Category: Speeches

Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on future provision of universal early childhood services through childhood centres.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Children’s centres provide access to health services – either by providing the services or by providing advice and assistance on gaining access to services. Local authorities and local health commissioners have statutory duties to consider providing services through children’s centres to ensure that families get access to the services they need. The transfer of responsibility for public health services to local authorities in October this year provides new opportunities for local areas to configure health services to best effect.

The Department of Health has been working with local authorities in order to ensure sharing regular and timely updates of live birth data between NHS trusts and children’s centres and have mapped out a process for putting in place appropriate arrangements to support a national solution.

Children’s centres can also have a key role in delivering integrated reviews, which check a child’s health and educational progress at age two.

Future policy on children’s centres will be informed by the planned consultation on the future of children’s centre services, which is due to be launched shortly.

01/01/2023
Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether further work will be required at HMS Jufair to make it capable of hosting the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carrier.

Penny Mordaunt

Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) carriers will be able to utilise the Mina Salman Support Facilities whilst at anchor in the vicinity of the port in Bahrain. However, due to draught constraints QEC carriers will not be able to berth directly alongside the Mina Salman Support Facility itself.

01/01/2023
Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to monitor whether the number of refugee places for victims of domestic violence is increasing or decreasing.

Mr Marcus Jones

We have invested over £280,000 in UK Refuges on Line (UKROL) to monitor the number of refuge bedspaces around the country to ensure that victims get the support that they need. It will also ensure victims calling the National Domestic Violence Helpline looking for refuge get additional help in finding the support they need.

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime that shatters lives. That is why we are committed to ensuring that no victim is turned away from the support they need. To support this ambition, we have committed long term fund of £40 million over the next four years which will offer support to victims of domestic abuse. This increased funding, which triples our funding in the last spending period, complements Government’s wider approach and support for violence against women and children’s services, which will be set out in the forthcoming refresh of the Strategy.

01/01/2023
Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Metcalfe on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons Highways England have not held consultation events on the proposals for a new Lower Thames Crossing in Stanford-le-Hope, Langdon Hills, Laindon, Dunton and other areas affected by those proposals.

Andrew Jones

The locations, venues and timings for the public consultation events (including five events held on a Saturday) were chosen to ensure that they were accessible to as many people as possible near to the potentially affected areas and the proposed route.

A suitable venue was not available at the required time in Laindon and there was not a suitable venue in Stanford-le-Hope. However, there are public consultation events being undertaken nearby at Basildon and West Horndon. To note, Dunton is within 6 1/2 miles of Basildon and within 5 miles of West Horndon. Likewise, Langdon Hills is within 5 miles of Basildon and within 6 miles of West Horndon. To accommodate as many attendees as possible, the events are two weeks apart, with the events at both West Horndon and Basildon being 17 February 2016 and 1 March 2016 respectively.

01/01/2023
Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability in the UK of clinical expertise to treat scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.

George Freeman

The Government published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in November 2013. The strategy contains over 50 commitments to ensure people living with a rare disease, such as Kawasaki disease, have access to the best evidence-based care and treatment that health and social services, working with charities, researchers and industry can provide.

It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricular to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in both scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.

Health Education England works with bodies that set curricula such as the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.

The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not published any specific guidance on the similarities between Kawasaki disease and scarlet fever.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on the assessment and initial management of fever in under 5s sets out the circumstances in which a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease should be considered, and Public Health England (PHE) has endeavoured to keep healthcare professionals, schools and the general public informed of the increased incidence of scarlet fever through timely information, news stories and updates on the PHE website and by using social and other media. These awareness raising measures assist general practitioners and other frontline healthcare professionals in reaching a correct diagnosis more quickly and encourage patients to seek medical advice early so that suspected cases receive prompt antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of complications and limit further transmission.

01/01/2023
Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-04-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in the South Atlantic.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We have obtained written clarification from the UN Legal Counsel as to the remit and mandate of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). This confirms that the CLCS has no jurisdiction over the sovereignty of any land territory. That would of course include the Falkland Islands. The UN itself has noted that the CLCS cannot consider claims relating to disputed areas. In this case that would include the Falkland Islands. The British Government remains in no doubt over its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, and has no doubt about the right of the Islanders to determine their own future.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of staff in his Department were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The published Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) contains both the proportion of staff in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport that are (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff and the associated spend. The ARA for each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15 are available on gov.uk.

The 2015-16 data will be published in due course.

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01/01/2023
Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Hodge on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many times her Department has used the services of (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms in the last three financial years; and what (i) work was undertaken and (ii) the cost to the public purse was on each such occasion.

Rory Stewart

Detail on all DFID spend is available via our departmental website.

01/01/2023
Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the dynamism and capability of the UK business sector.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The UK is one of the most dynamic and competitive economies in the world, as borne out by measures of the effectiveness of UK competition policy and regulation, for example:

•The UK is ranked 2^nd in the OECD for the pro-competition stance of its regulatory policies

•The World Economic Forum rated the UK 3^rd (out of 138) for the intensity of local competition, 12^th for the extent of market dominance, and 10^th for the effectiveness of our anti-monopoly policies.

As a result, we are ranked 6th out of 189 countries in the World Bank Doing Business Index; and 7th out of 138 countries (improving our ranking from 10th last year) in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index.

01/01/2023

Lord Bradley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradley on 2015-10-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people serving (1) life sentences, and (2) imprisonment for public protection sentences, were transferred from closed to open prison conditions following authorisation by the Parole Board in each month since January 2013.

Lord Faulks

The table below gives a breakdown of the number of indeterminate sentence prisoners who were recommended by the Parole Board for transfer to open conditions.

The data covers the period from 1 January 2013 to 31 October 2015, broken down by month, and distinguish between those serving a life sentence and those serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection.

These figures have been drawn from a live administrative IT system which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

		Jan	Feb	Mar	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Totals
2013
Open Recommendations made by PB:	IPP	57	62	66	73	69	78	61	68	67	60	64	54	779
	Lifer	59	48	40	48	51	51	46	43	37	47	41	27	538
Approved for Transfer:	IPP	52	58	59	60	70	65	77	76	63	74	47	80	781
	Lifer	38	63	44	40	53	38	58	48	38	50	33	47	550

2014
Open Recommendations made by PB:	IPP	62	68	41	74	54	49	69	48	35	44	50	48	642
	Lifer	44	31	31	28	36	33	40	28	17	24	38	24	374
Approved for Transfer:	IPP	65	46	74	45	38	26	54	43	41	64	48	46	590
	Lifer	30	34	39	21	15	20	23	23	28	31	20	29	313

2015
Open Recommendations made by PB:	IPP	61	47	49	48	46	56	38	32	33	32	N/A	N/A	442
	Lifer	39	28	28	25	25	38	22	23	24	33	N/A	N/A	285
Approved for Transfer:	IPP	57	41	54	40	42	63	55	34	35	35	N/A	N/A	456
	Lifer	31	16	36	26	16	33	35	24	22	22	N/A	N/A	261

01/01/2023