Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to expedite the process for the licensing of Cannock Radio radio station in Cannock Chase constituency.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom is responsible for licensing community radio services and has awarded over 300 licences since 2005. Over 220 community stations are broadcasting throughout the UK.
Applications for community radio licences are considered by Ofcom in accordance with the requirements of the Community Radio Order 2004. In order to treat all applicants equally, and given the high volume of potential applicants, Ofcom's policy is carry out licensing in rounds, inviting applications from each region of the UK in turn. For similar reasons of fairness, Ofcom does not accept an application from specific groups in a region without also accepting applications from across the whole region.
Ofcom invited applicants for the West and East Midlands in the first half 2014, with the closing date for applications on 24 June 2014. Ofcom has not yet confirmed a timetable for further licensing rounds, however Ofcom notes the continuing interest from potential applicant groups, as this will help inform its decisions on future licensing.
A total of 9 licences in the Midlands during the current round of licensing - most recently 3 licences were awarded in January 2015 to stations in the Midlands region. More details can be found on the Ofcom website: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/current-licensees/awards-round-3/.
Full details on applying for community radio licenses can also be found on Ofcom’s website: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/apply-for-licence/
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on housing benefit in (a) Cannock Chase and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Steve Webb
The information requested is shown in the tables below.
Further benefit expenditure can be found at the following URL:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-expenditure-tables
Housing Benefit expenditure, £ million, nominal | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 |
Cannock Chase | 19.1 | 23.4 | 25.5 | 27.0 | 28.0 |
Staffordshire | 132.5 | 159.5 | 171.5 | 181.8 | 192.1 |
Source: Local Authority subsidy returns.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were permanently excluded from (a) primary, (b) middle, (c) upper and (d) secondary schools in Staffordshire in each of the last three years.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Information on the number of permanent exclusions in each of the last three years is published in the “Permanent and fixed period exclusions from schools in England: 2011 to 2012 academic year” Statistical First Release[1]. Information for 2012/13 will be published on 31 July 2014.
Table 1 in the publication shows the number of permanent exclusions in state-funded primary and secondary schools. This information is not available by middle and upper schools, as such schools are deemed either primary or secondary and are included in those counts.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to address any growth of a compensation culture in the UK.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Government is committed to turning the tide on fraudulent personal injury claims, and we have introduced a raft of measures to discourage unnecessary or frivolous claims and tackle inflated costs. Most recently, I announced on 9 June (Column 27WS)a number of steps that the Government intends to take to reduce the volume of fraudulent claims. These include the power for courts to dismiss fundamentally dishonest claims and a ban on lawyers offering inducements to bring personal injury claims.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children began treatment for Type 1 diabetes in (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format requested.
Information on the number of children aged up to 18 years, registered in primary and secondary care, that were newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 in the former (a) North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), (b) South Staffordshire PCT and (c) Stoke-on-Trent PCT, is shown in the following table.
| 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
North Staffordshire PCT | * | 10 | 25 |
South Staffordshire PCT | 23 | 23 | 24 |
Stoke on Trent PCT | 15 | 9 | 24 |
Source: The Health and Social Care Information Centre – National Diabetes Audit
Notes:
1. Participation in the National Diabetes Audit (NDA), which audits diabetes registrations in primary and secondary care, is not mandatory. The NDA does not have 100% coverage or participation and therefore cannot accurately provide the information requested.
2. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health are the authoritative source for all Paediatric diabetes audit data.
3. 2012-13 data has not yet been published. The NDA currently only holds data for 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.
4. Information is not available by constituency.
5. The NDA provides data on the number of children aged up to 18 years that were newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which is synonymous to the number of children who began treatment.
6. To protect patient confidentiality, figures between one and five inclusive have been replaced with *.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many apprenticeships commenced in each sector in (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) Staffordshire in the last 12 months.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Information on the number of Apprenticeship starts by Sector Subject Area and geography is published in a supplementary table to a Statistical First Release (SFR):
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships--2
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the current eligibility criteria for higher education maintenance loans.
Answered by Lord Willetts
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will continue to require students seeking maintenance loans to meet criteria includeing residency, type of course and place of study.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of women in Cannock Chase constituency were in work in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to swimming lessons for schoolchildren.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Swimming is part of the national curriculum, and all pupils must be taught to swim at least 25 metres unaided and be able to use recognised swimming strokes by the end of key stage 2 (age 11). It remains compulsory in the national curriculum following the curriculum review.
The Government has committed over £450 million of ring-fenced funding up to and including 2015/16 for primary schools to improve their provision of Physical Education and sport. Schools have the freedom to use the funding for additional provision for swimming but this must be for activity over and above the national curriculum requirements.
The Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) is the national governing body for swimming in England. Their ‘Learn to Swim' programme and award scheme has helped millions of children to swim and they provide a range of resources for schools to support high quality swimming instruction.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions officials in his Department have had with their EU counterparts on (a) VAT rates on e-books, digital magazines and newspapers and (b) application of reduced rates; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Gauke
Officials discuss a variety of VAT issues with the European Commission and the officials of other Member States.