Category: Speeches

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage more young people to go into farming.

    George Eustice

    The Government is working with the food and farming industries to encourage bright, talented young people into agriculture. We aim to treble the number of food and farming apprenticeships by 2020. Agriculture and related subjects is the fastest-growing subject at university, with a 4.6% increase in student numbers last year. We are also working with industry partners and others to build links between food and farming businesses and schools. The Great British food campaign will help to highlight the breadth of careers the food and farming industries can offer.

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total value is of the contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.

    The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.

    The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).

    The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.

    The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.

  • Tom Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tom Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Elliott on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether funding for an air ambulance in Northern Ireland announced in the Budget 2016 will be provided to Air Ambulance NI or the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Health, Social Security and Public Safety.

    Greg Hands

    At Budget 2016 the Chancellor committed £4.5 million from banking fines to help establish a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service for Northern Ireland, following a bid from the ‘Air Ambulance Northern Ireland’ charity, who will be the ultimate recipient of the funding. The Treasury is currently working with the charity and the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that this critical lifesaving service is up and running as soon as is practically possible

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 29 April (HL7747), whether the regulations regarding rights of way provisions that will be subject to affirmative resolution will also be subject to any further public consultation.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The changes to the public path order regime that the Government is introducing were part of a full public consultation carried out in May 2012. We are now implementing those changes through amendments to the Local Authorities (Recovery of Costs for Public Path Orders) Regulations 1993. We are consulting further with both the Stakeholder Working Group and local authorities on the detail of the amendments.

  • Lord Foulkes of Cumnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Foulkes of Cumnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Foulkes of Cumnock on 2016-07-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Baroness Verma on 27 June (HL Deb, cols 1358–59), when they plan to provide a briefing to members on transport services to St Helena.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Baroness Verma offered a briefing for Peers from DFID officials. Arrangements are being made for such a breifing to take place after the summer recess

  • Jenny Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jenny Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jenny Chapman on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on the Better Health Programme and predecessor programmes examining the future configuration at Darlington Memorial Hospital to date.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Funding for this programme is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

    The Better Health Programme, previously Securing Quality in Hospital Services, has been funded by five CCGs (Darlington; North Durham; Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield; Hartlepool and Stockton; South Tees). Final annual costs for each year are in the table.

    Table: Final annual costs for the Better Health Programme

    Year

    Final costs (£)

    2013/14 (Securing Quality in Hospital Services)

    555,875

    2014/15 (Securing Quality in Hospital Services)

    425,748

    2015/16 (Better Health Programme)

    580,000

    2016/17 (Better Health Programme) 1

    3,100,000

    1 Planned cost for the full year. The increase is primarily due to additional costs for financial modelling of options, stakeholder communications and engagement and overall programme management.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has received evidence on the effect of the feed-in tariff review on jobs in the solar industry.

    Andrea Leadsom

    We have received nearly 55,000 responses to the consultation. We currently estimate that just over 2,600 are unique and detailed responses; the rest are briefer and more uniform responses, generated by campaigns. We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the consultation and intend to publish a Government response as soon as possible.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of the accuracy of reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that a UK-produced bomb was used in an airstrike against a civilian factory in Yemen.

    Penny Mordaunt

    We are aware of the allegation that a ceramics factory in Sana’a Governorate was attacked on 23 September 2015 causing civilian casualties and are monitoring this alleged incident.

    In doing so, the Ministry of Defence is considering a range of evidence from Government sources, foreign governments, the media and international non-governmental organisations. Our consideration of this allegation is on going.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with the UN Relief and Work Agency of the potential effect of financial shortfalls in (a) 2015-16 and (b) future on the provision of aid to the Palestinian Territories.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The Secretary of State for International Development met UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Pierre Krahenbuhl, in December 2015 to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to UNRWA. Their discussion also focused on the important reforms UNRWA has been undertaking to address their chronic deficit and the need for UNRWA to diversify their donor base. The UK remains the third largest donor to UNRWA’s core budget and emergency appeals, in recognition of the important work that UNRWA does and that Palestinian refugees are a particularly vulnerable group across the region.

  • Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many foreign consulates or diplomatic offices have closed in Scotland since 2010.

    Mr David Lidington

    One such mission has closed in Scotland since 2010.