UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Speeches

  • Cat Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Cat Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to NHS trusts of nursing staff turnover as a result of proposals to cap union facility time in the Trade Union Bill.

    Ben Gummer

    There are no current proposals to cap tradeunion facility time although the Trade UnionBill includes a reservepower to do so if it is deemed appropriate.The Department has not estimated the cost to National Health Service trusts of nursing staff turnover should the power to do so be implemented and has no evidence that it would be affected.

  • Mark Menzies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mark Menzies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons he has decided to recover the planning appeals by Caudrilla Resources to build shale gas wells at Roseacre and Preston New Road.

    James Wharton

    The reasons for the Secretary of State’s decision are set out in his letter to parties. This makes clear that the drilling appeals involve proposals for exploring and developing shale gas which amount to proposals for development of major importance having more than local significance and proposals which raise important or novel issues of development control, and/ or legal difficulties.

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Written Statement of 17 December 2015, HC WS431, on UK Embedded Forces, what the (a) rank and (b) military unit is of the UK personnel embedded with (i) French and (ii) Spanish armed forces.

    Michael Fallon

    Embedded on operations with the French Armed Forces are two Lieutenants (Royal Navy), two Lieutenant Commanders, one Major, one Lieutenant Colonel, one Flight Lieutenant and one Squadron Leader. These come from all three Services of the UK Armed Forces and are supporting a wide range of French operations. The UK has a Royal Navy Lieutenant embedded with the Spanish armed forces on operations.

    For security reasons I am unable to provide details of the units or locations of the embedded personnel.

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken better to enforce compliance with the Schools Admissions Code among religiously selective schools, in the light of the findings of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and British Humanist Association, An Unholy Mess.

    Lord Nash

    Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

    Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

    We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any changes are necessary to make the admissions system work more effectively for parents, these will be subject to a full public consultation.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.122 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what estimate his Department has made of the average change in tax credit award as a result of reducing the income rise disregard for tax credits.

    Damian Hinds

    As announced in the combined Autumn Statement and Spending Review, the amount by which a tax credit claimant’s income can increase within the year before their tax credit award is adjusted (the income rise disregard), will be reduced from £5,000 to £2,500. The reduction to the income rise disregard will stop one family receiving a higher tax credit award over another family with precisely the same income and the same circumstances, which makes the system fairer. The household income of families before it rises will inform how they might be effected by a reduction in the income rise disregard.

    The only people who will be affected are those who will see an income increase of more than £2,500 in-year.

    Due to the way that tax credits are calculated, the amount an award will be adjusted by – because of an increase in income – will depend upon a claimant’s individual circumstances, such as the household’s income before it rises. No one will be a cash loser because their income will have increased. As an example, for an individual with a wage of £12,000, an income increase of £2,501 would lead to an adjustment in their tax credit award of just 41 pence. An increase of less than £2,500 would see no change at all.

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average cost per mile to upgrade a motorway to a smart motorway.

    Andrew Jones

    Highways England has an improvement programme to create additional network capacity by utilising the motorway hard shoulder as an additional lane. This is known as the Smart Motorway Programme.

    The cost depends on the scope and nature of each scheme and is heavily influenced by factors such as the number of junctions and the extent of work needed to existing structures.

    Based on the actual or forecast actual cost of relevant schemes started over the past five years, the total cost ranges from £7.5-£8.8m per mile of additional network capacity (using a common price base of March 2015).

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-04-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Malawi regarding bringing the perpetrators of albinism-related crimes to justice.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    On 27 April our High Commissioner to Malawi raised the increase in human rights violations against persons with albinism at a meeting with the Malawian Foreign Minister. President Mutharika has condemned the attacks and ordered increased effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance he has issued to supported housing providers about funding following the absorption of housing benefit into universal credit.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department provides guidance for any changes made to Housing Benefit.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish the minutes of all the meetings his Department has held related to each of the 44 sustainability and transformation plans.

    David Mowat

    Every health and care system in England is producing a multi-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), showing how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years – ultimately delivering the Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved National Health Service efficiency. The Department has held two meetings relating to STPs with the national bodies responsible for the development of the STP programme. As is usual practice, the minutes of such policy development meetings are not normally published. The Department has not been involved in meetings with the 44 local STP areas directly.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his Answer of 23 October 2015 to Question 12551, if he will invite the hon. Member for Preston to visit the tax credit office in that constituency.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs is happy to facilitate visits to their offices from MPs. In the first instance they would ask for the MP’s office to send a formal request to communications.corporate@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.

    “