Category: Speeches

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that mental health services take account of the experiences and needs of women (a) in general and (b) who have experienced extensive abuse.

    Alistair Burt

    The focus of our mental health service transformation is supporting increased equitable access to high quality care for all people. Local health economies consider the local populations needs, including access to services, when they commission and provide services and support.

    The Prime Minister recently announced a £290 million investment over the next five years to 2020/21 in perinatal mental health services. This builds on the initial investment announced in the March 2015 Budget, making a total investment from 2015/16 to 2020/21 of £365 million. The settlement is expected to enable NHS England to build capacity and capability in perinatal mental health services, with the aim of increasing access to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-concordant care for women in all areas of England by 2020/21.

    We know that vulnerable women can experience abuse and that abuse can also increase vulnerability. It can take many years, if at all, for women to disclose that they have been sexually or otherwise abused, whether as adults or children. The Department is exploring how enquiries can be routinely made of patients using a number of services such as substance misuse, adult mental health and sexual health clinics to help with early identification and support for women to get the services that they need, much earlier.

    Health care professionals are in a unique position to identify abuse and to intervene early with women to direct them to the most appropriate statutory and non-statutory services for support.

    Focussing health professionals on better identification and actions that will break the cycle of violence, means that health care staff can then enable those affected to access the therapeutic support they need, including counselling.

  • Baroness McIntosh of Pickering – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Baroness McIntosh of Pickering – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the average broadband speed in (1) North Yorkshire, and (2) London.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Data published by Ofcom shows that in 2011 the average broadband speed for London was 8.8 Mbit/s, with North Yorkshire averaging 6.6 Mbit/s and that by June 2015 commercial and BDUK programme roll-outs had led to an increase in the average speed to 32.6 Mbit/s for London and 22.5 Mbit/s for North Yorkshire.

    This data can be downloaded the attached sheet and here:

    http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/broadband-data-2011/

  • David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to support refugees in camps in the Middle East.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    At the Syria Conference the UK announced that we will more than double our commitment to the Syria crisis, to £2.3 billion. The UK supports refugees, displaced and vulnerable people and host communities across the Middle East including in Yemen, Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what process his Department will adopt for evaluating responses received to the consultation on proposals to move all policy roles to the 1 Victoria Street office in London and close the St Paul’s Place office in Sheffield.

    Joseph Johnson

    The BIS Executive Board will take account of all consultation responses from the Departmental Trades Unions and staff when they decide whether to proceed with proposals to move policy roles to London and to close the Sheffield office.

  • Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether VAT paid by EU migrants is included in the recently announced figures of taxes paid by EU migrants, and if not what is the estimate of such payments.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The analysis on recently arrived non-UK EEA nationals subject to income tax and National Insurance contributions or receiving HMRC administered benefits became available on 12 May 2016 when it was published on HMRC’s publications page on GOV.UK.

    No estimate of VAT paid by EU Nationals is held. VAT is levied on most goods and services, with the person’s nationality not generally recorded.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on future British involvement with the European Space Agency once Britain exits the EU.

    Joseph Johnson

    The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are separate organisations from the European Union and thus the UK’s memberships of CERN or ESA are not dependent on its EU membership. The UK will continue to play a leading role in major non-EU research collaborations, including CERN and ESA. In July we confirmed the UK’s application to become a full member of a major new particle accelerator, the European Spallation Source in Sweden.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to section 6.5 of the Memorandum of Understanding between her Department and the Palestinian National Authority, whether the implications of any breach of the commitment on human rights was discussed at the annual partnership talks between her Department and that Authority.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK raised the issue of human rights as part of the FCO-led UK-Palestinian strategic talks and in the DFID- Palestinian Authority (PA) annual talks that review the broader DFID-PA Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with a clear message that we take very seriously any allegations of human rights abuses. The UK assesses that the PA is not in breach of its commitment to respecting human rights.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-11-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the net level of borrowing by the public sector in October 2015.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The government has made significant progress to date in reducing borrowing – the deficit has more than halved as a share of GDP since 2009-10 and as the latest Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast shows, the national debt as a share of GDP is forecast to be falling this year for the first time in over a decade. October public sector finance figures show government borrowing is falling, down £6.6 billion so far this year compared to last year. However, the job is not yet done. The government is committed to eliminating the deficit and returning the public finances to a more sustainable path. To achieve this, the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 sets out the action required to return the country to surplus over the course of this Parliament.
    On the basis of these plans, the latest OBR forecast estimates that borrowing in 2015-16 will be on a like-for-like basis £73.5bn, £0.6bn lower relative to Summer Budget. The forecast also shows the government is on track to meet its fiscal targets, with a budget surplus of £10.1bn by 2019-20 and debt falling as a percentage of GDP in 2015-16 and for each year in this Parliament.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with Solutions for Public Health on developing a draft commissioning policy for everolimus.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has a service level agreement in place with Solutions for Public Health (SPH), a NHS public health unit which forms part of the NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit.

    NHS England has commissioned SPH to provide impartial clinical evidence reviews. These clinical evidence reviews are undertaken independently in line with an agreed methodology and are a critical component in informing evidence based clinical commissioning policies for directly commissioned specialised services, based on the latest published research.

    However, SPH does not have any subsequent involvement in the development, drafting or consideration of NHS England’s clinical commissioning policies.

  • Wes Streeting – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Wes Streeting – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wes Streeting on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which parliamentary constituencies she has visited in her official capacity since the May 2015 general election; and on which dates and for what purposes those visits were made.

    Karen Bradley

    Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

    Details of Ministerial meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office