Category: Speeches

  • Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Goudie on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to amend the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to deal with the mistreatment of migrant domestic workers by employers who exploit their employees’ vulnerable situation, in the light of the remarks by Baroness Hale of Richmond in paragraph 34 of the judgment on 22 June in Taiwo v Olaigbe and another [2016] UKSC31.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government is considering the Judge’s remarks in the context of the wider support available to victims of modern slavery provided for in the Modern Slavery Act.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many women waited longer than two weeks for an abortion (a) in NHS hospitals and agencies and (b) with private providers in each year since 2009-10.

    Nicola Blackwood

    Comprehensive and comparable data is not collected centrally on waiting times for abortions performed in both the National Health Service and independent sector. Information on the average time between the two medical practitioners’ signatures is also not collected centrally.

    Because of the way information is stored the number of places where abortions took place in England and Wales is only available from 2013 to 2015 and is shown in the table below. All independent sector places perform abortions under contract from the NHS (previously known as NHS agency).

    Table: The number of clinics at which abortions took place, by clinic type, England and Wales 2013 to 2015

    Year

    Total number of clinics

    NHS Hospital

    Independent Sector

    Private Hospital

    2013

    348

    234

    97

    16

    2014

    354

    223

    117

    14

    2015

    385

    220

    151

    14

    “

  • Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to implement the family test.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The Family Test policy does not apply to DFID’s work as foreign policy is outside of the scope of the Test.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his Written Statement of 10 December 2015, HCWS377, on universal credit and local authorities, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of people employed by local authorities to administer housing benefit, (b) the number of such employees likely to be made redundant as a result of the universal credit roll-out, (c) the total cost to the public purse of such redundancies, (d) the total number of staff that will be required to administer universal credit at a local level once the roll-out is complete and (e) the number of people currently employed by his Department in that capacity.

    Priti Patel

    The Local Authority associations estimate up to 5000 people are, in full or in part, engaged in delivering housing services and some of this work will continue in Local Authorities. There are over a million jobs in the Local Authority sector so with turnover we would expect opportunities for redeployment over the next 3-5 years as housing benefit for working age people is gradually phased out. We expect the number of people at risk of redundancy to be very small, but where Local Authorities are not able to redeploy people, we have said the Government will meet the costs of compulsory redundancy. Universal Credit will be delivered locally through our existing network of Jobcentres supported by a number of Service Centres. The number of staff employed will be determined by the number of people on Universal Credit, itself subject to the prevailing economic situation at the time. Our current estimate for the combined workforce in 2021 is 34,000

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many defibrillators are provided in each building her Department manages.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education provides the following number of defibrillators in each of its buildings:

    Building

    No. of Defibrillators

    Sanctuary Buildings, London

    3

    Earlsdon Park, Coventry

    1

    Bishopsgate House, Darlington

    1

    2 St Paul’s Place, Sheffield

    0

    Learning & Conference Centre, Nottingham

    0
  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 1 February (HL5390), whether the consent of both Houses of Parliament will be required before the granting of the BBC Royal Charter.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The BBC’s Royal Charter is granted by the Privy Council and all appropriate steps will be taken in advance of this, including debates in both Houses of Parliament. The format of these debates has not been decided.

  • Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to create a specialist centre for severe asthma in the South West of England.

    Jane Ellison

    Services for people with severe asthma are commissioned by NHS England in line with a national specification to ensure patient numbers are sufficient to support safe services. NHS England has no plans to change the way it commissions these services in south west England.

    Nationally, there are 27 trusts that have identified themselves as providing severe asthma services. NHS England is revising the national service specification to assist local teams in verifying and redefining the local service model to confirm the severe asthma services within each region.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much Network Rail has paid to Southeastern trains in compensation in the last (a) 12 months, (b) three years and (d) five years.

    Claire Perry

    This information is published on Network Rail’s website – http://www.networkrail.co.uk/transparency/datasets/ – covering the years 11-12 to 14-15.

    “

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many reports of sanctions breaches were made to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in each year since 2009-10; how many of those alleged breaches concerned businesses in HM Revenue and Customs’ large business database; in how many such cases (a) the OFSI identified wrongdoing and (b) made a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecution in each such year.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation was established on 31st March 2016 however breaches of financial sanctions have previously been reported to HM Treasury. There are 441 records of alleged breaches reported to HM Treasury between September 2013 and December 2015. There are no records prior to September 2013.

    HM Treasury does not hold the requested information regarding HMRC’s large business database.

    HM Treasury does not determine wrongdoing but works closely with UK law enforcement to deal with suspected breaches. It is a matter for law enforcement to make any referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service.

  • 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 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent assessment has been made of the access to clean drinking water and adequate water supplies for the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories.

    Baroness Verma

    Water and sanitation facilities in Gaza are declining. Demand for water exceeds supply by nearly four times and 96% of extracted water currently fails WHO safety standards. 40% of Gaza’s population receive just 5-8 hours of water every 3 days. In the West Bank the Joint Water Committee has not met for a number of years, which continues to stall agreement of water projects. In the West Bank, there are reports of reduced water supplies in large parts of the West Bank during Ramadan.

    UK officials are in regular dialogue with Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), the UN, World Bank, EU and other development actors on energy and water issues in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We continue to press both parties to reconvene the Joint Water Committee to facilitate approval of projects that will improve Palestinian access to water. Through the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, DFID has invested up to £1.24m to help vulnerable rural farmers in Area C and improve irrigation efficiency by rehabilitation of water systems. The UK supports partners such as the UN Works and Relief Agency, who provide basic services and repair water infrastructure in Gaza. Through the Climate Action for Middle East and North Africa programme, DFID has provided €600,000 to develop project preparation documents for the Gaza Desalination Plant.