Category: Speeches

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to improve integrated working between health visitors and children’s centres.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Children’s centres provide access to health services – either by providing the services or by providing advice and assistance on gaining access to services. Local authorities and local health commissioners have statutory duties to consider providing services through children’s centres to ensure that families get access to the services they need. The transfer of responsibility for public health services to local authorities in October this year provides new opportunities for local areas to configure health services to best effect.

    The Department of Health has been working with local authorities in order to ensure sharing regular and timely updates of live birth data between NHS trusts and children’s centres and have mapped out a process for putting in place appropriate arrangements to support a national solution.

    Children’s centres can also have a key role in delivering integrated reviews, which check a child’s health and educational progress at age two.

    Future policy on children’s centres will be informed by the planned consultation on the future of children’s centre services, which is due to be launched shortly.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 16005, on malnutrition, how the Government plans to measure progress on its commitment to nutrition for 50 million people by 2020.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The approach to measuring the commitment to improve the nutrition of 50 million people by 2020 is currently being finalised as part of the DFID aid review. Full details of the methodology for measuring these results will be published once this is completed.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 22 July 2014 to Question 205815, what progress he has made on providing a secure and accessible on-line Personal Independence Payment claim form; and if he will make a statement.

    Justin Tomlinson

    We are developing the streamlined PIP digital claim process which brings the current PIP telephony claim and paper form together.

    We are working closely with the Cabinet Office to ensure this meets the government standards for digital services which focus on the needs of users. We have user tested a number of different design approaches and based on feedback are ensuring that the claim process is tailored to individual needs and moves away from ‘one size fits all’.

    The digital claim process continues to be improved and tested with a wide range of users and disability organisations for implementation in 2016. It will be available to everyone once the online claim process has been fully tested.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has discussed the study, The impact of classroom design on pupils’ learning, by Professor Barrett of Salford University, with her counterparts in the devolved administrations; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    The Secretary of State has not discussed the study, The Impact of Classroom Design on Pupils’ Learning, by Professor Barrett of Salford University, with her counterparts in the devolved administrations.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he intends to reply to Question 31430, on Antisemitism, tabled on 16 March 2016 for named day answer on 21 March 2016.

    Mike Penning

    I can confirm that PQ 31430 was answered on the 30th March 2016.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department last met representatives of former members of the Allied Steel and Wire pension scheme.

    Justin Tomlinson

    All Ministerial meetings with external parties are recorded on the Cabinet Office website.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what criteria the Government uses in deciding which women’s organisations to fund; how much funding the Government gave to women’s organisations in each of the last three years; and which such organisations received funding from government in each of those years.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Government remains committed to gender equality. When appropriate we fund women’s organisations to carry out activities that further this aim. The criteria we use to determine which organisations to fund vary according to the policy aims that we are seeking to achieve.

    Some of the most significant funding streams for UK women’s organisations in the last three years have come from HM Treasury, the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. HM Treasury has used £15 million collected from VAT on sanitary products to fund women’s charities – the grantees were announced in March 2016. The Department for Communities and Local Government also made available £250,000 to community and voluntary sector organisations as part of its Women’s Empowerment Fund in 2015-16 and continues to provide funding for refuges. Furthermore, the Home Office is providing funding to organisations and refuges supporting female victims of domestic and other forms of violence, as announced in the refreshed cross-Government strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls on 8 March 2016.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will prepare an impact assessment of any future server outage on the universal credit portal.

    Damian Hinds

    Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.

    The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.

    We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many complaints the Crown Prosecution Service has received in each of the last three years.

    Robert Buckland

    The following table shows the number of complaints received by the CPS in the past three years:

    Year

    Total Complaints

    2013/14

    Not available*

    2014/15

    1950

    2015/16

    1878

    *Due to a technical issue which the CPS is currently resolving, the figure for the total complaints received in 2013/14 is not available at this time. The CPS will write to the Honourable Member to provide this figure once the issue has been corrected.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to amend the Investment Regulations for Occupational Pensions Funds to require them to set out within their Statement of Investment Principles their approach to considering environmental, social and governance risks and to stewardship.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Earlier this year the Government consulted on whether to amend the reference to social, environmental, or ethical considerations ,in the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations 2005, and whether to require trustees to state their approach to the Stewardship Code. The Government plans to respond to this consultation shortly.