Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 4 December 2015 to Question 17715, on schools in West Sussex, in what year her Department first made the distinction between fringe and non-fringe areas in West Sussex.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Within West Sussex, the Crawley district forms part of the London fringe, while the rest of the local authority area is outside the fringe. The distinction is a longstanding feature of the teachers’ pay system, dating back at least 30 years. Decisions on pay, including the current geographical criteria for designating fringe areas, are based on recommendations by the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB). This independent body was established in 1991 to examine and report on matters relating to the statutory conditions of pay and employment of school teachers in England and Wales. The STRB can review the boundaries for the fringe if requested to do so by the Secretary of State.
London fringe area arrangements have been part of the mainstream school funding system since financial year 2013 to 2014. Since the school funding reforms were introduced in that year, they have been a feature of the local funding formulae in the five local authorities who have some of their schools within the London fringe area (Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent, along with West Sussex), enabling an uplift to be applied to the affected schools’ budgets.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Office of Rail and Road's report, GTR-Southern Railways-Driver Only Operation, published on 5 January 2017, what assurances he has received from that train operating company that the equipment, procedures and staffing are in place as recommended in that report.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is for the independent safety regulator - the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) - to judge whether the equipment, procedures and staffing is in place to provide a safe railway operation, and therefore it is to the ORR that such assurances are provided. The Secretary of State for Transport is aware that the operator concerned has provided the necessary assurances as recommended in the report he mentions.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the Purchasing Managers' Index as an indication of future trends in the level of employment.
Answered by Simon Kirby
Recent business surveys show that momentum in the economy has continued. The PMI surveys show a broad-based pickup in activity in late 2016, with output growth reaching a 17-month high in December. This is also reflected in the employment level which currently stands at a historically high level of 31.8m, and has increased by 342,000 over the past year.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will hold discussions with Govia Thameslink Railway on the action it might take to mitigate the financial effect on retail outlets in train stations of industrial action by employees of Southern Rail.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The unnecessary industrial action is clearly having an effect on both passengers and businesses.
I am in regular contact with Govia Thameslink Railway and any retailer who feels that the disruption has had a detrimental effect on their business, should contact their managing Agent, Amey PT. Govia has assured me that each case will be looked at on an individual basis.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what reports he has received on Southern trains (a) being taken out of service and (b) skipping stations or suffering delays due to cameras on driver-only operation trains failing.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Govia Thameslink Railway is not required to provide the Department with detailed information on the causes of train failures. Officials have discussed camera failures with Southern, who confirmed that there has been a noticeable increase in camera defects reported. However, when investigated, no faults have been found by technical teams.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals were registered between July 2015 and June 2016 following assessment for personal independence payments for (a) new claimants and (b) reassessments for (i) Arun (E07000224), (ii) Chichester (E07000225), (iii) Worthing (E07000229), (iv) Adur (E07000223), (v) Horsham (E07000227), (vi) Crawley (E07000226) and (vii) Mid Sussex (E07000228).
Answered by Oliver Heald
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals have been closed, that were registered between July 2015 and June 2016, with (a) a change and (b) no change to the original award after assessment for personal independence payments for (i) new claimants and (ii) reassessments in (A) Arun (E07000224), (B) Chichester (E07000225), (C) Worthing (E07000229), (D) Adur (E07000223), (E) Horsham (E07000227), (F) Crawley (E07000226) and (G) Mid Sussex (E07000228).
Answered by Oliver Heald
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals have been closed, that were registered between July 2015 and June 2016, with a change to the original award without representation after assessment for personal independence payments for (a) new claimants and (b) reassessments in (i) Arun (E07000224), (ii) Chichester (E07000225), (iii) Worthing (E07000229), (iv) Adur (E07000223), (v) Horsham (E07000227), (vi) Crawley (E07000226) and (vii) Mid Sussex (E07000228).
Answered by Oliver Heald
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals from new claims and reassessments between June 2015 and July 2016 are outstanding after assessment for personal independence payments in (a) Arun (E07000224), (b) Chichester (E07000225), (c) Worthing (E07000229), (d) Adur (E07000223), (e) Horsham (E07000227), (f) Crawley (E07000226) and (g) Mid Sussex (E07000228).
Answered by Phillip Lee
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average median number of weeks' clearance times were after assessment for personal independence payments for new claimants and reassessments in (a) Arun (E07000224), (b) Chichester (E07000225), (c) Worthing (E07000229), (d) Adur (E07000223), (e) Horsham (E07000227), (f) Crawley (E07000226) and (g) Mid Sussex (E07000228) between July 2015 and June 2016.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The table below gives statistics on the median clearance time in weeks for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for normal rules cases in selected local authority areas. The figures relate to the time between the return of the case from the Assessment Provider (AP) to the date of the decision made by DWP on the case. The figures are for those cases returned by the AP to DWP between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016.
| New Claims | Reassessments |
Adur | 1 | 3 |
Arun | 1 | 3 |
Chichester | 1 | 2 |
Crawley | 1 | 3 |
Horsham | 1 | 3 |
Mid Sussex | 1 | 3 |
Worthing | 1 | 3 |
Table 1: Median PIP clearance times in weeks, from return from AP to DWP decision.
Source: PIP Computer Systems