Category: Speeches

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the importance of the Corsellis Brain Collection for promoting research into brain diseases for the treatment of patients in the NHS.

    George Freeman

    The Department has not made any specific assessment of the importance of the collection for promoting research into brain diseases.

    The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. Every effort is being made to ensure as much of the collection as possible is available to researchers and the West London Mental Health Trust has been working with BRAIN UK (an initiative funded by the Medical Research Council which co-ordinates the distribution of tissue across the country) to support this.

    As part of this strategy the Trust has therefore decided to publicise the decision to close the collection and invite requests from appropriate academic departments for tissue relevant to their research and teaching programmes, and to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some 7,500 out of 8,500 specimens have identified destinations as a result of this process, to departments across the United K and in the Netherlands, in Canada and in Hong Kong. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.

    The UK Brain Bank Network, which is funded by Government through the Medical Research Council, has established a national network of UK brain tissue resources (banks) for researchers to access. The Network currently involves 10 brain banks across the UK which now hold over 14,000 well characterised brains.

  • Lyn Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lyn Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lyn Brown on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that the human rights of Turkish people imprisoned as a result of the failed coup in July 2016 are respected; and what reports he has received on the alleged abuse of those prisoners by the Turkish authorities.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The Government condemns unreservedly this failed coup. In the aftermath of the coup attempt we have emphasised the need for Turkey to respect human rights, including press freedom, and the rule of law. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has also raised concerns about reports of ill-treatment in detention. The Turkish Government’s response to the coup attempt should be lawful and proportionate, and undertaken in line with Turkey’s international obligations.

  • Mrs Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Mrs Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what services are being provided to HS2 Ltd by the Maclean Partnership; and what the cost of those services has been to date.

    Andrew Jones

    McLean Partnership have provided two forms of service to date; executive search at a cost of £588,750, and provision of administrative and payroll services for interim staff at a cost of £286,306.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential financial effect of proposals to deny refused asylum seekers access to financial support will have on (a) local authorities and (b) (i) homelessness, (ii) health and (iii) mental health service providers,

    James Brokenshire

    An assessment of the financial impact of the proposed changes to support for failed asylum seekers was published on 4 August and can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforming-support-for-failed-asylum-seekers-and-other-illegal-migrants-impact-assessment

    The government has consulted widely on the proposals, which are now contained in Schedule 6 to the Immigration Bill published on 17 September, and is discussing the detail of how they will be implemented with local authorities and others. The financial impact of the changes will be reviewed in light of these discussions and reflected in a revised impact assessment.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to provide the Mayor of London with the powers to place a cap on private hire vehicles in London.

    Andrew Jones

    This Government does not intend to amend primary legislation to allow the number of private hire vehicles licensed in London or elsewhere to be restricted.

  • Lady Hermon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lady Hermon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lady Hermon on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the contribution by the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise, of 2 February 2016, Official Report, column 884, what steps he is taking to ensure the national advertising campaign for apprenticeships extends to Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.

    Nick Boles

    Education and skills policy (including Apprenticeships) is a devolved matter. It is for the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to determine how they manage their own programmes. This includes any advertising campaigns.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to respond to the findings of Amnesty International UK’s Annual Report, published on 24 February 2016.

    Dominic Raab

    I have no plans to do so. It is irresponsible for any campaign group to criticise our proposals before they’ve seen them. Amnesty have already been told our plans involve the UK remaining in the European Convention.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to (a) review and (b) improve the autism self-assessment framework.

    Alistair Burt

    Working with the Department, Public Health England regularly undertakes an autism self assessment exercise with local authorities and their partners to gauge progress in implementing the Autism Strategy. The results of the self assessment and the individual returns from areas are made public so that organisations and people can challenge locally if they think that more needs to be done. The assessment questions and the process for local agreement are reviewed each time, taking into account that general continuity is needed in terms of measuring progress. The February meeting of the cross government Autism Programme Board considered the changes proposed for the next exercise which were put forward following discussions with representatives of Government departments, local authorities, the National Health Service, the autism third sector and people with autism and family carers. Further refinement will be undertaken over the next few weeks before the self assessment exercise is launched in the summer.

  • Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the recently announced steel support package on the steel industry in Scotland.

    Anna Soubry

    On 28th April, ownership of Tata’s mills in Dalzell and Clydebridge passed to Liberty. The package announced on 21st April is to support a sale of the remaining Tata sites. However, the Scottish plant will benefit from our wider action to help the steel industry, including compensating energy costs.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for refugee family reunion have been (a) made, (b) resolved, (c) granted and (d) refused by nationals from (i) Syria, (ii) Eritrea, (iii) Afghanistan, (iv) Iran and (v) Sudan in each of the last 12 quarters.

    James Brokenshire

    The information is provided in the table, based on the available published statistics which relate to the ‘Family: other’ category, which are known to very largely consist of family reunion cases .

    The latest quarterly Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visas are published in ‘Immigration Statistics’, available from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics

    This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the Standard of Official Statistics.