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Category: Speeches

  • Adam Afriyie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Adam Afriyie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the cyber security implications of driverless cars.

    Anna Soubry

    Government recognises that vehicle security is a priority to ensure the safety and security of the public and their data.

    Government believes connected and autonomous vehicles should be “secure by design” and handle data appropriately. We are working closely with industry to achieve these aims as part of a wider programme of activity to ensure that the significant opportunities of these technologies can be realised safely and securely.

    Connected technologies present cyber security challenges across a range of sectors. Cyber security has been identified as a key priority in the latest National Security Strategy. The Government has announced the formation of a National Cyber Security Centre, which will bring together the UK’s cyber expertise from different parts of Government into one organisation. The Government will also publish a new National Cyber Security Strategy later this year.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons the English Housing Survey Headline Report 2014 to 2015, published in February 2016, did not contain a breakdown of the nationality of the Households Representative Person by tenure; and if he will publish the data held on the nationality of the Households Representative Person by tenure for each of the last 10 years.

    Brandon Lewis

    The department collects details on the nationality of all household reference persons in the English Housing Survey. However, the sample size of the English Housing Survey does not permit us to report detailed nationality statistics.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times in the last two years the Northern Maritime Operations Centre in Fareham has had staffing levels below what is considered safe.

    Mr John Hayes

    The operational concepts and procedures that underpin Her Majesty’s Coastguard’s national network mean that the Coastguard Centres within it no longer have fixed geographic boundaries. This enables Coastguards at either the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) or any of the 9 Coastguard Operations Centres (CGOC) to coordinate any incident anywhere around the UK coast irrespective of their location. As a result workload is now managed on a national basis rather than Centre by Centre as was previously the case. National capability and Coastguard staff from any Centre are now available to provide additional support to any individual Centre within the network when it is considered necessary by senior operational managers.

    Due to this inherent flexibility Her Majesty’s Coastguard sets ‘Optimum Suggested’ staffing for the network as a whole rather than for each centre. Over the last two years since the national network became operational out of a total of 1,427 watches (both day and night) the network has been staffed below ‘Optimal Suggested’ levels on 137 watches.

  • Lord Mawhinney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Mawhinney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawhinney on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial resources they transferred to local authorities in 2015–16 which were designated to be spent on personal social services care; and what is their estimate of how much was spent on the provision of such services.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    Central government does not determine the level of resources spent by local authorities on adult social care. Each local authority will budget for what it expects to require in order to deliver the services required for their population, drawing on funding from local taxes, unhypothecated central government grant and income from fees and charges.

    However recognising the pressures on local authorities, the Spending Review 2015 announced that for the rest of the current Parliament, local authorities responsible for adult social care (“ASC authorities”) would be allowed an additional 2 percent on their current council tax referendum threshold to be used entirely for adult social care. 144 of 152 eligible authorities made use of this precept in 2015-16, raising £382 million for social care.

    My department publishes data (attached) from local authorities on their spending on all services. Provisional data for 2015-16 suggests that local authorities spent a net figure of £14.4 billion on adult social care in 2015-16.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/548114/RO_Provisional_Outturn_2015-16_Statistical_Release.pdf

    “

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2015 to Question 13246, what payment is given to libraries to partner with the Department on digital inclusion.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department does not make any direct payments to libraries in relation to partnering on the delivery of digital inclusion.

    DWP is working with Local Authorities through ‘Universal Support’ to build claimants’ digital capability. Libraries are one potential route for delivering this support, where deemed appropriate by our Local Authority partners.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what extra funding will be made available to deliver seven day services in the NHS; and when such funding will be made available.

    Ben Gummer

    The Spending Review provided the National Health Service in England £10 billion per annum additional funding in real terms by 2020-21 compared to 2014-15, with £3.8 billion real terms growth in 2016-17. This fully funds the NHS’s own Five Year Forward View and will enable it to deliver services seven days a week by 2020. Local NHS organisations will need to plan how they can most effectively and efficiently deliver seven day services within the overall funding available to them. Further details will be set out in the coming weeks as the mandate to NHS England is published, followed by funding allocations to clinical commissioning groups, the publication of planning guidance for the NHS and consultation on tariff prices for providers of NHS services.

  • Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Clwyd on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Kurdistan counterpart on the current status of the parliament of the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament has been in recess since 12 October 2015 following an escalation in tensions between Kurdish parties over the extension of the term of Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani. This situation has now de-escalated slightly and negotiations over the extension are ongoing. During my visit to Erbil in December, I made clear to all those I met the importance of the parties working together to resolve this issue peacefully, in the spirit of compromise and respecting democratic principles.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on the exemption of political aides and special advisers from the one per cent public sector pay rise limit.

    Matthew Hancock

    All public servants, including special advisers, are subject to an overall 1% pay remit.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential effect on the number of school support staff who are from non-EU countries of the salary threshold increase for Tier 2 visa applications to £35,000.

    Nick Gibb

    The requested information is not available. The Department does not collect data on the nationality or the immigration status of the school workforce.

    This is a local matter for schools and all schools must employ members of the school workforce in accordance with employment law.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the potential effect on the cost of health and criminal justice services of the proposed housing benefit cap for people living in supported accommodation.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department for Work and Pensions jointly with the Department for Communities and Local Government commissioned an evidence review into the shape, scale and cost of the supported housing sector.

    Off the back of this evidence, we will conduct a policy review to ensure support is focused on the most vulnerable and the appropriate groups are safeguarded.