Category: Speeches

  • Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of demand for police services.

    Mike Penning

    It is the role of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to assess police forces in England and Wales on their efficiency, including how they are managing demand for services and whether they have appropriate systems in place to assess trends. Their most recent assessment (report published October 2015) found that forces have a good understanding of current demand but need to improve their understanding of future demand. Forces are working with the College of Policing to progress this work.

  • Sarah Champion – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sarah Champion – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-01-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account her Department will take of women (a) with mental health needs, (b) who are homeless, (c) who are living in poverty and (d) who have other complex needs in its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government will shortly publish an updated Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy which will set out how we will support all victims of VAWG, including those with mental health needs, those who are homeless or living in poverty and those who have other complex needs, by doing more to prevent these crimes from happening, intervening earlier, and continuing to improve the protection for victims and to bring offenders to justice.

    The Government has already committed £40m for domestic abuse services including refuges between 2016 and 2020, provided a £2m grant to Women’s Aid and SafeLives to support a new domestic abuse early intervention project, protected funding of over £6.4m to 86 female Rape Support Centres for 2016/17, and committed to a further year of funding to support the local provision of 144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers for 2016/17.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that transport trade unions retain confidence in his Department’s Senior Civil Servants’ impartiality.

    Claire Perry

    The standards of integrity, impartiality and honesty are set out in Departmental policies and guidance, as well as being set out in the Civil Service Code which applies to all Civil Servants.

    The full text of the Civil Service Code can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-code/the-civil-service-code

    “

  • 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 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the schedule is for road works to establish a connected corridor from London to Dover; and what the projected end date is for establishing that corridor.

    Andrew Jones

    Timescales for delivery of the A2 M2 London to Dover Connected Vehicles Corridor remain indicative. Feasibility work is due to conclude in June 2016, after which detailed scheme design is programmed to complete during 2017. Between September 2017 and January 2019, infrastructure will be deployed at the roadside and, where possible on existing street furniture, to minimise disruption. These devices will connect wirelessly with a limited number of test vehicles. Evaluation will be ongoing during that period.

    The programme is expected to report during 2018/19 on recommendations for future deployment.

  • Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2016-04-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect of the potential exclusion of the contribution made to energy efficiency of the Warm Homes Discount Scheme on meeting the 2020 interim target on such efficiency using the fuel poverty efficiency rating methodology.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The fuel poverty energy efficiency rating used to measure progress towards the fuel poverty target in 2030 and interim milestones in 2020 and 2025 includes the contribution of the Warm Home Discount scheme towards that target as, whilst it is an energy bill rebate rather than an energy efficiency measure, this has a significant impact on the ability of a household to keep warm. We are currently consulting on the 2016/17 scheme and will be publishing our proposals for the design of the future Warm Home Discount scheme (from 2017 onwards) for consultation later this year.

  • Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to implement the suggested changes to the Tata pensioners pension fund to all public sector pensions.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    In response to proposals put forward by the British Steel Pension Scheme and supported by Tata Steel UK, the Government is consulting on options to enable a potential restructuring of the British Steel Pension Scheme to deliver a scheme that is sustainable and provides clarity and security to scheme members. The consultation closes on 23 June 2016.

    In the last Parliament the Government took action to secure the long term sustainability of public service pensions, by changing the indexation of pensions in payment to the Consumer Prices Index, increasing member contributions by 3.2 percentage points on average, and introducing new career average pensions schemes with higher normal pension ages and a cost control mechanism.

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2016-07-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the response by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 19 July (HL Deb, col 525), what assessment the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, National Security Council, Joint Intelligence Committee and National Crime Agency have made of the suitability of the planned changes to the provision of reporting by the BBC Monitoring Service.

    Earl of Courtown

    Government has been working closely with the BBC to ensure the requirements of the MOD, FCO, Cabinet Office, and the intelligence agencies can continue to be met by BBC Monitoring.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2016 to Question 44901, if he will make the advertising costs of attendance allowance readily available either (a) during or (b) after the consultation on the devolution of attendance allowance.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The consultation “Self-sufficient local government: 100% business rates retention” published by the Department for Communities and Local Government sought views on a range of options for devolving new responsibilities to local government including more responsibility for caring for older people.

    The feedback from that consultation which closed on 26 September is currently being analysed and a response will be published in due course.

    The Government would undertake a further consultation, accompanied by a relevant impact assessment, if any changes were to be proposed in relation to Attendance Allowance.

    The information on administrative costs related to Attendance Allowance is collected by DWP but is not currently available for the financial year 2015-16.

    The information requested on applications is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    Information on claims awarded under the special rules for people with terminal illness is available from the DWP Tabulation Tool: http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/tabtool.html.

    “

  • Chris Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Chris Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Evans on 2015-10-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to dog legislation officers on enforcing section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

    George Eustice

    No estimate has been made of the number of dogs humanely destroyed under section 1 of the 1991 Act. There are 3,222 dogs on the list of exempted section 1 dogs in Great Britain. These are dogs assessed by the courts not to be a danger to public safety including, since 13 May 2014 in relation to England and Wales, assessed as being in the charge of a fit and proper person. Guidance for enforcers of the law on dangerous dogs was issued in March 2009 and is available on line via the link below.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69263/dogs-guide-enforcers.pdf

    “

  • 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, how much his Department plans to spend on new precision weapons systems in each year from 2015 to 2020.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Over the next five years, the Department plans to spend around £6.5 billion on the procurement, support and testing of sophisticated weapons systems.