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Category: Speeches

  • Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Ministers have made to their counterparts abroad or to their diplomatic representatives in the UK on the practice of consuming and selling dog meat for consumption subsequent to the debate in the House on the dog meat trade of 5 November 2015.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Since the debate on 5 November my Department has not received any representations from any diplomatic missions in the UK on the dog meat trade, nor have Ministers made representations to their counterparts abroad. As highlighted during the debate by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), I am contacting our Ambassadors in the countries concerned to review our activities in this area.

    The Government is committed to raising the standards of animal welfare at home and abroad. I raised animal welfare issues during my visit to the region in February and will continue to make representations when appropriate.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of funding for apprenticeships in (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16 was allocated to apprenticeships in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sector.

    Nick Boles

    Estimated funding for Apprenticeships in the Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Sector Subject Area in 2014/15 was approximately £353million, that is, 24.9% of the total estimated funding for 2014/15. This data is not available for 2015/16. Figures for estimated funding come from the Individualised Learner Record and provide an indication of the level of government funding. They should not be treated as actual spend, since spending is not reported by Sector Subject Area.

    Information on actual spend is available for the financial year 2014-15 at the link below and shows a total spend of £1.56bn for Apprenticeships.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/446591/SFA_Annual_Report_2014_to_2015_PRINT_200715.pdf

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  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the cost to the NHS of antibiotics used to treat urinary tract infections in each of the last three years.

    George Freeman

    Information on why a drug has been prescribed is not collected.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve (a) productivity across the Civil Service and (b) efficient use of office space.

    Matthew Hancock

    Improving the efficiency and productivity of the public sector is central to the work of the Cabinet Office. By 2014/15 the Government had saved £18.6 billion through efficiency and reform, and tackling fraud, error and uncollected debt (against a 2009/10 baseline).

    The Government Hubs programme will reduce the government office estate from around 800 buildings to around 200 by 2023 and generate savings of over £2bn over ten years.

    This is being supported by a smart working revolution to transform how and where civil servants work. In line with what many private sector organisations have achieved, we expect this to increase productivity, reduce costs, improve wellbeing, and contribute to wider objectives such as localism, sustainability, and reducing pressure on the transport system.

  • Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of public country-by-country reporting of corporation tax details by multinational companies on the economies of developing countries.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The UK supports efforts to improve tax transparency. We initiated international work on country-by-country (CbC) reporting during our G8 Presidency in 2013, calling on the OECD to develop a framework for CbC reporting to tax authorities as part of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. This important initiative will enhance transparency between business and tax authorities, including those of developing countries.

    DFID funds the Global Forum and the World Bank to provide technical assistance to improve exchange of tax information in developing countries which will allow tax authorities to gain access to information such as country-by-country reports. We also support the OECD in helping developing countries tackle multinational practices such as transfer pricing and have provided HMRC tax auditors to Tax Inspectors Without Borders, which puts expert tax auditors in the field working on complex multinational audit cases.

  • Keir Starmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keir Starmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keir Starmer on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to publish asylum support statistics by gender as part of the Government’s quarterly immigration statistics.

    James Brokenshire

    The information published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics is kept under review, taking into account the needs of users, burdens on suppliers and producers, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. There are currently no plans to publish data relating to asylum support statistics by gender.

    Statistics on asylum seekers in receipt of Section 95, Section 4 or Section 98 support are available in Tables as_16_q, as_17_q and as_18_q of the quarterly Immigration Statistics release, available here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

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

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that computer coding is taught to children from an early stage in their education.

    Nick Gibb

    Demand for high-level skills in computing will only grow in the years ahead and will be crucial to supporting a successful economy. It is essential that we have a generation of pupils who have the knowledge and understanding they need to become active creators of digital technology, and not just passive consumers of it. We want them to have a deeper understanding of how digital technologies work and be able to write computer programs.

    Since 2014, computing has been part of the National Curriculum at all four key stages. This replaced the outdated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programme of study. The computing curriculum focuses on teaching children how computers work, the basics of programming, and encourages them to design computer programs to address real world problems. This includes introducing coding to primary pupils. At primary school, pupils are being taught what algorithms are, how to design and write programs to accomplish specific goals using sequencing, selection and repetition and how to apply logical reasoning to detect and correct errors.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to restore compensation for war widows who remarried between 1973 and 2005.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Government remains sympathetic to the circumstances of those affected. We are reviewing the position, but need to take account of the wider consequences for other public sector schemes of making retrospective changes.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he plans to take in response to Bermuda’s decision to (a) reject the Prime Minister’s request to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership and (b) reject the Prime Minister’s request to hold a consultation on adopting such a register.

    James Duddridge

    We have asked the Bermudian authorities to meet the following criteria: a) UK law enforcement and tax authorities must be able to access company beneficial ownership information without restriction, subject to relevant safeguards; b) These competent authorities should be able to quickly identify all companies that a particular beneficial owner has a stake in without needing to submit multiple and repeated requests; and c) Companies or their beneficial owners must not be alerted to the fact that an investigation is underway. We are continuing our dialogue with the Bermudan authorities on this and have offered any technical support that might be required as they develop their proposals My Rt Hon Friend, the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Philip Hammond MP), Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, met with Premier Dunkley on 26 August in London.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when (a) his Department, (b) NHS England and (c) Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust first received a copy of the Mazers report on Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

    Alistair Burt

    A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified 40 items of correspondence expressing concerns about Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. This figure represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.

    In 2014, NHS England initiated action including an investigation of the deaths of all patients of the trust who had been in receipt of mental health or learning disability services since 2011.

    We are advised by NHS England that a first draft of the Mazars report was shared with it and Southern Health Foundation Trust in September 2015. The Department has not received a copy of the report and the report is still to be finalised before publication.