UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Speeches

  • Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2015-12-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received about the work of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Global Restructuring Group.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government is aware of the reports published by Sir Andrew Large and, separately, by Dr Lawrence Tomlinson into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)’s treatment of customers and businesses in financial difficulty.

    The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Promontory Financial Group and Mazars to independently review the allegations in the reports against RBS’s practices. If the findings from the review reveal issues which come within the FCA’s remit, the FCA will consider further regulatory measures.

    The Government’s shareholding in RBS is managed at arm’s length from HM Treasury by UK Financial Investments (UKFI). However, UKFI’s role is to manage the investment, not the bank. Commercial affairs remain the responsibility of the bank’s independent management team.

    RBS is making progress to deal decisively with the problems of the past, which will allow it to become a simpler, safer and more focused bank that works for the UK economy. Under the leadership of Ross McEwan RBS has made good progress in becoming a simpler, safer and more focused bank that works for the UK economy.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made on the effect of the visa refund fee scheme on the number of Chinese people visiting the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office has made no assessment of the effect of the visa refund fee scheme because it is operated by Visit Britain on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effects of proposed changes to the way in which drugs are assessed for inclusion in the Cancer Drugs Fund on cancer drug patients.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on whether each local authority area should have at least one school with sixth form provision.

    Nick Boles

    There are a range of institutions which provide high quality 16-19 provision, including Sixth Form Colleges and Further Education Colleges as well as school sixth forms.

    The Department for Education does not prescribe the exact balance of providers across a local area. Instead, it is crucial that we ensure that together the local provider base meets the needs of all young people in a local area with reasonable travel to learn distances. We are currently taking forward a series of area reviews which provide the opportunity to review post-16 provision with the aim of ensuring the provider base is strong and resilient.

    The decision about which schools should have sixth forms rests with schools themselves in partnership with key local stakeholders, including Regional Schools Commissioners and local authorities. A maintained school can apply to its local authority if it wishes to extend the age range of its school to add a sixth-form. We would expect this decision to take account of a range of factors including breadth of provision and local demand.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure suicide prevention services are autism-appropriate.

    Alistair Burt

    The information requested is not collected centrally.

    Public Health England (PHE) published ‘Guidance for developing a local suicide prevention action plan’ in 2014. The guidance states the importance of developing multi-agency suicide prevention groups to ensure that local suicide prevention plans are informed by local intelligence and the needs of the local community. PHE is currently refreshing this guidance.

    We welcomed the independent Mental Health Taskforce recommendation to ensure that all local areas have multi-agency suicide prevention plans in place by 2017.

    The National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2012) stated that accessible, high-quality mental health services are fundamental to reducing the risk of suicide in people of all ages with mental health problems.

    Last year, NHS England commissioned the world’s first Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme to support local areas to review deaths of people with learning disabilities and to use the information to improve service provision so that physical and mental health problems can be identified and addressed. The process is currently being piloted in the North East and Cumbria.

    We have made monumental strides in the way we help manage conditions such as autism in this country and that is why we are working alongside people with autism, and their carers,

    to make sure they have access to healthcare with adjustments made for their conditions. This is a focus of the Cross Government Autism Strategy which was revised in 2014 as Think Autism.

  • Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-05-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce the gender pay gap in the financial services sector.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The gender pay gap is at a record low. New regulations require all firms with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gaps. These regulations will increase transparency and accelerate progress, especially in sectors with large gender pay gaps such as financial services.

    In March, the government launched the Women in Finance Charter which asks financial services firms to implement recommendations from Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s review into the representation of senior women in financial services.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to make Police Scotland eligible for VAT refunds.

    Jane Ellison

    The Government has no intention of bringing forward legislative proposals to make Police Scotland eligible for VAT refunds.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in each age group were diagnosed with hepatitis C in each of the last five years.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England receives laboratory reports of hepatitis C cases from England and Wales and data is presented by age group in the table below.

    Laboratory reports of hepatitis C by age group, England and Wales, 2010 to 2014

    Year

    2010 (i)

    2011 (ii)

    2012 (iii)

    2013 (iv)

    2014 (v)

    Age group (years)

    26

    41

    21

    27

    17

    1-4

    10

    21

    23

    15

    13

    5-9

    6

    9

    7

    7

    10

    10-14

    5

    13

    12

    13

    20

    15-24

    463

    581

    567

    559

    550

    25-34

    2,166

    2,640

    2,957

    3,037

    2,849

    35-44

    2,510

    3,123

    3,340

    3,407

    3,310

    45-54

    1,791

    2,329

    2,627

    2,721

    2,918

    55-64

    778

    1,123

    1,203

    1,293

    1,559

    >=65

    316

    423

    503

    514

    657

    NK

    76

    79

    93

    99

    94

    Total

    8,147

    10,382

    11,353

    11,692

    11,997

    Across the UK, more individuals are being tested for hepatitis C and over the last 5 years particular improvements have been seen in primary care where surveillance indicates that testing has risen by 21% in England (vi).

    Citations

    (i) Health Protection Report Vol 5. No. 29 22 July 2011

    (ii) Health Protection Report Vol 6. No. 30 27 July 2012

    (iii) Health Protection Report Vol.7 No. 30 26 July 2013

    (iv) Health Protection Report Vol 98 No. 29 25 July 2014

    (v) Health Protection Report Vol 9 No. 26 24 July 2015

    (vi) Hepatitis C in the UK; 2015 report. Public Health England

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-12-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much in horserace betting levy payments were received in (a) statutory and (b) voluntary payments from each betting operator in each of the last three years.

    Tracey Crouch

    Details of Levy payments are held by the Horserace Betting Levy Board. Section 28 (10) of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963 bars the Levy Board from disclosing the statutory contribution of individual bookmakers. The Levy Board has adopted a similar approach to contributions made by voluntary means, providing information about collective totals only. The table below sets out collective totals for each year for both statutory and voluntary payments.

    (£m)

    Statutory payments

    Voluntary payments

    Total

    2012/13

    66.751

    7.572

    74.323

    2013/14

    70.115

    7.904

    78.019

    2014/15

    60.090

    11.593

    71.683

    Source: Horserace Betting Levy Board

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) First Tier Tribunal (mental health) hearings in England and (b) Mental Health Review Tribunal hearings in Wales there have been in each year since 2010.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health), administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears applications for the discharge of patients detained in psychiatric hospitals, and applications to change community treatment orders in England.

    The following table shows the number of First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health) hearings which took place in England in each year from 2010 to March 2015 (the latest full year period for which statistics are available).

    Year Number of hearings [1]

    April 2010 – March 2011 17,799

    April 2011 – March 2012 19,330

    April 2012 – March 2013 19,945

    April 2013 – March 2014 22,008

    April 2014 – March 2015 22,246

    HMCTS does not hold information on the number of Mental Health Review Tribunal hearings in Wales. The Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales is an independent judicial body administered by the Welsh Government.

    1 Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system, and are the best data that are available.