Andrew Jones

I have asked Ofsted to respond using the data they hold on registered nursery places. Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, will write to the hon. Gentleman, and a copy of his response will be placed in the House Library. Some providers, such as schools with nursery provision for children aged three or over, are exempt from registration. The number of places therefore may not include the full range of early years provision available in the area.

The Department for Education’s Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey[1] collects data on all registered childcare places, including those in maintained schools and nurseries. These figures are therefore more comprehensive than the Ofsted figures; however data is only available at a national and regional level and in this case only for the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2011

Key stage 2 national curriculum assessment statistics are available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-key-stage-2

GCSE attainment statistics are available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4

Attainment statistics by Parliamentary constituency are available online at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/inyourarea/

Information on pupils at the end of key stage 4 achieving A*-C grades in English and mathematics GCSEs in the areas requested, and information on key stage 2 achievement in the areas requested has been placed in the House Library.

The Department collects information from each local authority on the number of available school places (school capacity) in state-funded primary and secondary schools (except special schools) through an annual survey. The most recent data available relates to the position at May 2013 and can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2012-to-2013

Statistics for May 2010 can be found in table 1 of the SFR main tables:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2010-to-2011

The England Trees Action Plan, funded by over £675 million of the Nature for Climate Fund, is transforming England’s tree planting and woodland management. We have set a statutory target to increase tree canopy and woodland cover of England to 16.5% by 2050. Last year, over 3,600 hectares of trees were planted (4.7 million trees) - the highest planting rate for nearly a decade – a massive boost to a sector that employs over 33,000 people across the UK. The framework is now in place with the plan to further increase tree planting and treble planting rates in England by the end of this parliament. We’re also securing and growing nursery capacity to boost the supply of healthy seeds and trees.

Estimates of the size of the dairy breeding herd are provided in the table below. Regional estimates are only calculated every 3 years. The latest available estimates are presented here.

Table 1: Number of dairy breeding cows on farms on 1 June each year (thousands):

Source: Cattle Tracing Scheme/Defra June Survey of Agriculture

Estimates of the number of pigs on farms are provided in the table below. Regional estimates are only calculated every 3 years. The latest available estimates are presented here.

Table 1: Number of pigs on farms on 1 June each year (thousands):

Source: Defra June Survey of Agriculture

DFID is investing in technologies to identify ways to control the spread of banana diseases, including Panama Disease, in Africa and Asia, as part of a global effort to tackle this problem.

DFID is major funder of the international research organisation, the Consultative group on International Agricultural Research (CCIAR), which is currently working to address Panama Disease (TR4) as well as other emerging disease and pest threats in developing countries.

Although the disease cannot currently be eradicated, this research aims to develop effective control measures and to identify banana varieties that are not susceptible to the disease. These are being tested in countries like Mozambique and Myanmar that are already affected by Panama Disease.

The UK has provided £65.7 million in 2011, £73 million in 2012 and £82.4 million in 2013 of direct, bilateral Official Development Assistance to countries affected by Ebola (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea). Additional aid to these countries has been provided by the UK through the multilateral aid system.

The Department has committed £51.952m to the Yorkshire and the Humber area as part of a range of Local Sustainable Transport Fund projects, which will be ongoing until March 2015. To date, £47.812m of this funding has been paid out. This includes £1.653m for Harrogate and Knaresborough, of which £0.968m has been paid out. A further £19.684m in funding has also been provided to Yorkshire and the Humber through the Linking Communities, Cycle Safety and Cycling Ambition grant programmes. This means that over the past three financial years, the Department has paid £67.496m to the Yorkshire and Humber area (including Harrogate and Knaresborough), and has committed £71.636m up until March 2015.

The breakdown of these overall figures are as follows in the attached table, and include any funding claimed thus far in Quarters 1 and 2 of this financial year, where this breakdown is known.

