UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Speeches

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken better to enforce compliance with the Schools Admissions Code among religiously selective schools, in the light of the findings of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and British Humanist Association, An Unholy Mess.

    Lord Nash

    Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

    Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

    We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any changes are necessary to make the admissions system work more effectively for parents, these will be subject to a full public consultation.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.122 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what estimate his Department has made of the average change in tax credit award as a result of reducing the income rise disregard for tax credits.

    Damian Hinds

    As announced in the combined Autumn Statement and Spending Review, the amount by which a tax credit claimant’s income can increase within the year before their tax credit award is adjusted (the income rise disregard), will be reduced from £5,000 to £2,500. The reduction to the income rise disregard will stop one family receiving a higher tax credit award over another family with precisely the same income and the same circumstances, which makes the system fairer. The household income of families before it rises will inform how they might be effected by a reduction in the income rise disregard.

    The only people who will be affected are those who will see an income increase of more than £2,500 in-year.

    Due to the way that tax credits are calculated, the amount an award will be adjusted by – because of an increase in income – will depend upon a claimant’s individual circumstances, such as the household’s income before it rises. No one will be a cash loser because their income will have increased. As an example, for an individual with a wage of £12,000, an income increase of £2,501 would lead to an adjustment in their tax credit award of just 41 pence. An increase of less than £2,500 would see no change at all.

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average cost per mile to upgrade a motorway to a smart motorway.

    Andrew Jones

    Highways England has an improvement programme to create additional network capacity by utilising the motorway hard shoulder as an additional lane. This is known as the Smart Motorway Programme.

    The cost depends on the scope and nature of each scheme and is heavily influenced by factors such as the number of junctions and the extent of work needed to existing structures.

    Based on the actual or forecast actual cost of relevant schemes started over the past five years, the total cost ranges from £7.5-£8.8m per mile of additional network capacity (using a common price base of March 2015).

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-04-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Malawi regarding bringing the perpetrators of albinism-related crimes to justice.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    On 27 April our High Commissioner to Malawi raised the increase in human rights violations against persons with albinism at a meeting with the Malawian Foreign Minister. President Mutharika has condemned the attacks and ordered increased effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance he has issued to supported housing providers about funding following the absorption of housing benefit into universal credit.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department provides guidance for any changes made to Housing Benefit.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    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, if he will publish the minutes of all the meetings his Department has held related to each of the 44 sustainability and transformation plans.

    David Mowat

    Every health and care system in England is producing a multi-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), showing how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years – ultimately delivering the Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved National Health Service efficiency. The Department has held two meetings relating to STPs with the national bodies responsible for the development of the STP programme. As is usual practice, the minutes of such policy development meetings are not normally published. The Department has not been involved in meetings with the 44 local STP areas directly.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many meetings Ministers of her Department have had with social media companies to discuss harmful online content since May 2015.

    Sarah Newton

    Home Office Ministers routinely meet with a range of stakeholders, including social media companies, to discuss action to protect people from harmful online content. Ministers also meet social media companies on specific issues such as online hate crime and extremism.

    In addition, they attend meetings of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), which brings together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities, parenting groups and government departments and meets on a regular basis.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of (a) changes in the number of cases of, and deaths from rotavirus (b) the number of rotavirus vaccinations given each year and (c) the cost of delivering that programme of vaccinations on an annual basis since the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in 2013.

    Jane Ellison

    The number of positive rotavirus laboratory reports each year since 2013 is shown in the table below. These data indicate that there has been a decrease of approximately 10,000 annual cases of rotavirus since the introduction of rotavirus immunisation in July 2013.

    Table 1: The number of positive rotavirus laboratory reports recorded annually since 2013.

    Year

    Number of positive rotavirus laboratory reports

    2013

    14,950

    2014

    4,447

    2015

    5,035*

    Source: PHE Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS) laboratory reporting database

    Note: *Figure to end October 2015.

    Deaths from rotavirus in the United Kingdom are rare. However precise numbers of deaths are difficult to quantify accurately as mortality is usually low and reported simply as death due to gastrointestinal disease. It was previously estimated that there may have been up to three to four rotavirus associated deaths a year in England and Wales (Jit et al., 2007). Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the independent expert committee that advises the Government on immunisation, the rotavirus vaccine was introduced in July 2013. Since then, there have been no reported rotavirus-related deaths in the eligible cohort.

    Immunisation against rotavirus is offered as a two dose schedule to infants at two and three months of age. The table below indicates the number of rotavirus vaccinations given by year.

    Table 2: Number of general practitioner (GP) registered patients who received (a) a 1st dose and (b) a 2nd dose of rotavirus vaccine between six and 24 weeks of age.

    Year

    No. vaccinated with dose 1

    No. vaccinated with dose 2

    2013*

    not available

    not available

    2014

    531,068

    500,454

    2015 (up to September)

    428,591

    406,485

    Source: ImmForm

    Note: *Although the immunisation programme was launched in July 2013, January 2014 was the first complete month where all of 25 week old cohort would have been eligible from the programme start.

    In 2014/15 NHS incurred approximately £9 million delivering completed courses of rotavirus vaccination. This figure does not include the cost of the vaccine, which is procured centrally by Public Health England, and is commercially confidential.

  • Madeleine Moon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Madeleine Moon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2015 to Question 17694, if he will place in the Library documents his Department holds on the Force Development and Adventure Training review; and if he will make a statement.

    Mark Lancaster

    The key documents will be placed in the Library of the House following appropriate redactions.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reason his Department sets an age limit for the receipt of funding for Masters degrees; and if he will make a statement.

    Joseph Johnson

    The new loan to support Master’s study has an upper age limit to ensure the scheme overall is affordable and offers value for money. The new postgraduate loan will be repaid from earnings on an income contingent basis, in this case 6% of earned annual income above the threshold of £21,000. We are therefore limiting eligibility to cover those likely to continue in employment and enter repayments.