Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support is provided to veterans with mental health conditions in prison.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether prison staff undergo veteran awareness training.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 25 July 2023 to Question 194671, what his Department's recruitment targets for the armed forces are for 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Recruitment targets for Regular Serving personnel in 2024-25 currently are summarised below:
Royal Navy
Officers 450
Sailors 2,864
Army
Officers 677
Soldiers 9,800
Royal Air Force
Officers 462
Aviators 2,615
In my answers to Questions 7264, 8358, 12118 and 17290, I incorrectly stated that there were no recruitment targets for officers.
I have therefore provided below the historic Army recruitment targets for officers, as contained within the Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP) Demand Plan. The Plan reflects the number of personnel that Capita are directed to recruit annually. The figures include Direct Entrants and Professionally Qualified Officers.
The RPP started in 2012. Please note that data pre-dating 2014 could not be accessed in the time available.
Year | OF Reg | OF Res |
14-15 | 709 | 362 |
15-16 | 742 | 368 |
16-17 | 747 | 318 |
17-18 | 713 | 372 |
18-19 | 696 | 241 |
19-20 | 713 | 315 |
20-21 | 700 | 230 |
21-22 | 688 | 125 |
22-23 | 610 | 220 |
23-24 | 644 | 220 |
In relation to the question asking for the target for recruitment of officers into the British Army for each of the first three quarters in the 2023-24 financial year; please note that OF in-year targets are based on the intakes to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), of which there are three a year. The following reflects the target by intake, rather than quarter.
RY | Target |
RY23 1 | 152 |
RY23 2 | 227 |
RY23 3 | 152 |
Data is sourced from Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command and reflect single Service estimates.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential national security implications of Confucius Institutes on UK university campuses.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether Ministers in his Department have met representatives of Black Lives Matter UK in the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to encourage early years providers to adopt a curiosity-led learning approach.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to give children the right foundation for future progress in school and life. The EYFS defines three characteristics of effective teaching and learning: playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. Early years settings have the flexibility to utilise different learning approaches and design their own curriculum, based on the EYFS statutory requirements.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take legislative steps to end the marketing of all nicotine products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience. Nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, are not currently subject to advertising restrictions.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill proposed measures to prohibit the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009, as well as enabling product requirements to be imposed in connection with tobacco, vapes, and other products. However, the bill did not receive Parliamentary approval prior to the prorogation on 24 May 2024.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff have left the Office of the Children's Commissioner in each year since 2015.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff have left Social Work England in each year since its creation.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to allocate new (a) funding and (b) resources to support children with special educational needs and disabilities in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, Sefton Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £47.8 million in 2024/25, which is a cumulative increase of 32% per head over the three years from 2021/22. This funding will help local authorities and schools, both mainstream and special schools, with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.
In addition, on 22 May the department published 2024/25 allocations of the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant, which helps schools with the costs of the 2023 teachers’ pay award, and the 2024 Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant, which helps schools with the increased employer contribution rate from April 2024. This funding totals £1.9 billion in 2024/25 and is to support schools with the costs of their teachers, and therefore contributes to the resources that are available for schools’ pupils with SEND.
In March 2024, the department also published just under £850 million of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) for 2023/24 and 2024/25. This funding is allocated to local authorities to support them deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision (AP).
This funding forms part of the department’s transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025 which, when combined with the department’s ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, is creating over 60,000 new specialist places across the country.
In total, Sefton Council has been allocated just over £9.7 million through HNPCA between 2022 and 2025.
This funding can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
In addition to local authority allocations, 201 special free schools are either open or planned to open in future years. Once at capacity, these schools will provide over 21,000 places for pupils with special educational needs. Over 10,000 of these places have already been delivered.
This includes 56 special free schools being delivered as part of the £2.6 billion of high needs capital funding received in the 2021 Spending Review, plus additional funding announced at the 2024 Spring Budget.