Category: Speeches

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

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what provisions his Department has put in place as part of the rail franchise package for the Calder Valley rail line to improve rolling stock on that line.

    Andrew Jones

    The new Northern franchise will introduce at least 140 additional new DMU vehicles by the start of 2020. The new trains will be capable of operating at 100mph, be fitted with CCTV, fully air conditioned and have Wi-Fi fitted. These trains will operate on Northern Connect services including those on the Calder Valley route. In addition, over 600 existing vehicles will be fully refurbished to include improved seating, repainted interiors, Wi-fi, real time passenger information screens and improved lighting.

  • David Davis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    David Davis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any MOD personnel have been seconded to positions in Yemen since 2012.

    Penny Mordaunt

    There are currently no Ministry of Defence (MOD) personnel in Yemen. No MOD personnel have been seconded to the Yemeni government since 2012.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what interim milestones he has set for the armed forces to improve their response time to complaints to the target level of 90 per cent closed within 24 weeks.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Secretary of State for Defence has set no interim milestones. The single Services continually monitor and assess the performance of the service complaints system to learn lessons, and to understand what might be causing Service personnel to make complaints. Where it is identified that there are issues that are causing undue delay in the resolution of complaints, action can be taken to prevent this from occurring in the future.

  • Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he anticipates an increase in the uptake of medical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute stroke in NHS hospitals; and if he will make a statement.

    David Mowat

    NHS England’s National Clinical Director (NCD) for stroke is leading work to develop a full proposal which will consider the evidence and logistical issues involved in delivering mechanical thrombectomy to stroke patients across the country. This includes working with the relevant specialist societies, Royal Colleges and Health Education England to consider the workforce implications. Once the proposal has been developed, NHS England will decide whether the procedure should be made widely available.

    To ensure there is equitable access to high quality hyper acute stroke care regardless of time of stroke or where a patient has their stroke, NHS England’s NCD for stroke continues to work with Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, clinical commissioning groups and the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints on how stroke care is best delivered to their local communities.

    In some places, this is ‘the London type model’ of focussing care in a small number of centres and equipping these to be able to deliver specialist care 24/7. In other parts of the country, centralisation of care into specialist centres is not feasible for geographical reasons. In these cases, alternative solutions (such as the use of telemedicine) have to be considered. Whatever the scenario, NHS England is fully committed to ensuring that all patients receive the best quality of care and the most up to date treatments.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the priority given to the promotion of democracy and human rights within the UK–Sudanese strategic dialogue; and what assessment they have made of (1) the reliability of the Sudanese regime as a reliable partner with a shared agenda, and (2) the extent to which the strategic dialogue will embolden the regime in Sudan to continue with their current policies.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Improving human rights remains one of our policy priorities in Sudan, and therefore discussions of human rights issues are a key part of the UK-Sudan Strategic Dialogue. At the last round of talks on 10/11 October, a representative from the Sudan Advisory Council for Human Rights accompanied the Sudanese delegation.

    In a number of areas we fundamentally disagree with the government of Sudan; however, in others our interests are much more closely aligned. We assess that direct engagement through the Strategic Dialogue process provides better opportunities to raise issues of bilateral concern, as well as to look at strategic questions such as the resolution of internal conflicts, regional security and migration. We keep this policy under regular review.

  • Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her objectives are for the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The World Humanitarian Summit will provide a major opportunity to set out an ambitious vision for humanitarian and development action to guide our work until 2030.

    The Secretary of State for International Development has four priorities for the Summit:

    • Strengthen the protection of civilians in a crisis and improve compliance with International Humanitarian Law;
    • Deliver a step change in how the humanitarian community approaches resilience to natural disasters, moving from managing crises to managing risk and ensuring Governments and communities have the capacity to do this themselves;
    • Address the growing gap between need and available resources through smarter financing that delivers better outcomes at lower cost and is more accountable to people in need;
    • Focus on women and girls throughout the summit to ensure existing commitments are translated into action.
  • Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will issue a response to Early Day Motion 676, British Women and the New British Passport.

    James Brokenshire

    The theme for the latest design is ‘Creative United Kingdom’ and celebrates 500 years of creativity in the United Kingdom. It features well known images from artists, landmarks and architecture, iconic British innovations and the performing arts and represents all four countries in the UK.

    The images of Ada Lovelace, for her continued importance to modern day computing, and Elisabeth Scott, as a pioneer for women in architecture, are rightly deserving of their place within this celebration of creativity.

    The new passport design has been in development since February 2013 and it has been necessary to secure the appropriate consents in order to use particular images. Narrowing the image choices down to a final number was an extremely difficult decision. The images chosen within the new passport design have enabled the use of evolving security technology to make it even more difficult to commit passport fraud. Passports featuring the new design have started to be issued.

  • Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2016-01-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Barnett consequentials are for Scotland of the additional £1.5 billion allocated to the Better Care Fund in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Greg Hands

    The Spending Review made social care funds available for local government from April 2017, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019/20. This grant will be paid from the Department for Communities and Local Government to local authorities on condition that they add it to the Better Care Fund, where the money will support integration of health and social care.

    The Barnett Formula was applied to DCLG’s Spending Review settlement in the usual way.

  • Baroness Jolly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Baroness Jolly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many reserve police officers of the Royal Air Force Police they estimate will be deployed in (1) 2015–16, (2) 2016–17, (3) 2017–18, (4) 2018–19, and (5) 2019–20.

    Earl Howe

    As at December 2015, the strength of the Royal Air Force Police Reserve, trained or in training, was 150. The liability for the Royal Air Force Police Reserve is 200 for the financial years 2015-2016 to 2019-2020 inclusive.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-02-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what issues were discussed at the meeting between Ministers of his Department and representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority on 14 September 2015; and who the attendees were at that meeting.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Treasury Ministers and officials meet regularly with the Financial Conduct Authority to discuss relevant regulatory issues. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.