Category: Speeches

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many people working for his Department on a (a) directly employed, (b) agency or (c) outsourced basis are paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation; and how many of those people are employed on zero-hours contracts.

    James Brokenshire

    My Department does not directly employ any members of staff on an hourly rate below that set by the Living Wage Foundation.

    My Department currently employs 1 person on an agency basis. This person is not paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation for employees in this region.

    In my Department there are 8 staff that are outsourced, 7 are paid less than the hourly Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation for employees in this region, but are paid above the minimum wage.

    Of these none are employed on zero hours contracts.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of (a) obese and (b) overweight children under the age of 11; and if he will take steps to cooperate with (a) his counterparts in the devolved administrations, (b) GPs, (c) teachers and (d) parents to help reduce that number.

    Nicola Blackwood

    We launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action on 18 August. Our plan focuses on actions that are likely to have the biggest impact on reducing childhood obesity and maintaining a healthy weight. It presents a bold package of policy proposals, informed by the available evidence. We will work with the devolved administrations, general practitioners and other healthcare professionals, teachers and parents to improve the health and wellbeing of children across the United Kingdom.

    We are confident that the measures announced will make a real difference and estimate that they could reduce childhood obesity rates by around a fifth (330,000) over the next 10 years.

    A copy of Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action is attached and is available at:

    www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/546588/Childhood_obesity_2016__2__acc.pdf

    “

  • 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 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether any patients in Hove constituency were put at risk as a result of the South East Coast Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust’s project relating to the prioritisation of NHS 111 calls in winter 2014-15.

    Jane Ellison

    Departmental officials were first notified of a project which was run between December 2014 and February 2015 in the south of England on 23 October 2015 by Monitor, the independent health sector regulator.

    We are advised that Monitor is taking action with South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust regarding concerns about the project and the regulator is working with the Trust now to identify the negative impact this project could have had on patients. It is Monitor’s function to undertaken such investigations independently of the Department where there are no immediate patient safety issues. Monitor and Departmental officials regularly discuss such issues on a routine basis.

    As part of regulatory action, Monitor advises it has asked the trust to carry out a detailed independent review of the impact the project had on patients. Monitor has asked the Trust to do this with the help of an external expert, who the regulator will select. The full details of what the review will look at and how long it will take are being worked on by the trust and Monitor, including consideration of publication of the review finding.

    In March, NHS England convened a risk summit meeting involving all partners following the suspension by South East Coast Ambulance Service of their unofficial call-handling project. It was agreed that NHS England would undertake an external investigation. The report of the investigation was published by NHS England today and is attached.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have made no assessment of the number of people experiencing food insecurity.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    There is no single definition of food insecurity. The factors that impact on household food security are complex. There are multiple indicators such as quality, variety and desirability of diet as well as total intake, not all of which are measured consistently. It is therefore very difficult and potentially misleading to attempt to develop a single classification of food insecurity.

    Defra publishes statistics annually to show the proportion of household income spent on food by (a) all households and (b) the lowest income 20% of households.The most recent statistics are in the Food Statistics Pocketbook 2015 on the GOV.UK website.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of colleges which are available to carry out Objective Structured Clinical examinations.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department has not made an assessment of the number of colleges available to carry out Objective Structured Clinical examinations (OSCE).

    It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This may include setting out how training is assessed, for example through OSCEs.

  • Johnny Mercer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Johnny Mercer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Johnny Mercer on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the National Pollinator Strategy since its introduction.

    George Eustice

    In November 2015 Defra published an implementation plan highlighting progress in the first year of the National Pollinator Strategy. As an example, over half of mid–tier applications to our new £900 million Countryside Stewardship scheme, launched in July 2015, contain the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package. Monitoring and evaluation of the scheme will include measures to establish the impact on pollinators.

    The Strategy has also taken steps to promote public awareness and engagement, including holding the first Pollinator Awareness Week in July 2015.

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

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much of the Regional Air Connectivity Fund has not yet been allocated.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Regional Air Connectivity Fund was announced by the previous Government to provide up to £20 million annually to maintain existing domestic air routes to London that may be withdrawn, and to support new air routes from airports handling fewer than 5 million passengers per annum though start-up aid.

    The Government has already made £5.2 million available to maintain the existing air links between Dundee and Stansted airports, and between Newquay and Gatwick airports, and will continue to consider support for other routes that may be withdrawn.

    In addition, the Department last year undertook a tender process for airlines to bid for funding for start-up aid for new air routes. A total of eleven bids were received and the government announced last November that up to £7 million would be provided to support all eleven routes. It is now for the airlines to start operating these routes, with payments from the fund made upon delivery of the agreed service.

    We are now considering whether to take forward further start-up funding rounds and will make an announcement later this year.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment she has made of which of her Department’s agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. The Government’s view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed. We will be setting out this view in our consultation which will be published shortly.

    This change should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. We encourage financial institutions to take a proportionate risk-based approach when applying these measures.

  • Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are guidelines in place outlining steps to be taken if main service providers of patient transport fail to deliver satisfactory services.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    It is the responsibility for individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to commission and performance manage patient transport services, in line with the national guidance Eligibility for Patient Transport Services. This guidance is attached.

    CCGs will manage performance of patient transport providers through regular monitoring performance against Key Performance Indicators and have a range of interventions to improve performance, which are available through the NHS Standard Contract.

    NHS England ultimately maintains oversight of CCG commissioning, and holds CCGs to account for their commissioning decisions. In addition, NHS Improvement has a role in ensuring that procurement, patient choice and competition operate in the best interests of patients, and to step in if anti-competitive behaviour by National Health Service commissioners or providers goes against patients’ interests.

  • Lord Donoughue – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Lord Donoughue – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Donoughue on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many new coal-fired plants are planned by China and India over the next decade.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    Table 7.2 of the International Energy Agency’s 2015 World Energy Outlook projects the following demand for coal under the Agency’s New Policy Scenario:

    2013

    2025

    China

    2,932

    2,957

    India

    488

    812

    World

    5,613

    5,874

    Figures in Mtce – million tonnes of coal equivalent.