Category: Speeches

  • Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2015-11-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they took to ensure that women’s voices were included at the recent UN Support Mission in Libya conference in London.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Over 150 representatives attended the UK and UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) meeting held on 19 October in London on international support for a new Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA). 36 women accepted the invitation to attend the meeting, drawn from 40 countries, UN Agencies, and international bodies. The UK recognises that female participation in politics and civil society is an essential component of restoring stability in Libya, and our Libya Office in Tunis, working closely with UNSMIL, made a particular effort to ensure female Libyan participation. Four of the 17 independent Libyan delegates were women. The meeting was co-chaired by Jane Marriott, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Directorate in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

  • Lord Empey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Empey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are any plans to reduce the number of local electoral offices in Northern Ireland.

    Lord Dunlop

    The Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland is currently considering a range of options for reforming his Office. This includes capitalising on new technology by introducing on-line registration.

    The Chief Electoral Officer will have regard to the continued effective delivery of elections in Northern Ireland and ensuring that his Office remains on a sustainable financial footing. The Northern Ireland Office fully supports him in this approach. I understand that work on some options is at an early stage.

    The Representation of the People Act 1983 makes provision for the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to delegate returning officer functions to the clerk of a district council.

    Detailed questions on headcount and budget are operational matters for the Chief Electoral Officer who is independent of Government. The Chief Electoral Officer publishes all such information in his annual report which is presented to Parliament and copies are made available in the Library of the House.

    The headline budgets allocated to the Chief Electoral Office are:

    Financial Year

    Operational Funding

    Capital Funding

    2013/14

    £5.452m *

    £100k

    2014/15

    £2.336m

    £56.2k

    2015/16

    £2.296m

    £25k

    * includes £3m for the 2013 canvass

    The Northern Ireland Office has not agreed any budgets with the Chief Electoral Officer for future years pending receipt of the Department’s detailed Spending Review 2015 settlement letter from HM Treasury.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £70 million funding towards careers in this Parliament, announced by the Prime Minister on 11 January 2016, will be spent in each of the next four years.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    On 11 January 2016, my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister announced that we are committing £70 million to our careers strategy over this Parliament to continue the transformation of the quality of the careers education, advice and guidance offered to young people. This is on top of the £20 million in 2015-16 announced for careers in the 2014 Autumn Statement.

    This £70 million will be spent over the next four years to 2020. We have not yet finalised how much will be spent each year or how it will be allocated but can confirm that there will be continued funding for the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) to continue its excellent work. We anticipate that this will include funding to support the Enterprise Adviser Network, the Careers and Enterprise Fund, the Enterprise Passport, the CEC’s research programme and its wider activity to bring schools, colleges, business, and careers and enterprise organisations closer together, and to deliver the new mentoring campaign announced by the Prime Minister on 11 January 2016. We will make further announcements in due course.

  • Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what procedures schools are required to follow in order to withdraw from an academy trust.

    Edward Timpson

    Where there are concerns about the performance of an academy the Regional Schools Commissioner may decide that the support of a new academy trust is needed to bring about the necessary improvements. In these cases the Regional Schools Commissioner may be able to use the termination powers set out in the academy’s funding agreement to require the academy to move to a new trust without the agreement of the academy or the existing trust. The Education and Adoption Bill will give Regional Schools Commissioners stronger more consistent powers to do this with failing and coasting academies.

    Where the academy is performing well this is a matter for discussion and agreement between the academy, the trust and the relevant Regional Schools Commissioner.

  • Catherine McKinnell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Catherine McKinnell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to update existing sex and relationships education guidance.

    Edward Timpson

    This Government wants to provide all young people with a curriculum for life, which prepares them to succeed in modern Britain. High quality teaching of PSHE is central to this.

    The Secretary of State wrote to the ESC in February 2016 stating that the Department will continue to keep the status of PSHE in the curriculum under review.

