Tag: William Wragg

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what provisions his Department has put in place to improve rolling stock as part of the rail franchise package for the North West.

Andrew Jones

The new Northern and TransPennine Express franchises commenced on the 1^st April. By the end of 2019, they will have introduced significant improvements in Rolling Stock.

The Northern franchise will deliver:-

• 281 new carriages including 55 new Diesel and 43 new Electric trains – the first ever new trains specified for the Northern franchise
• Additional diesel units cascaded from other franchises – refurbished to ‘as new’ standard
• Removal of all Pacer trains by October 2019
• All retained trains will be refurbished as new including Wi-Fi, media servers, passenger information systems, CCTV and accessible toilets with baby-change facilities

This means that 30% of this expanded fleet will be new and will operate 2000 more services per week –a 12% increase. The additional trains will provide a 37% increase in morning peak capacity into the North’s 5 major cities by December 2019.

The TransPennine franchise will deliver:-

• 220 new carriages
• All existing trains will be refurbished as new including Wi-Fi, additional power sockets, and real-time passenger information systems

This means that 70% of fleet is new, the fleet size increases by two-thirds, provides 13million more seats, an 80% increase in morning peak seats by the end of 2019.

These delivery plans as bid by the two operators during the Invitation to Tender process have been contracted within the franchise agreements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-04-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32664 and the Answer of 25 April 2016 to Question 33678, and with reference to paragraph 2.113 of the report, The best of both worlds: the UK’s special status in a reformed EU, published in February 2016, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of child benefit payments paid to non-UK citizens in each financial year since 2010-11.

Damian Hinds

Around 7m people are receiving Child Benefit. To extract and collate the value of all payments made to EU migrants for children living outside the UK in the format requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect on levels of inward migration from other EU member states of (a) an economic downturn and (b) a rise in unemployment in such states.

James Brokenshire

It has been the practice of this Government not to make such forecasts. There are numerous different factors that can affect migration flows.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National pupil projections statistics release, published on 22 July 2015, how many people defined as migrants are included in the principal population projections in each (a) local education authority and (b) region in each year between 2015 and 2024.

Nick Gibb

The national pupil projections are only produced for the whole of England and do not break down projected pupil numbers by local education authority or region. They are derived from the 2012-based national population projections for England produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)[1] who used assumptions which were considered to best reflect demographic patterns at that time.

The ONS uses assumptions on the levels of future fertility, net migration and life expectancy in the production of their population projections. They use central assumptions for the principal projections and alternative high and low assumptions to produce variant projections.

New national pupil projections, based on the ONS’s mid-2014 national population projections[2], are scheduled to be published on 14 July 2016. The timing and content of National Statistics releases are a matter for the Head of Profession for statistics. The month of publication was pre-announced in 2015 and the specific date of publication was pre-announced on 26 February 2016.

[1] Mid-2012 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2013-11-06

[2] Mid-2014 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2015-10-29

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary and secondary academies and free schools teach sex and relationships education.

Edward Timpson

The Department does not hold this information.

Sex and relationship education is compulsory in maintained secondary schools. Academies and free schools do not have to teach sex and relationship education but many choose to do so as part of their statutory duty to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. When academies do teach sex and relationship education they are required through their funding agreement to have regard to the Secretary of State’s Sex and Relationship Education Guidance. The guidance can be accessed at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/sex-and-relationship-education

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations she has received from representatives of Greave Primary School on the process through which the funding for that school’s building extension project from the Education Funding Agency has been arranged by the Stockport Local Education Authority.

Edward Timpson

School building baseline designs were introduced in October 2012 to help finalise briefs for school building projects and for discussion with local planning departments. It is for contractors to develop them into detailed schemes, or propose alternatives. Guidance on the designs is available online[1].

Officials from the Department have had regular dialogue with the local authority, the school and its representatives as part of ongoing work to monitor and progress the project.

While there has been no representation, the Secretary of State and the Department will work with all parties to support the successful delivery of this school’s expansion project.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/baseline-designs-for-schools-guidance

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when the Government plans to publish its response to Lawrence Tomlinson’s report on the lending practices of banks to small businesses.

Anna Soubry

The matter is being taken forward by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which has appointed firms to conduct an independent “skilled persons” review of RBS’s treatment of business customers in financial difficulty and the allegations of poor practice set out in Lawrence Tomlinson’s report. The review is complex and is still ongoing. The FCA expects to make an announcement about the outcome of the review later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many EEA nationals living in the UK have resided in the UK for (a) less than three months, (b) three to six months, (c) six to 12 months, (d) one to two years, (e) two to three years, (f) three to four years, (g) four to five years and (h) longer than five years.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons she has not produced an estimate of the potential effect on inward migration from the EU of the UK’s negotiated settlement with the EU; and when she plans to publish that estimate.

James Brokenshire

It has been the practice of this Government not to make such forecasts. There are numerous different factors that can affect migration flows.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of a quadrivalent vaccine programme for school-aged boys equivalent to that in place for school-aged girls; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

An estimate of the cost of extending the current programme to boys has not been made. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is currently considering the option of extending human papilloma virus vaccination to adolescent boys. Once the JCVI has reviewed the available evidence it will report its recommendations. This will inform any future policy to extend the current programme to adolescent boys.