Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department uses to allocate funding to the voluntary and charitable sector; and if she will publish those criteria and any scoring system that they support.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s grant and procurement policy are aligned and adhere to the recently published Government Grant Standards and the Commercial Operating Standards. Both determine that the Department will compete by default - including in relation to VCSE organisations. All commercial approaches contribute to achieving the departmental objectives for education, children’s services, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England, and equalities and are underpinned by the following principles:
Specific criteria are determined in relation to what is being procured or granted but support the principles above. In all cases, VCSE providers will need to respond to the Department’s selection and award criteria provided in the relevant documentation which is published on Contracts Finder or on Funding Central.
There is no specified scoring system as this is in part determined by the criteria, but a common system used for the majority of competitions is:
Score 5: excellent evidence
Score 4: strong evidence
Score 3: good evidence (often used as the minimal acceptable score)
Score 2: partial evidence
Score 1: poor evidence
Score 0: no evidence/question not answered.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which voluntary and charitable sector organisations are funded by her Department; how much each such organisation received in 2015-16; and how much each such organisation is due to receive in 2016-17.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department does not hold the information centrally in the form requested.
Organisations receiving funding are not categorised by sector and this could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of refitting the six Type 45 destroyers with intercoolers capable of operating in warm climates.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
We announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 that we would improve the availability of our Type 45 Destroyers. As part of the Power Improvement Project for Type 45, the Ministry of Defence is planning to improve system resilience by adding upgraded diesel generators to provide further electrical generation capacity.
For current cost estimates, I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 16 September 2016 (to Question 46180) to the hon. Member for Strangford (Mr Shannon).
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the performance of school music hubs; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In October this year, Arts Council England published the latest annual data on music education hubs. The report showed that hubs have been supporting an increasing number of children and schools. In 2014/15 they taught 631,223 children to play an instrument through whole class ensemble teaching, up from 596,820 in the previous year. They also worked with 86% of state-funded schools, 18,811 schools compared with 18,157 in the previous year. More details are included in the report, which is available on Arts Council England’s website.
Last month, we announced funding of £75 million a year until 2020 for the network of music education hubs to allow them to reach even more pupils and schools.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of PE and Sports Premium funding on participation in competitive sport; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We want all pupils to be healthy and active. Through the Primary PE and Sport Premium, the government has invested over £600m of ring-fenced funding since 2013 to primary schools to provide additional and sustainable improvements to PE and sport.
In independent research, 70% of schools reported that participation in inter-school competitions had increased since the premium was introduced, while 53% reported an increase in intra-school competitions. Furthermore, 87% of schools reported that the quality of PE teaching had increased, and 84% that there had been an increase in pupil engagement in PE during curricular time, and in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities.
We know that there is more for us to do. That is why we have committed to doubling the funding for the Primary PE and Sport Premium to £320m a year from September 2017.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many state schools offered History of Art A-level in academic year 2015-16; how many such schools were comprehensive schools; and if she will place a list of those schools in the Library.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Provisional 2016 national figures show that there were 12 state-funded schools where at least one student had been entered for A level history of art, nine of which were comprehensive schools. The list of these schools will be placed in the House library.
As I announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 1 December, the exam board Pearson has confirmed that it intends to develop a new A level in history of art for teaching from September 2017.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Firm plans have not yet been made for how we will mark the Balfour Declaration's centenary in November 2017.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to review the terms of the Small Breweries' Relief scheme; and whether his Department has sought representations from all parts of that industry on the terms of that Relief scheme.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Treasury is in regular contact with representatives from across the brewing industry and is aware of the concerns that some brewers have about Small Brewers’ Relief. The Treasury welcomes ideas from all stakeholders on possible reforms to Small Brewers’ Relief.