Category: Speeches

Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 45594, on public sector: procurement, where the Crown Commercial Service analysis can be found that is referred to in that Answer.

Ben Gummer

The Crown Commercial Service analysis referred to was undertaken internally to facilitate answering the Hon Member’s previous question. The key data is reproduced below.

UK Tenders on Tenders Electronic Daily (Official journal of the EU) and Contracts Finder

MONTH	TED	CONTRACTS FINDER
January 2016	812	2,577
February 2016	760	3,080
March 2016	987	3,256
April 2016	958	2,865
May 2016	881	2,960
June 2016	907	931
July 2016	1,033	2,853
August 2016	1,027	3,570

This clearly illustrates both the deferment in “Contract Finder” tenders during the EU referendum purdah period, and the lack of any significant change in the number of “Tenders Electronic Daily” opportunities.

01/01/2023

Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Prime Minister, what definition he uses of the term the most extreme circumstances of self-defence; if he will provide examples of situations which would meet that definition; and whether a (a) pre-emptive and (b) retaliatory nuclear attack on another state would be covered by that definition.

Mr David Cameron

I have nothing further to add.

01/01/2023
Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to paragraph 4.79 of the National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, what steps the Government has taken since 2010 to achieve the long-term goal of a world without nuclear weapons; and what initiatives the Government has taken to date to work with the UK’s international partners to tackle proliferation and to make progress on multilateral nuclear disarmament.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK National Report submitted in February in advance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference set out steps we have taken to support the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. This includes support to the international monitoring system designed to detect nuclear tests, efforts to build trust and confidence with other Nuclear Weapon States through the P5 process, and initiatives with Norway and the US on how to verify disarmament of nuclear weapons. We have also met our commitment to reduce the number of operationally available warheads to no more than 120. We have worked to strengthen the international non-proliferation regime, most notably through our role in securing an agreement involving strict limits and inspections on Iran’s nuclear programme.

01/01/2023
Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, by what mechanism any savings made by insurance companies as a result of a change to the small claims limit for soft tissue road traffic accident injuries will be passed on to policyholders.

Harriett Baldwin

The pricing of insurance products is a commercial matter for individual insurers in which the Government does not seek to intervene. The motor insurance market is intensely competitive and the Government therefore expects that the insurance industry will pass on savings to consumers.

Some insurers have already committed to pass on all savings to consumers as a result of the proposed changes.

01/01/2023
Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make changes to the clinical guidelines for motor neurone disease to improve diagnosis and treatment.

George Freeman

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing robust, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service. NICE is currently developing a clinical guideline on the assessment and management of motor neurone disease, and expects to publish its final guidance in February 2016. NICE is also producing a quality standard on motor neurone disease and its anticipated publication date is August 2016.

01/01/2023
Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the relationship between the bus service operators grant and the cost of bus fares.

Andrew Jones

We have been reviewing the Bus Service Operators Grant scheme in recent years with a view to improving its effectiveness in supporting bus services. In their assessment of the impact of any changes in policy associated with the Bus Service Operators’ Grant, departmental economists normally assume operators pass subsidy received on to passengers 50% through lower fares and 50% through increased service levels. Under these assumptions, they estimate that BSOG has the impact of keeping fares 3% lower than they would be in its absence in England outside of London.

01/01/2023
Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase the skills of nurses relating to treatment of people with learning disabilities.

Ben Gummer

It is the responsibility of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified nurses are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in awareness of learning disabilities.

Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow healthcare students to meet the outcomes set out by the NMC upon graduation.

Health Education England (HEE) has been working with NHS England and other national partners to set out a far-reaching plan to transform services for people with a learning disability, to make significant and lasting improvements to their care and lives. At present, this is particularly focused on supporting the transforming care programme and scaling and spreading the lessons learnt from engagement with fast-track sites.

The Department has commissioned Skills for Health, Skills for Care and HEE to develop a Learning Disabilities Core Skills Education and Training Framework which will be launched in May and is aimed at all health and social care workers who have not received training in learning disabilities, especially those nurses from other fields of nursing such as adult, children and mental health nurses.

01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans for local authorities to continue to receive basic need allocations of capital for new school places under her proposals for all schools to become academies.

Edward Timpson

Local authorities will continue to be responsible for ensuring there are enough school places to meet demand and supporting them to do this will remain one of the government’s top priorities for this Parliament. That is why we allocate funding to local authorities based on their own estimates of the number of places they will need and will continue to do so. We have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021 which, along with our investment in the free schools programme, we expect to deliver 600,000 new places.

Local authorities have always relied on their strong relationships with local schools to deliver the places needed and this will not change as more schools convert to become academies.

01/01/2023
Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of whether the most recent Public Performance Measure figures reported by Govia Thameslink Railway put that company in breach of its franchise agreement.

Claire Perry

The Public Performance Measure figure does not put Govia Thameslink Railway in breach of their Franchise Agreement.

The Franchise Agreement does not include the Public Performance Measure as one of the benchmarks against which their performance is measured. The Department for Transport (DfT) performance benchmarks for Govia Thameslink Railway are for Delay minutes and Cancellations for which GTR are responsible, and Peak Short formation, as specified under Schedule 7.1 of the Franchise Agreement:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525766/tsgn-franchise-agreement.pdf

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01/01/2023
David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to publish the number of applications for refugee family reunion which were granted outside the rules in its quarterly migration statistics.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Home Office does not currently plan to change the data that is published on this category of applications. The question covers a number of different casework operations and the information is not recorded in a way which can be reported directly.

The Home Office keeps under review the statistics that are published in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, balancing user needs against burdens on data suppliers.

01/01/2023