Category: Speeches

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessments he has made of the role of libraries in reducing digital exclusion.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Libraries play a significant role in supporting digital engagement, by providing computers and WiFi to enable people to access the internet and digital services, as well as offering digital skills training and support.

    Thanks to Government funding, free WiFi is available in 99% of public libraries in England. DCMS and the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce are working with national partners to develop the role of libraries in improving digital engagement. From 1 October 2015 to 31 March 2016, The Tinder Foundation, in partnership with the Taskforce, carried out a Libraries Digital Inclusion Action Research Project. This supported 16 library authorities across England to pilot and assess new approaches to build digital engagement in socially excluded, hard to reach groups. The Foundation published interim findings in February 2016, and a final report is due in this summer that will help inform future digital engagement activity for libraries.

  • Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department provided to the delegation to Iran led by the Rt. hon. Member for Gordon and the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire in December 2015.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The visit of the Rt Hon. Member for Gordon (Mr Salmond) and the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (Ms Ahmed-Sheikh) to Tehran in December 2015 was organised and paid for entirely by the Scottish National Party and the Iranian authorities. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided some logistical support and Mr Salmond was briefed by the British Chargé d’affaires in Tehran on his arrival.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to review the regulations and guidance governing taxi and private hire vehicles working outside their primary licensing authority area.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport’s Best Practice Guidance on taxi and private hire licensing was issued in 2010. It is expected that a consultation on revised guidance will be launched early next year. Subject to Royal Assent to the Policing and Crime Bill, this will be accompanied by draft Statutory Guidance in relation to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.

    The Government is currently considering all the recommendations in the Law Commission’s report on taxi and private hire regulation in England and Wales and will formally respond to the Law Commission and announce its intentions once this scrutiny is completed.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to prevent the late cancellation of operations.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The commitment that ‘all patients who have operations cancelled, on or after the day of admission (including the day of surgery), for non-clinical reasons to be offered another binding date within 28 days, or the patient’s treatment to be funded at the time and hospital of the patient’s choice’ is included as a pledge in the Handbook to the NHS Constitution. A copy is attached.

    Every quarter, NHS England publishes the number of operations cancelled at the ‘last minute’ for non-clinical reasons. A last minute cancellation is defined as ‘when a patient’s operation is cancelled by the hospital on or after the day of admission (including the day of surgery) for non-clinical reasons’. The financial sanction for not meeting the pledge in 2016-17 is non-payment of costs associated with cancellation and non-payment or reimbursement (as applicable) of the re-scheduled episode of care.

    Every month, NHS England also publishes data on urgent operations that are cancelled by the trust for non-medical reasons, including those cancelled for a second or subsequent time. This includes all urgent operations cancelled, not just those cancelled at the last minute. Although there is no pledge for cancelled urgent operations, NHS England has set a National Quality Requirement that no urgent operation should be cancelled for a second time, and the NHS Standard Contract provides for a financial sanction of £5,000 per incidence.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the potential sale of information stolen during the cyber-security breach of the Government Gateway system.

    Matthew Hancock

    To date the security reports on the Government Gateway system do not show a cyber-security breach.

  • Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of his Department’s receipts from land sales in each year until 2020.

    Mark Lancaster

    As stated in the Spending Review 2015 the Ministry of Defence expects to dispose of sites generating £1 billion of receipts in the financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21.

    The Department does not disclose annual breakdowns due to the potential for prejudice to its commercial interests.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to participants in the Syrian peace process to encourage them to consider a statement urging an end to the use of long-term siege of civilian populations in Madaya and other such settlements.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK has consistently condemned any illegal use of siege tactics and called on all parties to the conflict in Syria to allow the safe, unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid and to respect all relevant provisions of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), as set out in numerous UN Security Council Resolutions.

    The UK played a key role in the passage of UNSCR 2254 of 18 December 2015, which specifically calls on the parties to allow rapid, safe and unhindered access for humanitarian aid to besieged and hard to reach places.

    It is deplorable that the regime, which is responsible for most of the sieges, has only approved 10% of UN requests over the past year to deliver aid to besieged and hard to reach areas. The regime’s allies, including Russia, must do much more to ensure the regime complies with its obligations. We continue to make this clear in our diplomatic engagements on Syria.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what costs in each category of expenditure his Department incurred in relation to the proposed tender of criminal legal aid contracts.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many appeals against Local Planning Authority decisions by developers he has received under Section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in each year since 2009-10; in how many of those cases in each year did he exercise his powers under Section 79 of that Act to (a) allow under Section 79(1)(a), (b) dismiss under Section 79(1)(b), (c) decline to determine under Section 79(6), (d) dismiss under Section 79(6A) the appeal and (e) amend the planning authority’s original decision in any way; and in how many such cases the Local Planning Authority subsequently paid compensation to the developer as a result of his decision.

    Brandon Lewis

    The attached table only covers Section 79 (1)(a) and Section 79(1)(b).

    We do not hold the data on section 79(6) as the legislation is very rarely used with only a handful of cases in the last 7 years. In addition, the Section 79 (6) ‘compensation’ element only allows for a party to apply for costs. This can only occur where a party has behaved unreasonably, and this has directly caused another party to incur unnecessary or wasted expense. The costs order states the broad extent of the expense the party can recover from the party against whom the award is made. It does not determine the actual amount. PPG ‘Appeals’ section 4 relates.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the number of qualified doctors required in the NHS who are (a) GPs and (b) working in hospitals.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department has set up Health Education England to plan the future healthcare workforce for England. It is responsible for ensuring a secure workforce supply that reflects the needs of local service users, providers and commissioners of healthcare.

    The number of doctors required is a matter for service commissioners and their provider partners to establish in providing a high quality service to patients and in taking into account the mechanisms through which those services will be provided. Delivery plans to meet the NHS Five Year Forward View are currently being established in collaboration via the Sustainability and Transformation Plan process. These plans will include early views on the shape of the future workforce.