Category: Speeches

  • James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cartlidge on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the total value was of all reclaimed equity loans in UK residential property where the holder was a government department in each of the last five years.

    Gavin Barwell

    The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) operates and administers a number of current and past equity loan and equity share schemes for the Department for Communities and Local Government.

    The HCA has received the following funds in redemption of equity loans in each of the last five years:

    2011-12 £4.020 million

    2012-13 £12.141 million

    2013-14 £34.731 million

    2014-15 £70.952 million

    2015-16 £182.916 million

    They include loans from several schemes: Help to Buy: Equity Loan, FirstBuy, HomeBuy Direct and First-Time Buyers’ Initiative.

    The Ministry of Defence operated a scheme: Affordable Homes Ownership scheme (AFHOS) until March 2014. AFHOS receipts to date are:

    Receipts during period 2011-15: £1.457 million

    Receipts during financial year 2015-16: £1.896 million

    The Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive also operate equity loan and equity share schemes for home ownership, on which they can provide information.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to delay publication of their response to the Herbal Medicines and Practitioners Working Group until they have met representatives of the herbal profession to discuss the outcome of that report.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government does not intend to delay publication of its response. The Report on the Regulation of Herbal Medicines and Practitioners is Professor Walker’s independent advice to Government. Prominent members of the herbals sector were members of the Herbal Medicines and Practitioners Working Group and, as the Report acknowledges, this advice was informed by the input of this Group.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-12-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to assess the condition and future requirements for maintenance of the local roads network.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport regularly publishes Official Statistics on the proportion of roads where maintenance should be considered by region in England. The latest available published data are for the financial year 2013/14.

    Road maintenance is a matter for individual local highway authorities, and it is for them to prioritise work according to local need. However, we are providing local highway authorities with record funding of £6 billion for local highways maintenance plus a £250 million pothole action fund as recently announced by the Chancellor on top of this.

  • Meg Hillier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Meg Hillier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to enable special circumstances to be taken into account when making the decision to withhold housing benefit from people who are away from their homes for a period of more than four weeks.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The temporary absence rules allow Housing Benefit to continue where under the normal conditions of entitlement it would not do so. They are therefore extensions of entitlement rather than withdrawals of it.

    It is the intention from April 2016, that Housing Benefit claimants who leave Great Britain for longer than 4 weeks will no longer be able to get Housing Benefit while they are away. This aligns the Housing Benefit rules with other benefits including Universal Credit.

    We intend that the period of 4 weeks could be extended in exceptional circumstances (for example, if their reason for being abroad is due to the death of a family member).

  • Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s policy is and what guidance it issues to civil servants on the acceptance and declaration of corporate gifts.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Department’s rules on the acceptance of gifts and hospitality state that every head of Division or Commanding Officer must maintain a hospitality log in which to record contact with persons, firms or organisations holding, or seeking to obtain, Government contracts. All offers of gifts, complimentary vouchers, other incentives, and hospitality made to Crown Servants whether accepted or declined must be recorded in the log. Senior management are responsible for undertaking regular reviews of the hospitality log. The guidance is set out in the "Defence Business Services Gifts, Reward, and Hospitality Policy" documents which are available on the Department’s intranet site.

    The Department’s policy is based on the rules of standards and conduct found within the Civil Service Code and is consistent with approaches taken by other Government Departments.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the change was in the level of government reimbursement to local authorities for the cost of the English National Concessionary Transport Scheme between 2010 and 2015.

    Andrew Jones

    This data is not held by the Department for Transport.

    In 2010-11, £223m was paid to local authorities as a specific grant to deliver the National Concessionary Transport Scheme. In 2011-12, this funding was transferred to the Local Government Finance Settlement, from where it has been delivered since. As the settlement distributes un-ringfenced funding to cover a number of services delivered by local authorities, it is not possible to identify the level of funding within the settlement specifically for national concessionary transport from the point the funding was transferred.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that new guidelines on the recognition and treatment of Lyme disease are made available by July 2018.

    Jane Ellison

    As services for the treatment of Lyme disease are commissioned locally information on the costs associated with laboratory testing and treatment of late stage Lyme disease is not collected centrally. Nor is information collected centrally on the average time to diagnose cases of Lyme disease.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is developing a clinical guideline on Lyme disease and reports progress on its website. NICE recently consulted on a draft scope for the guideline, and expects to publish final guidance in July 2018.

    Public Health England and NHS Choices publish information on their websites to raise awareness of Lyme disease and encourage timely medical consultation because early diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease is the best way of limiting complications from infection. Given the need to maintain public awareness these or similar mechanisms are expected to continue beyond 2018. Increased awareness is likely to encourage early consultation but no information on the time taken to seek medical advice is available.

    There are no plans to set targets for diagnosis and treatment as most cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed empirically by general practitioners using their clinical judgement rather than relying on a laboratory test, thus treatment can start immediately. Diagnosis of patients with late or complicated Lyme disease can be difficult and the National Health Service will continue to provide care taking account of the existing evidence base.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on his Department’s expenditure of the UK leaving the EU.

    Michael Fallon

    None.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in the Middle East on steps to tackle the refugee crisis in that region.

    Sir Desmond Swayne

    The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to support over 4.8 million Syrian refugees to remain in host countries in the region until it is safe to return to Syria, and to support host countries to accommodate them.

    As part of this, we are working in partnership with host countries to help them to expand job and education opportunities for refugees in a way that will enable them to better support themselves and give them skills for the future, and we are helping host countries to cope with the impact of refugees on local services.

    The UK co-hosted the “Supporting Syria and the Region” conference in London in February, at which neighbouring governments made bold commitments to open up their labour markets to refugees, to improve regulation and the investment climate in their countries, and to ensure all children in their countries have access to quality education.

    The Secretary of State for International Development continues to lead engagement with regional partners on tackling the refugee crisis, including by delivering on the commitments made at the London Conference, which will help to create 1.1 million jobs and provide quality education to 1.7 million children by the end of the 2016/17 school year. At the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in April she convened meetings between regional governments, the UN and World Bank and held bilateral discussions with key Ministers. And at the World Humanitarian Summit in May, she and other London Conference co-chairs convened a meeting of all interested parties to discuss and review progress.

    Looking forward, we will be using UN General Assembly in September as an important moment to review progress with key leaders on the Syria Conference implementation, including how all parties are all delivering on their commitments to support refugees in the region.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what advice his Department offer local authorities on issuing Hackney carriage or private hire driver licences to people based outside their local authority area.

    Andrew Jones

    Local authorities can issue licences to prospective Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle drivers irrespective of where the driver lives. The Department provides Best Practice Guidance for local authorities to help them develop their own standards for taxi and PHV operators, drivers and vehicles.