Damian Hinds MP: written questions
343 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Voice over Internet ProtocolDepartment for Science, Innovation and TechnologyTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31854More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what data his Department holds on the numbers of (a) residential customers and (b) business customers that have moved from a PSTN telephone connection to a VOIP connection (i) when thei
Answer: The Department does not hold this specific information on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).Ofcom’s Connected Nations (2024) report (published 5 December 2024) states: “In the year to July 2024, ...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordPower FailuresDepartment for Energy Security and Net ZeroTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31842More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what data his Department holds on the incidence of power outages by (a) postcode (b) postcode sector (c) local authority ward and (d) any other geographical segmentation.
Answer: The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has robust and well-tested processes in place to collect information and data during power outage incidents to ensure situational awareness is maintained. The type of data and information we collect is outli...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordOut-of-school EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31830More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to clause 25 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, what the means is for appealing to the Secretary of State.
Answer: The references in the Children Not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to “education otherwise than at school” should be read in the broadest sense of the term and not solely referring to Education Otherwise Than in A School (E...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordOut-of-school EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31829More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to clause 25 8(b) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, whether guidance will be issued as to what would count as exceptional circumstances.
Answer: The references in the Children Not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to “education otherwise than at school” should be read in the broadest sense of the term and not solely referring to Education Otherwise Than in A School (E...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordOut-of-school EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31828More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, whether the references in the Bill to education otherwise than at school refer to the form of schooling commonly known as education otherwise than at
Answer: The references in the Children Not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to “education otherwise than at school” should be read in the broadest sense of the term and not solely referring to Education Otherwise Than in A School (E...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: UniformsDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31827More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, whether a badge (a) sewn onto or (b) otherwise affixed to a generic blazer will count towards the limits for branded items of school uniforms.
Answer: School uniform plays a valuable role in creating a sense of common identity among pupils and reducing visible inequalities. However, too many schools require high numbers of costly branded uniform items and it is right that this legislation limits the num...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: UniformsDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31826More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, whether the new rules on a maximum number of branded school uniform items are intended only to apply to new entrants to the school in the normal year
Answer: School uniform plays a valuable role in creating a sense of common identity among pupils and reducing visible inequalities. However, too many schools require high numbers of costly branded uniform items and it is right that this legislation limits the num...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: UniformsDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31825More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, whether (a) scarves, (b) hats and (c) other optional items of clothing count towards the limit for branded items of uniform.
Answer: School uniform plays a valuable role in creating a sense of common identity among pupils and reducing visible inequalities. However, too many schools require high numbers of costly branded uniform items and it is right that this legislation limits the num...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast ClubsDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31824More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to maintain current levels of funding in real terms for secondary school breakfast clubs in the national school breakfast club programme.
Answer: There are over 2,600 schools currently participating in the national schools breakfast programme (NSBP), which enables schools to purchase breakfast food at 25% of the cost, with 75% of the cost of food and delivery provided by government.We have confirme...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast ClubsDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31823More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's funding to primary schools for free breakfast clubs is intended to cover at least 75% of the actual cost of provision.
Answer: Schools which are part of the breakfast clubs early adopter programme will receive funding from April 2025 to cover food, delivery and staffing costs. The final amount each school will receive is dependent on take-up of the breakfast club and school chara...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordFarms: FinanceDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 30977More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the average return on capital employed of family-owned farms in (a) England and (b) the UK.
Answer: Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) for family-owned farms is not available. Data are collected at the commercial farm business level by the Farm Business Survey. The survey does not collect information on whether farms are family-owned so it is not possibl...
Answered 25 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordBasic SkillsDepartment for EducationTabled 11 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 30585More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of achieving level 2 in (a) English and (b) maths on the lifetime earnings of a person with those grades.
Answer: Research published by the department in 2021 on attainment by the end of key stage 4 found that a one-grade improvement in GCSE mathematics and English was associated with an increase of £14,579 and £7,266 in lifetime earnings respectively. The full repor...
Answered 19 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordFood: PricesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 11 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 30584More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the retail price of a basket of food goods (a) in cash terms and (b) as a proportion of average family income spent on food goods in (i) the UK
Answer: The Office for National Statistics reports the average weekly household expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages in the UK, which is collected via ONS’s Living Costs and Food Survey and published in Family Spending in the UK. OECD Data Explorer pub...
