Category: Speeches

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the gender balance of public appointments to (a) executive non-departmental public bodies, (b) advisory non-departmental public bodies, (c) independent monitoring boards and (d) non-ministerial departments made since May 2015.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Government is committed to increasing the diversity of public appointments and​ has an​ aspiration that 50% of new public appointees should be women. We are making good ​progress; the most recent figures published for 2014-2015 show 44% of new appointments were made to women and a higher proportion of all public appointments (new appointments and reappointments) were made to women last year than at any other point in the last decade. I will continue to urge more women to apply for these important posts.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many responses to the Government’s consultation on devolving Sunday trading rules were opposed to any relaxation of Sunday trading rules.

    Anna Soubry

    The consultation was about a specific proposal to devolve a power to extend trading hours on Sunday to local areas. The consultation did not ask respondents whether they supported or were opposed to a general relaxation of Sunday trading rules. The Department does not, therefore, hold information on this issue.

  • Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Garnier on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of times that lawyers have not been able to meet their clients in custody in England and Wales at less than 12 hours’ notice due to staff shortages, staff disputes or other administrative reasons in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how many Crown or magistrates’ court hearings have been adjourned or delayed as a result in each of those years.

    Mike Penning

    The specific information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. We are committed to ensuring that prisoners have appropriate and early access to their legal representatives. Guidance to both prisons and legal practitioners on facilitating legal visits is published in Prison Service Instruction 16/2011.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on a person providing child maintenance having their payments regarded for the purpose of an income assessment for means-tested benefit.

    Priti Patel

    A person who is providing child maintenance does not have their payments disregarded for the purpose of an income assessment, in a means-tested benefit, as this would amount to the tax payer meeting a person’s liabilities.

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when children’s social care services in Doncaster were transferred to a trust; what were the costs, including legal fees, of making the transfer; how long the transfer took to implement once the decision in principle was made; what Ofsted inspections have taken place in Doncaster since the trust’s establishment; and what was the Ofsted rating of the services in any such reports.

    Lord Nash

    Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council was issued with a Statutory Direction in August 2013, which required the Council to cooperate in setting up a Trust. The Trust became operational on 30 September 2014. The Department for Education met the costs of setting up the trust, which came to £2.9 million.

    Ofsted inspected children’s services in Doncaster in September 2015. The judgement was inadequate overall. However, the inspection found improvement since the previous inspection in 2012, when all sub-judgements were inadequate. In 2015 all sub-judgements were requires improvement, save for children in need of help and protection, which was inadequate; and adoption performance, which was good.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the number of eye clinic liaison officers.

    David Mowat

    The Government fully appreciates the impact that sight loss can have on a person’s life and the importance of information being available for those newly diagnosed with sight loss, including signposting patients to appropriate support and rehabilitation services.

    Eye clinics and their staffing, including eye clinic liaison officers, are commissioned and funded by individual clinical commissioning groups on the basis of local assessments of need.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions Ministers in his Department have declined to disclose information to the Intelligence and Security Committee under Schedule 1 of the Justice and Security Act 2013; and if he will make a statement.

    Michael Fallon

    None.

  • Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme costs his Department to administer each year.

    Anna Soubry

    56 different energy intensive businesses across the UK have received a total of £131.7m in compensation since August 2013 – £65.6m in respect of the EU Emissions Trading System and £66.1m in respect of the Carbon Price Support mechanism. There is also a Climate Change Levy exemption, for energy used in metallurgical and mineralogical processes, which additionally covers a number of Energy Intensive Industries who claim EU ETS and CPS compensation.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to undertake an investigation into the performance of local healthwatches.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Department currently has no plans to undertake an investigation in to the performance of local Healthwatch organisations. In March 2015 the Department published a report commissioned from the King’s Fund – Local Healthwatch: Progress and promise – which set out the progress that local Healthwatch have made since being established in 2013. Transparency about the performance of local Healthwatch organisations is provided through the annual reports which they are required to publish. Reports on how the local Healthwatch network as a whole is operating and the nature of the support needed to deliver their activities effectively are discussed at quarterly public meetings of the Healthwatch England Committee.

    Arrangements for ensuring local Healthwatch statutory activities are delivered in each area are a matter for local authorities. The Local Government Association has published guidance to support local Healthwatch and local commissioners in putting in place good governance arrangements, which includes clarity about the roles of all parties involved.

    Neither the Department nor Healthwatch England are aware of local Healthwatch contractors refusing to engage with the public in their area. Where Healthwatch England is made aware of concerns in relation to local Healthwatch around governance or local relationships with specific individuals or organisations, it seeks to provide support to resolve these where appropriate. Members of the public are able to raise concerns though the complaints process of the local Healthwatch or the commissioning local authority.

  • John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage the take up of organ donor cards among South Asian and other minority ethnic communities.

    Jane Ellison

    UK Government provides NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) with around £60 million a year to support organ donation. In 2013, NHSBT launched a UK – wide organ donation and transplantation strategy Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020, setting the agenda for increasing organ donation and transplantation rates. The Department has also established the National Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Transplant Alliance with the aim of raising awareness about the need for stem cell and organ donation, and increasing the number of people from BAME communities who can benefit from either a stem cell or organ transplant.

    South Asian people are more likely to need a kidney transplant than a Caucasian person but families are less likely to consent to organ donation. The result is that patients from South Asian background wait much longer for organ transplants, particularly for a kidney transplant. Therefore, to support the wider 2020 strategy, the Department funded Kidney Research UK to undertake a Peer Educator Programme within the Pakistani Muslim community in Birmingham with the aim of raising awareness of the lack of donors and increasing the numbers on the bone marrow and organ donation registers. Lessons learnt will support the roll-out of the programme in other similar areas of work.

    NHSBT also has a wide range of leaflets promoting organ donation that are translated into a number of different South Asian languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.