Category: Speeches

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what consultation took place with patient representative groups and charities representing older people on the changes to attendance allowance proposed in the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    In December, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced that the Government will be consulting on giving councils in England “more responsibility to support older people with care needs – including people who, under the current system, would be supported through Attendance Allowance”. We want to explore if there is a better way to provide support for older people with care needs through local integration and we intend to launch a consultation on this in due course. Any change would not affect those already receiving Attendance Allowance. The consultation will be an open process that will give everybody a voice in determining the nature of any reform and will inform the decision about whether and how to proceed with any reform.

  • Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consultations the Joint Work and Health Unit has undertaken with external groups on its work since its creation.

    Priti Patel

    The Work and Health Unit has been established to lead the drive for improving work and health outcomes for people with disabilities and long term health conditions, as well as improving prevention and support for people absent from work through ill health and those at risk of leaving the workforce.

    Since Q1 2014 the number of disabled people in employment has increased by around 365,000 people, with a total of 3.3million disabled people now in work as of Q1 2016.

    The Unit will build on this progress by improving integration across healthcare and employment services as well as supporting employers to recruit and retain more disabled people and people with long term health conditions. We have set up work-streams focused on delivery workforce, fitness for work, culture change and stakeholder engagement, employers and building the evidence base through developing a ‘test and learn’ approach.

    We have been seeking and listening to the views of people that use current health, care and employment services, engaging with charities and other stakeholders, to understand what works and what needs to change and will continue to engage at all levels over the coming months.

    The Work and Health Unit is leading the process for preparing a green paper which will be published later this year that will begin the consultation about how to improve support for people with disabilities and long term health conditions.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has for future funding from her Departmental budget for women’s rights organisations in developing countries.

    Sir Desmond Swayne

    DFID supports a wide range of Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) through specific central programmes, such as the £8 million pound commitment to Amplify Change, reaching WROs to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), child, early and forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation; through multilateral programmes, such as up to £6 million pound commitment to the UN Trust Fund to end VAWG which reaches WROs in 76 countries and territories; and through country programmes, such as the £12.5 million pound Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness (STAR) programme in Ghana.

    Future plans are to continue these mechanisms, ensuring their effectiveness and expanding or extending where appropriate, and in implementing DFID’s Civil Society Partnership Review to develop and share learning on reaching WROs and small-scale organisations, so that collectively we achieve a systemic approach to supporting a resilient and effective women’s rights movement.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of (i) men and (ii) women were refused bail and remanded in custody before conviction when the allegation related to (A) an offence against the person, (B) a public order offence, (C) a harassment offence and (D) a sexual offence in the latest period for which figures are available.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Bail Act 1976 creates a presumption in favour of bail. The main reasons for refusing bail are that the defendant is accused of an imprisonable offence and the court is satisfied that there are substantial grounds for believing that the defendant, if released on bail, would abscond, commit further offences while on bail or interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct the course of justice. In deciding whether or not to grant bail, the court will consider a number of factors, including: the nature and seriousness of the crime; the character of the defendant; his past criminal record; associations and ties with the community; the defendant’s record in regard to his previous commitments to bail conditions; and the strength of evidence against the defendant.

    The number and proportion of offenders remanded in custody before conviction for violence against the person, public order offences, harassment or sexual offences, by gender, at magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales in 2015, can be viewed in the attached table.

    Court proceedings data for 2016 will be published in due course.

  • Baroness Uddin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Uddin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current levels of speech therapists recruited from diverse minority communities.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Data from the NHS Hospital and Community Health Services shows that of the 7,836 speech and language therapists (headcount) employed in England as at 30 September 2014, 5.4% are from an ethnic minority background.

    We are aware that we need to do more to encourage individuals from a black and minority ethnic background into this rewarding profession. Health Education England (HEE) is committed to meeting its duties under the Equality Act 2010 and is working with external partners to continuously develop their education and training commission’s activities to ensure they are inclusive to all of the whole population.

    NHS England is working with partners on the Equality and Diversity Council, NHS Employers, the Leadership Academy and HEE to co-ordinate work in the areas of values based recruitment and talent management to ensure that we can aspire to having a representative workforce at all levels.

    We welcome the work that the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists are currently conducting with schools and career fairs in promoting speech and language therapists as a rewarding profession for all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age.

  • Chris Law – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chris Law – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Law on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what financial support the Government has provided to video games development companies in Dundee since 2010.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    In 2014 Government introduced video games tax relief to support UK games development, including eligible projects in Dundee. In addition, this Autumn, a 4-year £4 million UK Games Fund was launched. This fund, administered from Dundee and London, includes grants for young games development businesses around the UK, and there has been a strong response from Dundee games developers for calls for applications.

    The Fund follows our earlier successful video games prototype fund, run by Abertay University in Dundee from 2010 – 2014, and our support for expansion of the university’s games lab which benefitted a number of Dundee games developers.

    Dundee games developers are also able to access a range of other schemes including the Research and Development tax credit, the Tradeshow Access Programme and Government match-funding from the Skills Investment Fund which is managed by Creative Skillset.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2016 to Question 20599, how many (a) page views and (b) visitors the www.livingwage.gov.uk website has had in each week since its launch.

    Nick Boles

    Since the launch of the National Living Wage website we have achieved the following:

    Week

    Page views

    Visitors

    December 6 to 12 (launched on the 7th)

    8,667

    7,789

    Dec 13 to Dec 19

    10,235

    9,207

    December 20 to 26

    6,241

    5,003

    December 27 to January 2

    7,153

    5,742

    January 3 to 9

    17,900

    13,853

    January 10 to 16

    22,945

    17,794

    January 17 to 19 (partial week as answered on Jan 20)

    16,312

    12,641

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) officials, (b) other staff and (c) contracted workers in his Department are working on licensing of taxi and private hire vehicles in the Buses and Taxis division.

    Andrew Jones

    There are currently (a) two officials, (b) one further official on secondment to the Department and (c) no contracted workers working on taxi and private hire vehicle policy in the Department for Transport. All work in the Buses and Taxis division. The subject forms one part of the officials’ roles. This level of staffing for work on taxis and private hire vehicles is essentially consistent with that going back to 2009/10.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what checks are made to determine whether an individual who is not a British citizen has committed any crimes in the UK on a previous occasion at the time of their entry to the UK from another EU country.

    James Brokenshire

    We take the issue of preventing criminals entering the UK extremely seriously, and we continue to strengthen our borders so that we can prevent crime and protect the public. We carry out 100% checks at passport control to identify persons of interest entering the UK. All passengers are checked against police, security and immigration watchlists and where we are aware of individuals who pose a risk, Border Force officers can – and do – refuse them entry. Checks are also carried out against the vast majority of passengers before they arrive in the UK and, where we can, we stop them from travelling in the first place.

    Those required to obtain a visa to enter the UK are also checked against a range of police, security and immigration databases for details of any UK or overseas criminal record. All applicants are required to provide details of their criminal history. Where they fail to declare relevant offences/convictions, their application will be refused and they will be subject to a ten-year ban from applying to enter the UK.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many local authorities in each of the nations and regions of the UK have a multi-agency service dedicated to supporting members of the armed forces and former members of the armed forces and their families.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Ministry of Defence does not hold this information.