Category: Speeches

Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides on the minimum number of days between benefit payments for a person ending an employment and support allowance claim and beginning a jobseeker’s allowance claim; and what the average time between such benefit payments was in the last 12 months.

Damian Hinds

The department does not specifically hold data in relation to claimants who transition from ESA to JSA and the time taken to award JSA following the closure of an ESA claim. As a department we strive to process all new claims made to JSA as quickly and efficiently as possible with a minimum expected level of 90% processed within 10 days. We are currently achieving 90.7% as of July 2016.

January 1, 2023
Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment his Department has made of the number of British jobs involved in the Trident successor programme as a result of the recent decision to use French steel in the Successor submarines.

Harriett Baldwin

The Successor programme represents billions of pounds of investment in thousands of British jobs, across hundreds of firms, from Scotland to the South of England.

Other stages of construction will include grades of steel manufactured by British suppliers and we encourage them to take the opportunity to bid.

85% of BAE Systems supply chain for the new submarines is based in the UK.

January 1, 2023
Lord Grocott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Grocott on 2015-11-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 27 October (HL2665), how much of the 2015 Common Agricultural Policy budget has been, or will be, spent in support of United Kingdom agriculture.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

In 2015, the UK has been allocated around 7% of the total CAP budget, equivalent to a total of €4 billion.

In pounds sterling, based on the average European central Bank exchange rate for September used for calculating direct payments, this equates to a total of £2.9 billion. Of this amount, £2.3 billion is allocated to Pillar 1 direct payments and £620 million to Pillar 2 rural development.

January 1, 2023
Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of offenders of each offence type who pleaded guilty in the latest year for which information is available had committed (a) no other offences, (b) one to five previous offences, (c) six to 15 previous offences, (d) 16 to 50 previous offences, (e) 51 to 100 previous offences and (f) over 100 previous offences.

Andrew Selous

Whilst crime is falling, offenders committing serious offences are more likely to go to prison and for longer. Sentencing is a matter for our independent courts, taking into account all the facts of each case. Where the offender has recent and relevant previous convictions this is a statutory aggravating factor which should increase the severity of the sentence.

We want to cut reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer. That is why we need a new emphasis in prisons on rehabilitation and redemption. Prisons should be places of hard work, rigorous education and high ambition so offenders get the skills to make a success of life on the outside.

The data available are found attached, in Table 1, referring to the 12 months ending June 2015.

January 1, 2023
Stuart Andrew – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart Andrew on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the status is of Operational Resilience Capacity Planning for 2014-15; and what the status is of the retained funding for flu vaccinations for clinicians in the independent sector.

Jane Ellison

In April 2015, NHS England advised System Resilience Groups that all resilience initiatives started in response to the 2014-15 document should continue, and were also informed of new resilience planning priorities for the coming year. A copy of the letter is attached.

For this year, funding was given to NHS Employers to support flu vaccination communications aimed at staff working in care homes, and to work with National Health Service trusts with low staff vaccination uptake by providing support networks and events.

January 1, 2023
Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of steel used in the manufacture of (a) Scout, (b) the Type 26 Frigate, (c) the new Tide Class Tankers and (d) the new Offshore Patrol vessels is manufactured in the UK.

Mr Philip Dunne

Steel is sourced by our contractors from a range of UK and international suppliers. UK suppliers have provided significant quantities of steel for major defence procurement programmes whenever they have been able to meet specified standards.

The steel requirement for the AJAX (formerly Scout) Armoured Fighting Vehicle is specialist in nature which UK manufacturers were not able to provide and has been sourced to date from a overseas supplier. There is a small quantity of steel yet to be committed to contract and UK manufacturers will have every opportunity to bid for this.

For the Type 26 Frigates, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 January 2016 to Questions 22739 and 22740 to the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr Farron). The steel suppliers for the Type 26 Frigates have not yet been selected.

For the Tide Class Tankers, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 January 2016 to Questions 23932 and 23934 to the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Farron). It is estimated that UK customisation work will require around 80 tonnes of steel, although design work is ongoing and no orders have yet been placed.