Answered 5 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28918More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools receiving support from regional improvement for standards and excellence teams will have improvement progress measured by (a) those teams, (b) other teams in her Department and (c) Ofsted in a w
Answer: Ofsted plan to monitor the quality of schools which are under-performing on a regular basis. Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams will also be checking on the implementation of the school’s improvement plan. If schools do not make suffi...
Answered 18 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: CurriculumDepartment for EducationTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28917More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the (a) proportion of, (b) extent of and (c) reasons for schools deviating from the National Curriculum.
Answer: The department does not wish to create significant additional burdens on schools by trying to collect detailed information on compliance with the national curriculum, which is not always straightforward to assess, and therefore does not hold data on schoo...
Answered 17 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordTeachers: QualificationsDepartment for EducationTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28916More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of teachers without qualified teacher status will be exempted from requiring that status due to exemptions for maintained schools being extended to academy schools under the Children’s Wellbeing
Answer: Following implementation of the qualified teacher status (QTS) measure in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, when a teacher is recruited and commences employment with an academy, they will be required to have QTS or meet one of the exemptions set ...
Answered 14 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: ComplaintsDepartment for EducationTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28915More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of complaints to Ofsted on schools.
Answer: This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the right hon. Member for East Hampshire directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Answered 14 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordTeaching Regulation AgencyDepartment for EducationTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28914More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of members of the public directly contacting the Teaching Regulation Agency.
Answer: The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) analyse and report on referral numbers within their Annual Report and Accounts published on GOV.UK. Referrals to TRA have increased from 1038 in 2022/23 to 1684 in 2023/24, and that increase has been driven by a rise i...
Answered 18 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: Legal CostsDepartment for EducationTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28913More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of funds spent by (a) schools and (b) trusts on legal advice in relation to complaints.
Answer: Each year, schools receive core funding from the department to cover their expenditures. The funding schools receive is not ringfenced for any specific form of expenditure and it is for each school to determine how this money will be best used to support ...
Answered 14 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordDepartment for Education: ConsultantsDepartment for EducationTabled 3 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28005More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on the recruitment of external advisers for regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams.
Answer: The department’s new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will provide both mandatory targeted intervention to schools that Ofsted identifies as needing to improve, and a universal service for all schools, which will act as a cat...
Answered 11 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordDepartment for Education: StaffDepartment for EducationTabled 3 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28004More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total staffing was of her Department's Regions Group in (a) fiscal and (b) academic year 2023-24; and if she will make an estimate of the number of staff anticipated for 2025-26.
Answer: The average number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the department’s Regions Group was 790 in the 2023/24 financial year and 825 in the 2023/24 academic year.On 1 October 2024, 172 FTE staff along with their functions transferred into Regions Group,...
Answered 11 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 3 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28003More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) staffing is (a) in place and (b) anticipated for the next (i) fiscal and (ii) academic year.
Answer: The department’s new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will provide both mandatory targeted intervention to schools that Ofsted identifies as needing to improve, and a universal service for all schools, which will act as a cat...
Answered 11 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 3 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28002More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the consultation entitled School accountability reform – school profiles, improvement and intervention, published on 3 February 2025, how many and what proportion of full-time equivalent Regio
Answer: The department’s new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will provide both mandatory targeted intervention to schools that Ofsted identifies as needing to improve, and a universal service for all schools, which will act as a cat...
Answered 11 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 3 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28001More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the consultation entitled School accountability reform – school profiles, improvement and intervention, published on 3 February 2025, what are the differences in (a) role and function and (b)
Answer: Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellent (RISE) team advisers have an exceptional track record of school improvement and executive leadership. This includes individuals who are, or have recently been, headteachers, senior local authority officers ...
Answered 11 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 3 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28000More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the consultation entitled School accountability reform – school profiles, improvement and intervention, published on 3 February 2025, how much time she expects Regional Improvement for Standar
Answer: The department’s new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will provide both mandatory targeted intervention to schools that Ofsted identifies as needing to improve, and a universal service for all schools, which will act as a cat...
Answered 11 Feb 2025
Original Parliament record
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