The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what funding his Department has provided to the BBC World Service in each year since 2010.
Mr David Lidington
In each year from 2010 the department provided the following funding to the BBC World Service: 2009/2010 – £268,043,000 2010/2011 – £268,523,000 2011/2012 – £255,200,000 2012/2013 – £244,200,000 2013/2014 – £238,480,000
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-01-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) acute and (b) non-acute beds there were in each London hospital in each year since 2010.
Jane Ellison
Information on bed availability and occupancy is published every quarter.
The attached table shows the average daily number of available (a) general and acute and (b) maternity, mental health and learning disability beds that were open overnight and open day only and under the care of a consultant in London trusts in each quarter since 2010.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of Iran on the 15 per cent increase in its budget for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; and what assessment he has made of the potential implications of that increase for regional security.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We remain concerned about Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) activity in the region, and most recently raised our concerns about regional security with Iran on 20 January in Tehran. The IRGC is a proscribed organisation by the EU, listed due to actions relating to Iran’s support for terrorism and human rights reasons.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is from referral to the commencement of a talking therapy course in (a) the North West and (b) Warrington.
Alistair Burt
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset contains information on referrals to IAPT services which provide talking therapies. Information is provided both for Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and for all 33 North West CCGs combined for the year 2014/15.
Table: The number of referrals entering treatment1 in the year, with mean and median waiting times to first treatment (days), for IAPT services in 2014/15. Data shown for NHS Warrington CCG and all North West CCGs combined2.
|
Total number of referrals entering treatment3 |
Average (mean) waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)4 |
Median5 waiting time to first treatment appointment (days) |
|
|
Organisation name |
|||
|
NHS Warrington CCG |
3,265 |
31 |
28 |
|
All North West CCGs combined |
123,445 |
44 |
24 |
Notes:
1In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment (an appointment with a therapy type recorded) in the year.
2CCG is based on GP Practice. Where GP Practice is not recorded, or cannot be assigned to a CCG, the referral is categorised as ‘Unknown’.
3In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment in the year. Referral received date not necessarily in the year.
4The mean was used as the average.
5Means and medians have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
Waiting time is measured by counting the number of days between a referral being received and the first treatment appointment. For 2014/15, the presence of a valid therapy type is used as an indicator of whether treatment was provided in the course of the appointment.
Entering treatment figures are rounded to the nearest 5
Please note: It is generally advised that the median is used as the more reliable measure of average waiting time, as this accounts better for any outliers in the data
Source: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Dataset
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place a copy of his Department’s (a) civilian casualty review procedure and (b) standard operating procedure in the Library.
Penny Mordaunt
I am withholding publication of the UK Armed Forces’ Incident Reporting Standing Operating Procedure, which contains the civilian casualty review process, as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of our Armed Forces.
The UK takes all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously. Robust processes are in place to review reports of civilian casualties and to launch investigations where required.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-04-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what definition of lobbying” is used by the Department of Health in its grant application process.”
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department does not provide definitions of specific words used in the grant application processes, used by Voluntary Sector organisation. The Department policy clearly states that grants will not be awarded if there is any indication within the application that some or all of any funding awarded will be used to support political activities.
Grants Hub issued award letters have a standard term in the award letter which reinforces that no aspect of the activity being funded by the Department should be party political in intention, use or presentation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the UN Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict, published in April 2016, if his Department will support the immediate establishment of an international, impartial investigation into reported international humanitarian law violations by all parties in the conflict.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK Government has been clear that we want to see thorough and conclusive investigations where allegations have been made against parties to the conflict in Yemen regarding international humanitarian law. The Saudi Arabian government has its own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail on how they investigate such incidents earlier this year and that any lessons learned would be acted upon. We note the announcement on 6 June of the UN Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, that the United Nations and the Saudi-led Coalition will jointly review the cases and numbers in the Children and Armed Conflict Report.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the effect of Ofgem’s plans to introduce a Partial View in the Confidence Code Review 2016 on the proportion of the cheapest energy tariffs that will potentially be hidden from consumers using accredited price comparison websites.
Jesse Norman
It is vital that customers trust price comparison websites, as they offer real opportunities for improving competition and I expect price comparison websites to be clear to consumers when they are not providing a whole market tariff comparison.
Ofgem are currently consulting on proposals to allow price comparison websites to only show those tariffs that consumers can switch to through the price comparison website as a default, but they must also provide quick and easy access to a webpage showing all tariffs available on the market. The consultation closes on 28 September and is available online at
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2016/08/whole_of_market_consultation.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-10-17.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will meet the hon. Member for Copeland to discuss the effect of the exit payment cap on nuclear workers in Copeland constituency.
Mr David Gauke
The government announced in May 2015 that it intends to take forward its manifesto commitment to end six-figure exit payments for public sector workers. The Enterprise Act, which contains provisions for the £95,000 public sector exit payment cap, received Royal Assent on 4 May 2016.
Public sector exit payments cost around £2 billion a year and it is important that they are fair, proportionate and provide value for money to the taxpayer that funds them. The proposed cap, amounting to 3.5 times the average public sector salary, will still offer a significant level of compensation and support to an employee, and will apply to only a small percentage of public sector exits. The exit payment cap will apply to organisations classified as within the public sector by the Office for National Statistics, with a small number of exceptions.
I am aware that the hon. Member for Copeland is discussing the effect of the cap on nuclear workers in his constituency with my noble friend the Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). That is the appropriate route for these discussions as BEIS is the department responsible for the nuclear industry.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government had with the Chinese government during the state visit to London in October 2015 on reducing restrictions on the Christian minority in China.
Mr Hugo Swire
Religious freedom was not raised during the recent State Visit. However, the Prime Minister my Right Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) was very clear during his wide-ranging discussions with President Xi Jinping of the importance that the UK attaches to human rights as part of our wider relationship with China.
We believe that freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right. I therefore remain concerned by the restrictions placed on Christianity in China. We are aware of reports of the closure or demolition of churches, the removal of crosses from buildings, and that individuals are being harassed or detained for their beliefs.
We raise the range of our human rights concerns directly with China. We do so during the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue, most recently in April 2015. We also highlight them publicly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy (www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk). We will continue to pursue our concerns both privately and in public fora.