Category: Speeches

  • Chris Elmore – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Chris Elmore – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Elmore on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2016 to Question 42682, whether he is taking steps to reduce the number of spoilt ballots in elections.

    Chris Skidmore

    The Government has made improvements to ballot papers, forms and instructions used by voters at elections and referendums in order to make voting as accessible as possible. This involved public user-testing of the revised voting forms. The Government will consider reports from the Electoral Commission and other organisations on the polls held during 2016 and decide whether any further action is required.

  • Lord Blunkett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Blunkett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blunkett on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the accident on the M1 on 12 October, how long it took the Highways Agency to reopen junction 25 on the southbound carriageways, and how far north diversions were put in place.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Highways England report that the incident occurred around 2:15 am, with the carriageway fully reopened by 9:25 pm. Diversions were initially put in place from junction 25 of the M1, with traffic diverted onto the A52 westbound, the A5111 southbound, the A6 southbound and the A50 eastbound, to re-join the M1 at junction 24. Unfortunately, there was a second incident on the slip road of the M1 at junction 25, resulting in a lane being closed. This meant the M1 closure was extended further north to junction 26 until this incident was cleared.

    Variable Message Signs were set prior to junction 38, in order to encourage drivers to divert via the A38. In addition, messages were displayed on the M62, A1(M), M18, A46, A52 and A38.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 10866, when she next plans to publish the job titles and pay grades of appointments to extended ministerial offices.

    George Eustice

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, Matthew Hancock, to PQ UIN 17505 answered on 30 November 2015.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the definition of paper-assisted digital applications is for the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme.

    George Eustice

    The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.

    For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect of the legacy of the troubles on changes to the number of deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    I acknowledge the sense of devastation felt by families and communities bereaved by suicide. The Stormont House Agreement set out proposals to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past, including a Mental Trauma Service to be established and to work closely with the Victims and Survivors Service. This work is currently being taken forward by the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, in partnership with the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.

  • 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 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints his Department received about the standard of its recent consultation document on court closures.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    There has been one complaint about the standard of the recent consultation on the provision of court and tribunal estate in England and Wales.

    The complaint, received by email, was from a member of the judiciary and related to St Alban’s County Court. It noted that the consultation document was inaccurate as it stated that no enabling work was required at the receiving court, Watford County Court. On investigation, it was determined that some enabling work would be required. The written response to the complaint corrected this inaccuracy. The published consultation response document was updated to present corrected information.

    During the consultation process we were notified about inaccuracies in the consultation documents. These have all been corrected in the published response documents. All decisions were based on correct information together with the careful consideration of the consultation responses.

    The consultation response is available online at www.gov.uk/moj.

    “

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers are able to access mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    No estimate has been made of the proportion of refugees and asylum seekers who require mental health treatment as this data is not routinely collected.

    Both refugees and asylum seekers are offered health assessments which include consideration of mental health issues, however we do not hold data on the outcome of these.

    NHS England and clinical commissioning groups are committed to ensuring fair and equitable mental health care services for all, which includes all Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, including vulnerable migrants, in particular, refugees and those seeking asylum.

    NHS England recently launched the Five Year Forward View Mental Health Task Force Report which clearly outlines action to be taken nationally, regionally, and locally to help improve mental health services for BME communities in England.

    The full report is available via the following link:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Mental-Health-Taskforce-FYFV-final.pdf

    NHS England supported MIND to co-produce the Guidance for commissioners – ‘Commissioning mental health services for vulnerable adult migrants’ September 2015 launched February 2016. The Guidance aims to ensure National Health Service commissioners and providers provide timely and good quality mental health services for vulnerable migrants in particular refugees and those seeking asylum. The full report is available at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/gov/equality-hub/migrants/

    “

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of changes in the number of nursing, medical and other shifts that have not been filled since the introduction of national price caps for NHS agency staff.

    Alistair Burt

    Information on temporary staff fill rates is not collected centrally.

    NHS Improvement has calculated that since the introduction of the price caps, agency spending by National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts has fallen from £303 million in October 2015 to £287 million in February 2016.

    Monitor has previously released information on the number of trusts reporting using shifts in excess of the price caps from 23 November to 28 December 2015. This can be accessed here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497353/FOI_agency_staff_payments.pdf

    “

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to conduct a public consultation on the commissioning of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England is in the process of reconsidering its decision in relation to the commissioning of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The outcome of this decision, which is expected at the end of May, will determine whether NHS England will then conduct any form of public consultation on the commissioning of PrEP.

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he provides to local councils to help them secure faster build-out rates from new developments.

    Brandon Lewis

    The National Planning Policy Framework clearly sets out that local authorities should work proactively with developers to secure developments that improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of their areas. We are taking forward measures to speed up the process of discharging planning conditions, which will help ensure work starts on site quickly once planning permission has been granted. In addition, in their statement on 11 May 2016, the House Builder’s Federation announced steps they would take to improve transparency about build out and help inform both plan making and planning decisions.