Category: Speeches

  • Lord Boateng – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Boateng – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Boateng on 2016-03-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations of the report of the Harvard Global Health Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Independent Panel on Global Response to Ebola published in The Lancet online on 22 November 2015, with particular reference to the creation of a Global Health Committee of the UN Security Council.

    Baroness Verma

    The Ebola crisis demonstrated the need for reform of the international system of response to disease outbreaks, including reform of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Several independent groups have made important recommendations including the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Independent Panel. The WHO Director General commissioned an independent Advisory Group on Reform of WHO’s work in Outbreaks and Emergencies with Health and Humanitarian Consequences. This group considered the Harvard and London School reports but did not include the creation of a Global Health Committee of the United Nations (UN) Security Council in the recommendations they have made to the WHO. Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) supports the Advisory Group recommendations which aim to equip and empower WHO to deliver more effectively in outbreak response and to fulfil its leadership and coordination role in humanitarian crises and to do so with independent oversight. HMG will assess a progress update on WHO’s implementation of these reforms at the World Health Assembly in May.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which hospitals he has visited in an official capacity in 2016; and what the date was of each such visit.

    Jane Ellison

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following hospitals in an official capacity in 2016 to date.

    Secretary of State for Health

    29 January 2016 Kings College Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s Health Partners

    5 February 2016 Coombe Wood Perinatal Mental Health Unit, Park Royal Centre for Mental Health, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

    14 April 2016 Oxford University, Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

    Lord Prior

    6 January 2016 Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust

    20 January 2016 East Surrey Hospital, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

    3 February 2016 St Thomas Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

    18 February 2016 Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

    16 March 2016 Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust

    22 March 2016 Guy’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

    24 March 2016 Royal Derby Hospital, Derby Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust

    24 March 2016 Lings Bar Hospital, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

    12 April 2016 Royal Brompton Hospital, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust

    Ben Gummer

    14 January 2016 Watford General Hospital, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

    21 January 2016 Salford Royal Hospital, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust

    21 January 2016 St Mary’s Hospital, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

    15 February 2016 Royal Cornwall Hospital, at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

    16 February 2016 Mount Gould Hospital, Livewell Southwest

    16 February 2016 Tiverton and District Hospital, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust

    17 February 2016 Dorset County Hospital, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

    17 February 2016 Southampton General Hospital, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

    29 February 2016 St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

    14 March 2016 St Thomas’ Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

    Alistair Burt

    3 March 2016 St Pancras Hospital, Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust

    11 March 2016 Wythenshawe Hospital, University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

    17 March 2016 Kings College Hospital, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

    14 April 2016 Clock View Hospital and Ashworth Hospital, Mersey Care NHS Trust

    George Freeman

    7 March 2016 CityLabs, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Oxford Rd, Manchester

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following primary care services in an official capacity in 2016 to date.

    Secretary of State for Health

    15 January 2016 Hillfoot Surgery, Pudsey, West Yorkshire

    Alistair Burt

    11 February 2016 Copes Pharmacy Ltd, London

    11 March 2016 Five Oakes Family Practice, Manchester

    Jane Ellison

    4 February 2016 The Acton African Well Woman Clinic, Hillcrest Surgery, London

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following residential and nursing homes in an official capacity in 2016 to date.

    Secretary of State for Health

    5 February 2016 Coombe Wood Perinatal Mental Health Unit, Park Royal Centre for Mental Health, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

    Ben Gummer

    15 February 2016 St Julia’s Hospice, Cornwall Hospice Care

    Alistair Burt

    25 February 2016 The Betty and Asher Loftus Centre, London

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

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the timetable for deciding whether to allow a third runway at Heathrow.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    A number of important decisions on airport capacity were taken by the Government in December, including to accept the case for expansion in the South-East. However, we must take the time to get the decision right on a preferred scheme. The Government is further considering the environmental impacts and the best possible measures to mitigate the impacts of expansion, this work will conclude by summer 2016.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the English language tuition fund his Department has spent since January 2016.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    As the first step in rolling out the new £20 million programme we have committed just over £3 million to enable six providers who delivered the Department’s previous community-based English language programme to provide new tuition to over 10,000 people by March next year.

