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  • Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if her Department will provide support to the Bright Green Energy Group for distributing solar energy systems to rural communities in Bangladesh.

    Lynne Featherstone

    DFID recognises the important role that the private sector plays in developing and delivering products to increase access to energy in poor countries. DFID make funding available to energy in Africa. This includes the Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Change (REACT) window of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund.

  • Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his oral Answer of 30 April 2014, Official Report, column 824, what the evidential basis is for the statement that nuclear power is carbon-free.

    Mr David Cameron

    There is a strong consensus in the global scientific community that nuclear energy represents one of the lowest carbon forms of baseload electricity generation.

    The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the life cycle emissions associated with the generation of electricity from nuclear power groups are 16g CO2 per kWh electricity produced. This is very low compared to the equivalent figure for electricity produced by natural gas turbines, which is in excess of 400g CO2/kWh, and similar to the IPCC’s estimate for widespread non-baseload form of electricity generation, such as wind.

    The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology report ‘Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation’ states that the operation of the nuclear power station accounts for less than 1% of the total life cycle emissions of nuclear electricity generation.

  • Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with Israeli authorities on discrimination against UK citizens of Palestinian or Arab origin by Israeli border control.

    Hugh Robertson

    Our Embassy in Tel Aviv raises complaints where British nationals appear to have been subjected to differential treatment by Israeli border control on the basis of their race or ethnicity with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

  • Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations to the Israeli government on extending to UK citizens of Palestinian origin visiting Israel similar concessions to those Israel has offered to the US administration in exchange for Israel’s entry to the US visa waiver scheme.

    Hugh Robertson

    We have not made any representations to the Israeli authorities on this issue.

  • Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has commissioned on diabulimia in teenagers and young adults.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for South Yorkshire from 2008 to 2013. The CLAHRC carried out a programme of research on young people with Type 1 diabetes including research relating to eating disorders in this patient group. Outputs include papers published in the journal Diabetic Medicine.

  • Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the additional costs resulting from Israeli border, access and planning controls to UK-funded development projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

    Mr Alan Duncan

    No such assessment has been possible. UK aid helps to finance the Palestinian Authority’s fiscal deficit, which would significantly decrease if Israeli movement and access restrictions in the OPTs were lifted. The World Bank estimates that if Israeli restrictions were lifted in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank alone, the Palestinian economy would expand by more than a third and potentially would not require international donor assistance.

  • Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the European Commission and her counterparts in EU member states on compensation requests to Israeli authorities for EU-funded aid projects demolished by the Israeli authorities.

    Mr Alan Duncan

    DFID and the EU regularly lobby Israel against the illegal demolition of Palestinian homes and infrastructure, and the forced transfer of people in Area C and East Jerusalem.

  • Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many applications have been made in Oxfordshire under the National Assistance Act 1948 by people without resources to meet their requirements or whose resources must be supplemented in order to meet their requirements in the last five years.

    Norman Lamb

    Information on the number of adult social care clients receiving council-funded services, including residential and domiciliary care, is collected by the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

    The HSCIC has provided the available information for Oxfordshire County Council over the five years 2008-09 to 2012-13. This is shown in the table.

    Type of service

    2008-09

    2009-10

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    Residential care

    1,350

    1,245

    1,155

    1,170

    1,120

    Domiciliary care, of which:

    Home care

    4,625

    5,010

    3,675

    3,125

    2,820

    Day care

    1,880

    1,820

    1,680

    750

    630

    Meals

    465

    330

    295

    175

    155

    Short term residential care (not respite)

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Direct payments

    925

    1,040

    1,400

    1,530

    Existing/new direct payments and personal budgets

    1,050

    Professional support

    12,485

    12,315

    5,750

    1,760

    1,275

    Equipment and adaptations

    1,000

    1,305

    1,270

    875

    865

    Other

    1,125

    1,045

    2,285

    505

    445

    Notes:

    1. Data relates to adults 18 and over

    2. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5

    3. All data are published and final

    4. The ‘Existing/new direct payments and personal budgets’ columns in return P2f was introduced in 2009-10 to capture personal budgets and reverted back to direct payments in 2010-11. Service users who were receiving council commissioned services via a personal budget or direct payment were only included under this heading and not under the specific service received.

    Sources:

    Referrals, Assessments and Packages of Care (RAP) returns, tables P1 and P2f

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department publishes for pharmaceutical companies to ensure that the clinical trials they conduct are carried out ethically and safely.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) Note for Guidance on Good Clinical Practice (GCP) is an international standard for GCP. It became operational in the European Union in January 1997 and is a set of internationally recognised ethical and scientific quality requirements which must be observed for designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials that involve the participation of human subjects. This guidance is available on the web and is published on the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) website. In addition the MHRA published the MHRA Good Clinical Practice Guide in September 2013.

    The Health Research Authority (HRA) publishes a range of resources on research ethics that have relevance to clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. These resources are available on the HRA website at:

    www.hra.nhs.uk/resources/

    “

  • Virendra Sharma – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Virendra Sharma – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many individual funding requests for the prescription of Duodopa to patients with Parkinson’s disease were (a) made, (b) accepted, (c) accepted following an appeal and (d) rejected in (i) 2011-12, (ii) 2012-13 and (iii) 2013-14.

    Norman Lamb

    Prior to April 2013, primary care trusts were responsible for dealing with individual funding requests and information on individual funding request decisions, or on the time taken to consider such requests, was not collected centrally.

    From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.

    NHS England has informed us that information on the number of individual funding requests made to NHS England is not currently available. NHS England is improving its data collection mechanisms and aims to improve availability of such information in the future.

    NHS England has advised us it aims to inform the requesting clinician of the outcome of the individual funding request panel decision within 40 working days from the date of receipt of a completed request form. There are no plans to collect information on the average time taken for these decisions to be made.