Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to take steps to help increase participation in the performing arts among (a) children and (b) young people, particularly those from (i) disadvantaged backgrounds and (ii) groups underrepresented in the sector.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
My Department is committed to broadening access to arts and culture for children and young people across the country, regardless of their background.
Arts Council England’s recent announcement of the 2023-26 Investment Programme will see a record number of organisations receiving funding, in more parts of the country than ever before. It also includes a 20% increase in the number of organisations which are funded to deliver work for children and young people; 79% of the organisations in this portfolio will be delivering activity specifically for children and young people. Programmes supported through the new portfolio will support children and young people to take part in creative and cultural activities at all ages - from early years to young adulthood.
Separately, the Government funds a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes that are designed to improve participation in the arts for all children, including the National Saturday Club, which gives 13 to 16-year-olds across the country the opportunity to participate in creative learning programmes, studying the subjects they love for free, on a Saturday at their local university, college or cultural institution.
In addition, the Schools White Paper (2022) sets out that the Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media and Sport will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with Arts Council England, Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute. A key aim of this Plan is to tackle the barriers to accessing cultural education.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the reasons for changes in the level of entries for GCSE and A Level qualifications in performing arts subjects in the last two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development. A cultural education, including the wider performing arts, is central to providing a high quality education for all pupils.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over the next three years through its music, arts and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver an ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
There are no plans to assess the reasons for changes in GCSE and A level entries. The Department does regularly publish entry statistics for GCSEs, A levels and technical awards. Over the past four years, the proportion of Key Stage 4 pupils in state funded schools taking at least one arts GCSE between 2018/19 and 2021/22 has gone from 44.5% to 42%. Over the same period the percentage taking at least one arts qualification (GCSE or technical award) has gone from 52.3% to 52.4%.
The Department will be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with DCMS and Arts Council England. The Chair of the expert advisory panel was announced last year, and other panel members will be announced in due course. The plan will focus on how the Government can support access and participation in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also further support young people who wish to pursue careers in creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
The Cultural Education Plan will cover a range of arts subjects where appropriate, such as drama and dance. The Government does not intend to produce detailed plans in specific arts subjects, or to establish a Hub programme for arts subjects other than music. It is widely recognised that that there is a need for Music Hubs in addressing the unique challenges in supporting young people’s access to and progression in music.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider the potential merits of extending the music education hub model to (a) dance, (b) drama and (c) other performing arts.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development. A cultural education, including the wider performing arts, is central to providing a high quality education for all pupils.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over the next three years through its music, arts and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver an ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
There are no plans to assess the reasons for changes in GCSE and A level entries. The Department does regularly publish entry statistics for GCSEs, A levels and technical awards. Over the past four years, the proportion of Key Stage 4 pupils in state funded schools taking at least one arts GCSE between 2018/19 and 2021/22 has gone from 44.5% to 42%. Over the same period the percentage taking at least one arts qualification (GCSE or technical award) has gone from 52.3% to 52.4%.
The Department will be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with DCMS and Arts Council England. The Chair of the expert advisory panel was announced last year, and other panel members will be announced in due course. The plan will focus on how the Government can support access and participation in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also further support young people who wish to pursue careers in creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
The Cultural Education Plan will cover a range of arts subjects where appropriate, such as drama and dance. The Government does not intend to produce detailed plans in specific arts subjects, or to establish a Hub programme for arts subjects other than music. It is widely recognised that that there is a need for Music Hubs in addressing the unique challenges in supporting young people’s access to and progression in music.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to abide by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The package agreed at COP15, including the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, represents a historic step forward towards addressing the biodiversity crisis. Setting a clear mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, the commitments expected under its 23 targets, notably to protect 30% of global land and 30% of global ocean by 2030, to end human induced-species extinctions of known threatened species by 2030, alongside the package of international nature finance agreed to support its implementation – put us on the path to nature recovery. The key is now to fully implement this ambitious framework across all Parties.
