Khalid Mahmood

Following the Wolf Report[1], the Government removed thousands of low-quality qualifications that were not valued by employers from accountability measures. However, as highlighted in the Technical Education Reform Case for Change[2], there is still a confusing array of qualifications available to learners and employers, who struggle to identify which are appropriate for their skills needs. Learners are also faced with variation within programmes and training methods vary widely.

The Independent Panel on Technical Education, chaired by Lord Sainsbury[3], was formed to advise the Government on measures that could improve technical education in England. Through considering best practice in the UK and internationally, and consultation with employers, providers and young people, the Independent Panel recommended moving away from the current awarding organisation market model, where qualifications that deliver similar but different outcomes compete with one another, and instead adopt a licensing approach[4].

The Government has accepted this recommendation based on the evidence set out in the Panel’s report[5] and through considering its own evidence base as set out in the Technical Education Reform Case for Change. In particular, the Panel identified evidence that suggested ‘the current system of awarding organisations which operate in many parts of the UK (but works differently in Scotland) has very serious drawbacks. The proliferation of competing qualifications in England and Northern Ireland undermines the labour market value of vocational qualifications, and prevents employers from engaging effectively in the construction of qualifications.[6]’ The Panel also examined international technical education systems, finding our market-based approach to awarding qualifications appeared to be unique.

Based on the evidence considered, the Panel believe that the simplicity and clarity offered by a licensing approach would bring many advantages to employers and individuals alike.

The Government is undertaking further work to fully understand the benefits and effectively mitigate any risks this new approach may pose to post-16 education.

[1] Wolf, A. (2011), Review of Vocational Education – The Wolf Report. (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180504/DFE-00031-2011.pdf)

[2] Page 17, Department for Education (2016), Technical education reform: the case for change. (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/536048/Technical_Education_Reform_-_Case_For_Change.pdf)

[3] Department for Education (2016), Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education.( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/536046/Report_of_the_Independent_Panel_on_Technical_Education.pdf)

[4] Page 43, Department for Education (2016), Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education

[5] Page 6, Department for Education (2016), Post-16 Skills Plan. (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/536043/Post-16_Skills_Plan.pdf)

[6] Page 42, Department for Education (2016), Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education

Independent providers deliver a wide range of post-16 education, including apprenticeship training, and the Government expects that to continue.

The Institute for Apprenticeships will come into being in April 2017. We expect to publish further information about how the Institute will operate in due course.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to five year olds that all registered early years providers such as maintained nurseries must follow. Within the EYFS, there are several areas of learning and development that shape the educational programme in the early years settings, one of which is communication and language.

The EYFS makes clear that children should be given opportunities to experience a rich language environment to help them develop the confidence and skills they need to express themselves and to speak and listen in a range of situations. The EYFS requires practitioners to ensure all children have the opportunities to learn and develop a good standard of English language to ensure they are ready to benefit from the opportunities available to them when they begin primary school.

We have also worked closely with 4Children to develop the What to Expect, When? guide which illustrates to parents and early years providers the tools they can use to help their children’s language development from birth to five years old, and can be found at: http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/2015/03/what-to-expect-when-a-parents-guide/

The Department for Education has also awarded £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations of which a number are supporting staff to develop strong pedagogical approaches to language development and early literacy.

The Department for Education hopes that any individual with relevant information about the serious allegations made in relation to a number of schools in Birmingham will come forward and share this with the Education Commissioner, Peter Clarke, and Ian Kershaw, the Chief Adviser for Birmingham City Council's investigation.

Amendments to The Employment Relations Act 1996, introduced by the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) 1998, mean that any confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements cannot have the effect of preventing a protected disclosure and any provision will be void to the extent it seeks to do so. The Department revised the model settlement agreements for new academies in January to make this absolutely clear. The PIDA Act 1998 also introduced provisions to protect workers from detrimental treatment or victimisation from their employer if, in the public interest, they blow the whistle on wrongdoing.

The UK national monitoring network follows strict criteria for the number and location of air quality monitoring sites as set out in Annex III of the ambient air quality Directive.

These do not preclude siting monitoring outside or nearby to schools and some existing monitors are near to schools. To ensure the network meets the Directive requirements, monitoring is undertaken at a range of locations (e.g. urban background, roadside, industrial and rural locations).

Practical factors such as health and safety, access, locality to services, planning, land ownership and cost of monitoring sites are also key in siting new monitoring stations.

Many Local Authorities also conduct air quality monitoring and are free to determine their chosen approach in assessing air pollution based on local circumstances and priorities. Local Authorities are able to use monitoring methods not available to the national network due to the Directive’s requirements.

