorities and they are expected to adhere to the guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations his Department has received from families groups on allowing the names of parents and legal guardians to be included on a child’s passport.

Mr Edward Timpson

The Department for Education has no record of family groups (or anyone else) making representations on this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-05-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department will provide for NHS staff on whether to share the information on the Child Protection Information Sharing project with relevant local authorities, police forces or care homes.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Child Protection – Information Sharing (CP-IS) project will allow the sharing of child protection information between National Health Service unscheduled care settings and local authority children’s services staff only. The information will not be shared with care homes or the police.

CP-IS will hold child protection information only for children in England who are subject to a child protection plan or are looked after by a local authority.

When NHS staff submit a query the CP-IS service, the system will electronically share the following information with the local authority responsible for the child: the time and date of the query, the name of the NHS healthcare worker who made the query, and the NHS organisation from within which the query was made.

CP-IS will not introduce information sharing over and beyond what is currently shared by NHS staff and local authorities.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has published guidance on its website for NHS and local authority staff on how to use the CP-IS system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on contracts for consultancy groups on the Bost Agri-Business Park and Airfield projects in Afghanistan in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012 and (d) 2013.

Justine Greening

I refer the Hon. member to the answer that I gave to him on 5 March 2013, Official Report, Col 967 – 968W.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, columns 59-61W, on private education: offences against children, how many referrals the National College for Teaching and Leadership has (a) received and (b) acted upon since that body’s establishment.

Mr Edward Timpson

The National College for Teaching and Leadership has received 40 referrals from independent schools in respect of matters outlined in the answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, columns 59-61W.

All of these referrals have been considered, or are in the course of being considered, in accordance with the procedures outlined in that answer.