In addition, the Integrated Transport Block can be used for small transport improvement projects, including cycle routes. The allocations for the past three financial years are below. The current financial year is also provided for information.

The background notes provide a summary for the funding programmes mentioned above. More detailed information on the individual schemes can be found on www.GOV.UK

The Department has recently consulted on future funding for cycling via the draft Cycling Delivery Plan. The consultation closed on 27 November 2014 and I will be in a position to provide a fuller answer to this once this consultation process has been completed and the final Cycling Delivery Plan has been published.

However, the work to meet our funding ambition set out in the draft plan has already begun; in November the Deputy Prime Minister and I announced a package of measures totalling £214 million, including a £114 million extension to our cycle cities programme, and £100 million investment to improve the conditions for cyclists and walkers travelling alongside and crossing Britain’s most important and busiest roads from 2015/16.

The Highways Agency is responsible for the motorway and strategic trunk road network. There have been no Major Road Schemes in the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency during the last four years.

The table below shows the investment in the two Major Road Schemes that are in the North Yorkshire area. Please note the 14/15 expenditure includes actual spend to the end of June 2014 and a forecast up to and including the end of March 2015.

*The -5.9 reported in 13/14, is made up of a change in accounting policy and a reduction in the provision for post construction activity.

The Highways Agency does not separately identify the investment on its roads by constituency area. The Highways Agency has invested approximately £33 million on safety and improvement schemes, renewal of carriageway surfaces and repairs to structures in the North Yorkshire region within the last four years. The breakdown of investment by financial year is shown in the following table:

For the local road network the Department for Transport provides capital funding to local highway authorities for maintenance. The Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency falls within North Yorkshire County Council’s area of responsibility and therefore we do not allocate any funds directly to that area for local road infrastructure. Over the four year period from 2011 North Yorkshire County Council’s allocation is:

1 Includes the top up announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2012 and the Wet Weather funding paid in March 2014.

2 Includes the top up announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2012 and the Pothole Fund.

The Department for Transport is funding one local major scheme in North Yorkshire, the Bedale Aiskew Leeming Bar Bypass which has £10.760m of funding in 2014/15.

Access to Work have recruited more people and redeployed existing colleagues to support the processing of applications. We have also reviewed our processes and looked to streamline, where we can, to speed up decision making. Alongside that, we are continuing to transform the service through digitalisation and aim to introduce an online claims portal and an improved application process in the Spring. Whilst we still have a number of newer colleagues in training, these activities are showing positive results with an improvement in processing times and increases in clearances.

There are a range of Government initiatives supporting disabled people, and people with health conditions, to start, stay and succeed in work. These include:

• Increasing Work Coach support in Jobcentres for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance;
• Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;
• The Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, providing tailored and personalised support for participants;
• Access to Work grants towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;
• Disability Confident encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues employees face in the workplace;
• The Information and Advice Service providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting and managing health and disability in the workplace; and
• Support in partnership between DWP and the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies services, which combines psychological treatment and employment support for people with mental health conditions.

The latest available data shows that there were 1.4 million workless households in the social rented sector. This is a reduction of 102,000 from the previous year and follows a continual downward trend over this Parliament.

This is the largest fall in the percentage of workless households in the social rented sector since comparable records began.

Full details can be found at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/working-and-workless-households/2014/index.html

Since 2010/11 expenditure on benefits and tax credits paid to people not in work has fallen in real terms from £43.2bn to £42.2bn in 2013/14, and is forecast to fall further, to £40.6bn this year. This is due to a combination of factors including welfare reform, changes to benefits and significant employment growth. The number of people in work has risen by 1.7 million since 2010, and the number of people claiming the main out of work benefits has fallen by over 700,000.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude for the fantastic work of general practice. We are committed to increasing the number of doctors in general practice and I can tell my honourable friend that there were nearly 2,800 more full-time equivalent doctors in general practice in December 2023 compared to December 2019, and that in 2022 we saw a record 4,032 trainees accept a place on GP training, up from 2,671 in 2014. Finally, training places will rise to 6,000 by 2031/32, with the first 500 new places available from September 2025.

