Category: Speeches

Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an equality assessment has been carried out regarding the move of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills office from Sheffield to London, and if so, what the findings were.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

An Equality Analysis on both the proposed move of all policy posts to London, and the proposed closure of the Sheffield office, has been carried out.

The Equality Analysis and findings have already been shared with the Departmental Trade Unions as part of the consultation.

01/01/2023
Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress he has made on negotiations with the Libyan government on plans to tackle human trafficking and smuggling.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK, working with our international partners, is committed to working in partnership with the new Libyan government to take concrete action to tackle illegal migration through Libya. The Prime Minister has been clear on the need to do more to break the business model of the people smugglers. At the G7 Summit in Japan on 27 May, he announced that the UK will work to agree a plan to boost the capability of the Libyan coastguard to help stem the flow of illegal migration across the Mediterranean into Europe. Prime Minister Serraj wrote to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, on 21 May requesting cooperation with the EU on the training of the Libyan coastguard. Once a detailed plan has been agreed with the Libyan authorities, the UK will send a training team to assist in its implementation, and as soon as the relevant permissions and UN Security Council Resolution are in place, we will deploy a naval vessel to the South Central Mediterranean to combat arms trafficking in the region. Together these developments will help secure the coast of Libya, limit Daesh terrorists’ freedom of movement and help tackle the migrant crisis.

01/01/2023

Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many performance meetings the Departmental Board has held since his appointment; and how many of those meetings he has attended.

David Mowat

The frequency of performance meetings held by the Departmental Board and how many of these were attended by the Secretary of State for Health is published in the Annual Reports and Accounts which can be located via the following links to the Gov.UK website for each financial year of his term –

2012-13	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013
2013-14	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014
2014-15	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447002/DH_accounts_14-15_web.pdf
2015-16	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/539602/DH_Annual_Report_Web.pdf

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01/01/2023

Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of projects that foster co-operation and co-existence have had on the prospects of securing lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Rory Stewart

Projects that foster cooperation and coexistence can help to build understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, and maintain a constituency of support for peace. The Secretary of State is currently assessing options for providing further support to coexistence programmes.

01/01/2023

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, what proportion of people diagnosed with cancer in each of the last five years were diagnosed as a result of attending (a) A&E departments, (b) a GP appointment and (c) a consultant appointment.

Jane Ellison

The proportion of people diagnosed between 2006 and 2010 in England (a) as an emergency presentation was 23%, (b) from a general practitioner (GP) referral (including referrals made via the Two Week Wait (TWW) Pathway) was 54% and (c) by a consultant appointment (other outpatient or inpatient elective) was 13%.

The latest published data is available for 2006 to 2010 from Public Health England’s National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN), with an update to these figures taking data up to 2013 being due for publication shortly.

The breakdown by year is shown in the table below:

Year	Route
GP – GP referrals and TWW referrals	Consultant (other outpatient and inpatient elective)	Emergency presentation
2006	52%	14%	24%
2007	53%	13%	23%
2008	54%	13%	23%
2009	55%	13%	22%
2010	57%	12%	22%
2006-2010	54%	13%	23%

Source: http://www.ncin.org.uk/publications/routes_to_diagnosis.

Notes: A consultant appointment is defined as the proportion diagnosed through the other outpatient and inpatient elective routes.

The emergency presentation route combines all types of emergency referral – around 6 out of 10 of these are from the A&E department and 3 out of 10 are emergency referrals made by a GP. More information can be found http://www.ncin.org.uk/view?rid=2174 with more detail on the breakdown of the emergency presentation route.

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01/01/2023

Jake Berry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jake Berry on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much it cost his Department to send out winter fuel allowance payments in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

Justin Tomlinson

The information is not readily available and could only be provided at a disproportional cost.

01/01/2023
Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-06.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken is by (a) Concentrix and (b) HM Revenue and Customs to process each tax credit claim adjustment; and what guidance there is in Concentrix’s contract on how long it should take to process each tax credit claim adjustment.

Mr David Gauke

The average time taken by Concentrix to carry out a tax credit intervention – from writing to the claimant, receiving and investigating any response, through to closing the case and making any adjustment to the award – is 91 days. The average time taken by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is 64 days, but the figures are not comparable because the profiles of cases worked by Concentrix and by HMRC are different.

Concentrix are required under their contract with HMRC to complete 80% of High Risk Change of Circumstances interventions (these are a subset of Concentrix’s caseload consisting of the highest risk cases) within 75 days and 100% of such cases within 90 days. So far in 2015/16 they have closed 95.5% of these interventions within 75 days.

01/01/2023
Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many breaches of the School Admissions Code there have been as a consequence of groups and organisations being able to object to schools’ admission arrangements.

Lord Nash

The Schools Adjudicator reports annually to the Secretary of State on fair access, and this report includes information on the objections referred to the Schools Adjudicator and the outcomes of those objections. The Department is carefully considering the findings contained in the report and will take these into account, along with other relevant information, as part of the current review of the School Admissions Code.

01/01/2023
Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to increase the number of public appointments of women in the last three months.

Matthew Hancock

The Government is committed to increasing the diversity of public appointments and has an aspiration that 50% of new public appointees should be women. We are making good progress, with 44% of new appointments made to women in 2014-2015 and a higher proportion of all public appointments (new appointments and reappointments) went to women last year than at any other point previously recorded.

The Centre for Public Appointments in the Cabinet Office supports departments on all issues relating to the diversity of public appointments. Steps we are taking to increase diversity include streamlining the application process, placing an emphasis on ability over previous experience, and increasing awareness of opportunities by using a central website, social media.

I hosted an event in February for a variety of diversity networks to encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply for Public Appointments and to advertise them in their own networks. The Cabinet Office is also represented at events run by diversity networks to raise awareness of the opportunities available.

01/01/2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to Question 31008, how many officials of his Department worked full-time on strategies to tackle homelessness in each of the last five years.

Mr Marcus Jones

Over the years, this Department always ensured that policy areas, including homelessness, were suitably resourced in order to provide the best possible response to deal with changing priorities.

01/01/2023