Category: Speeches

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will take steps to use the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to prioritise the strengthening of diplomatic and economic ties with Commonwealth countries.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    This Government has worked hard to strengthen the UK’s diplomatic and economic ties with the Commonwealth, including expanding our representation in Commonwealth countries. For example, the Foreign Secretary opened a new Deputy High Commission in Chandigarh, India, in March 2015. Strengthening of Foreign and Commonwealth Office and UK Trade and Investment commercial teams has taken place in Canada, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea and Guyana. One result of this is the East Africa Oil & Gas High Value Opportunity (HVO), which will support UK businesses in gaining access to local markets.

    However, we agree that the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta is a further opportunity to strengthen these ties, by renewing the Commonwealth and demonstrating unity and a shared sense of purpose around priority issues. The CHOGM non-governmental fora, including the Commonwealth Business Forum to be attended by both the Right Hon. Lord Maude of Horsham and I, will be an additional opportunity for the UK to enhance economic ties across the Commonwealth. The UK looks forward to a successful CHOGM 2015, which showcases the Commonwealth as a united, unique, vital and ambitious organisation that is capable of tackling modern global challenges.

  • Richard Fuller – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Richard Fuller – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to encourage business start-ups and entrepreneurship.

    Anna Soubry

    The Start-Up Loans scheme supports people wanting to start a business and has provided over 33,500 loans worth over £180 million. The Government is providing further funding to Growth Hubs to help businesses at the local level, as well as cutting taxes on small businesses, extending rate relief and increasing the Employment Allowance.

    The latest stats from the ONS show that the number of UK start-ups has reached record levels with some 351,000 new businesses launched in 2014.

  • Melanie Onn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Melanie Onn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of local authority social housing residents have access to the internet at home.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government is on target to deliver access to superfast broadband for 95% of UK premises by December 2017, and to extend coverage beyond that as far as possible. As the Prime Minister announced last autumn, the government proposes that by the end of this parliament people should have a legal right to request access to a good level of broadband speed, no matter where they live.

    The honourable member will be pleased to hear that in her Great Grimsby constituency, 96 per cent of homes and businesses can already access superfast broadband – and it is estimated that coverage will rise to98 per cent by the end of 2017. Additional funding sources, including the £129 million of gainshare funding that BT will return in response to the high levels of take-up being achieved, will allow coverage to be extended further in Great Grimsby and the rest of the area covered by the North Lincolnshire broadband project.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to ensure that jobs created by the (a) new nuclear project at Moorside and (b) the Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon project are available to local people.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government is working with the energy industry to maximise economic benefits from new electricity generation projects and is providing support to enhance the competitiveness of the supply chain, including improving the skills and employability of the construction workers in the industry.

    In addition Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership has identified nuclear and energy excellence as a key priority contributing significant growth opportunities for the Cumbria economy. The Local Enterprise Partnership has strong ambitions to drive growth across the Cumbria area by improving the delivery of skills, infrastructure, environmental sustainability and business support.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress his Department has made in encouraging private companies to create or expand their apprenticeships programmes.

    Nick Boles

    There have been over 2.4 million apprenticeship starts over the previous parliament, and 153,100 between August and October 2015, demonstrating the continued expansion of the apprenticeships programme.

    We are taking action to support and encourage the growth of apprenticeships in all sectors to meet our commitment to reaching 3 million starts by 2020. The UK-wide levy will be introduced in April 2017 for all employers in public and private sector with a pay bill of £3m or more, to help fund the increase in quantity and quality of apprenticeship training in England. All employers that hire apprentices will benefit from the levy.

    Our apprenticeship reforms are giving employers the opportunity to create new apprenticeship standards. More than 1300 employers are involved with 204 new standards published (of which over 60 are Higher and Degree Apprenticeships) and more than 150 are in development. So far there have been over 1,000 starts on the new standards.

    We are continuing to support small employers to hire apprentices through the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE), which provides eligible employers with a £1,500 grant per apprentice (aged 16 to 24) for up to five new apprentices currently. The AGE will continue to operate until the apprenticeships levy is introduced in April 2017. From April 2016, all employers will not be required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under age of 25 on earnings up to the upper earnings limit.

  • 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 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) his Department and (b) Highways England are improving their assessments of user satisfaction in relation to the strategic road network.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department appointed Transport Focus (TF) as the road user watchdog and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) as the Highways Monitor on the formation of Highways England on 1 April 2015. In addition to reporting from TF and ORR, officials regularly meet with Highways England to discuss all aspects of their performance, including customer satisfaction.

    TF is developing a new Strategic Roads User Survey to measure satisfaction among those using Highways England’s network with input from the Department. It is intended to pilot this throughout 2016 and then launch the new survey during 2017. This will run in parallel with Highways England’s existing National Road User Satisfaction Survey until that ceases in March 2018.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which bodies are responsible for maintaining food hygiene standards in state funded primary and secondary schools; and what steps he is taking to support those schools which are found to be in need of improvement in that area.

    Jane Ellison

    Local authorities are responsible for food hygiene inspections of schools. Food hygiene legislation requires these premises to be registered as food businesses. The Food Standards Agency, which sets policy for and monitors enforcement of food safety legislation by local authorities, has advised that approximately 99% of educational establishments have satisfactory or better food hygiene standards.

    Local authorities work with food businesses to make improvements in any premises that fail to meet satisfactory standards during inspections and may take a range of enforcement actions as considered appropriate in the circumstances of each case. The hon. Member or members of his constituency may contact the relevant local authority or the Food Standards Agency for detailed information about specific premises that may be of concern to him.

  • Karen Lumley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Karen Lumley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karen Lumley on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department maintains central records on the number of council tenants who are evicted from their tenancies and the reason for those evictions.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Department collects and publishes statistics on local authority tenant evictions and reasons for eviction. The information is published in the annual Local Authority Housing Statistics tables on rents, lettings and tenancies, which are available at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-housing-data

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much the Government donated to the UN Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan in 2015-16; and how much the Government plans to donate to that Plan in 2016-17.

    Rory Stewart

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 15 September to Question number 45832.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information is recorded by the Cancer Registry on secondary breast cancer.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for collecting cancer data to support national cancer registration in England and recognises the importance of collecting data on recurrent breast cancer; however data on the number of people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer is not currently available. Pilot work undertaken in April 2012 in acute trusts has improved the reporting for breast cancer recurrence and metastasis to the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS). In order to drive up data completeness for the submissions to the NCRS, monthly reports on data quality and completeness of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset are made available to all acute providers.

    Since the completion of the pilot project the NCRS in PHE has been working with all acute National Health Service providers in England to improve the reporting of breast cancer recurrence. The collection of this particular item of data remains challenging because relapsed patients may represent in many different ways and through many referral routes.

    Further work is being scoped by NHS England and PHE based on the recommendation in the recent Independent Cancer Taskforce report to establish robust surveillance systems to collect this data on all cancers.