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health Dashboard reports detail on the expenditure made by National Health Service clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) on mental health services. It is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard

CCGs are required each year, under the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS), to increase their spend on mental health services by a greater amount than the growth in their overall programme allocation. The requirement to meet the MHIS is included within the NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017–2019 and is a key part of NHS England’s operational and financial planning assurance process for 2018/19.

The Government’s Mandate to NHS England for 2018-19 is clear that it is to maintain and improve performance against core patient access standards including accident and emergency (A&E), cancer and planned operations and care-Referral to Treatment (RTT).

The Government expects the National Health Service to deliver the actions set out in the NHS Planning Guidance for 2018-19 – in full – as key steps towards fully recovering performance against core access standards. This means treating a quarter of a million more patients in A&E, halving the number who have the longest waits for treatment and working towards reducing the number of patients waiting overall. We gave the NHS top priority in the 2017 budget with an additional £2.8 billion of funding for the NHS between 2017-18 and 2019-20, and this has been reflected in the mandate.

To provide the NHS with financial stability, the longer-term plan, announced last month will see NHS funding increase by £20.5 billion per year by 2023/24, the end of the first five years compared with today.

NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics and the following table shows the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Hospital and Community Health Service nurses and health visitors in Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, which is the main service provider for north Yorkshire, each year from 2013 to 2017.

NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS): Nurses and health visitors as at 31 October each specified year (FTE).

Source: NHS Digital HCHS workforce statistics

Last month we co-hosted a donor conference with the UN, Qatar and Germany. This raised over $2.4 billion for the UN’s humanitarian appeal.

Ahead of the summit, the Foreign Secretary announced the UK’s pledge of £286 million for Afghanistan this financial year.

The Foreign Secretary has committed to prioritising funding for women and girls. In Afghanistan, we will ensure at least 50% of those we reach with our aid should be women and girls.

Reducing the national debt is one the Prime Minister’s five priorities and will provide the foundations for sustainable growth. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed in March that the government is on track to deliver this, meeting our fiscal rules with underlying debt falling as a percentage of GDP in 2027-28. We have shown we will take the difficult but necessary decisions to ensure that debt is falling.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 25 January 2017 to the Honourable Member for Hull North (123405).

The Employment Allowance, which has been in place since April 2014, reduces an eligible employer’s employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) bill by up to £2,000 a year. Estimates of the number of employers benefitting from the allowance up to October 5^th 2014, including breakdowns by region and constituency, are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employment-allowance-take-up-statistics.

By October 5th around 856,000 employers in the UK, 66,000 in Yorkshire and The Humber, 1,800 in Harrogate and Knaresborough are estimated to have benefitted by up to £2,000 from the Employment Allowance in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The Government has also committed to abolishing employer NICs up to the Upper Earnings Limit (£41,865 in 2014/15) for employees under the age of 21 from April 2015.

These policies demonstrate the Government’s commitment to reducing the costs of employment for businesses across the UK.

By April this year this Government's increases in the personal allowance (for those born after 5 April 1948) are estimated to have taken over 3 million individuals out of the income tax system altogether. 266,000 of these individuals live in the Yorkshire and The Humber region, which includes North Yorkshire.

These estimates are based on the 2011-12 Survey of Personal Incomes, projected to 2014-15 using economic assumptions consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.

HM Treasury does not publish this information at constituency level.

The information requested is not available.

In 2010, the coalition government made a commitment to work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research and a delivery plan has been published. The plan shows how alternative methods can deliver fast, high-quality research that
also boosts economic growth.

Since the Plan was published, a wealth of significant new research and knowledge dissemination on the 3Rs - Replacement, Refinement and Reduction - has been completed. It includes the launch of the first products from the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) open innovation programme CRACK IT, a £4 million
competition run by Innovate UK and the NC3Rs to fund the commercialisation of non-animal technologies.

