Category: Speeches

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to Question 31008, how many officials of his Department worked full-time on strategies to tackle homelessness in each of the last five years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Over the years, this Department always ensured that policy areas, including homelessness, were suitably resourced in order to provide the best possible response to deal with changing priorities.

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-04-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the impact on British shipping of the decision by the President of Egypt to give control of the expansion of the Suez Canal to the Egyptian armed forces.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We are not aware of any impact on British shipping in relation to the Egyptian armed forces’ involvement with the Suez Canal. The New Suez Canal Project, completed in August 2015, has shortened the transit time and has increased the number of ships which the Canal can handle on a daily basis. The Egyptian armed forces continue to provide security for the Canal and support the activity of the Suez Canal Authority as they did before the expansion of the Canal.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 May 2016, on BIS consultation, HCWS30, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of split-site working and recruiting on a flexible location basis for policy officials.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is implementing its BIS2020 strategy in order to become simpler, cheaper and better. This includes moving to a central policy headquarters based in London.

    An assessment was made of the merits of split site working and of recruiting on a flexible basis through the consideration of alternative options (including maintaining the current model across split sites). This assessment took place throughout the consultation process and prior to the Executive Board’s decision.

    BIS will continue to have many more people based outside London than inside.

  • Richard Bacon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Bacon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Bacon on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust has paid Cerner in the last 10 years.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Department has not, over the last 10 years, made payments to Cerner for National Health Service systems. The Department does not hold information centrally about contracts that are held by NHS Trusts locally.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether public consultations or surveys were undertaken in the former Department for Energy and Climate Change to ascertain whether people trusted and understood the data-sharing element of the Warm Home Discount Scheme in the run-up to implementing that scheme.

    Jesse Norman

    The Warm Home Discount consultation, published in December 2011, included questions on data sharing.

    Prior to the Warm Home Discount, the Energy Rebate Scheme, which ran for one year, used data-matching (of DWP and energy suppliers’ data) to identify a group of pensioners likely to be vulnerable to fuel poverty, so that their electricity supplier could award a one-off rebate to their electricity bill. This earlier scheme ran for one year.

    DWP Social Researchers carried out a small-scale qualitative evaluation of the scheme, involving telephone interviews with customers to investigate reactions to their personal data being used in this way – this includeding issues around privacy, security and data sharing, and the broader concept of data use in Government.

    The findings of the research and consultation responses can be found here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

    “

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what account he has made of the adequacy of tariffs in the armed forces compensation scheme for former service personnel with an employment-related mental illness.

    Mark Lancaster

    In 2009 Lord Boyce was asked to review the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS), including its associated tariffs, to ensure that the Scheme was fit for purpose. Lord Boyce made his recommendations in February 2010, and as a result the Ministry of Defence tripled the maximum lump sum award for mental illness from £48,875 to £140,000 in order to accurately reflect the impact of the most serious mental health conditions. While Lord Boyce was clear in his report that a further fundamental review of the AFCS should not be required, we recognise that it is appropriate to review our policies and associated tariffs on a regular basis.

    In addition to the AFCS lump sum, the most seriously injured receive a tax-free Guaranteed Income Payment for life. This is uplifted annually by the Consumer Price Index.

    An Independent Medical Expert Group (IMEG) was also established in 2010 to advise on appropriate levels of compensation for several specific injuries and illnesses, including mental health. The IMEG has looked at how best to compensate for mental health problems and they keep this under review.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on what local government services can be funded by the two per cent social care precept.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Chancellor’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 (Cm9162), presented to Parliament on 26 November 2015, makes clear that the two per cent social care precept must be spent entirely on adult social care.

  • Lord Crisp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Crisp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proportion of the Department for International Development funding for mental health in low- and middle-income countries has increased or decreased in the last year for which figures are available.

    Baroness Verma

    Tracking of inputs, allocations and expenditure is based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) codes, which are used for reporting official development assistance.

    The UK’s health focus in developing countries is on improving the provision of basic health services for the poor by strengthening and supporting health systems, health worker capacity and access to essential medicines. Increasing coverage, equity, access and quality will strengthen health services to address all health problems including non-communicable diseases, like mental disorders and dementia.

    DFID is helping countries to make fairer, transparent and evidence-based decisions about how to set priorities and allocate resources in health. We support research on mental health through our PRIME (Programme for Improving Mental Health Care) programme. This research is providing world class evidence on implementation and scaling up for treatment programmes and having this adopted by policy makers.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many consultants’ contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Since April 2011, the department has maintained a contracts database. A search of that database by the Crown Commercial Service has not identified any consultancy contracts that have been terminated early.

    Prior to April 2011, the department did not hold a central record of contracts. To attempt to extract the information from local records would be at disproportionate cost.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to limit the effect that engineering works on rail lines have on travel over long bank holidays.

    Claire Perry

    An independent review of how the rail industry plans and schedules major improvement work was carried out last year. The review concluded that Christmas, Easter and bank holidays were the best times to carry out upgrades requiring major line closures, particularly in and around London where the network is busiest and access for engineers is most difficult.

    Network Rail always looks to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers. As such, Network Rail and train operators are conscious that many people want to use the railway over holiday periods to reunite with their friends and families, so where possible they try to ensure the vast majority of services are kept running, as well as delivering passenger improvements on time. Network Rail will ensure around 96% of the network will be available during the next May bank holiday.