Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to instruct Network Rail to resolve the land ownership issues at Honeybourne railway station.
Answered by Claire Perry
Network Rail is operationally independent. As this is an operational matter for Network Rail, my Hon. Friend may wish to contact it directly. Further information can be obtained from Network Rail’s Chief Executive at the following address:
Mark Carne
Chief Executive
Network Rail
1 Eversholt Street
London
NW1 2DN.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to enable teachers in primary schools to participate in subject-specific continuing professional development to maintain their understanding of basic mathematical and specific concepts.
Answered by David Laws
It is the responsibility of individual primary schools to ensure that teachers get appropriate continuing professional development in all relevant subjects, including mathematics. The Department for Education is committed to improving the mathematical ability of primary teachers and we have put in place a number of measures to support schools; in particular with implementing the new mathematics curriculum.
The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) is responsible for coordinating and quality assuring teacher professional development across all phases and works actively to support the underpinning mathematical knowledge of primary teachers. The NCETM will receive just under £2 million in funding between March 2015 and March 2016.
The department has established a network of 34 new Maths Hubs across England, backed by £11 million of funding. This initiative will enable every primary school in England to access locally tailored, quality support as well as leading on national projects to implement the Asian-style mastery approach to mathematics, which has achieved world-leading levels of success. Central to this is the China-England Mathematics Teacher Exchange Programme, which has so far seen 59 primary mathematics teachers from Shanghai spend three weeks working in primary schools alongside their English colleagues, planning lessons, and leading master classes and training sessions with other schools to allow local teachers to benefit directly from their expertise. The hubs are also leading a project to trial the use of Singapore-style textbooks at the core of a mastery teaching approach in selected primary schools.
For the first time in 2014-15, post-initial teacher training subject knowledge enhancement is available to primary teachers for mathematics. This is part of a school-led test and learn project with 45 Teaching School Alliances designing and delivering this training across the country to meet local need.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to enable teachers of STEM subjects in secondary schools to participate in continuing professional development to maintain their awareness of the career opportunities relevant to their subjects.
Answered by David Laws
It is for school leaders to determine with their teachers what forms of professional development would be most effective in particular circumstances and to fund this from their delegated budgets. However, the government is continuing to improve the capacity of schools to take the lead in training and developing teachers, including teachers of STEM subjects in secondary schools. This includes supporting schools to lead on the creation of high-quality training opportunities for teachers through the national network of teaching schools. The department is providing funding of £7.2 million from April 2014 to support the National Science Learning Network which delivers high-quality science professional development locally through partnerships.
On 11 March 2015 the Prime Minister announced new measures to recruit more maths and physics teachers. This includes making £24 million available to train and upskill 15,000 existing non-specialist mathematics and physics teachers over the next 5 years. This will enable every secondary school in England to up-skill at least 1 of their staff in these subjects each year. The successful Maths and Physics Chairs programme is being expanded to recruit 100 experts with PhDs to teach and support the subject knowledge development of 2,000 physics and maths teachers in the school partnerships where they work. They are especially targeted in disadvantaged areas.
It has also been announced that the government is supporting the establishment of a new, independent professional body – the College of Teaching. This new organisation, which is being set up by teachers for teachers, will play an important part in promoting high professional standards and effective development for its members.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the £600 million announced in Budget 2015 to support the delivery of the change of use of 700Mhz spectrum includes provision to assist and compensate users of existing equipment in the programme making and special events sector.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Up to £600m will be made available to support the change of use of 700 MHz spectrum. This money is intended to cover all the costs of the programme. If any provision were to be made for users of existing equipment in the programme making and special events sector, it would be from within this budget.Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first recruitment of Gurkha soldiers into the British Army.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Gurkhas hold a special place in the hearts of the British people and we will be celebrating our close and enduring relationship over the bicentenary. The Brigade of Gurkhas will be holding many events this year, including a parade and memorial service in Whitehall in April. Gurkha units will also be conducting public duties as the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace, and at the Tower of London during May.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans he has to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the UK establishing diplomatic relations with Nepal.
Answered by Lord Swire
We are keen to commemorate the establishment of relations with Nepal, given the historic and warm relationship between our two countries, and the outstanding service rendered by the UK by the Gurkhas. The UK is working closely with the government of Nepal on the plans for the bicentenary which will culminate in March 2016 to mark the ratification of the Treaty of Segauli signed in March 1816. Plans are underway to mark this important anniversary in both the UK and Nepal, including through a series of cultural and educational events with senior level engagement.
Separately, the bicentenary of the commencement of Gurkha recruitment – ‘Gurkha 200’ - will be marked between March and June 2015. More information can be found on: http://www.gurkha200.co.uk/.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the consequences will be for (a) Worcestershire County Council, (b) the Worcestershire LEP and (c) the district councils of South Worcestershire of the full implementation of the recommendations of the review by Sir Bob Kerslake of the governance and organisational capabilities of Birmingham City Council.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Membership of any proposed combined authority is a matter for local discretion. There is no compulsion for any local authority to join such a locally-led partnership.
The governance structure of a combined authority would need to be agreed by its potential members, and it would need to meet the necessary statutory tests. It would then be for Parliament to approve any necessary legislative order establishing such an authority.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what forecast he has made of whether his Department's spending in 2015-16 will meet the NATO target of two per cent of GDP.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The Government is committed to maintaining Defence spending at 2% of GDP and we will meet the target in 2015-16.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the 111 NHS telephone service on attendance at hospital accident and emergency departments.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS 111 providers across England conduct patient follow up surveys on the NHS 111 service. The results for the year ending September 2014 showed that 30% of patients said they would have used accident and emergency services if they had not contacted NHS 111. This compares with a national rate of 8% of NHS 111 calls answered that directed patients to accident and emergency services.
These results indicate that in a high proportion of cases NHS 111 has been effective in offering patients a service choice which, if followed, would direct more cases to non-emergency services than if NHS 111 was not available.
There is a very active programme of work involving NHS England, working with local commissioners and NHS 111 providers, to improve referrals to alternative services. This programme is starting to see more patients who call NHS 111 directed to services for a lower acuity.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the time taken by BT Openreach to provide for the connection of new housing developments to telephone services.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The lead times for connecting new housing developments will vary according to their location, the services being provided and the engineering difficulties that the company faces. I am aware that there have been delays in connecting some new developments and that Openreach has been recruiting additional staff to help address this problem. The Government recently published its Utilities Guide setting out performance standards for new utility connections. The guide includes for the first time performance standards for telecoms and broadband connections to new builds. This will allow the performance of communications infrastructure providers to be monitored. We will also be exploring with housebuilders and communications infrastructure providers the scope for making further improvements to connection lead times.