    We have asked leading head teachers and practitioners to produce an action plan for improving PSHE. We will work with these experts to identify further action we can take to ensure that all pupils receive high quality, age appropriate PSHE and SRE.

    We welcome the supplementary advice for schools, ‘Sex and relationships education (SRE) for the 21st century’, published by the PSHE Association, the Sex Education Forum, and Brook. This addresses changes in technology and legislation since 2000, in particular equipping teachers to help protect children and young people from inappropriate online content, and from online bullying, harassment and exploitation.

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

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of NHS organisations that have official terms and conditions that set payment terms longer than 30 days.

    George Freeman

    The Department has developed standard National Health Service terms and conditions for use by NHS bodies procuring goods and services from commercial suppliers. The documents were first published in August 2013.

    The Department has details of all activity on the gov.uk website which shows extensive use and downloads of the documents and has also invited regular feedback and online surveys that demonstrate the extensive use of the suite of documents.

    In June 2015, the Department and the Cabinet Office Mystery Shopper scheme carried out spot checks with a number of trusts to find out the level of take up of the NHS terms and conditions. The results showed 90% of the trusts contacted confirmed they were using (or intended to use) the NHS terms and conditions.

    The suite of documents has been endorsed by the Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI), the industry association for the medical technology sector, and the Health Care Supply Association, the representative and network organisation for NHS buyers. Both organisations inform the Department of any activity they are aware of that NHS bodies or suppliers are deviating from the stated terms and conditions. There have only limited examples to date.

    The Department of Health has been made aware of a couple of examples of where NHS bodies were extending their payment terms beyond 30 days. The examples came both via the Cabinet Office mystery shopper scheme and ABHI. To support their members ABHI undertook more extensive research but has found these are isolated cases and the practice is not widespread.

    The Department understands the concern and together with NHS Provider Regulators are working very closely with NHS providers to ensure that they have sufficient cash to support the safe delivery of their essential services. Although the NHS financial position is tight, the Department has not endorsed, and do not support, formal extensions of credit terms, particularly with Small and Medium size Enterprises, beyond the 30 days in statute.

    The Department will also ask NHS Improvement to communicate with all NHS providers through its official monthly bulletin to raise awareness of the Better Practice Payment Code.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee’s counter-proposal to the Government’s plans for the future of community pharmacy, published in April 2016.

    Alistair Burt

    We have been consulting on proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond.

    Throughout the consultation period we have remained open to new ideas and suggestions both from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and from other stakeholders.

    We have welcomed the publication of PSNC’s counter proposal on 26 April 2016. This has enabled these ideas to be discussed with other key stakeholders.

    The public phase of the consultation ended on 24 May 2016. The Department, supported by NHS England, will continue to discuss the proposals in confidence, with the PSNC and hold a final round of confidential discussions with other key pharmacy stakeholders.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 7 March 2016 to Question 29384, for what reasons the announcement of the award of the next East Anglia rail franchise has been delayed; and when he plans to make that announcement.

    Claire Perry

    The successful bidder will help us realise our ambitious plans for East Anglia’s rail network. We have been clear that as a minimum they must provide a modern service with state of the art trains and also introduce at least two 90-minute services each way between London and Norwich. In addition they must invest heavily in improving stations.

    We advised an anticipated date for the award and continue to consider the bids. We will announce the new operator in due course.

  • Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Royal Navy is taking to maintain its warship repair capability after the sale of RFA Diligence.

    Harriett Baldwin

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 September 2016 to Question 45203 to the hon. Member for Portsmouth South (Flick Drummond).

  • Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost to the NHS is of educating and training a junior doctor.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department does not hold information on the average cost to the taxpayer of training someone to become a junior doctor.

    The Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent estimates within their report ‘Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2014’, published in March 2014, that the average cost in 2013/14 of training to become a general practitioner is £485,390, with the consultant training cost being £726,551. These figures reflect the pre-registration costs of tuition, living expenses/lost production and clinical placements and the post-graduate costs of tuition and replacement costs not the average cost to the taxpayer.