This means that they are able to design monitoring more suited to the local circumstance. However, when a new national monitoring site is required, Local Authorities will be consulted and where possible, existing sites may be shared or a new site located to meet both national and local needs. This may often mean consideration is given to siting at a local school or at a Local Authority or public building.

The Government has had recent discussions with Midland Expressway in order to renew an existing agreement to provide resilience to the Strategic Road Network in exceptional circumstances. General usage on the Toll road is a matter for the operator.

HS2 Ltd will take the noise evidence provided by RPS Planning and Development into account in the on-going discussions regarding the effects of noise from HS2 on the Bodymoor Heath training ground.

Information on the amount lost by businesses in Birmingham and the West Midlands conurbation as a result of congestion on the M6 motorway is not held centrally.

The series for government expenditure on rail per head of population from 2009/10 to 2014/15 for English regions is shown in the table below, as per part (c) of the request.

The step change seen in London spending last year is due to increased spending on London Underground and HS2 plus some increase in the Network Grant. This investment is needed to meet the ever increasing demand for passenger journeys into London, of which there are currently about 4 billion every year.

More widely, care needs to be taken in interpreting regional spend figures. Expenditure is usually allocated between regions on the basis of which regions benefit from the expenditure rather than on the basis of where the expenditure is made. However, it is not always possible to put the value of spending down to certain parts of the country and this is particularly a problem for spending on the rail network. Though the Department does try to distribute rail funding across the regions, allocations are inevitably fairly imprecise.

It is also important to note that expenditure comparisons on a ‘per-head’ basis (using resident populations) can present a skewed picture of the distribution of benefits for transport generally, and for transport in London particularly. This is because the transport networks in London are routinely used by a very large number of other regions’ residents.

Even allowing for these points, one would also expect London’s ‘per head’ transport expenditure to be higher than the national average. London provides key international travel gateways for the whole of the country. London is also densely populated with different public transport and infrastructure demands – for example London residents comprise around 15% of the population of England, but London accounts for almost two-thirds of rail journeys in Great Britain.

The equivalent information is unavailable at a sub-region level, therefore cannot be provided as per parts (a) and (b) of the request.

As at the 1 October 2016 there were 338 permanent HS2 Ltd employees based in Birmingham, representing 37% of the overall HS2 Ltd employee base.

As of 9 December 2016, there were 1,851 people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities waiting for an organ transplant. This represents around 29% of the active transplant list. Around 5% of all deceased organ donors came from BAME communities.

There are a number of specific initiatives to increase the number of organ donors from BAME communities. These include the National BAME Transplant Alliance to coordinate the work of BAME organisations working within these communities, a Peer Educator Project working with the Pakistani Muslim Community in Birmingham and the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets and NHS Blood and Transplant has developed a behaviour change campaign strategy in support of the Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020: A UK Strategy. This includes increasing its education and engagement activities with BAME communities and a Faith Action Plan outlining action to work in partnership with faith leaders.

As of 9 December 2016, there were 1,851 people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities waiting for an organ transplant. This represents around 29% of the active transplant list. Around 5% of all deceased organ donors came from BAME communities.

There are a number of specific initiatives to increase the number of organ donors from BAME communities. These include the National BAME Transplant Alliance to coordinate the work of BAME organisations working within these communities, a Peer Educator Project working with the Pakistani Muslim Community in Birmingham and the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets and NHS Blood and Transplant has developed a behaviour change campaign strategy in support of the Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020: A UK Strategy. This includes increasing its education and engagement activities with BAME communities and a Faith Action Plan outlining action to work in partnership with faith leaders.

We support the statement of 10 July 2014 from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. There has now been further escalation with Israel's ground operation started on 17 July. The UK will continue working towards our three policy objectives for the Gaza crisis - to secure a ceasefire, to alleviate humanitarian suffering, and to keep alive the prospects for peace negotiations, which are the only hope of breaking this cycle of violence and devastation once and for all.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) has no immediate plans to visit the Middle East. However, he will continue to build contacts/meet international partners/Ministers to discuss the resolution of the conflict.

I look forward to working closely with the international community, including the UN Secretary General, to help secure a de-escalation in tensions between Israel and Palestine. I fully support his call on 10 July for both sides to show maximum restraint. On 12 July the UK joined the rest of the Security Council in calling for a restoration of calm and a return to the November 2012 ceasefire. The UK stands ready to consider further action in the Security Council if that can help secure the ceasefire.

I refer to the statement made by the then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) to the House on 14 July 2014, Official Report, columns 581 - 3.

