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Category: Speeches

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the UK paid to the EU for agricultural levies in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    George Eustice

    UK Contributions to the EU budget are set out in Table C3 of HM Treasury publication “European Union Finances 2015: statement on the 2015 EU Budget and measures to counter fraud and financial mismanagement” in December 2015.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/483344/EU_finances_2015_final_web_09122015.pdf

    The contribution from sugar levies for the previous 5 years were:

    2010: £8m

    2011: £8m

    2012: £10m

    2013: £9m

    2014: £2m

    “

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what work his Department is undertaking to support people with mental health conditions who are subject to the personal independent payments assessment process.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Claimants identified as having mental health issues can access additional support at any point in the assessment process. At the new claim stage: if they do not return their claim form, we will arrange for the claimant to be referred directly to the assessment provider for their assessment without the need for completing the form. At the assessment stage: we would support any claimant with mental health issues to have company with them for their assessment.

    Additionally, Atos and Capita both employ Mental and Cognitive Champions to provide advice and support to their health assessors on conditions and disabilities affecting mental, cognitive and behavioural function. We also work closely with disability organisations to develop training and increase awareness of these conditions amongst health assessors.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the comments by the President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists that hundreds of patients are going blind because hospitals cannot meet the demand for appointments.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Given the size of England, and the diversity of the health needs of different communities, we believe commissioning needs to be owned and managed locally.

    Therefore, there are no plans to develop a national strategy for eye care.

    Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning hospital eye services and for holding their providers to account in terms of contract performance. CCGs are also able to commission eye care services from community optometrists where they judge them to be needed in their areas over and above the sight tests commissioned by NHS England. Such services could include post cataract surgery reviews, glaucoma monitoring and low vision services which may reduce pressure on hospital eye departments, reduce waiting times and make patient care pathways more accessible in the community.

    There is scope for further work to be done by community optometrists and the Clinical Council for eye health commissioning is working with commissioners to develop commissioning guidelines in this area.

    CCGs have the ability to develop alternatives to hospital care. We would expect patients who require further planned stages of treatment in line with their agreed care plan, to receive this treatment without undue delay and in line with when it is clinically appropriate.

  • Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what studies and research his Department has undertaken or commissioned on the potential benefits of equity release on retirement incomes; and if he will estimate the potential effect on the public purse of a lower take-up rate of means-tested old-age benefits resulting from greater use of equity release.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Figures published by the Equity Release Council, an industry body, on the extent of equity release lending are available here:

    http://www.equityreleasecouncil.com/document-library/equity-release-market-report-spring-2016/

    The Government has not undertaken or commissioned any recent studies on the relationship between equity release and means-tested benefits.

    “

  • Peter Bottomley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Bottomley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Bottomley on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the responsible officer at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust last signed the appraisal of Mr Aditya Agrawal; and whether a clinical concern was mentioned in that appraisal.

    Mr Jeremy Hunt

    This is an employer and employee matter between the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Mr Aditya Agrawal respectively. The Department cannot comment on individual employment matters that are the responsibility of independent organisations, and that are subject to ongoing legal proceedings or on matters relating to individual clinical cases or other personal information. We understand that the cost to East Lancashire Trust of legal proceedings concerning Mr Agrawal is £296,848.42 to date, and that the Trust does not have insurance costs for legal awards in the event of the Trust or one of its employees being subject to legal action for defamation.

  • Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his Dutch counterpart on the efforts of the Royal Netherlands Army to (a) identify and (b) mark the grave of Private Gilbert Anderson of the 11th Parachute Battalion who was killed in action on 20 September 1944.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Department is aware of the case surrounding the potential rededication of the grave for Private Anderson, but the case has not been passed to the Ministry of Defence to manage.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answer of 11 December 2013 to Question 178321, if he will place in the Library copies of all of Lord Green of Hustierpoint’s updates to the European Scrutiny Committees of both Houses and the APPG for EU-US Trade and Investment on significant developments in negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

    Anna Soubry

    The most recent update to the Committees, dated 6 August, has been deposited in the Libraries of the House. We will continue this practice for subsequent updates to the Committees.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much illicitly-brewed alcohol was seized in prisons in each of the last 10 years.

    Andrew Selous

    The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has in place a comprehensive range of security measures and searching techniques to detect items of contraband including alcohol, to prevent smuggling into prisons. In addition we use specially trained dogs to detect illicit alcohol.

    The table below gives the number of alcohol finds in prisons in England and Wales in the timeframe requested

    Table 1: Finds of alcohol in prisons in England and Wales, 2005 to 2014

    Year

    Number of Incidents

    2005

    172

    2006

    306

    2007

    330

    2008

    340

    2009

    468

    2010

    386

    2011

    573

    2012

    803

    2013

    875

    2014

    1090

    (1) Figures were produced by searching for the words “alcohol”, “hooch” and “fermenting liquid”.

    (2) Includes NOMS operated Immigration Removal Centres

    (3) Data in whole years only and is not yet available for 2015

    Changes were introduced to the Incident Report System in September 2015 that improved the recording of alcohol finds. Prior to these changes, alcohol related finds are recorded as a "miscellaneous" incident and requires a text search of the data. This method of extracting data requires searching for specific words and may not always identify all the related incidents. It can also identify non-related incidents which contain the words in the search. In this case I have searched for the words "alcohol", "hooch" and "fermenting liquid" in the incident text.

    All figures in this answer have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time.Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help members of the public to attend First World War centenary events held in 2016 in (a) Orkney, (b) Manchester and (c) Thiepval.

    David Evennett

    The commemorative events in Orkney, Manchester and Thiepval are focal points for the nation to remember those who fought and died at the Battles of Jutland and the Somme. Ensuring that the public can be part of each one is at the heart of our plans, whether that’s the thousands of people who will be able to attend or the very many more who will follow events through live broadcasts or media coverage.

    A public ballot for Thiepval tickets was launched on 1 July 2015, with people able to register their interest. This attracted significant media attention at a national and regional level. We have also reached out to Jutland descendants to be part of events in Orkney and had a great response. In due course we will let the public know how to take part in UK events marking the Somme, including those to be held in Manchester.

    We have been clear that transport and accommodation is the responsibility of attendees – however, we are working closely with tour operators and other travel companies to ensure there are a wide range of options. For example, Eurostar has agreed to provide a dedicated train to a non-Eurostar stop for on-the-day travel to the Thiepval event. In addition, there are regular rail and coach services between the UK and France and a variety of accommodation options to suit all budgets. Those with tickets can get up to date information and ask questions via our dedicated somme2016.org website.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to ensure that local authorities meet their obligation under the National Planning Policy Framework to meet the housing needs of disabled people requiring wheelchair accessible homes.

    Brandon Lewis

    Local authorities are best placed to understand the housing needs in their area. We expect them to work closely with key partners and their local communities in deciding what type of housing is needed.

    National policy sets out clearly the need for local authorities to plan for the housing needs of all members of the community and that planning should encourage accessibility. The introduction of optional requirements for accessibility in the Building Regulations provides local authorities with the tools needed to ensure that new homes are accessible and that in particular the needs of disabled people are met.

    Local authorities are held accountable for their housing delivery via their Local Plans which are tested by local independent planning inspectors and are scrutinised via yearly Authority Monitoring reports which set out progress on delivery against Local Plan targets. In addition local authorities must determine individual decisions in line with the development plan and other material considerations, such as the National Planning Policy Framework and having regard to viability considerations.