Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with BAE Systems about delaying the closure of the Portsmouth shipyard until the results of the Scottish referendum are known.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
No discussions have been held with BAE Systems about delaying the closure of Portsmouth shipyard pending the results of the Scottish referendum.
The Government is clear that Scotland benefits from being part of the UK and the UK benefits from having Scotland within it. The Government is not making plans for independence as we are confident that the people of Scotland will vote to remain within the United Kingdom in the referendum.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers have had action taken against them under Teachers' Standards for (a) undermining fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and (b) failing to ensure that personal beliefs are not expressed in ways which exploit pupils' vulnerability or might lead them to break the law in the last two years.
Answered by David Laws
The National College for Teaching and Leadership has prohibited two teachers following professional conduct hearings where the allegations relate to behaviours outlined in the question.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the capacity of English, Welsh and Northern Ireland shipyards to build surface warships following the closure of the BAE shipyard in Portsmouth.
Answered by Philip Dunne
As part of the wider maritime negotiations with the Ministry of Defence in 2013, BAE Systems took the decision to focus its shipbuilding activities on the Clyde in Scotland. This decision has secured a sustainable future for the UK shipbuilding industry.
There are a number of commercial yards outside Scotland that could be considered as potential alternatives; however, no assessment of the viability of these shipyards as a potential focus for complex warship building has been undertaken.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the BAE shipyard in Portsmouth is planned to close.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
BAE Systems is expected to complete a phased return of its Portsmouth shipbuilding facilities to the Ministry of Defence by the end of this year. It will, however, retain one office building to accommodate around 250 personnel already engaged on support to the Type 26 Global Combat Ship programme in Portsmouth.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to ensure that specialised manufacturing and engineering equipment located at the BAE shipyard, Portsmouth, will be made available to potential new users of the shipyard.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence is in discussion with BAE Systems over the feasibility of leaving specialised plant and machinery on the site when shipbuilding in Portsmouth ceases later this year. These discussions are continuing but no decisions have been taken regarding what equipment might be available to a potential new user of the site.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the availability of training in manufacturing and engineering skills in Hampshire subsequent to the closure of the BAE shipyard in Portsmouth.
Answered by Michael Fallon
We recognise the importance of manufacturing and engineering skills to the economy : these will be vital to building the Solent area's strengths in marine and maritime. BIS is working closely with industry, Job Centre Plus, and Portsmouth Council to support those employees impacted by BAE's decision to close its shipyard in Portsmouth, including providing upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
In the Southampton & Portsmouth City Deal, we announced a £1 million DWP Rapid Response Service that will support those recently made redundant and that Government and local industry will invest £3m in a Marine and Maritime Employer Ownership for skills Programme, responding to the immediate skills needs in small and medium sized enterprises in the advance manufacturing sector. Alongside the City Deal, £5m from the ‘Solent Future' Regional Growth Fund programme is available to support the up-skilling and re-skilling of BAE staff facing redundancy.
The Skills Funding Agency is also working with colleges and training providers in the Solent area to ensure that support is available to any employees at risk of redundancy to update/reskill - supported by £2.5m of Skills Support for Redundancy European Social Fund money. Additionally the existing UK wide Talent Retention Solution is available to help match skilled workers to engineering jobs in the local area (currently advertising 692vacancies in the south of England on its website[1]) and the National Careers Service is available to offer free impartial careers advice to those impacted on updating skills or retraining for alternative employment.
The Solent Local Enterprise Partnership and Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership are involved in detailed negotiations with Government for Growth Deals that will see powers and funding devolved from Whitehall to local partners to drive growth in their area – which covers Hampshire. Solent and EM3 have both put forward proposals to grow the skills – particularly STEM and engineering skills – in their areas. We expect to make announcements on Growth Deals shortly.
[1] Active TRS vacancies listed on 11 June 2014.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of proposals to utilise the current BAE shipyard in Portsmouth subsequent to its planned closure.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) have been appointed as the Ministry of Defence's marketing agents for the facilities being vacated by BAE Systems' shipbuilding operation.
LSH have received 19 expressions of interest which they are following up with site visits and/or provision of further information. This phase of the campaign is expected to run until the end of June 2014, when all of the expressions of interest will be fully assessed to determine whether any of them would be an appropriate and compatible future user for the site.
Asked by: John Denham (Labour - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the annual survey of hours and earnings published on 12 December 2013, if he will estimate the number and proportion of (a) men and (b) women in (i) full-time and (ii) part-time work in each (A) local authority area and (B) parliamentary constituency earning the national minimum wage in April 2013 defined as (1) adults aged 21 years and over earning less than £6.24, (2) youths (aged 18 to 20) earning less than £5.03 and (3) 16 to 17 year olds earning less than £3.73.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.