Category: Speeches

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding her Department has allocated to schools in (a) Calderdale and (b) West Yorkshire to tackle bullying in the last (i) 12 months and (ii) five years.

    Edward Timpson

    The Government continues to make tackling all forms of bullying a top priority. All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with measures to tackle bullying among pupils. While they are free to develop their own anti-bullying strategies they are held clearly to account for their effectiveness through Ofsted.

    School funding to prevent and tackle bullying is part of their overall funding allocation, and is not separately identified at school or local authority level. In addition, the Department has directly funded a number of national anti-bullying organisations, supporting their work within schools across England to combat bullying.

    In 2015/16 we provided around £1.3 million to various anti-bullying charities including the Diana Award, Kidscape and the National Children’s Bureau (hosted by the Anti-bullying Alliance). These organisations train teachers and pupils in schools to prevent bullying and deal with its impact when it occurs so that bullied children do not suffer continuing distress. Additionally in the past 12 months we have supported the Government Equalities Office (GEO) to deliver a £2 million grant programme aimed at combatting homophobic bullying in schools.

    Between 2011 and 2016 we provided over £6.6 million to these and other charities to help them to support schools to support pupils who are bullied and to develop strategies to prevent bullying from happening.

    The Department and GEO will both be funding further projects this year.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the findings of the RSPCA report entitled, Breed Specific Legislation – A Dog’s Dinner, published in August 2016, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of breed specific legislation.

    George Eustice

    The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was reviewed as recently as 2014. At that time it was decided to make some changes, including extending the criminal offence of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control to all places and increasing the maximum penalties substantially from 2 years’ imprisonment to (i) 14 years‘ imprisonment in cases of death of the victim; (ii) 5 years’ imprisonment in cases of injury; and (iii) 3 years’ imprisonment in cases where a dog attacks an assistance dog.

    The Government does not consider that dogs bred for fighting, or those that share the characteristics of these animals, make ideal pets. However, the law allows individual dogs to be exempt from the general prohibition if a court is satisfied that they do not pose a threat to public safety and if the owner is considered a fit and proper person.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many applications for retrospective reviews for continuing healthcare have been refused in each of the last five years; and what the reasons were for each such refusal.

    David Mowat

    NHS England does not collect this information.

  • Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been referred by the National Crime Agency to regional police forces in (a) 2014 and (b) so far in 2015; and how many of those people are under suspicion of involvement in crimes of child abuse.

    Mike Penning

    The National Crime Agency does not collect data on the number of people referred to police forces. In respect of child abuse, the NCA disseminates information related to child sexual exploitation to law enforcement partners on a regular basis.

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what participation the UK has had in the sustainable innovation forum hosted by the UN Environment Programme as part of the COP21 climate change conference in Paris.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change attended the event and spoke on a panel event entitled “what is most needed to embed innovation across public and private sector operations.”

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment the Government has made of whether the TTIP trade deal will make the UK more vulnerable to lawsuits; if the Government will insist that TTIP does not contain provisions which would allow similar lawsuits to be brought in the UK; and if the Government will reconsider its support for TTIP in response to that lawsuit.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government does not comment on cases in which it has no involvement. Under UK laws a foreign investor can already sue the Government over allegedly unfair or unlawful treatment. UK domestic courts and our legal system will continue to be the main route for resolving the vast majority of disputes between foreign investors and the Government regardless of any investment protection provisions included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is because our domestic courts typically offer a quicker and cheaper method of resolving disputes.

    The European Commission has published its proposal for investment protections in TTIP. This includes various possible measures to ensure these provisions are fair and transparent, including prohibiting claims from being pursued simultaneously under investor-state dispute settlement provisions and in domestic courts.

    The UK will continue to work with the Commission on the details of these latest proposals. We need investment protections that ensure UK investors are treated fairly overseas by foreign governments. But the UK will make sure that governments can continue to regulate lawfully in the public interest.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the end of year budget surplus or deficit was for each clinical commissioning group in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

    Alistair Burt

    The end of year surplus or deficit for each clinical commissioning group in 2013-14 and 2014-15 can be found on the NHS England website at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/publications/financial-performance-reports/

    “

  • Jo Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jo Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Cox on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on recognising Palestine as a state since the House of Commons vote on this matter in October 2014.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Since the debate on 13 October 2014, neither the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) nor I have had any discussions with Ministerial colleagues on this subject.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-23.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Office for Budget Responsibility on the potential implications of the UK withdrawing from the EU.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Office for Budget Responsibility have set out their approach to assessing the implications of a UK withdrawal from the EU in their March 2016 Economic and fiscal outlook (see Box 3.4).

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to extend the awareness campaign to adults on sepsis in children.

    Ben Gummer

    The NHS England cross-system action plan is clear that prevention and raising professional awareness are effective means of improving outcomes for all patients at risk from sepsis. Health Education England has also agreed to develop their education training resources to emphasise the importance of good communication with patients concerning the risks, signs and symptoms of sepsis, where appropriate.

    In addition to this action focused on professionals, we have asked Public Health England to develop an awareness campaign for parents that focuses upon the symptoms of serious infections in children, such as meningitis and septicaemia, including sepsis.