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78704

registered interest
date	17/07/2014
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has any plans to increase the number of replies within her Department's working day standard; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	206478
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>Guidance for Departments on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament allows Departments to set a target for replying of up to a maximum of 20 working days. Within this limit, Core Defra has set a target of 15 working days.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Core Defra continually reviews processes with a view to improving the service we provide.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Cornwall answering member printed Dan Rogerson question first answered 21/07/2014 15:39:56 answering member 1504 label Biography information for Dan Rogerson
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

78748

registered interest
date	17/07/2014
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has any plans to increase the number of replies within her Department's working day standard; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	206481
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p> </p><p>Plans are in place within all correspondence teams to drive up performance and <br>reduce any backlogs. Latest complete monthly figures for replies to hon. <br>Members are 86% within working day target for Home Office HQ and Her Majesty’s <br>Passport Office and 84% within working day target for operational areas (UK Visas and <br>Immigration, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force). The operational figure <br>includes letters from hon. Members replied to by officials and Director <br>Generals.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Staffordshire Moorlands answering member printed Karen Bradley question first answered 22/07/2014 10:22:56 answering member 4110 label Biography information for Dame Karen Bradley
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

78422

registered interest
date	16/07/2014
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate the annual cost to her Department of (a) stationery and (b) postage incurred when sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	206145
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p>Information is not available in the form requested. The report published by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Official Report, 13 May 2014, 17WS) shows that Department for Education Ministers received 16,898 letters from parliamentarians in the 2013 calendar year. We do not keep records of the form in which replies to such letters are sent. As explained by the former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare in the reply given to the hon. Member on 7 July, Official Report Column 151W, most correspondence from hon. Members continues to be received as letters and is replied to in the same format. Ministers do, however, reply by email when they consider it appropriate to do so.</p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Mr Edward Timpson question first answered 21/07/2014 16:53:02 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

78452

registered interest
date	16/07/2014
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will estimate the annual cost to her Department of (a) stationery and (b) postage incurred when sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	206147
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>This information is not recorded.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Cornwall answering member printed Dan Rogerson question first answered 21/07/2014 14:32:49 answering member 1504 label Biography information for Dan Rogerson
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

78535

registered interest
date	16/07/2014
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will estimate the annual cost to her Department of (a) stationery and (b) postage incurred when sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	206149
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>Spend on stationery for sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members is not separated from other stationery and therefore is not calculable. <br>Spend on postage for sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members is not separated from spend of all Home Office postage and also not calculable.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Staffordshire Moorlands answering member printed Karen Bradley question first answered 21/07/2014 14:48:38 answering member 4110 label Biography information for Dame Karen Bradley
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

78605

registered interest
date	16/07/2014
answering body	Wales Office
answering dept id	28
answering dept short name	Wales
answering dept sort name	Wales
hansard heading	Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, if he will estimate the annual cost to his Department of (a) stationery and (b) postage incurred when sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	206156
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The stationary and postage costs incurred when sending a Ministerial reply to hon Members is not separately identifiable from general office stationary and postage costs.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Preseli Pembrokeshire answering member printed Stephen Crabb question first answered 21/07/2014 09:15:41 answering member 1554 label Biography information for Stephen Crabb
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

77368

registered interest
date	11/07/2014
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Teachers: Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that skilled mathematics and science graduates are attracted to careers in teaching; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	205284
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2014 answer text <p>The Government is committed to supporting schools in recruiting specialist teachers in mathematics and science. Specific support is provided for individuals interested in teaching these subjects through targeted marketing, personal advisors and securing school experience.</p><p>To attract graduates to teaching these subjects, we have significantly increased tax-free bursaries for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainee teachers from £9,000 in 2012/13 to up to £20,000 in 2014/15. In addition, we continue to work jointly with the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics and BCS, the chartered institute for IT, to offer scholarship awards of £25,000 in order to attract the most talented graduates into initial teacher training.</p><p>For the academic year 2014/15, we have extended our salaried School Direct training programme to encourage more experienced graduates to enter teacher training across a range of subjects, including mathematics and science. School Direct (salaried) is an employment-based route for high-quality, experienced graduates who earn a salary whilst training.</p><p>We are also continuing to fund subject knowledge enhancement courses, which are an important tool to ensure trainee teachers without a first class degree in the subject they will teach have sufficient specialist subject knowledge.</p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 16/07/2014 14:50:54 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

