Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings this year.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
This Government pays tribute to the courageous men and women who participated in and contributed to the D-Day landings and, of course, the wider Normandy Campaign. The Government, through the Ministry of Defence, and in conjunction with the Royal British Legion, are proud to be supporting and participating in a wide range of commemorative events for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. These include the UK National event in Portsmouth on 5 June, and a series of events in Normandy.
Daks over Normandy is a privately funded event with no official participation or funding from the Government. However, we applaud and congratulate organisations such as this that are contributing to the commemoration of the events of 1944.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what funding the Government plans to allocate to the Daks Over Normandy event taking place to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
This Government pays tribute to the courageous men and women who participated in and contributed to the D-Day landings and, of course, the wider Normandy Campaign. The Government, through the Ministry of Defence, and in conjunction with the Royal British Legion, are proud to be supporting and participating in a wide range of commemorative events for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. These include the UK National event in Portsmouth on 5 June, and a series of events in Normandy.
Daks over Normandy is a privately funded event with no official participation or funding from the Government. However, we applaud and congratulate organisations such as this that are contributing to the commemoration of the events of 1944.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to increase the national funding rate for sixth form students.
Answered by Anne Milton
The departmental budget for spending on sixth form funding in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set in the 2015 Spending Review. As with other areas of departmental spending, sixth form funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020 and overall, the government plans to invest nearly £7 billion during 2018-19, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19 year old who wants one. We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the sector and are assessing how far the current funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision for young people.
The department works closely with HM Treasury in considering sixth form funding at ministerial and official level, and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the adequacy of the national funding rate for sixth form students.
Answered by Anne Milton
The departmental budget for spending on sixth form funding in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set in the 2015 Spending Review. As with other areas of departmental spending, sixth form funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020 and overall, the government plans to invest nearly £7 billion during 2018-19, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19 year old who wants one. We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the sector and are assessing how far the current funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision for young people.
The department works closely with HM Treasury in considering sixth form funding at ministerial and official level, and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the national funding rate for sixth form students.
Answered by Anne Milton
The departmental budget for spending on sixth form funding in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set in the 2015 Spending Review. As with other areas of departmental spending, sixth form funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020 and overall, the government plans to invest nearly £7 billion during 2018-19, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19 year old who wants one. We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the sector and are assessing how far the current funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision for young people.
The department works closely with HM Treasury in considering sixth form funding at ministerial and official level, and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for the proposed new Environmental Land Management Schemes after 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have regular meetings with the Chancellor on a wide range of issues. Funding of all government business after 2022 will be determined as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the role of public advice in the effective delivery of the proposed new Environmental Land Management Schemes.
Answered by George Eustice
We will be introducing a new Environmental Land Management (ELM) system that will pay land managers for delivering environmental public goods.
The government will work with farmers and land managers who wish to improve the environment by entering into multi-annual ELM contracts in which land managers commit to take certain actions to deliver environmental goods and benefits in return for funding.
We believe that those managing the land are best placed to decide how to deliver the environmental benefits they have signed up to provide. We propose that land managers should have access to the information and advice they need to enable them to develop holistic management plans for their land.
Evidence from previous agri-environment schemes suggests that the effectiveness of measures and the quality of environmental benefits can depend on the quality and extent of advice from trusted advisers. We propose that an approved specialist adviser should be readily available to help the land manager to deliver desirable environmental outcomes. We want land managers to establish trusted relationships with their adviser. We are therefore exploring the role that third party advisers could play. For example, an adviser could be an agronomist who a farmer has worked with in the past and trusts, or an adviser from a local organisation who can advise on local conditions. We expect that these advisers would need to be approved to demonstrate their level of capability and to ensure sufficient protection for the spending of public money. The appetite for existing advisers training to deliver advice within ELM, and the market for delivering this training, is being tested through a combination of policy development, Testing and Trials and social science involvement, with an intelligence assessment in development.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to provide feedback to labour providers on the effectiveness of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Pilot Scheme.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Seasonal Workers Pilot will test the effectiveness of our immigration system at alleviating seasonal labour shortages during peak production periods, whilst looking at the wider impacts of such a scheme.
The pilot will start in the spring of this year and will run until the end of December 2020. It will be fully evaluated.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the effect a seasonal agricultural workers scheme would have on small labour providers.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Seasonal Workers Pilot will test the effectiveness of our immigration system at alleviating seasonal labour shortages during peak production periods, whilst looking at the wider impacts of such a scheme.
The pilot will start in the spring of this year and will run until the end of December 2020. It will be fully evaluated.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to extend the Youth Mobility Scheme to additional non-EEA countries after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We have proposed a UK-EU Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) as part of our Mobility Framework to ensure that young people can continue to enjoy the social, cultural and educational benefits of living in the EU and the UK.
We will ensure that our future immigration system continues to support the thriving cultural exchanges that the YMS cultivates.