Category: Speeches

  • Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 on access to housing for post-release offenders.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the welfare policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Act on 20th July 2015. It set out its assessment of the impacts of the social rents policies in the Act on 28th September 2015.

    A link to the impact assessments is included:

    http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/welfarereformandwork/documents.html

    “

  • Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what total reduction in government spending has been attributed to policies drawn up by the Behavioural Insights Team since 2010.

    Ben Gummer

    The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) does not track the cumulative impact of all its work over time, only some of which focus on reducing spending or increasing revenue collection.

    However, BIT has now run some 350 trials, each of which shows the impact of different policy interventions in different contexts. These show that the team has helped to save or bring forward hundreds of millions of pounds of revenue and has made efficiency improvements in many different areas of UK Government policy.

    This includes:

    -changing the messages in letters from HMRC to late tax payers was part of a group of trials that helped bring forward more than £200m of late tax debts;

    -changing the messages in letters sent by Local Authorities to late payers of Council Tax is estimated to bring forward an extra £3m in one local authority alone;

    -changing the way that Jobcentres support people back to work has been rolled out to some 25,000 Job Advisors and is expected to help hundreds of thousands of people back to work faster.

    -informing GPs who overprescribe antibiotics that most practices prescribe fewer antibiotics than theirs reduces the number of unnecessary prescriptions by around 150,000 per year; and

    -working with HMCTS to send personalised text messages to people who were delinquent in their court fines. This intervention, which significantly increased payment rates prior to a bailiff intervention, could raise £860,000 per week if rolled out nationally and prevent up to 150,000 bailiff interventions per year.

    BIT also works with governments around the world and is seeing similar effects in its work in Australia, Singapore and with cities across the USA.

    These findings, and many others, are published once a year in BIT’s Update Report. The next edition of this is due later this month [September 2016].

  • Keir Starmer – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Keir Starmer – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keir Starmer on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how the extension of office to residential permitted development rights will be set out in legislative proposals.

    Brandon Lewis

    The extension of the office to residential permitted development rights will be brought forward as amendments to The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) men and (b) women over 50 were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year.

    Jane Ellison

    The Government’s Framework for Sexual Health Improvement (2013) set out the ambition for improving sexual health and wellbeing of the population including continuing to reduce the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Since 2013, local authorities have been mandated to provide genitourinary medicine (GUM) and integrated services for the early diagnosis and treatment of STIs; these services are open-access with no upper age limit. STI prevention programmes are the responsibility of local authorities, and there are a wide variety of local initiatives underway across England. Public Health England commissions a number of national HIV prevention activities and specialised sexual health information resources to provide educational and health resources to reduce the incidence of STIs including HIV in all age groups.

    In 2014, there were 11,126 cases of new STIs including HIV in men aged over 50, and 4,103 cases of STIs including HIV in women aged over 50 years of age.

  • Lord Rennard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Rennard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ascertain how many people shown as having voted on the marked register for the General Election on 7 May 2015 were on the electoral register at that time solely by virtue of the household based electoral registration system; whether they will make any such data available, broken down by (1) country, (2) constituency, and (3) local authority; how many of those voters were removed from the electoral registers on 1 December 2015; and what plans they have to help ensure that those voters are included on electoral registers based on Individual Electoral Registration.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    While data is not available on the number of non-IER registered electors who voted at the 2015 General Election, the Electoral Commission found 96% of the entries on the electoral register in May 2015 were already registered under IER. The remaining non-IER registered electors will have been contacted as part of the annual canvass, and specifically targeted by Electoral Registration Officers, to encourage them to submit an application under IER ahead of the end of the transition to IER.

  • Chris Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Chris Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Davies on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost was of guidance published on the gov.uk website in each of the last five years; what the mean and range costs are of producing each piece of advice; and how many pieces of guidance were produced in each of the last five years.

    Matthew Hancock

    The costs for GOV.UK are accounted for with other costs for the Government Digital Service and published in the Cabinet Office Report and Accounts as part of the Efficiency and Reform Group.

    Departments also produce and publish their own material onto GOV.UK so some costs will rest with them.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-24.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to support the British gin industry.

    Damian Hinds

    The government is committed to supporting the British gin industry. The duty on gin was cut by 2% at March Budget 2015, building on the duty freeze at Budget 2014.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with HM Treasury on the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the economy.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

    The Chancellor, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Tatton, has announced that the Treasury will publish a comprehensive analysis of the long-term economic costs and benefits of EU membership and the risks associated with an exit.

  • Lord Marlesford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Marlesford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Marlesford on 2016-04-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Highways Agency has made of the standard of cleanliness of the junction between the M25 motorway and the A12 trunk road.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA), Highways England is responsible for litter clearance on all England’s motorways and a few selected A roads for specific operational reasons. Local authorities are responsible for litter on all local roads, including the vast majority A roads on the strategic road network.

    The M25 junction with the A12 trunk road (junction 28), is maintained by both Highways England and Transport for London. Transport for London is responsible for litter clearance of the A12 from junction 28 towards London and Brentwood Borough Council is responsible for Junction 28 towards Brentwood.

    A litter inspection of junction 28 was completed by Highways England on 21 April 2016 which identified ‘widespread distributions of litter with minor accumulations’ (Grade C under the EPA Code of Practice). This location was then cleared of litter on 26 April. The junction will continue to be regularly monitored and re-picked as the need arises.

  • Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-06-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 11 May (HL8238) and the response deposited by Peterborough and Stamford Hospital NHS Trust on 18 May which showed that Peterborough’s City Hospital maternity unit has been closed to women about to give birth 41 times in the past three years, whether they will review the adequacy of the arrangements within the NHS for forecasting and meeting national and local demand for maternity services.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Maternity Transformation Programme (MTP) has been established to drive the implementation of the recommendations of Better Births, the report of the National Maternity Review. A copy of the report is attached. The MTP is overseen by the Maternity Transformation Board which met for the first time on 8 June and is chaired by Sarah-Jane Marsh, Chief Executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Birmingham Women’s Hospital.

    The safety of mother and baby is paramount. We want to ensure that women have as many choices as possible, while minimising any known risk to either themselves or their baby.

    Maternity services are unable to plan the exact time and place of birth and there are occasions when a unit cannot safely accept more women into their care. In such cases, the only safe alternative is to close the unit temporarily. It is important of course, that where a unit closes, there are systems and guidelines in place to ensure pregnant women have access to the next closest maternity unit and the type of care they have chosen, including midwifery-led care.