For the Offshore Patrol Vessels currently under construction no UK steel manufacturer responded to the invitation to tender within the timeframe, but the contract to source the steel required was placed with a UK steel stockist. Around 20% of the overall requirement was sourced from UK steel mills and a further 10% from existing stock of unknown origin. The remainder was sourced from overseas suppliers, reflecting the need to ensure a competitive price and delivery at the required time and quality.

January 1, 2023

Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many adult inpatient psychiatric beds there were in England in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.

Average daily availability and occupancy rate¹ for consultant-led beds open overnight in the mental health sector, in each quarter from 2010-11

Quarter	Number of available beds open overnight	Occupancy rate
2010-11 Q1	23,515	87.1%
2010-11 Q2	22,929	86.7%
2010-11 Q3	23,740	85.9%
2010-11 Q4	23,607	86.6%
2011-12 Q1	23,253	86.8%
2011-12 Q2	23,208	86.8%
2011-12 Q3	23,016	87.2%
2011-12 Q4	23,121	87.2%
2012-13 Q1	22,550	87.5%
2012-13 Q2	22,269	88.3%
2012-13 Q3	22,496	87.2%
2012-13 Q4	22,268	88.6%
2013-14 Q1	22,109	88.3%
2013-14 Q2	22,025	89.2%
2013-14 Q3	21,931	88.1%
2013-14 Q4	21,731	88.6%
2014-15 Q1	21,750	89.8%
2014-15 Q2	21,618	89.6%
2014-15 Q3	21,446	89.4%
2014-15 Q4	21,374	89.5%
2015-16 Q1²	18,569	89.9%
2015-16 Q2	19,249	89.1%
2015-16 Q3	19,273	88.6%

Source: Bed availability and occupancy, NHS England

Notes:

Numbers of occupied beds are collected every quarter by consultant main specialty. Numbers of available beds are not collected by consultant specialty, because some beds may be available for more than one specialty to use depending on need. Instead, available beds are collected by four sectors within which beds are used flexibly. These sectors are general and acute, mental health, learning disabilities, and maternity. Occupied bed days by specialty are added to calculate occupancy rates for each of these sectors.
In 2015-16 Q1 several mental health providers ceased to submit a return, as a validation of beds data concluded that they were not satisfying the required criteria for consultant-led beds. This is the major factor behind the drop in the number of consultant-led, available mental health beds.

January 1, 2023

Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-03-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.19 of the Treasury report entitled, Overview of Tax Legislation and Rates, published on 16 March 2016, what impact assessment has been undertaken on which technologies will be added or removed from the list of qualifying technologies for the first-year allowance scheme for energy-saving and environmentally-beneficial technologies.

Damian Hinds

At Budget 2016, the Government announced changes to 100 percent enhanced capital allowances for energy-saving and environmentally-beneficial (water-efficient) technologies.

Each autumn, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) consult manufacturers and suppliers. DECC and Defra then recommend to Treasury Ministers updates to the schemes.

Details of the changes will be set out in Treasury Order 2001/2541 for energy and 2003/2076 for water in the next few months. As is routine, an impact assessment will be published alongside the Order.

January 1, 2023
Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of how much local authorities will be able to collect through business rates under the Government’s devolution proposals in (a) East Yorkshire, (b) North Lincolnshire and (c) elsewhere.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government intends to move to 100% business rates retention in England by the end of this Parliament. We have confirmed that as part of the new system there will continue to be redistribution of local tax revenue between authorities and protections in place for authorities that see their business rates income fall significantly. Over the coming months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme.

Ahead of final decisions, it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas or authorities. However, based on their own estimates, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and North Lincolnshire Council expect to collect £106.9 million and £89.2 million in business rates respectively in 2016-17.

January 1, 2023
Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of potential levels of UK coal exports in each of the next five years.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department has not made an assessment of the potential levels of UK coal exports in each of the next five years.

January 1, 2023