Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to recover unpaid fines from foreign nationals who commit motoring offences whilst visiting the UK.
Answered by George Freeman
The Police have a range of options when enforcing against road traffic offenders. If a driver is pulled over at the road side, a Fixed Penalty Notice can be issued on-the-spot for a range of offences as an alternative to prosecution.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Transport:
What progress he has made on introducing a hybrid Bill to secure the powers to deliver phase 2b of High Speed Two; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
In 2018, the Government began engaging on the design of HS2 Phase 2b with local communities along the route, via the publication of the Working Draft Environmental Statement.
In June 2019, we published a Design Refinement Consultation which announced eleven possible changes to the Phase 2b route. These consultations represent significant milestones in preparing the HS2 Phase 2b hybrid Bill.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that widows of deceased police officers are not discriminated against upon remarrying in relation to their entitlement to a survivor’s pension.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Survivors of officers who were members of the 2006 and 2015 police pension schemes are, since 2006, paid survivor pensions for life.
On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life. Successive governments have been clear that there is a general presumption against making retrospective changes to public service pension schemes. However, the Government believes the arguments for making a limited exception for the widows of police officers who died on duty are sufficiently compelling in this case.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Education:
What recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of teaching early literacy through phonics.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There is a significant body of evidence that demonstrates that systematic phonics is a highly effective method for teaching early reading. According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), phonics approaches have been consistently found to be effective in supporting younger readers to master the basics of reading, with an average impact of an additional four months’ progress. Research suggests that phonics is particularly beneficial for younger pupils (four to seven year olds) as they begin to read. Teaching phonics is more effective on average than other approaches to early reading (such as whole language or alphabetic approaches), though it should be emphasised that effective phonics techniques are usually embedded in a rich literacy environment for early readers and are only one part of a successful literacy strategy[1].
In 2018 there were 163,000 more six year olds in England on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.
The Department is investing £26 million in a national network of English hubs to support local schools in developing their teaching practice, with a focus on systematic phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. There are now 34 such hubs, based in primary schools across England.
[1] EEF Phonics Teaching and Learning Toolkit, updated August 2018 (available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics/).
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made to ensure that all bus operators are providing audio visual (AV) next stop and final destination announcements as required under the Bus Services Act 2017; and what steps his Department is taking to make bus transport more accessible for disabled people.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Bus Services Act 2017 includes powers for the Secretary of State to make Regulations requiring bus operators to provide audible and visible information on local bus services in Great Britain.
The Government understands the importance of accessible on-board information in helping bus passengers to travel with confidence, and in Summer 2018 published a public consultation on proposals to require its provision on local bus services throughout Great Britain. This follows the Government’s commitment, set out in the Inclusive Transport Strategy, to invest £2 million towards ensuring that audio visual equipment is installed on buses.
We continue to analyse responses to the consultation and expect to announce our next steps regarding the making of Regulations and publication of guidance later in the year.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the 101 service response times were for Derbyshire in (a) 2016-17 and (b) 2017-18.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office does not hold this information. The handling of 101 calls, including response times and performance targets, is an operational matter for the police.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Home Office:
What steps he is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in town centres.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government introduced the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 which provides powers that the police and local authorities can use to tackle anti-social behaviour in town centres.
The powers include Public Spaces Protection Orders for local councils to stop people committing anti-social behaviour in public spaces and a Dispersal Power the police can use to disperse anti-social individuals.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money the Government has invested in wave and tidal stream technologies since 2010.
Answered by Claire Perry
There is no single data repository for historical information on cross-government investment into energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D). The best available record of government investment in renewable energy technologies is the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Energy Technology RD&D Budget Database, which this Department and its predecessor (Department of Energy and Climate Change) contribute to. The IEA’s database allows users to track trends in spending by energy technology in IEA countries back to 1974 and can be found at: http://www.iea.org/statistics/rdd/.
However, including other spending beyond that included in the IEA statistics, since 2008, the Government has invested over £60m in marine energy research, development, demonstration and deployment contributing towards both wave and tidal stream energy.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
What recent assessment she has made of the level of growth in the Northern Ireland economy.
Answered by Karen Bradley
This government has presided over a period where Economic output in Northern Ireland continues to rise, and the export market has rapidly expanded. Unemployment levels are close to an all-time low, and 52,000 more people are in work compared to 2010. The recent announcement by Bombardier is yet another example of growth in the economy.
In my engagements across Northern Ireland I am consistently impressed by the talent and expertise on offer. However, there are crucial economic challenges to address and a restored Executive is essential to make the key strategic decisions needed to advance the Northern Ireland Economy.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has plans to include provision for a tunnel under the widened section of the M1 south of Junction 25 to accommodate the restoration of the Derby and Sandiacre canal.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Highways England are converting the existing M1 between Junctions 23a and 25 into a smart motorway to increase capacity and improve journeys. There are no plans to make provision for any future restoration of the Derby and Sandiacre canal by building a tunnel under the M1 as part of this scheme.