Category: Speeches

  • Mike Freer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mike Freer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Freer on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place to monitor the use of HIV innovation funding; and when he plans to (a) conduct and (b) publish his review of the projects that have received such funding.

    Jane Ellison

    In November 2015, the HIV Prevention Innovation fund announced one year’s funding for seven projects led by voluntary sector organisations. Project funding included an allocation for monitoring and evaluation of their activities and projects have been asked to submit regular monitoring reports to Public Health England. Projects will be asked to report the outcome of their work at the end of their contract. These results will be combined into a single report, which will draw out and highlight important learning from all projects, to be presented and published before the end of the 2016/17 financial year.

  • Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Northbourne on 2016-04-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to require all schools, including academies, to provide high quality sex and relationship education as part of their syllabus.

    Lord Nash

    Maintained secondary schools must continue to meet their existing statutory duties. All maintained secondary schools are required to teach sex and relationship education and we expect academies to teach it as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.

    As announced in February, we will continue to keep the status of PSHE under review and work with a group of leading headteachers and practitioners to identify further action we can take to ensure that all pupils receive high quality, age appropriate PSHE and sex and relationship education.

    When any school, including academies, teaches sex and relationship education, they must have regard to the Secretary of State’s statutory Sex and Relationship Education Guidance (2000). The guidance makes clear that all such lessons should be age-appropriate and that schools should ensure young people develop positive values and a moral framework that will guide their decisions, judgments and behaviour.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on the proposals in the European Commission press release, A European Border and Coast Guard to protect Europe’s External Borders, IP/15/6327; and if she will estimate the potential effect of those proposals on the budget of the UK Border Force.

    James Brokenshire

    The proposal for a European Border and Coast Guard builds on provisions of the Schengen agreement in which the UK does not participate; the UK will not therefore be bound by the new regulation, and will receive a refund on any contributions relating to this proposal, in line with its financing share of the EU budget.

    The UK is supportive of steps to increase the security of the external Schengen border – we have a strong interest in effective management of the Schengen external border, not just in combating illegal migration, and cross-border crime but also as part of the EU-wide counter-terrorism effort.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what formal role the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments will have in the UK Government’s negotiations in respect of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

    Mr David Jones

    The Government has made no decisions yet about the format of the direct negotiations with the European Union. In her first two weeks the Prime Minister visited Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland promising the UK Government would fully engage the devolved administrations to ensure we achieve a shared understanding of their interests and objectives. We will work with the devolved administrations throughout the process of preparing the UK position to ensure the interests of all parts of the UK are properly taken into account.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of levels of food insecurity in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    The UK currently has a high degree of food security as shown by the UK Food Security Assessment (published in 2010 and reviewed in 2012) which analysed the different global factors affecting UK food supply.

    Global food security is dependent on a number of factors including increasing production sustainably, reducing waste and ensuring open markets around the world to facilitate trade.

    Following a period of higher food price inflation retail food prices have fallen by 7.0% since their peak in February 2014. The proportion of household income spent on food has remained stable at 11% for 2015/16 compared to 2008/09.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost of using external agencies for recruitment to senior Civil Service posts in his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    Mark Lancaster

    Where external recruitment to Senior Civil Service (SCS) posts is required, recruitment agencies and head-hunters may be engaged to assist with campaigns. The costs of agency services include search, advertisement, response handling, assessment and support to selection panels.

    Details of spend on SCS recruitment with external agencies and head-hunters, by calendar year, are as follows:

    Calendar Year

    Spend

    2010

    £121,000

    2011

    £144,000

    2012

    £284,000

    2013

    £373,000

    2014

    £583,000

    2015 (to 31 March)

    £33,000

    Note: information held by the Ministry of Defence extends to 31 March 2015 only; from 1 April 2015 recruitment for SCS posts has been managed centrally by Civil Service Resourcing.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on how many occasions a special adviser in his Department accompanied a Minister on an overseas trip since May 2015.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    A Special Adviser has accompanied the Secretary of State only once on an overseas trip since May 2015. The practice of Special Advisers accompanying the Secretary of State on overseas visits where there is a business need is long-established and has operated as such under various administrations including the previous Labour administration.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she estimates her Department’s investigations into applications for family reunion from Kuwaiti Bidoon people will be concluded; how many such application are outstanding in that category; when the earliest such application under that category that remains outstanding was submitted; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    UK Visas and Immigration is aware of around 380 outstanding applications for Family Reunion from individuals claiming to be the dependent of someone granted refugee status in the UK as a Kuwaiti Bidoon. The oldest application in this cohort where a decision has not yet been taken was submitted on 11 March 2014.

    UK Visas and Immigration is committed to concluding these applications as soon as possible. They are complex and require detailed investigation, including consultation with international partners.

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

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of meningitis cases and (b) number of fatal meningitis cases in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England collects data on laboratory confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease which is a major cause of bacterial meningitis in England. Linked data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been used to generate information on deaths from invasive meningococcal disease, as shown in the table. The data do not distinguish between invasive meningococcal disease presentation as meningitis or septicaemia.

    Number of laboratory confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) and related ONS certified deaths in England by epidemiological year: 2010/11 to 2014/15

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15*

    Cases of IMD

    1009

    730

    769

    636

    724

    ONS certified deaths

    60

    34

    43

    39

    56

    *provisional

    The increase in cases of IMD in 2014/15 relative to 2013/14 has been largely due to the rise in one form of IMD – MenW. A new MenACWY vaccination programme was introduced in August 2015 in response to this rise in cases.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding from NHS England General Practices under (a) General Medical Services and (b) Personal Medical Services contracts in Hampstead and Kilburn (i) was allocated in 2014-15, (ii) has been allocated in 2015-16 and (iii) is forecast to be allocated for each financial year to 2021-22.

    Alistair Burt

    The information is not available in the format requested. Information provided by NHS England is in the attached table.