There is also the publication of important new studies on veterinary and human vaccine testing by Defra and Public Health England which have identified scope to reduce the numbers of animals used in developing vaccines. New joint working by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Home Office has additionally produced refined testing models to reduce animal
suffering.

We have taken major steps to encourage greater international adoption of 3Rs techniques, including a ground-breaking programme of knowledge-sharing with regulators and life science associations in China led by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit. In addition, we have published collaborative research across the global life sciences sector led by the NC3Rs and the UK’s Medicines and
Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to minimise the use of recovery animals in pharmaceutical development.

The Home Office have a number of Asylum Improvement projects underway. We are reviewing asylum processes to provide a better experience for our customers such as moving administrative tasks from the asylum interview into the screening process or revising decision letters to make them more user-friendly for customers.

We are also implementing a number of pilot initiatives to modernise our case working processes including exploring the use of Summary Notes within our asylum interviews. At the same time we are looking to invest in technology to automatically obtain a transcript of an asylum interview. This should improve the efficiency of our interviewing process and reduce the need for our customers to have lengthy interviews regarding their claim whilst we are also looking to expand on the use of video conferencing equipment to build greater flexibility into the asylum case working process and to realise potential savings. We are seeking to digitalise our work where possible, removing the need for paper-based files so our work can be moved around the country to meet service demands.

We have also made improvements to our decision making processing times. We aim to decide all straightforward asylum claims within six months. We recognise that asylum cases are often complex and require our full and thorough consideration, meaning that some decisions will take longer than six months. Those cases that do take longer than six months are actively managed to ensure they are concluded as promptly as possible.

We have significantly improved our suite of guidance on considering asylum claims, including key instructions on asylum interviews and assessing credibility. We have streamlined processes by reducing the volume of paperwork required and cutting duplication in the asylum process, including improvements to the way in which decisions are explained to applicants in correspondence to make it easier to understand. These changes are designed to support caseworkers to improve decision quality and efficiency to ensure we grant protection where it is needed whilst refusing unfounded claims more quickly, whilst also ensuring a more customer focused approach.

The Government has not made any estimate as to the potential savings from merging police forces. It is not necessary for forces to merge in order to
become more efficient. Chief constables and police and crime commissioners are demonstrating that they can collaborate in order to make efficiency savings
without sacrificing the local accountability and identity of their forces. A programme of force mergers would also impose significant transition and reorganisation costs on the police.

There were 15,670 full-time equivalent police officers within the neighbourhoods function as at 31 March 2010, which represents 10.9% of the total number of police officers in England and Wales.

At the end of 2012, there were approximately 41,000 ‘legacy’ asylum and migration cases where the original application was submitted before March 2007. The Home Office committed to review and communicate decisions on all of these by the end of 2014. The work to review and communicate decisions was completed by the end of December 2014 aside from a small number of cases where an external impediment, such as an outstanding criminal investigation or ongoing litigation, prevented us completing our review

There are cases where the Home Office has completed a review and decided that it is not appropriate to grant leave but not yet removed the applicant. It is for this reason that we committed to review and communicate decisions on the pre March 2007 cases but did not guarantee that all will be concluded by the end of 2014. Such individuals will remain live whilst removal is progressed.


Link to the related published data:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/407276/asylum_transparency_data-q4_2014.ods

The Ministry of Defence is investing more than £6.6 billion in research and development over the next four years to ensure our Armed Forces have the technologies and skills they need to meet new and emerging threats.

In addition, the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy includes commitments to work with industry to nurture and develop relevant skills in the sectors.

The Ministry of Defence already supports over 390,000 jobs in the UK and in 2019, the UK won £11billion worth of export orders. The multi-year defence settlement will protect this important contribution and build on it by investing in cutting edge capabilities, research and development.

The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.