77369

registered interest
date	11/07/2014
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	School Leaving
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that young people leave school with a good level of English and mathematics; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	205285
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2014 answer text <p>We are reforming the mathematics and English curriculum and qualifications, raising expectations so that they match the best worldwide. The new national curriculum will match those in the highest-performing education jurisdictions in the world, challenging pupils to realise their potential in an increasingly competitive global market.</p><p> </p><p>At primary level, we have published a more rigorous curriculum with a greater level of demand. In mathematics, children will know their times tables by age nine and calculators will be removed from the test for 11 year olds to ensure that children get a rigorous grounding in mental and written arithmetic. To support schools, we will continue to fund the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. We also recently announced the establishment of 32 new Maths Hubs, supported with £11 million of funding over the next two years, which will drive up the quality of mathematics education from the early years to age 19.</p><p> </p><p>In the new English national curriculum we have placed a greater focus on grammar, spelling and punctuation, with a new test for 11 year olds. We have strengthened the requirements on learning to read through systematic synthetic phonics, and we have introduced a phonics screening check at age six so that teachers can intervene early to help children catch up.</p><p> </p><p>At secondary level, GCSEs in mathematics and English are also being reformed to be more challenging and give stronger guarantees of numeracy and literacy. We expect schools will increase time spent teaching mathematics – bringing us in line with our international competitors. The recently announced “Progress 8” measure gives double weighting to mathematics and English in performance tables for the first time. For year 7 pupils who have not achieved level 4 at key stage 2 in reading and/or mathematics we will continue to fund the catch-up premium worth £500 per pupil. This enables secondary schools to deliver additional support, such as individual tuition or intensive support in small groups, for those pupils that most need it.</p><p> </p><p>We are also reforming post-16 education, including A levels in English and mathematics, and have set out our ambition for the majority of young people in England to study mathematics at least to age 18 by 2020. Students without at least a grade C at GCSE in mathematics or English are now required to continue to study the subject. In addition, new core mathematics qualifications are being developed for those students with GCSE grade C or above who do not go on to study A or AS level mathematics.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, we have invested in and reformed initial teacher training to focus on attracting the very best graduates with the right qualities for teaching into the profession through scholarships and bursaries of up to £25,000 in key subjects such as mathematics, and supporting the expansion of the highly-successful Teach First programme.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 16/07/2014 14:41:59 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

77409

registered interest
date	11/07/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Hospitals: WiFi
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to increase and improve the availability of (a) free and (b) chargeable WiFi access for patients in NHS hospitals; and how many NHS hospitals in Sussex provide (i) free and (ii) chargeable WiFi access for patients at the most recent date for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	205279
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p>The availability of free and chargeable Wi-Fi access for patients is a matter for local National Health Service organisations. There is no centrally collected information on the number of NHS hospitals in England that provide free and chargeable wireless internet access for patients.</p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 21/07/2014 14:11:19 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

77472

registered interest
date	11/07/2014
answering body	Department for Transport
answering dept id	27
answering dept short name	Transport
answering dept sort name	Transport
hansard heading	Railways: South East
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will reopen closed railway lines to improve (a) rail capacity between London and the south coast and (b) rail connectivity between towns in Sussex; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	205282
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>Following work recently undertaken by Network Rail, the emerging strategy for rail capacity on the Sussex route to 2024 envisages focussing investment on existing infrastructure, rather than reopening closed lines. Further detail can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/brighton-main-line-emerging-capacity-strategy-for-control-period-6" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/brighton-main-line-emerging-capacity-strategy-for-control-period-6</a></p><p> </p><p>This strategy will be further refined following the publication of the Sussex Route Study in 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Devizes answering member printed Claire Perry question first answered 21/07/2014 15:08:08 answering member 3974 label Biography information for Claire Perry
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby