Category: Speeches

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the average hourly earnings were of his Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.

    David Mundell

    The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All staff that join, do so on assignment, loan or secondment from other government bodies, principally the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government, who remain the employer. Detailed information in relation to average hourly earnings of BME and non-BME staff would be a matter for these bodies. The Scotland office does not hold the information requested.

  • Gerald Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Gerald Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Howarth on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations, (c) his Department and (d) the National Audit Office have taken to investigate the extent of fraud relating to the Right to Buy scheme.

    Brandon Lewis

    This Government takes fraud extremely seriously. The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 increased the deterrent to tenants considering cheating the system, ensuring those who do cheat are detected more easily and punished more severely, and encourages social landlords to take a more proactive approach to tackling tenancy fraud.

    We also provided £19 million funding to help councils tackle tenancy fraud as part of over £35 million government funding to tackle fraud across local government.

    We have recently set up a Right to Buy Working Group with representative of housing associations, local authorities and lenders to identify additional safeguards to curb fraud when the Voluntary Right to Buy scheme is rolled out to 1.3 million housing association tenants. Work is underway developing the detailed design of the scheme in collaboration with the housing association sector, specifically looking at how fraud and opportunistic practice prevention measures can, as far as possible, be designed into the sales process.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many calls have been made by employers to the Employer Checking Service in each of the last five years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Employer Checking Service deals with checks submitted by employers via the web-based form.

    In the calendar year of 2011 the Employer Checking Service processed 33,769 checks.

    In the calendar year of 2012 the Employer Checking Service processed 52,868 checks.

    In the calendar year of 2013 the Employer Checking Service processed 59,452 checks.

    In the calendar year of 2014 the Employer Checking Service processed 67,609 checks.

    In the calendar year of 2015 the Employer Checking Service processed 69,606 checks.

    From 1st January 2016 to 9th October 2016 the Employer Checking Service processed 33,095.

  • Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2015-11-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will prioritise funding to multilateral agencies that focus their aid programmes and investments in Least Developed Countries.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    We prioritise funding to multilateral agencies depending on how well they meet UK and international development objectives. The agencies that we fund are currently being assessed by our Multilateral Aid Review which will report in the spring.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to introduce measures to set quotas for women on boards.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Government is committed to seeing more women on the boards of British companies. We believe that a business led, voluntary approach is the best way to get more women on boards, as set out in Lord Davies of Abersoch’s review 2010 into the subject.This approach is working, with 26.2% representation in the FTSE 100, up from 12.5% in 2011. We will build on this with a new programme of work set out by Lord Davies in his recent 5 year report on progress. Government will therefore not be introducing measures to set quotas for women on boards.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the retention rate is of teachers recruited through the Troops to Teachers scheme.

    Nick Gibb

    There has only been one cohort to complete to date. The retention rate for this cohort was 76 per cent.

    The current retention rate for cohort 2 is 90 per cent, and for cohort 3 it is 96 per cent.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why it was decided to use an 18-month period for patient reported outcomes in the next Prostate Cancer Audit rather than a six-month period, as used in Germany.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The proportion of men diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer between 2010 and 2013 (the Audit period) who had radical treatment, and the proportion who had a hospital length of stay over three days and who required an emergency readmission within 90 days following an operation, are presented by health region in the attached headed Table 1.

    It should be noted that the results presented are based on an analysis of data from the English Cancer Registry linked to the Hospital Episode Statistics. These data were collected before the start of the National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) in April 2013.

    The number of radical prostatectomies undertaken in men diagnosed between 2010 and 2013, and the proportion of men who had a hospital length of stay over three days and who had an emergency readmission within 90 days following an operation, are presented in the attached headed Table 2. The results of 56 men included in the data set used to generate Figure 8 in the NPCA Annual Report 2015 could not be included in Table 2. Of these men, 37 were treated in National Health Service trusts that treated fewer than five patients during the Audit period; and for 19 patients it was not possible to identify the NHS trust where they had undergone treatment without incurring disproportionate cost.

    The first results for the patient-reported outcomes of men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1 April 2014 and 30 September 2014, and who underwent radical treatment (prostatectomy, external beam radiation, brachytherapy, cryotherapy, and high-intensity focused ultrasound), will be included in the NPCA’s Annual Report 2016, which is due to be published in the last quarter of 2016. These results will include incontinence rates.

    Men who had radical prostate cancer treatment were invited to complete a questionnaire about their experiences of care as well as about treatment outcomes, 18 months after the date of diagnosis. It was decided that questionnaires should be sent out at this time after diagnosis because it can take more than one year for men who have radiotherapy, in combination with androgen deprivation therapy, to complete their treatment. Subsequently, it will take at least three months for men to fully recover from the transient side effects of the radiotherapy. In order to include all men and to measure the final treatment outcome – rather than outcomes still affected by the transient side effects – an 18-month period was chosen.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects the Cross Government Working Group on Drones to finish its work; and when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Cross Government Working Group on Drones is an ongoing policy group that meets quarterly to discuss a range of cross-cutting departmental issues relating to drones.

    My department is working with the European Aviation Safety Agency on the development of new European rules for drones. The Civil Aviation Authority are planning to consult on these proposals in the summer, with a view to making amendments to the Air Navigation Order in 2017.

  • Lord Touhig – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Touhig – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Touhig on 2016-04-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the annual operating cost of the Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College.

    Earl Howe

    The annual operating cost for the Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College for academic year 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016 is £14,532,603.

  • Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will bring forward legislative proposals to apply provisions equivalent to those of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 to England.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Government currently has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to apply provisions equivalent to those of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 to England.

    Last year the Minister for Disabled People published a written statement announcing that DWP would lead a Market Review of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting provision, which would engage with Deaf people and stakeholder groups to examine opportunities that could strengthen and improve the market in the long term.

    The Call for Evidence for this review opened in January 2016 and closed in March 2016. We received hundreds of comprehensive submissions of evidence, which we are currently analysing.