Category: Speeches

  • Angela Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Angela Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Smith on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which private sector companies (a) provided financial resources, (b) submitted evidence and (c) provided any in-kind support during the development of the new Eatwell Guide.

    Jane Ellison

    No private sector companies provided financial resources or in-kind support during the development of the Eatwell Guide.

    An external reference group was convened to provide advice to Public Health England (PHE) on the approaches to developing the model. Representatives from health, voluntary sector and industry (including trade and levy organisations), were members and provided routes of engagement.

    Outside of reference group involvement, 25 individuals/organisations provided unofficial written comments directly to PHE; two of which were private sector companies.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what estimate she has made of cost to the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland of the EU referendum.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    The European Union Referendum (Counting Officers’ and Regional Counting Officers’ Charges) Regulations 2016 sets out a Maximum Recoverable Amount for Northern Ireland of £3,292,686. The cost of the referendum will be charged to the Consolidated Fund.

  • Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reward local authorities that invest in renewable energy creation.

    Jesse Norman

    The Government provides support for renewable electricity generation through the Feed-in Tariff scheme – which is available to individuals, businesses, communities, schools and local authorities.

    The Government provides support for renewable heating through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The RHI is open to all buildings – including local authorities, commercial, industrial, public sector, not for profit and domestic properties and also supports injection of biomethane into the gas grid.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children were (a) White British, (b) White British eligible for free school meals, (c) White Non-British, (d) White Non-British eligible for free school meals, (e) Black, (f) Black eligible for free school meals, (g) Indian, (h) Indian eligible for free school meals, (i) Chinese ethnicity, (j) Chinese ethnicity eligible for free school meals, (k) other Asian, (l) other Asia eligible for free school meals, (m) any other ethnicity and (n) any other ethnicity eligible for free school meals received a place in a grammar school in each of the last five years.

    Nick Gibb

    Proportion of Year 7 pupils in Selective schools by selected ethnic groups, gender & FSM eligibility

    All pupils

    2012

    2013

    2014

    2015

    2016

    White British

    3.7%

    3.7%

    3.9%

    3.9%

    3.8%

    White British – Eligible for FSM

    0.6%

    0.5%

    0.6%

    0.6%

    0.7%

    White non-British

    3.1%

    3.1%

    3.4%

    3.2%

    3.3%

    White non-British – Eligible for FSM

    0.2%

    0.5%

    0.5%

    0.5%

    0.9%

    Black

    2.5%

    2.9%

    3.2%

    3.1%

    3.6%

    Black – Eligible for FSM

    0.3%

    0.4%

    0.6%

    0.5%

    0.8%

    Indian

    12.6%

    12.9%

    14.0%

    15.5%

    15.7%

    Indian – Eligible for FSM

    2.5%

    2.1%

    2.2%

    3.0%

    2.8%

    Chinese

    19.4%

    19.3%

    21.0%

    18.0%

    18.2%

    Chinese – Eligible for FSM

    10.2%

    9.0%

    12.0%

    8.8%

    5.2%

    Other Asian

    5.5%

    5.6%

    5.9%

    5.9%

    6.0%

    Other Asian – Eligible for FSM

    1.6%

    1.1%

    1.4%

    1.4%

    1.5%
  • Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides to local education authorities and academy trusts when they have been the victim of fire; and if she will make a statement.

    Edward Timpson

    Local education authorities and academy trusts are expected to take responsibility for managing the risks and issues of fire related incidents and must make appropriate arrangements to insure against fire damage and associated disruption.

  • Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to continue to spend £500 million per year on tackling malaria.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK Government is committed to remain a world leader in tackling global diseases like malaria.

    In the recent Spending Review we announced the Ross Fund, which will provide £1 billion to support research and implementation to tackle malaria and other infectious diseases. This will be one part of DFID’s balanced portfolio of investments in malaria control, delivered through bilateral and multilateral channels, support to health systems and service delivery and support to research.

    The UK has pledged a contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria of up to £1 billion between 2014 and 2016, subject to a 10% donor share cap. This will dramatically improve the lives of millions of people, saving approximately 580,000 lives by preventing 8.4m new malaria, HIV and TB infections. Our future contributions to the Global Fund are being considered as part of the Spending Review.

    We will lay out further investment plans in the future.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on the use of longer-length or mega lorries in (a) the UK and (b) urban areas.

    Andrew Jones

    The longest length of lorry allowed on UK roads, including urban areas, is the road train at 18.75m. This is the maximum authorised length of lorry that the General Circulation Directive permits for national and international traffic. The Department is currently trialing longer semi-trailers (which are up to 2m longer than standard sized articulated lorries) although these are shorter than the road trains that are already in circulation across EU roads.

    Local authorities have powers under Sections 1 & 2 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to exclude heavy goods vehicles either generally or at specified times from roads for which they are considered to be unsuitable.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 24 July 2015 (HL1524), how many modifications can be made to an existing research licence previously approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority before it can no longer be legitimately considered as essentially the same research project as that for which a licence was originally sought; and what sort of modifications can be made to an existing research licence before it is no longer considered to have exactly the same aims as those in the initial licence application that were originally deemed to fulfil the purposes specified in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 as amended.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that there are no fixed number of modifications that can be made to an existing research licence project. Such questions are considered on a case by case basis with reference to the statutory tests.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Verma on 18 February (HL5926), whether they intend to propose a system of sharing of expenditure by EU member states whereby those that accept smaller numbers of refugees for settlement proportionate to their own population size pay a higher fraction of national income towards programmes benefitting refugees both in Europe and outside it.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK encourages other EU member States to support programmes of assistance to refugees, as demonstrated most recently at the February Conference on Syria and the Region.

    The UK is at the forefront of the response to the Syria crisis, committing over £2.3 billion. We are prioritising our aid in Syria and neighbouring countries, where the scale of displacement is greatest. The Government has no plans to propose a system as suggested by the noble Lord.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the time taken to process Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

    Karen Bradley

    In the vast majority of cases, disclosure certificates are issued in a timely manner. Performance data relating to February 2016 indicates that average processing time for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) applications was 15 days. It is important that checks undertaken are thorough and a proportion of the applications received by the DBS need to be referred to one or more police forces as part of the enhanced disclosure process.

    The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner. A small number of forces have experienced difficulties in meeting the service level agreements in place between the DBS and each force. Whilst no assessment has been made of the impact of timeliness on unemployed customers, it is recognised that delays may create problems for some people. The DBS is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. We will not compromise when it comes to the safety of children and vulnerable adults.

    The number of applications to the DBS from people living in the Clacton constituency that have taken more than 60 days to process in the last 12 months is listed in the table below.

    Month

    Number of certificates issued by DBS to applicants in Clacton constituency

    Applications that took longer than 60 days

    March 2015– February 2016

    5,707

    322