Category: Speeches

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of using institutional visa refusal rates as a indicator of institutional compliance with Tier 4 visa regulations.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Home Office launched a Tier 4 visa pilot involving the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bath and Imperial College London on 25 July. The pilot has been introduced to test the benefits of a differentiated approach within the education sector on the basis of compliance with immigration sponsorship requirements.

    The pilot is deliberately narrow in scope, with the institutions selected on the basis of their consistently low level of visa refusals. Visa refusal rates are part of the Basic Compliance Assessment, which requires all Tier 4 sponsors to meet three core requirements based on measures of visa refusals, enrolment and completion of studies.

    The limited nature of the pilot is intended to ensure that the outcomes can be adequately monitored, whilst minimising the risk of unintended consequences, before considering rolling-out the scheme more widely.

    The four selected institutions were consulted regarding its implementation. Should the pilot be successful and rolled out more widely, the Home Office will consult key stakeholders about its expansion.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in the UK have their electricity supplies controlled by dynamically teleswitched meters.

    Jesse Norman

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold estimates on the number of households in the UK who have their electricity supplies controlled by dynamically teleswitched meters.

    In Ofgem’s response to CMA Notice of Remedies published in August 2015, it was estimated that there were 160,000 households across Great Britain with dynamically teleswitched meters in operation at the end of 2014:

    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/561e1fbaed915d39bc000013/Ofgem__revised_with_additional_material_.pdf

    “

  • Chris Heaton-Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chris Heaton-Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons funding for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy is due to cease in March 2016.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England has commissioned Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) procedures as part of its Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) programme.

    CtE schemes run in areas where the current evidence base on clinical and cost effectiveness of a particular treatment is insufficient to support routine funding, and where further research is unlikely to be forthcoming. In these circumstances, NHS England identifies funding for a CtE scheme to gather and support a review of the national clinical commissioning policy position. Each CtE scheme is funded on a time-limited basis, in just a small number of selected participating centres across England, with strict patient selection criteria.

    The CtE programme is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which supports NHS England to identify the total number of patients that need to be treated under the scheme to answer the evaluation questions agreed. Schemes stop once the total planned number of patients has been treated and the data analysis can be concluded. In the case of the SDR scheme it is likely that the last patients will be treated by spring 2016.

    The information provided directly by NHS England to stakeholders and participating centres in the SDR scheme has been consistently clear about the time limited nature of CtE and that the funding did not present a change to the current commissioning position of the treatment not being routinely funded by the NHS.

    NHS England will continue to work closely with participating centres to ensure that messages are as clear as possible to families who may have wished to consider this treatment option.

  • 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, what plans his Department has to (a) merge and (b) disband military units in implementing Joint Force 2025.

    Penny Mordaunt

    There are no plans to merge or disband military units in implementing Joint Force 2025. We are committed to maintaining the size of the regular Armed Forces, not reducing the Army below 82,000, and increasing the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force by a total of 700 personnel.

  • Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans a second round of Growth Deals for Local Enterprise Partnerships.

    James Wharton

    Through Growth Deals agreed to date with each of the 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships, £7.7billion of Local Growth Fund has been awarded from 2015-16 to 2020-21. The recent Spending Review re-confirmed the Government’s commitment to a £12 billion Local Growth Fund between 2015-16 and 2020-21 and that Local Enterprise Partnerships will continue to receive core funding from the Government to deliver growth in their communities. We will be announcing further details on the Local Growth Fund in due course.

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many cases heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator were closed within three months in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

    Joseph Johnson

    Data is not collected in the way the Hon Member has requested. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator has a key performance indicator which tracks cases closed within six months from the receipt of the complaint form. In its most recently published annual report, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator reported that 39 per cent of cases were closed within this period.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effects of proposed changes to the way in which drugs are assessed for inclusion in the Cancer Drugs Fund on cancer drug patients.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.

  • Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Office for Budget Responsibility has produced its own forecast of the consequences of the UK leaving the EU.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) prepares its forecasts on the basis of the current Government policy and does not look at alternative policy scenarios. Government policy is to remain within the EU. Therefore the OBR has not factored into its forecast the impact of a UK exit from the EU.

  • Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-04-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will create a register of ownership for motor vehicles for victims of theft to help prove ownership of their vehicles.

    Andrew Jones

    There are no plans to create a register of ownership for motor vehicles for victims of theft.

    The purpose of the vehicle register held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is to record vehicles and their keepers. The register is maintained to assist in revenue collection, road safety and law enforcement. It holds details of the keepers of vehicles and shows who is responsible for their day to day use. It is not a register of legal title or ownership of vehicles.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information the Government has provided to British citizens living abroad who are eligible to vote in the EU referendum on that referendum.

    Mr David Lidington

    Before the purdah period began, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) supported the Electoral Commission’s global campaign to encourage eligible British citizens living abroad to register to vote, using its network of posts to reach British nationals around the world.

    The Government has made its position on the UK’s membership of the EU clear. It has published a number of papers analysing the choice facing the British people. These were made available on Gov.UK.