Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if his Department will take steps to ensure that courses are not cut at Bradford College owing to reductions in its budget.
Answered by Nick Boles
Adult Skills Budget allocations are given to colleges, which then have the freedom and flexibilities to decide what provision to offer according to local demand from employers and learners. It would be for Bradford College to determine what courses to offer and at what level.
Bradford College’s Total Adult Skills Budget for 2015-16 will be £ 9,481,925. In 2014-15 it was £10,225,903.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether there has been a reduction in Bradford College's budget for Level 2 and Level 3 courses.
Answered by Nick Boles
Adult Skills Budget allocations are given to colleges, which then have the freedom and flexibilities to decide what provision to offer according to local demand from employers and learners. It would be for Bradford College to determine what courses to offer and at what level.
Bradford College’s Total Adult Skills Budget for 2015-16 will be £ 9,481,925. In 2014-15 it was £10,225,903.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what progress he has made on implementing local growth deals.
Answered by Greg Clark
Local Enterprise Partnerships have made good progress in implementing their Growth Deals, supported by Government.
The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership has a large portfolio of projects ready to start in 2015.
Government has allocated £627million to the Leeds City Region Growth Deal, this will leverage £640m of other funding. Over the lifetime of the Deal the Local Enterprise Partnership estimates that up to 10,000 jobs could be created and 2,000 new homes built.
Government has also agreed longer term funding for the West Yorkshire plus Transport Fund. This could deliver 30 transport schemes worth over £1billion.
The Chancellor announced the Devolution Deal with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in last week’s Budget. This will give West Yorkshire new powers over skills, business support and transport.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what review of his Department's co-operation with Burma's Home Affairs Ministry has been conducted.
Answered by Lord Swire
There has been no review of our cooperation with Burma’s Home Ministry.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of whether elections due in Burma will be credible, free and fair.
Answered by Lord Swire
The 2015 parliamentary elections will be a watershed for Burma’s transition to democracy. They have the prospect to be the first legitimate elections since 1960. We have made clear to the Burmese government that we want to see inclusive and credible elections, underpinned by freedom of expression and a respect for human rights. The UK is taking steps to support the integrity of the electoral process. The Department for International Development has allocated around £25m over five years to strengthen democratic governance, including support to the elections. UK funding will support the provision of technical advice to the Burmese election commission, voter education and monitoring and observation of the electoral process.
Dialogue between the key political actors will be critical to ensuring a successful outcome to the election. We encourage all of the main parties to maintain regular discussions in advance of the vote, to ensure a smooth process and a smooth succession to whatever government emerges in the next Parliament.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when the Government first became aware that Philip Blackwood, who is in custody in Burma, is a British citizen.
Answered by Lord Swire
The New Zealand Embassy in Burma made our Embassy in Rangoon aware of Mr Philip Blackwood’s case in 2014. They confirmed that Mr Blackwood travelled to the country on a New Zealand passport and they were providing consular assistance.
We have not been given any information indicating that Mr Blackwood is a British national and Mr Blackwood has not approached our Embassy for assistance.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many students from Bradford were the first to go to university from their family in each year since 2005.
Answered by Greg Clark
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students enrolled at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
The Table shows the proportion of students from Bradford Local Authority area and the UK overall who started a full-time first degree course at a UK Higher Education Institution in the academic years 2008/09 to 2013/14 and who declared that their parents did not hold a higher education qualification. Comparable information is not available for the earlier years.
Information for the 2014/15 academic year will become available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in January 2016.
Full-time first degree entrants domiciled in Bradford Local Authority and the UK whose parents do not hold a higher education qualification
UK Higher Education Institutions
Academic Years 2008/09 to 2013/14
Bradford | UK Overall | |||||
Academic Year | Percentage of entrants whose parents do NOT have any higher education qualification | Count of respondents | Count of students where information is unknown | Percentage of entrants whose parents do NOT have any higher education qualification | Count of respondents | Count of students where information is unknown |
2008/09 | 60% | 2,040 | 550 | 47% | 270,345 | 91,080 |
2009/10 | 60% | 2,280 | 560 | 47% | 281,410 | 95,540 |
2010/11 | 58% | 2,225 | 505 | 45% | 280,600 | 90,800 |
2011/12 | 58% | 2,445 | 510 | 45% | 303,690 | 90,895 |
2012/13 | 59% | 2,270 | 535 | 46% | 275,430 | 81,585 |
2013/14 | 62% | 2,745 | 390 | 48% | 323,850 | 63,110 |
Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record.
(1) Domicile refers to a student’s permanent or home address prior to entering their course.
(2) More information on how Parental HE is measured is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_studrec&task=show_file&mnl=14051&href=a^_^PARED.html
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department is providing to government and opposition in Bangladesh to help address the constitutional crisis in that country.
Answered by Lord Swire
We are deeply concerned by the ongoing violence and political unrest in Bangladesh. We continue to call on all Bangladesh’s political parties to take the confidence-building measures necessary to stop the violence and ensure an inclusive and participatory political process.
I raised my concerns about the violence and shrinking of democratic space in Bangladesh with Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, the Bangladesh Parliament Speaker, during her visit to the UK on 9 March. I also raised these concerns, not least the reported office confinement of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Leader Khaleda Zia, when I met the Bangladesh Law Minister on 20 January 2015. I made a public statement reiterating these messages on 5 March. We are also encouraging the UN and others in the international community to play an active role.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many students have gone to university from Bradford in each year between 2001 and 2014.
Answered by Greg Clark
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) publishes young participation rates by Parliamentary Constituency. These show the proportion of young people in each parliamentary constituency who entered higher education by the age of 19, for each cohort of 18 year olds between 1998 and 2011. These can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/yp/trendsyp/pment/
The statistics will be updated to include the 2012 cohort of 18 year olds in the Summer.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Rohingya people from Burma who have fled to Bangladesh since 2012; and what assistance the Government is providing to those people.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Whilst there is no officially agreed number of the Rohingya population, most international agencies estimate that there is up to 500,000 Rohingya people in Bangladesh.
DFID provides core contributions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which manages the official camps for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as well as through other partners such as the European Commission. This support includes providing shelter, access to water and sanitation, vocational training and food supplies to malnourished refugees.