The Prime Minister has received correspondence from the families of the victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, requesting a special scheme be set up for funding of the families’ legal representation at the newly reopened Coroner’s inquest into the bombings. The Government is carefully considering these requests, and will respond directly to these parties in due course.

Offences involving firearms recorded by the police at the force area level are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on a financial year basis. The most recently published figures for the West Midlands and England are 2013/14. These are given in the table and show that between 2009/10 and 2013/14, offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) fell by 40% in both the West Midlands and in England.

Figures for 2014/15 are due to be published on 11 February 2016 in the ONS publication Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences 2014/15.

The ONS publish provisional data for England and Wales on the number of offences involving firearms in their quarterly crime statistics releases. The most recently available figures are for the year ending June 2015 and these can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-june-2015/stb-crime--ye-june-2015.html

The Home Office does not collect data on the number of people arrested in connection with offences involving firearms. The Home Office collects data on arrests by groups of crimes (for example, violence against the person, robbery) but cannot separately identify those that involved a firearm from those that did not.

Convictions data are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice has informed the Home Office that they do not hold data on the number of convictions for offences where a firearm was involved.

Offences involving firearms recorded by the police at the force area level are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on a financial year basis. The most recently published figures for the West Midlands and England are 2013/14. These are given in the table and show that between 2009/10 and 2013/14, offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) fell by 40% in both the West Midlands and in England.

Figures for 2014/15 are due to be published on 11 February 2016 in the ONS publication Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences 2014/15.

The ONS publish provisional data for England and Wales on the number of offences involving firearms in their quarterly crime statistics releases. The most recently available figures are for the year ending June 2015 and these can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-june-2015/stb-crime--ye-june-2015.html

The Home Office does not collect data on the number of people arrested in connection with offences involving firearms. The Home Office collects data on arrests by groups of crimes (for example, violence against the person, robbery) but cannot separately identify those that involved a firearm from those that did not.

Convictions data are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice has informed the Home Office that they do not hold data on the number of convictions for offences where a firearm was involved.

The police in England and Wales receive funding from two main sources - central Government and the police precept component of council tax.

The table below shows the amount of revenue funding provided by central Government to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for the West Midlands (formerly the West Midlands Police Authority), and the amount of central Government revenue funding provided by central Government to PCCs (formerly police authorities) and their London equivalents in England from 2009/2010 to 2015/2016. It also shows precept funding for the relevant years.

Overall police spending (central Government funding plus precept) will be protected in real terms over the next Spending Review period. This is an increase of up to £900 million in cash terms by 2019/20.

Police reform is working and, according to the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales, crime has fallen by more than a quarter since 2010. This is the lowest level since the survey began in 1981. In the West Midlands, crime has fallen by 15 per cent compared with 2010.

*Government funding figures include specific grants that have since been rolled into Police Main Grant (including Rule 2 Grant, the Neighbourhood Policing Fund and, from 2013/14, the Community Safety Fund) in order to provide consistency over the time period.

Since 2011/12, West Midlands and other English force areas have been in receipt of Council Tax Freeze Grants. These amounts are included in the figures, along with National and International City Grants paid to the London forces.

These figures do not include funding for counter-terrorism policing, or additional funding received by the police from other specific grants, the Police Innovation Fund or other sources.

**From 2013/14, West Midlands and other English force areas have also received Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) funding. These amounts are included within the precept totals to assist comparison with previous years.

Information about specific aspects of spending by the police is not held centrally by the Home Office. Birmingham is one of the areas previously supported under the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme. However, it is not possible to determine what proportion of the total programme budget was spent in this area, and in turn what proportion of this was related to tackling gun crime specifically.

Our VIRTUS body armour has eight different sizes of Scalable Tactical Vest and three for the frame. It can therefore be configured in a multitude of ways dependent on the size and shape of the wearer.

Studies are continuing which explore further options for body armour that comes in different sizes and shapes in order to optimise the fit and reduce physical burden on all users.

The administrative scheme established by the previous government operated as follows; the police (and in some cases the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland) checked whether sufficient evidence existed in each case at that time for named individuals to be questioned, arrested or prosecuted if they returned to Northern Ireland or any other part of the United Kingdom.

If it was concluded that there was no prospect of any prosecution based on the evidence then available, the individuals were informed that they were not wanted by the police – the letters were only ever a statement of fact regarding an individual's status with the police and prosecuting authorities at a particular point in time i.e. whether they were sought for arrest or not. Lady Justice Hallett has been appointed to investigate the administrative scheme and to provide a full public account of how it operated.

I am not aware of any contact with West Midlands Police by my Department prior to the issuing of any letters to individuals involved in the on-the-runs administrative scheme.

This is a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.