Asked by: Baroness Humphreys (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the available training opportunities for (1) town clerks, and (2) community clerks; and the bodies which monitor the professional standards of these courses.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
All local government employment matters – including for town and parish councils - are devolved. Such issues rightly remain with local authority elected representatives in conjunction with staff representatives, taking into account what they can afford.
Government has made no assessments in relation to the employment, qualifications or training opportunities available for town clerks, nor provided any general guidance on such matters.
However, where the town or parish council wishes to exercise the general power of competence, the clerk must possess the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure that the council is provided with appropriate advice in taking on the enhanced role that the general power of competence enables.
Therefore, in 2012 the Department made regulations setting out the conditions that parish councils would need to fulfil to exercise this power. These included certain educational and training requirements for the clerk. The details are set out in The Parish Councils (General Power of Competence) (Prescribed Conditions) Order 2012 (SI number 965 and explanatory memorandum. Link below:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/965/pdfs/uksi_20120965_en.pdf.
With the support of the Department, the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC), in association with the National Association of Local Councils, developed the general power training modules that clerks must complete to meet the conditions.
For Community council clerks in Wales, the position on all these matters would be for the Welsh government to answer.
Asked by: Baroness Humphreys (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance, if any, they provide to town councils on minimum accountancy qualifications for (1) town clerks, and (2) community clerks.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
All local government employment matters – including for town and parish councils - are devolved. Such issues rightly remain with local authority elected representatives in conjunction with staff representatives, taking into account what they can afford.
Government has made no assessments in relation to the employment, qualifications or training opportunities available for town clerks, nor provided any general guidance on such matters.
However, where the town or parish council wishes to exercise the general power of competence, the clerk must possess the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure that the council is provided with appropriate advice in taking on the enhanced role that the general power of competence enables.
Therefore, in 2012 the Department made regulations setting out the conditions that parish councils would need to fulfil to exercise this power. These included certain educational and training requirements for the clerk. The details are set out in The Parish Councils (General Power of Competence) (Prescribed Conditions) Order 2012 (SI number 965 and explanatory memorandum. Link below:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/965/pdfs/uksi_20120965_en.pdf.
With the support of the Department, the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC), in association with the National Association of Local Councils, developed the general power training modules that clerks must complete to meet the conditions.
For Community council clerks in Wales, the position on all these matters would be for the Welsh government to answer.
Asked by: Baroness Humphreys (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the employment and qualification requirements for (1) town clerks, and (2) community clerks.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
All local government employment matters – including for town and parish councils - are devolved. Such issues rightly remain with local authority elected representatives in conjunction with staff representatives, taking into account what they can afford.
Government has made no assessments in relation to the employment, qualifications or training opportunities available for town clerks, nor provided any general guidance on such matters.
However, where the town or parish council wishes to exercise the general power of competence, the clerk must possess the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure that the council is provided with appropriate advice in taking on the enhanced role that the general power of competence enables.
Therefore, in 2012 the Department made regulations setting out the conditions that parish councils would need to fulfil to exercise this power. These included certain educational and training requirements for the clerk. The details are set out in The Parish Councils (General Power of Competence) (Prescribed Conditions) Order 2012 (SI number 965 and explanatory memorandum. Link below:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/965/pdfs/uksi_20120965_en.pdf.
With the support of the Department, the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC), in association with the National Association of Local Councils, developed the general power training modules that clerks must complete to meet the conditions.
For Community council clerks in Wales, the position on all these matters would be for the Welsh government to answer.
Asked by: Baroness Humphreys (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people living in communities of 150 residents or more in the UK have no access to mains gas.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Estimates for communities and residents are not available. However, published estimates for the number of households in Great Britain not connected to the gas network are available at Lower Super Output Area level in the attached.
Asked by: Baroness Humphreys (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of children born between (1) 1 September and 30 April, and (2) 1 May and 31 August, were admitted to academy schools in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Nash
The department does not hold a dataset which contains both a child’s date of birth and the type of school they attend. The amount of data linkage across datasets for separate years that would be required to answer the question would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Baroness Humphreys (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to allowing the parents of children born prematurely to nominate their child’s due date, rather than the actual date of birth, when applying for school places.
Answered by Lord Nash
We have announced our intention to support summer born children by allowing them to delay entry to the reception year until they are five and for those children to remain with that cohort as they progress through school.
As part of this work we are giving careful consideration to how we can best implement any new arrangements we might put in place, and how we can best support premature children into school.
We want to support these children in the best way we can, however, it is important that we take the time to consider the wider impact of any policy changes.