Category: Speeches

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the insulation on coolant lines in the fuel tanks of UK F35B Lightning II fighters does not suffer decomposition.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The discovery of insulating material becoming detached from an avionics cooling line located in a fuel tank is not a design or technical issue, but a sub-contractor quality control issue that affects only a small subset of the 104 operational F-35As in the fleet. The UK is procuring the F-35B variant which is not affected by this issue. UK F-35 Initial Operating Capability is scheduled for December 2018 and remains on track.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the closure of Goodwood Court medical practice in Hove on patient access to primary care in that town.

    Ben Gummer

    We are advised by NHS England that Goodwood Court Medical Practice in Hove closed in June 2015 after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) took immediate action to remove the practice’s registration with the regulator. This was in order to protect the safety and welfare of patients following the findings of a CQC inspection at the practice.

    NHS England subsequently agreed an interim contract with doctors from the Charter Medical Centre to ensure ongoing care could be provided to affected patients following the closure of the Goodwood Court practice.

    The current arrangements with Charter Medical Centre, for the care of former Goodwood Court patients, are due to come to an end on 31 March 2016.

    NHS England has recently written to patients and local stakeholders asking for their views which will help to inform future care for patients of Goodwood Court.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2015-11-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with education and training providers in (a) Wrexham and (b) Cardiff on future capacity to train HM Revenue and Customs staff.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced the planned locations of its future Regional Centres based on a number of key principles that will enable it to deliver more for less. In addition to cost, HMRC has taken account of the quality of local transport links, the local labour market and future workforce supply, and the need to retain the staff and skills it requires to continue its transformation. These changes will reduce HMRC’s estates costs by around £100 million a year by 2025.

    HMRC estimates that Liverpool will be home to between 2,800 and 3,100 full time equivalent employees. Consolidation into the Regional Centre is expected to begin in 2019-20. HMRC plans to open the Regional Centre in Cardiff in 2019-20. It is likely that the office at Plas Gororau in Wrexham will close in 2020-21. HMRC will be holding one-to-one discussions with each of its people to discuss the next steps.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 16005, on malnutrition, how the Government plans to measure progress on its commitment to nutrition for 50 million people by 2020.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The approach to measuring the commitment to improve the nutrition of 50 million people by 2020 is currently being finalised as part of the DFID aid review. Full details of the methodology for measuring these results will be published once this is completed.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 22 July 2014 to Question 205815, what progress he has made on providing a secure and accessible on-line Personal Independence Payment claim form; and if he will make a statement.

    Justin Tomlinson

    We are developing the streamlined PIP digital claim process which brings the current PIP telephony claim and paper form together.

    We are working closely with the Cabinet Office to ensure this meets the government standards for digital services which focus on the needs of users. We have user tested a number of different design approaches and based on feedback are ensuring that the claim process is tailored to individual needs and moves away from ‘one size fits all’.

    The digital claim process continues to be improved and tested with a wide range of users and disability organisations for implementation in 2016. It will be available to everyone once the online claim process has been fully tested.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has discussed the study, The impact of classroom design on pupils’ learning, by Professor Barrett of Salford University, with her counterparts in the devolved administrations; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    The Secretary of State has not discussed the study, The Impact of Classroom Design on Pupils’ Learning, by Professor Barrett of Salford University, with her counterparts in the devolved administrations.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he intends to reply to Question 31430, on Antisemitism, tabled on 16 March 2016 for named day answer on 21 March 2016.

    Mike Penning

    I can confirm that PQ 31430 was answered on the 30th March 2016.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department last met representatives of former members of the Allied Steel and Wire pension scheme.

    Justin Tomlinson

    All Ministerial meetings with external parties are recorded on the Cabinet Office website.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what criteria the Government uses in deciding which women’s organisations to fund; how much funding the Government gave to women’s organisations in each of the last three years; and which such organisations received funding from government in each of those years.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Government remains committed to gender equality. When appropriate we fund women’s organisations to carry out activities that further this aim. The criteria we use to determine which organisations to fund vary according to the policy aims that we are seeking to achieve.

    Some of the most significant funding streams for UK women’s organisations in the last three years have come from HM Treasury, the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. HM Treasury has used £15 million collected from VAT on sanitary products to fund women’s charities – the grantees were announced in March 2016. The Department for Communities and Local Government also made available £250,000 to community and voluntary sector organisations as part of its Women’s Empowerment Fund in 2015-16 and continues to provide funding for refuges. Furthermore, the Home Office is providing funding to organisations and refuges supporting female victims of domestic and other forms of violence, as announced in the refreshed cross-Government strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls on 8 March 2016.

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will prepare an impact assessment of any future server outage on the universal credit portal.

    Damian Hinds

    Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.

    The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.

    We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.