Category: Speeches

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to use any of its statutory regulatory powers to ensure that there is the reduction in the cost of car insurance referred to in paragraph 1.143 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The pricing of insurance products is a commercial matter for individual insurers in which the Government does not seek to intervene. The motor insurance market is intensely competitive and the Government therefore expects that the insurance industry will pass on savings to consumers.

    Some insurers have already committed to pass on all savings to consumers as a result of the proposed changes.

  • Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 21838, what estimate he has made of the cost of (a) training and (b) funding the extra 250 gastroenterologist and 200 non-medical endoscopists that will increase capacity for colonoscopy and endoscopy.

    Ben Gummer

    The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent produces an annual report which includes the costs of delivering National Health Service services. In doing so, the PSSRU assesses the total cost of training, including to the individual. A link to the latest report, published in March 2015 is included below.

    http://www.pssru.ac.uk/project-pages/unit-costs/2014/

    NHS trusts are responsible for ensuring that they have enough gastroenterologists to provide services to their patients. It will be for NHS providers to meet the employment costs of these staff.

    Health Education England (HEE) has identified cancer and diagnostics as a priority area for 2016-17. HEE estimates that between £1 million and £1.5 million will be required to fund an additional 200 non-medical endoscopists by 2018.

    “

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that transport trade unions retain confidence in his Department’s Senior Civil Servants’ impartiality.

    Claire Perry

    The standards of integrity, impartiality and honesty are set out in Departmental policies and guidance, as well as being set out in the Civil Service Code which applies to all Civil Servants.

    The full text of the Civil Service Code can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-code/the-civil-service-code

    “

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-03-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the numbers of children born with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis from mothers who have not been protected from genital warts through the HPV vaccination programme in each year since that programme began; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy of trends in those numbers.

    Jane Ellison

    The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for girls was introduced in 2008, primarily to prevent cervical cancer. Initially, the bivalent vaccine Cervarix® was used that provides protection against two HPV types, HPV 16 and 18. Since September 2012, the quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil® has been used that provides protection against those two HPV types and also against two additional types, HPV 6 and 11 which cause genital warts.

    The number of cases of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis that have occurred in children born to females who were vaccinated with bivalent vaccine as part of the HPV immunisation programme during 2008-2012 is unknown and has not been estimated. An assessment of the implications of this condition on vaccination policy has not been made.

    Public Health England (PHE) has previously published estimates on the numbers of cancers and anogenital warts which would be prevented in males and females with a female only HPV vaccination programme. Within this work it was assumed that the use of the quadrivalent vaccine would reduce the incidence of new cases of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis at the same rate as the reduction in anogenital warts due to HPV 6 and 11, i.e. by 95% (over time). These PHE estimates assumed no reduction in genital warts (or recurrent respiratory papillomatosis) with the use of the bivalent vaccine. However, some reduction in genital warts have since been seen associated with use of the bivalent vaccine and it is therefore possible that some (smaller) reductions in recurrent respiratory papillomatosis may result from bivalent vaccine use.

  • Jenny Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jenny Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jenny Chapman on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of her Department’s school food standards on milk consumption in primary schools.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    We have had one piece of correspondence on milk from a school in recent months. The Department does not collect data on the consumption of milk. The revised School Food Standards are effective from 1 January 2015 and designed to be easier to read and implement. A full public consultation on the School Food Standards regulations was held between 6 March and 16 April 2014. All schools were subsequently notified of the guidance through our termly communications with schools. The standards and guidance are available on gov.uk at:

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1603/contents/made

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-school-food-in-england

    http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/School-Food-Standards-Guidance-FINAL-140911-V2C.pdf

    “

  • Jeremy Lefroy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jeremy Lefroy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-05-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many traffic surveys and counts his Department has conducted in Stafford constituency since 2010.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport (DfT) has conducted the following numbers of manual traffic counts within the area covered by Stafford constituency in each year since 2010.

    2010 9 counts

    2011 9 counts

    2012 10 counts

    2013 11 counts

    2014 5 counts

    2015 5 counts

    These counts are carried out for the purpose of producing DfT’s statistics on traffic. They are conducted by observing traffic at designated locations and consequently have no impact on the traffic flows.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will bring forward plans to consolidate existing legislation on online abuse and malicious communication.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    Legislation that can be used to prosecute online abuse and related offences includes the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; the Malicious Communications Act 1988; and the Communications Act 2003. The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 made changes to the relevant offences in these last two Acts which aim to ensure that people who commit them are prosecuted and properly punished.

    The Government believes that current legislation is sufficient and does not intend to consolidate existing legislation relating to online abuse and malicious communication.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-10-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, by when his Department plans to report its funding on a proposed breathing space mechanism for problem debt.

    Simon Kirby

    The Government is exploring whether some form of “breathing space” would be a useful and viable addition to the range of formal and informal debt solutions available to consumers and creditors. Officials in HM Treasury and the Insolvency Service have been asked to discuss this issue with stakeholders and the Government will report back this autumn.

  • Caroline Flint – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Flint – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of changes to the work allowance in universal credit announced in the Summer Budget 2015 on incentives to work.

    Priti Patel

    Universal Credit will have a powerful positive effect on labour market participation. We expect 300,000 more people to be in work as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit, and around 75% of the households that gain under Universal Credit are in the bottom 40% of the income distribution.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her policy is on the future of the Warm Home scheme; and if she will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government announced in the Spending Review on 25 November 2015 that the Warm Home Discount scheme would be extended to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per year, rising with inflation, to help households who are at risk of fuel poverty with their energy bills.