Tag: Tania Mathias

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that UK aid spent in Africa supports small-scale organic farmers.

Mr Nick Hurd

DFID’s Agricultural Policy Framework, published last year, sets out the approach and steps DFID will take to support agriculture. Depending on context and need, this is expected to include support to small scale organic, or smallholder, farmers in Africa. Our priorities include helping smallholder farmers to increase their productivity, and to better link them to markets to sell their produce so as to increase their incomes, improve their livelihoods and contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.

For example we are providing support to the International Fund Agriculture Development’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme. This will help smallholder farmers in Africa cope with the impacts of climate change by providing extension services to farmers, improving irrigation and infrastructure, and helping farmers to increase their harvests through improved seeds and better soil and land management practices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many long-haul business passengers terminated at Heathrow Airport in 2011; and what proportion of those passengers were (a) UK residents and (b) foreign visitors.

Mr John Hayes

In 2011, around 5 million long-haul business passengers terminated at Heathrow. Of these passengers, 53% were UK residents and 47% were foreign visitors.

This estimate includes arrivals and departures at Heathrow but excludes transfer passengers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students who have not achieved at least a C grade in English and mathematics GCSE will be required to resit those exams as many times as it takes them to achieve that grade.

Robert Halfon

Departmental funding rules require full time students with prior attainment of a D to work towards achieving a C grade or higher in GCSE English and maths. Students who achieve lower than a D grade at 16 may study other qualifications such as Functional Skills as a ‘stepping stone’ towards GCSE.

For those opting to retake their GCSE(s) or being required to do so due to having previously attained a grade D, there is no requirement for them to repeatedly re-sit the GCSE exam. Schools and colleges have the freedom to determine when a student is ready to re-sit their GCSE. This is because our 16-19 English and maths requirements relates to enrolments rather than exam entries. This provides a school or college the flexibility to determine when best for a student to be entered for and sit an exam. For some students that might be the following November, while other students may require

a year, or two years study and tuition before they are ready to re-sit the exam.

If students resit their GCSE part way through their programme and fail to gain a grade C then they are expected to continue studying for the GCSE.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department made of Sir Howard Davies’s potential business links to Heathrow Airport; and what other due diligence it conducted before appointing him as chair of the Airports Commission.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Sir Howard Davies was required to complete and sign a register of interest disclosure form stating any potential conflict with his work in leading the independent Airports Commission. Registers of all the Commissioners’ interests are available on the Airports Commission’s website at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/airports-commissioners-conflicts-of-interest-disclosure.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason his Department’s guidance on accessible communication formats published on 14 August 2014 does not include email as an accessible format; and what consultation his Department had with disability groups before producing that guidance.

Justin Tomlinson

The guidance referred to was published before 2010 and moved from the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) website to GOV.UK last August. It was written for government communicators on how to make effective use of accessible communications formats. It was not about specific means of communication, e.g. email, letters etc. This document is due to be reviewed and updated.

Stakeholders groups were involved when the document was originally produced, and will be invited to be part of the review process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to prevent discrimination against single people.

Caroline Dinenage

Certain provisions in the Equality Act 2010 – for example permitted exceptions from the age discrimination requirements for retail concessions to students and pensioners – are likely to be of particular benefit to single people.

Single status is not a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. In the provision of goods and services we believe there is a balance to be struck between the interests of single people and the commercial considerations of business. The government, therefore, has no plans to change the Equality Act 2010.