Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many loans were made by the Public Works Loan Board to local authorities; on what dates the loans were made; and what the (a) value and (b) purpose was of each loan.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The UK Debt Management Office publishes on its website information on loans advanced by Public Works Loan Board on a monthly basis. This information is publicly available for all loans since 1 October 2010 and covers the amount advanced for each loan, the interest rate, the term and the repayment type of the loan. This information is available at https://www.dmo.gov.uk/responsibilities/local-authority-lending-pwlb/monthly-loans-report/.
Under the prudential regime, decisions on borrowing are devolved to local authorities who are democratically accountable to their electorates. Information about the purpose of Public Works Loan Board loans is not centrally held.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans the Government has put in place to promote and protect the right to freedom of and belief in Afghanistan.
Answered by Mark Field
Afghanistan is a priority country for our human rights work. The UK works closely with the National Unity Government, NGOs, civil society and other international partners to support the promotion and protection of human rights in Afghanistan.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of areas in which savings could be made in the school system to increase expenditure on teaching.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In July, we announced that we will be investing an additional £1.3 billion in core schools and high needs funding across 2018-19 and 2019-20, in addition to the schools budget as set out in the 2015 Spending Review. This additional investment in core schools funding will be funded in full from efficiencies and savings from within the Department's budget, as we believe strongly that this funding is most valuable in the hands of head teachers and principals. We have already announced savings of £700 million from our capital budgets, primarily from delivering the free schools programme more efficiently and scaling back the Healthy Pupils Capital programme to reflect reductions in forecast revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. We are in the process of identifying the remaining savings.
There is scope for schools to improve their levels of efficiency, and to find savings on their non-staff expenditure which can be reinvested into frontline teaching. Our analysis indicates that if the 25% of schools spending the highest amounts on each category of non-staff expenditure were instead spending at the level of the rest, this could save over £1 billion. The Department will continue work to deliver the initiatives set out in the Schools’ Buying Strategy (published in January 2017), to help schools deliver the best value for money from their non-staff expenditure and secure these savings.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the level of financial reserves held by schools in England is.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are delivering the biggest improvement to the school funding system for well over a decade and our national funding formula will create a fairer system.
We trust schools to manage their own budgets with the great majority having a cumulative surplus of funds, built up over a number of years. The latest published figures for England’s schools showed an overall cumulative surplus of more than £4 billion (for schools with a cumulative surplus), against a cumulative deficit of less than £300 million.
We continue to provide support to schools to help them use their resources in the most efficient way, so they can deliver the best value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment her Department has made of the proportion of the schools budget that has been spent on staffing costs in (a) 2010 and (b) 2017.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Spending on staff as a proportion of the total schools’ budgets has decreased from 77% in 2011/12 to 74% in 2015/16 for academies and from 77% in 2009-10 to 73% 2016-17 for local authority maintained schools.
In July 2017 we announced an additional £1.3 billion of funding for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20, in addition to the schools budget as set out in the 2015 Spending Review. This means funding per pupil for schools and high needs will be maintained in real terms for the next two years.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken for an HM Revenue and Customs VAT investigation involving a small or medium-sized business was in the 2015-16 financial year.
Answered by Jane Ellison
HM Revenue and Customs estimate that during 2015-2016, VAT compliance checks on small or medium sized businesses averaged 13.9 weeks between being opened and closed.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment she has made of how far pupils travel to attend (a) existing grammar schools and (b) non-selective secondary schools (i) on average and (ii) for those 10 per cent of pupils travelling the furthest to attend grammar schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to enabling all children to fulfil their potential by delivering a school system that works for everyone.
The Department has assessed how far pupils travel to grammar schools based on the school attended. This shows that the median distance travelled to school by pupils attending grammar schools is 3.1 miles compared to 1.1 miles for pupils attending non-selective secondary schools. The same analysis shows that for pupils travelling the furthest to attend schools – those in the top 10% in terms of distance travelled to school – the median distance travelled for those attending grammar schools is 13.3 miles compared to 6.2 miles for pupils attending non-selective secondary schools.
These figures are based on pupils and schools attended in the Spring School Census 2015 and cover all pupils attending mainstream schools in years seven and above. Distances are calculated as the straight-line distance between pupils’ home postcode and the postcode of the schools attended.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the service on Southern Rail.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 1 September the Secretary of State announced a Network Rail £20m fund, to help improve resilience of the Southern network. Chris Gibb will head a new project board, working with the train operator, the Department for Transport and Network Rail, to explore how to achieve a rapid improvement to services for the public. The board will oversee the fund and create closer working between Govia Thameslink Railway and Network Rail to improve performance.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the number of personal injury whiplash claims.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Between 1 April 2013 and 6 April 2015 the coalition government implemented a substantial programme of reform to reduce and control costs, strengthen the medical evidence process and reduce incentives to pursue fraudulent and unnecessary whiplash claims.
Despite that progress, the present government remains concerned about the number and cost of whiplash claims, which is why further reforms were announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in November 2015. These new reforms will remove the right to compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity from minor whiplash injuries, and reduce legal costs by raising the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000. The government will consult on the detail of these reforms in due course, with a view to implementing them as soon as the necessary legislation is in place.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU citizens who have not started working have been deported after six months to which countries since May 2015.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We do not hold the information requested centrally and providing it would incur disproportionate cost.