In England, we have set four legally binding targets for biodiversity: to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030; then to reverse declines by 2042; to reduce the risk of species extinction by 2042; and restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat, also by 2042. We have set out our plan to deliver on these ambitious targets, along with our other environmental targets, in the revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) published 31 January 2023. Here we link the different objectives, plans and mechanisms for recovering nature.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on how many times an individual child was removed from association for periods (a) up to three days, (b) up to 14 days, (c) up to 21 days, (d) up to 42 days and (e) more than 42 days for each juvenile young offender institution in the 12 months to31 March 2022; and if he will break down those removals by the (i) age, (ii) sex, (iii) ethnicity of the children removed from association, (iv) number of children who were classed as disabled and (v) recorded reasons for those removals.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Young people are only temporarily separated from their peers as a very last resort to protect others. When this happens, they receive extra support from specially trained staff. We are bolstering training for every frontline officer, backed by £5m of funding, to improve care and support for all those in custody. Children are never separated as a punishment. The information relating to the number of separations is provided below:
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Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current backlog of applications is at the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre in Bury St Edmunds; and what the wait time is for each application to be processed.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of when the secure school will open.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The secure school is on track to open by Spring 2024. Our provider, Oasis Restore Charitable Trust, is continuing to develop the integrated education, health, and operating model for the secure school, including its safeguarding practices. They will also continue to engage with Ofsted and other key stakeholders throughout this process.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to establish a compensation package for people affected by the Dolphin Trust scheme.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK regulatory agencies are aware of the bankruptcy of German Property Group (GPG), formerly known as Dolphin Trust, and the effect on UK-based investors.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a joint statement with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The statement sets out what UK consumers should do if they invested in GPG via an FCA authorised firm – either a financial adviser firm or a Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPP) operator – and they believe they were mis-sold. This includes how to complain to the FOS or submit a claim to the FSCS. The statement can be accessed on the FCA’s website: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/statements/gpg-companies-preliminary-bankruptcy-proceedings.
Some consumers will not have invested in GPG via a regulated financial adviser or a SIPP operator. GPG is incorporated in Germany and is not, nor has ever been an FCA-authorised firm. Unfortunately, in these cases, customers will not have recourse to the FOS or the FSCS.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many restraining orders were (a) issued and (b) breached (i) once, (ii) twice, (iii) three times and (iv) on four or more occasions in each of the last three years; how many custodial sentences were given in each category of breach; and what was the average length of sentence issued.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Please find attached a table detailing the number of restraining orders issued in each of the last 3 years in criminal courts.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted, convicted and sentenced for breaching a restraining order in criminal courts, for the years 2017-2021, in the Outcomes by Offence data tool 2021.
The number of defendants prosecuted for the offence in question can be found using the ‘Prosecutions and Convictions’ tab. The number of defendants sentenced for the offence in question, along with sentencing outcomes (e.g., immediate custody) can be found using the ‘Sentence Outcomes’ tab. The average custodial sentence length for this offence can be found using the ‘Average Amounts’ tab.
Use the HO offence code filter to select the applicable offences:
The Ministry of Justice’s court proceedings database records each instance in which a breach offence enters the court system. It is not possible to identify a specific restraining order against which a breach offence has been committed. It is therefore not possible to identify the number of times an individual may have breached the same restraining order, as it may be entered into the system under one or multiple breach offences. This information may be available by accessing court records, however, the costs of making such a search would be disproportionate.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what level of carbon savings the Government expects through the (a) sustainable farming incentive, (b) local nature recovery scheme and (c) landscape recovery scheme; and what percentage of the total carbon savings during the (i) 4th, (ii) 5th and (iii) 6th carbon budget periods the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is responsible for.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government anticipates its environmental land management schemes, the Farming Innovation Fund and other farming offers will reduce agricultural emissions by up to 6 MtCO2e per year in Carbon Budget 6 in England. The Government will also pursue opportunities through tree planting and peat restoration.
The Net Zero Strategy sets out cross-economy action to keep the UK on track for meeting carbon budgets and includes a range for emissions savings for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses, Waste and Fluorinated Gases. These are indicative pathways: allowing the UK to respond flexibly to changes that arise over time, including technology and innovation developments.