Category: Speeches

  • 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.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has had representations on the research conducted by Professor Malone-Lee and University College London researchers on the effectiveness of the standard NHS tests for diagnosing urinary tract infections.

    David Mowat

    A search of the Department’s ministerial correspondence database has identified 12 items of correspondence received since 1 January 2016 about the research conducted by Professor Malone-Lee and University College London researchers on the effectiveness of the standard National Health Service tests for diagnosing urinary tract infections. This is a minimum figure which represents correspondence received by the Department’s ministerial correspondence unit only.

    NHS commissioners are responsible for making decisions on individual treatments on the basis of the available evidence, taking into account guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) where available. NICE guidance is always evidence based, assuring us of the latest clinical thinking and research to determine the best treatment for patients.

    NICE quality standards for urinary tract infections can be found here:

    https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs90

    “

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the capability of the current Royal Navy fleet to police British waters and protect UK interests abroad.

    Mike Penning

    The Royal Navy continues to meet all of their current operational commitments, including the contribution to the protection of British waters and UK interests abroad.

    I also refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the former Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Mr Mark Francois) on 24 March 2015 to Question number 218389 to the hon. Member for Gelding (Vernon Coaker).

  • Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants in his Department are members of trades unions; how many working hours of facility time are taken by such civil servants; and what estimate he has made of the cost of that facility time to his Department.

    Matthew Hancock

    The number of civil servants who are trade union members is a matter for individual trade unions.

    The Cabinet Office publishes data relating to Civil Service facility time on a quarterly basis. The latest published data is for Quarters 1-4, 2014 and is available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-union-facility-time

    “

  • Lord Rowe-Beddoe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Rowe-Beddoe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 23 November (HL Deb, col 468), whether they will consider introducing a small annual licence fee and mandatory registration of all bicycles.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government has no plans to introduce such measures.

  • Khalid Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Khalid Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the recorded level of gun crime was in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands between (i) January 2010 to December 2012 and (ii) January 2013 to December 2015.

    Mike Penning

    Offences involving firearms recorded by the police at the force area level are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on a financial year basis. The most recently published figures for the West Midlands and England are 2013/14. These are given in the table and show that between 2009/10 and 2013/14, offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) fell by 40% in both the West Midlands and in England.

    Figures for 2014/15 are due to be published on 11 February 2016 in the ONS publication Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences 2014/15.

    The ONS publish provisional data for England and Wales on the number of offences involving firearms in their quarterly crime statistics releases. The most recently available figures are for the year ending June 2015 and these can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-june-2015/stb-crime–ye-june-2015.html

    The Home Office does not collect data on the number of people arrested in connection with offences involving firearms. The Home Office collects data on arrests by groups of crimes (for example, violence against the person, robbery) but cannot separately identify those that involved a firearm from those that did not.

    Convictions data are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice has informed the Home Office that they do not hold data on the number of convictions for offences where a firearm was involved.