    We will shortly be issuing a new Prospectus, inviting applications to run the bulk of the new programme from 2017. The nature and targeting of that provision will be informed by Louise Casey’s Review of Integration and Opportunity.

    We will monitor the new Programme to assess its effectiveness in meeting its objectives.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the people responsible for the massacre of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 are brought to justice.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The British Government opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and takes any allegations of extrajudicial killings seriously. The Iranian Government has repeatedly denied that a mass execution took place, though we are aware that between July 1988 and January 1989 executions did take place. However, even with the recording and media reporting on the incident, we have no confirmation of the numbers involved. Although we have no plans to pursue this specific matter we will continue to take action with the international community to press for improvements on all human rights issues in Iran, including ending the death penalty.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her objectives are for the UN Climate Change Summit in Paris relating to (a) emissions and (b) monitoring emissions performance against targets set.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The UK Government is committed to securing an ambitious, legally binding, global deal on climate change at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 in Paris.

    The UK is working with other countries to secure a deal with ambitious mitigation commitments from all parties that together keep the global goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees within reach. We also want an agreement that includes a regular review of targets to increase ambition over time, a global long term goal that sets out a tangible pathway towards our 2 degrees objective and a robust, legally binding rules framework to ensure transparency and accountability of commitments to help the world track progress, improve competitiveness and provide business certainty.

  • Steve Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Steve Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of (a) the level of funding required to cover local authority spending on social care in the period to 2020 and (b) how much the proposed two per cent increase in council tax intended for the social care levy will have raised in funding by 2020 if every authority implements that proposal to the full.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Ahead of the Spending Review, the Local Government Association estimated the gap in adult social care funding to be £2.9 billion – arising from a growing elderly population and introduction of the National Living Wage.

    At Spending Review the Government outlined a package of support worth up to £3.5 billion to ensure councils are able to support some of their older and most vulnerable residents. That included giving authorities with social care responsibilities the flexibility to raise council tax in their area by up to 2% above the referendum threshold for each year between 2016-17 and 2019-20, to fund adult social care services. It is also providing £1500 million additional funding for local authorities to spend on adult social care by 2019-20, to be included in an improved Better Care Fund. Taken together, these measures provide significant resources to address the demographic pressures facing the social care system.

    In terms of what the social care flexibility could raise, I refer the hon. Member to information accompanying the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17, which my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark), announced to the House on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 1722. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-in-2016-to-2017 and https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

    “

  • David Davis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    David Davis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his Statement of 20 July 2015, HCWS 149, whether UK personnel embedded with the US military are subject to US military and domestic criminal law, or UK law, or both.

    Michael Fallon

    Under the Armed Forces Act 2006, UK personnel embedded with other nations’ armed forces remain subject to Service law (including the criminal law of England and Wales) at all times. Whether UK personnel embedded with US armed forces are also subject to US law will depend on the exact nature of their deployment.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral evidence by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to the Scottish Affairs Committee on 3 February 2016, Question 173, what steps he is taking to ensure that proposals for the revised fiscal framework with Scotland will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

    Greg Hands

    I welcome the scrutiny which the Fiscal Framework has received so far. While the exact nature of further framework scrutiny will depend on its final content and format, it is my current intention to deposit the final document detailing the agreement in the House libraries as soon as possible once an agreement is reached, make a statement to the House as soon as possible after an agreement is reached, and to set out what it means for the UK and for Scotland and to make annual reports to Parliament on the operation of the Framework.

    Elements of the Fiscal Framework may require legislative change. Where this is the case the appropriate legislative procedure will be followed and the Government hopes these changes will receive thorough scrutiny in Parliament.

    Once the Fiscal Framework is agreed, the Government would welcome further scrutiny from Parliamentary Committees in both Houses.

  • Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-03-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the consumption of microplastics on human health.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    No such assessment has been made.