Category: Speeches

  • Peter Bottomley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Bottomley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Bottomley on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether East Lancashire Hospitals Trust has insurance cover for legal costs and awards in the event of the Trust or one of its employees being subject to legal action for defaming someone by a statement that is untrue, damaging and not privileged.

    Mr Jeremy Hunt

    This is an employer and employee matter between the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Mr Aditya Agrawal respectively. The Department cannot comment on individual employment matters that are the responsibility of independent organisations, and that are subject to ongoing legal proceedings or on matters relating to individual clinical cases or other personal information. We understand that the cost to East Lancashire Trust of legal proceedings concerning Mr Agrawal is £296,848.42 to date, and that the Trust does not have insurance costs for legal awards in the event of the Trust or one of its employees being subject to legal action for defamation.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of (i) all service leavers and (ii) early service leavers from each of the armed forces who left the service voluntarily received transitional support through the Future Horizons Programme in each year since that programme’s inception.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Future Horizons Programme (FHP) is the resettlement programme for Early Service Leavers (ESL), meaning those members of the UK Armed Forces who leave with less than four years’ service. It is delivered through the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Career Transition Partnership (CTP) with Right Management Limited (part of the ManpowerGroup). The uptake rates and employment outcomes of ESL are monitored routinely through the CTP governance structure to ensure the programme continues to be effective in supporting ESL.

    ESL have been entitled to the FHP since it was introduced on 1 October 2013. Between 1 October 2013 and 31 March 2014 approximately 33% of eligible personnel participated in the FHP. During financial year 2014-15 some 62% of eligible personnel participated in the Future Horizons Programme. Prior to the establishment of the FHP all ESL were entitled to unit level support as part of standard MOD policy.

    From 1 October 2015, the resettlement provision for ESL is termed CTP Future Horizons. Official statistics for ESL who used CTP Future Horizons from 1 October 2015 will be published in January 2017 as part of the CTP Official Statistic.

    All personnel made redundant in the Armed Forces redundancy programme 2011-2015 (Tranches 1-4), received the highest level of resettlement provision delivered through what was then termed the CTP Full Resettlement Programme, regardless of their overall length of service.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what work his Department has commissioned to identify the distribution across the nations and regions of the UK of exchange-only lines on the telecom network that are incompatible with fibre to the cabinet broadband technology.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The vast majority of phone lines across the UK connect to the nearest telephone exchange via a street cabinet, which can be upgraded to deliver fibre broadband. Estimates are not available of the number of premises served by exchange only lines which connect directly to the local exchange rather than via one of BT’s street cabinets. There are a variety of reasons why exchange only lines are created. For example, for rural exchanges serving few premises where there was no need for cabinets, or for urban exchanges where it may have been a more cost-effective. Exchange only lines present a greater engineering challenge to deliver fibre broadband than those connected via street cabinets but technical solutions are available. One solution is to rearrange the existing network, lay new cables to reroute lines to new cabinets. This technique was developed as part of the BDUK Superfast Broadband Programme, and the number of exchange only lines is reducing all the time as roll out under the programme continues.

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are making representations to the Kurdistan Regional Government about the case of Niaz Aziz Saleh.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have not made representations to the Kurdistan Regional Government on this particular case. However, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers and officials at our Consulate General in Erbil regularly raise human rights concerns with the Kurdistan Regional Government.

  • Stephen Hepburn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Stephen Hepburn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Hepburn on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many NHS GPs were working in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK in each year since 2005.

    Ben Gummer

    The number of general practitioners employed in the National Health Service for South Tyneside and the North East region since 2005 is in the attached table. The figures are taken from the NHS annual workforce statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

    Figures are only available for recognised NHS geography and therefore no information has been provided for Jarrow constituency.

    The provision of health services in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter so total figures are for England only.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2016 to Question 23237, if he will place in the Library a list of the recent representations he has received on the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government does not intend to place a list of the recent representations received on the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank in the Library.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department issues to credit reference firms on handling data on people who are on the closed electoral register.

    John Penrose

    The Information Commissioner’s Office provides guidance to both private and public sector organisations to help them understand their obligations under the Data Protection Act. Organisations wishing to process personal data in the UK, including credit reference agencies, must register with the ICO and comply with the DPA’s eight data protection principles. Among other things, these principles require personal data to be processed fairly and lawfully; to be accurate and up-to-date; not to be kept for longer than is necessary; and to be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects under the DPA.

    The ICO’s website provides public information on credit reference agencies’ use of the electoral register at (https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/credit/).

    “

  • Jessica Morden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jessica Morden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 1.274 of Budget 2016, what plans the Government has made for the timetable of the review of the case for free-flow tolling on the Severn River Crossings.

    Andrew Jones

    The timings of the review of free-flow tolling have yet to be decided, and will depend on the complexity of the options to be assessed, including the details of payment collection and enforcement.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Chief Executive of the Water Regulator OFWAT was permitted to participate in a promotional video for the services of PwC, which is adviser to the Regulator both for PR14 and the Thames Tideway Tunnel, many of the UK water companies, and the owners of Thames Water, the sponsor for the Tideway Tunnel; and whether this is contrary to the Civil Service Management Code, clause 4.1.3.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    OFWAT’s Chief Executive took part in a digital case study describing the challenges of its 2014 price review (PR14) and the role of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) as the PR14 delivery partner, contracted through open competition, to bring new skills and knowledge to OFWAT’s workforce to help secure a successful outcome. The case study was produced after the PR14 programme had ended and reflected the conclusion from OFWAT’s ‘lessons learned’ exercise that the delivery partner arrangement had been successful.

  • Yvonne Fovargue – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Yvonne Fovargue – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yvonne Fovargue on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department uses government fire statistics to assess the effect of faulty electrical goods on the number of fires.

    Anna Soubry

    My Department uses Government fire statistics on the number of fires in faulty electrical products, as part of the evidence to inform policy on the safety of electrical products.