Category: Speeches

  • Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consultation he plans to undertake before any rail freight sites owned by Network Rail are sold.

    Claire Perry

    The Department for Transport and Network Rail have undertaken early discussions with key stakeholders in the rail freight industry, including a meeting with the Rail Freight Group, regarding options for the sale of rail freight sites owned by Network Rail.

    The on-going process of identifying options for the sale of rail freight sites is at a very early stage. Key stakeholders will be engaged throughout the process.

    Network Rail is required to consult should it wish to dispose of land in which it has an interest and which may be important to the continuing operation and future development of the network. A full consultation process will be undertaken before any final decision is taken about the sale of freight sites owned by Network Rail.

  • Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will (a) commission research to estimate the number of people from other EU member states who receive housing benefit and (b) publish that information before 23 June 2016.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    There are no current plans to conduct the analyses listed.

  • 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 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to publish a new tobacco control strategy in the next two months.

    Jane Ellison

    The Tobacco Control Plan is currently being developed and Ministers will decide on an appropriate publication date in due course.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on its teaching blog since that blog was established.

    Nick Gibb

    The teaching blog has received an average of 758 visits per week, and 15,938 visits in total. The costs are only in staff time and image usage of £2.50 per image as the blog is hosted on the GOV.UK platform. The blog is run by the Department’s social media team as a small proportion of one member of staff’s overall workload.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the staff employed by his Department are non-UK nationals.

    Greg Hands

    Following her appointment on 13 July 2016 the Prime Minister established the Department for International Trade (DIT). The DIT aggregates UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), UK Export and Finance (UKEF), Trade Policy Units from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as well as some new hires.

    Until such time as a transfer of functions order establishes my Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade as a corporation sole, DIT remains a unified Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) department for accounting purposes.

    As DIT is currently being formed, details of the staff that the Department employs is being finalised, whilst employee transfers and recruitment are taking place.

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many private hire vehicle drivers have been arrested in (a) London and (b) the UK for offences related to plying for hire in each of the last five years.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of private hire vehicle drivers arrested.

  • Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department’s policy priorities are for supporting projects in The Gambia.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    DFID does not have a bilateral aid programme in The Gambia. The decision to end our programme was agreed with the Government of Gambia in 2008, and our office closed in 2011. The decision was taken to wind down the programme gradually as part of a responsible exit, and to ensure partners built on successful DFID programmes.

    The UK continues to maintain a good relationship with the Gambia. The UK supports The Gambia through its contributions to multilateral institutions, such the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the EU’s European Development Fund.

  • Rehman Chishti – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Rehman Chishti – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rehman Chishti on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of UK pilots who have been stood down after a laser pen attack occurring in the course of their work.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Civil Aviation Authority does not have any evidence to confirm that any pilot has been removed from flying duties or suffered long term damage as a result of exposure from a laser attack whilst undertaking their duties.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the correction of 9 February 2016 to Question 13206, what the cause was of the error in information on former unaccompanied minors removed between 2007 and 31 December 2015; and what steps she is taking to ensure that correct information is collected and published in future.

    James Brokenshire

    The mistake given in the original response to Question 13206 resulted from two errors in the query for extracting information from the relevant database. One error involved the use of an incorrect definition which excluded former unaccompanied asylum seeking children who now had linked dependants. The other was an error in the computer code which extracted the data. In this instance, the code for the query was mistyped and so the data returned was incorrect. These errors have now been resolved and a correction issued. Such mistakes are rare and when they occur they are taken very seriously.

    It is regrettable that human error caused the original response to this Parliamentary Question to be incorrect and improvements have been put in place. The appropriate definition has been reviewed and confirmed. This definition, and the correct approach on careful coding, have been made clear to the officials involved. We are reviewing other Parliamentary Answers about unaccompanied asylum seeking children to see if these were affected by similar issues. While these respond to different specific questions, we wish to review the methodology used thoroughly. We are also reviewing whether additional processes are needed for Parliamentary Questions that require complex data queries.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress has been made on devolving local transport schemes to local enterprise partnerships (LEP); and if he will assess the effect of such policies on the work of the Solent LEP in developing Southampton’s infrastructure.

    Andrew Jones

    Funding for major local transport schemes is devolved as part of the Local Growth Fund to which the Department is contributing over £7billion. It is for LEPs to determine the priority projects in their areas. I understand that schemes that Solent LEP is undertaking in Southampton include the Cross Solent Connectivity Project, junction improvements near the Western Docks, and the recently completed Station Quarter scheme.