Category: Speeches

  • Henry Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Henry Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to increase the number of school places in Crawley.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area, and supporting them to do so is one of this Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021, which along with our investment in the free schools programme we expect to deliver 600,000 new places.

    Basic need funding is allocated to local authorities to help them to create new school places. West Sussex received £113 million of basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create almost 10,000 new places between 2010 and 2015. These new places include over 1,000 provided by the Gatwick School, an all-through free school in Crawley.

    West Sussex has also been allocated a further £85 million to create the places needed by 2019, including in Crawley.

    Information on basic need allocations can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations

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  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the timetable is for her Department’s assessment of applications for emergency authorisation of neonicotinoid seed treatments; and whether she plans to remove restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids.

    George Eustice

    The timetable for assessing an application for emergency authorisation varies from case to case. It needs to enable expert scientific assessment and a decision to be made against the legal criteria in time for any authorisation to be of value to users.

    Two recent applications for emergency authorisation of neonicotinoids as seed treatments for oilseed rape were turned down on 12 May following expert advice that they did not meet the criteria for authorisation.

    The UK has fully implemented restrictions on the use of three neonicotinoids. UK experts are contributing to a review of the risks to pollinators from neonicotinoids being led by the European Food Safety Authority, which is due to complete by January 2017. The European Commission will then consider whether to propose changes to the current restrictions.

  • Lord Inglewood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Lord Inglewood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Inglewood on 2016-07-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether holding a second referendum is an essential constitutional precondition to invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Article 50 explicitly recognises that a Member State may decide to withdraw “in accordance with its own constitutional requirements”. It is for the Member State concerned to determine what those constitutional requirements are. The Government does not consider that a second referendum is necessary, or required to invoke Article 50.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have had stem cell transplantation procedures interrupted in England in each of the last five years.

    Nicola Blackwood

    Stem treatments may be discontinued due to a range of clinical reasons or patient choice. NHS England does not hold information on the number of patients that start but do not complete this form of treatment.

  • Tim Farron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tim Farron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to review the requirement for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in the application criteria for the gender recognition certificate.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Government takes gender equality issues very seriously and has actively contributed towards the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s inquiry into transgender equality. The Government will consider the recommendations of the inquiry once they become available.

  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will amend the criteria by which some students without permanent residence may be entitled to a student loan to reflect the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of R v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (2015) UKSC 57.

    Joseph Johnson

    On 16 September 2015 the Department published details of an interim policy in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling of 29 July 2015 (on the application of Tigere) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (respondent) 2015 UKSC57.

    We intend to consult shortly on amending the relevant Regulations.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he plans to take to support manufacturers who previously used the Manufacturing Advisory Service once that service is ended.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills did not consult specifically on the decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service as this was a commercially sensitive decision. However, through our ongoing discussions with manufacturers and their representatives, there has been wide recognition that the best way for Government to support manufacturers is by getting the fundamentals of the economy right. We are creating a highly competitive business environment to make the UK an attractive location for manufacturing investment, supporting export success, boosting skills and protecting spending on innovation and the cutting edge smart digital manufacturing technologies which will drive the strong UK productivity growth in the future.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-01-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the suitability of conditions at immigration detention units at airports in the UK.

    Lord Bates

    The regulation of safety arrangements in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) is through the Detention Centre Rules 2001, the Operating Standards for IRCs, Detention Services Orders relating to security arrangements and the relevant sections of the contracts and service level agreements relating to security. Each IRC has a Home Office Immigration Enforcement Manager to monitor ongoing service provision.

    Independent scrutiny is an important part of assurance that our removal centres are safe, secure and humane. Assessments of IRCs and holding rooms are published by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP) and in the annual reports of Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB).

    Home Office service improvement plans contribute to delivering continuing improvement of services in response to independent recommendations. Service improvement plans in response to HMCIP inspection reports have been publicly available on the HMCIP website for all reports published after 1 April 2015.

    On 9 February 2015 my Right Honourable Friend, the Home Secretary, announced an independent review of the welfare in detention of vulnerable persons by Stephen Shaw, which included consideration of the conditions at IRCs and airport holding rooms. The Government’s position on the review was set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 14 January 2016.

    Current policy is clear that a number of groups of individuals, including pregnant women, the elderly, victims of torture and the mentally ill, should be detained only in very exceptional circumstances. The Government accepts Stephen Shaw’s recommendations that there should be a wider definition of those at risk, and will introduce a new “adult at risk” concept into decision-making on immigration detention, with a clear presumption that people who are at risk should not be detained, building on the existing legal framework.

  • Paul Maynard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Paul Maynard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Maynard on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the Government plans to do to support reforms to research and development of pharmaceuticals at the World Health Organisaiton meeting in March 2016.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The meeting at the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been postponed to May 2016 and arrangements about the meeting are at an early stage. DFID officials are engaging with WHO on their plans.

    The UK Government priority is to see a Pooled Fund for Research and Development established with support from WHO Member States, especially those that have not yet provided funding for this type of work. The UK Government supports systems that separate the market incentives to produce a drug or vaccine, from the Research & Development process, prioritise public health need over profit and work in partnership with a wide range of different organisations, covering the public, private and philanthropic sectors. The UK is the second largest government supporter of product development partnerships, which prioritise need over profit, and have a proven track record in developing new products.

  • Sarah Champion – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sarah Champion – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ring-fence long term funding for specialist domestic violence charities.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government published a new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy on 8 March setting out an ambitious programme to make tackling VAWG everybody’s business, ensure victims and survivors get the support they need and inspire confidence in the Criminal Justice System to bring more perpetrators to justice as well as doing more to rehabilitate offenders.

    The strategy committed £80 million between 2016 and 2020 to protect women and girls from violence. This increased funding will help to deliver our goal to work with local commissioners to deliver a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and FGM and Forced Marriage Units, whilst driving a major change across all services which promotes early intervention and prevention including through specialist domestic violence charities.