Category: Speeches

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much companies contracted by his Department to operate (a) detention centres, (b) prisons, (c) young offender institutions and (d) secure training centres have paid in fines in each of the last five years; and what the reason was for each such fine imposed.

    Andrew Selous

    This department does not hold information relating to (a) detention centres as these are managed by the Home Office.

    Information regarding (b) prisons, (c) young offender institutions can be located in PQ answer 24385 which was answered on 4 April 2016.

    Information on (d) Secure Training Centres can be located in PQ answer 26793 which was answered on 9 February 2016.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-02-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to help to ensure that women have access to safe and legal abortion services throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in the light of the spread of the Zika virus and its potential link to birth defects.

    Baroness Verma

    As the main public health threat of Zika is to the unborn babies of infected pregnant women in affected countries it is important that responses to Zika include vector and infection control with a focus on pregnant women or women of child-bearing age and strengthened reproductive and sexual health services (for women who do not want to get pregnant). The importance of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services for all women is brought home by the emergence of Zika. There may be increased demand for voluntary rights based family planning from women in affected countries seeking to avoid pregnancy, and there is a risk of a rise in unsafe abortion in some countries. DFID has a track record of promoting rights based family planning and in highlighting the contribution safe abortion makes to saving women’s lives. We are in close contact with DFID-funded partners, including in the UN system and civil society, active in affected regions although DFID has not been asked to provide specific sexual and reproductive health and rights assistance to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean affected by the Zika virus.

    New guidelines covering maternal surveillance and neonatal health are being rolled out across the region, developed by the Latin American Centre for Perinatology, Women and Reproductive Health.

  • Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the UK’s submarine fleet is not detected by unmanned underwater vehicles deployed for anti-submarine warfare purposes.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Ministry of Defence places a high priority on assuring the effectiveness of our submarine fleet and countering threats to our submarine operations. We continue to monitor and evaluate capabilities and technologies that could threaten submarines, including cyber and unmanned vehicles. It would not be appropriate to go into specific detail of the steps taken to mitigate against these threats. We assess, however, that the ocean will remain a complex and challenging environment in which to conduct large scale anti-submarine warfare, despite advancements in technologies. We are therefore confident that our submarine fleet remains safe and secure.

  • Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2016 to Question 30330, if he will publish examples of the feedback received on the placing of work coaches in foodbanks.

    Priti Patel

    The Department has shared findings from the food bank initiative with Jobcentre District Managers. There are no plans to publish the Lalley Community Centre findings externally.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effects on wider biodiversity of commonly used pesticides; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    Strict regulation is in place to reduce the risk of environmental damage by pesticides. A pesticide may only be placed on the market if and when the product has been authorised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Following a thorough risk assessment, HSE imposes conditions on the way pesticides are used, to ensure there is no harm to human health and no unacceptable effect on the environment. Pesticides that pose unacceptable risks are not authorised.

    Assessments by Defra and others identify three types of impacts on biodiversity:

    • General impacts of past agricultural intensification. The 2011 UK National Ecosystem Assessment identified significant biodiversity loss over the last 50 years, with pollution and land use change on farmland as major drivers. Land use change includes the loss of flower-rich habitat, changes to cropping types and timings, drainage, hedge management, and pesticide use. It is not simple to disentangle these impacts;

    • Direct impacts on non-target organisms, including insects and aquatic species. For example, Defra-commissioned research on the status of UK pollinators identified some correlative evidence of reduced species richness at the landscape-scale associated with more intensive use of pesticides, but concluded that further research on direct empirical evidence of field-scale impacts was required. Further research is ongoing; and,

    • There is evidence on indirect impacts of pesticides on species such as birds or bats that feed on invertebrates or plants. This is an area of active research in the UK, Europe and North America, with population impacts recorded for some species such as grey partridge.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory reconsiderations of jobseekers’ allowance sanctions there have been in each of the last five years; and what the total cost was of processing such reconsiderations in each of those years.

    Priti Patel

    Mandatory Reconsiderations were introduced in October 2013. There were 1,100 decisions made from October to the end of 2013; 54,100 in 2014; and 18,500 in 2015.

    This is the latest data available. The total cost of processing those reconsiderations is not available at the level of detail requested.

    These figures are published here https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

    “

  • Stella Creasy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stella Creasy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stella Creasy on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passenger interviews were undertaken with people of each (a) ethnicity, (b) religion and (c) nationality by UK Border Agency officials at each UK airport in the last five years; and whether each of those passengers was permitted to continue their journey after that interview.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Data on the number of interviews carried out at port is not available centrally. However, there is information already in the public domain on those who are subject to an intervention at the border and refused entry ie not permitted.

    This information can found via the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2016/list-of-tables

  • Carol Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Carol Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to improve the availability of off-patent drugs for novel uses through non-legislative measures.

    George Freeman

    Clinicians can already prescribe off-patent drugs off-label on clinical grounds if they judge this is the right thing to do to meet the individual clinical needs of their patients.

    The Government is keen to accelerate the adoption of innovative medicines and increase the innovative use of existing medicines where the evidence reports clinical benefits and cost effectiveness to patients. To that end, we are seeking a number of initiatives to provide innovation but whilst supporting the aims of the Private Member’s Bill on this subject, we do not believe the proposed mechanism is either practicable and desirable.

    We are working with NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the General Medical Council and the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency to ensure that there is better information available to support clinicians who wish to prescribe off-patent drugs for off-label indications, and to ensure that new evidence is picked up more quickly and reliably and translated into clinical practice and can be fed through into licensing applications.

    A huge amount of work is also going on in the Accelerated Access Review which will support the “pull” of innovation through to clinical practice.

    As part of the debate on the Access to Medical Treatments Bill, we are working with officials in the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre to see how the power in the Bill, if it were to pass, could address the lack of provision of information on new uses for existing medicines via the power to create a database of innovations in order to support evidence-based prescribing.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to the call by Save the Children for the UK to stop selling arms to any party involved in the conflict in Yemen while there is a risk that they might be used to violate international humanitarian or human rights law.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We are aware of reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in Yemen by the Coalition, including alleged airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, and take these very seriously. We have regularly raised our concerns with the Saudi-Arabian authorities and received assurances that they are complying with IHL. We continue to engage with Saudi Arabia on those assurances and have offered advice and training to demonstrate best practice and to help ensure continued compliance with IHL.

    The UK operates one of the most rigorous and transparent export control regimes in the world. All exports of arms and controlled military goods are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application. Risks around human rights violations are a key part of our assessment against the Consolidated Criteria. A licence will not be issued, for any country, if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the UK Licensing Criteria, including where we assess there is a clear risk that it might be used in the commission of a serious violation of IHL.

  • Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Allen on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the current waiting time is for a PCV driving examination at Watnall test centre; what steps his Department is taking to reduce that waiting time; and when he expects that waiting time to be reduced.

    Andrew Jones

    The current waiting time for a vocational, LGV or PCV test at Watnall test centre is 11 weeks.

    The Driver and Vehicle and Standards Agency (DVSA) is working hard to reduce waiting times. It is recruiting for driving examiners across the UK and has specifically targeted high-wait areas. Watnall was targeted in a recent recruitment campaign DVSA launched. Once new examiners are in place in Watnall, DVSA is confident waiting times will reduce. In the meantime, DVSA is continuing to monitor waiting times closely, deploying examiners from low-wait centres and offering weekend testing wherever possible.