Category: Speeches

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote habilitation training.

    Alistair Burt

    In 2013, Blind Children UK, previously the National Blind Children’s Society, received funding through the Department’s Voluntary Sector Investment Programme (Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development Fund) for their three year project `Children and Young People’s Habilitation Service’.

    At a national level, the Department for Education has funded a partnership of charities through the National Sensory Impairment Partnership to help local authorities to compare their services, learn from the best in the country and make sure that services for blind children and their families (as well as those with other sensory impairments) are effective and meet local needs.

    My Department will consider with the Department for Education, which has responsibility for children’s social care, and where appropriate, with training and regulatory bodies, how we can highlight the value of habilitation workers.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent discussions she has had with the Police Service of Northern Ireland on financial resources and increasing levels of recruitment.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    PSNI’s main grant budget is provided through the block grant and is a matter for the Northern Ireland Department of Justice. Recruitment is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

    The UK Government has provided the resources PSNI asked for to tackle the terrorist threat: £231million in Additional Security Funding between 2011 and 2016, and £160 million over this spending round.

    This is a significant funding package and is part of this Government’s commitment to tackling the terrorist threat and supporting the PSNI. As the Government’s Northern Ireland manifesto at the General Election made clear, we will always give our fullest possible support to the brave men and women of the PSNI who do such excellent work protecting the community.

  • Lisa Nandy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lisa Nandy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Nandy on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effects of recent changes in the value of the pound on the cost to the UK of electricity and gas imports.

    Jesse Norman

    The Department has not made an assessment of the recent changes in the value of the pound on cost to the UK of electricity and gas imports.

    Exchange rates are only one of the factors which influence the cost of electricity and gas imports.

    Market gas prices are also impacted by the availability and cost of a range of gas supplies, both regional and global, infrastructure constraints and global and regional demand. The cost of importing electricity to the UK through its interconnectors with other European countries is also influenced by the electricity generation mix in Europe and gas, coal and carbon prices and level of electricity demand in the UK and other European countries.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of supply teachers working in schools.

    Nick Gibb

    The data requested is not available.

    Supply teachers play a valuable role in helping schools to address their teacher deployment needs. It is for individual head teachers to determine when it is appropriate to use a supply teacher.

  • Robert Jenrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Robert Jenrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Jenrick on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school aged pupils living in the Newark area travel out of that area to attend secondary schools in (a) Tuxford, (b) Southwell, (c) Bingham, (d) Nottingham and (e) Lincolnshire.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education publishes figures for the number of pupils who attend school in a local authority separate to that in which they reside. This information can be found at GOV.UK[1].

    The department does not, however, hold data on the movements of pupils between areas smaller than local authorities.

    Movements of pupils are a factor when considering the availability of school places.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015 – the cross border movement matrix tables have figures for each combination of home and school local authority.

    “

  • Paul Blomfield – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Paul Blomfield – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has for her Department’s Future Fit Programme in each year between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The Future Fit initiative (2013-15) was an internal process to shape DFID’s response to climate change and resource scarcity in its development investments. Building on the lessons learnt through Future Fit, as set out in the new ODA strategy for the 2015 Spending Review DFID will have a greater focus on climate-smart development – particularly through investments in infrastructure, agriculture, cities, water and sanitation and health.

    Through the International Climate Fund to date, the UK has helped over 15 million people cope with the effects of climate change and given 2.6 million people access to clean energy. The Prime Minister recently announced that over the next five years the UK’s climate funding will increase by at least 50%.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons the Government has not given financial and other support to British Airways’ Green Sky project; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the potential cancellation of that project on the aviation industry’s sustainable aviation agenda.

    Andrew Jones

    The Government recognises the strategic importance of supporting sustainable aviation fuels in order to reduce carbon emissions in the aviation sector, and drive the development of an advanced biofuels industry in the UK. Waste-derived fuels, such as those that the GreenSky project aim to produce, hold real potential for UK growth and jobs, as well as for our energy security and balance of payments.

    The GreenSky project was eligible to enter the Department’s recent Advanced Biofuel Demonstration Competition which has provided £25m of financial support to help develop sustainable biofuels. The competition attracted a wide range of strong proposals and following a thorough assessment process the GreenSky bid was unsuccessful.

    I have met with British Airways to discuss the GreenSky project. We will continue regular contact as British Airways pursue this excellent initiative to develop waste-derived jet fuel.

    The Transport Energy Taskforce, made up of a broad range of expert stakeholders, including British Airways, made recommendations last year, including making aviation biofuels eligible for rewards under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. We intend to include proposals on this in a public consultation this year.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5039), whether they are now able to say whether a stated aim of the recently approved application by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to perform genome editing in human embryos by means of CRISPR-Cas9 was, and remains, to better understand why miscarriages occur in some pregnancies; and if not, whether the description of that research that will be made public will disclose the specific assay the researchers concerned had proposed using to determine whether embryos subjected to gene editing might be either able or unable to implant in a womb.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) publishes on its website the inspection report relating to a licence renewal application and the minutes of the Licence Committee’s decision. It does not publish other information associated with a licence application.

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) permits the genetic modification of embryos in research, subject to an HFEA licence. As the regulator, the HFEA’s responsibility is to apply the test in the legislation, namely that the research is necessary or desirable for any of the purposes specified in the Act and that the use of embryos is necessary. The Licence Committee has added a condition to the licence that no research using genome editing may take place until it has received approval from an NHS Research Ethics Committee.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are making representations to the government of Israel about the case of Mohammed Al-Qeeq; and in particular what representations they have made in the light of the reports of force-feeding and drips being inserted against his will.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We understand that Mr Al Qeeq has now ended his hunger strike. We have been following the case closely and officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have spoken to Amnesty International about Mr Al Qeeq. Our Consulate General in Jerusalem has received regular updates on the condition of Mr Al Qeeq from Palestinian officials and organisations. We remain concerned about Israel’s extensive use of administrative detention. Administrative detention should, according to international law, be used only when security makes it absolutely necessary rather than as routine practice, and as a preventative rather than a punitive measure. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have raised the matter of Mr Al Qeeq’s condition with Israeli authorities.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost of retail crime was to businesses in each year for which data is available.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office does not hold the information requested.

    The Home Office runs an annual Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) which asks business premises in different sectors about their experience of various crime types, including fraud, in the latest year.

    In order to keep the length of the survey, and hence the burden on respondents, to a minimum, businesses are only asked about the cost of the latest incident of each crime type experienced in the year. Therefore, it is not possible to provide an aggregate cost of fraud or overall crime to businesses in the retail sector.