Category: Speeches

  • Christina Rees – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Christina Rees – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the budget is for prison libraries in (a) total and (b) each prison in 2015; and what the cost was in each of the last five years.

    Andrew Selous

    All prisons in England and Wales have a library. NOMS has been responsible for funding prison library services in England from April 2011.

    The total NOMS allocated budget for prison libraries in 2015/16 in England was £7,592,414

    The attached table shows both the provider and allocated library budget for each prison in England since 2010. NOMS is not responsible for funding library services in prisons in Wales as this is a devolved function of the Welsh Government so data is not included. Privately managed prison contracts put in place since 2011 have identified levels of funding for libraries and so are included in the table. The table does not include library provision at privately managed prisons whose contracts were awarded before 2011 as this was part of the overall included contract price and so it is not possible to extract a specific cost element to this part of the contract. This equates to 10 prisons.

    On 8 September 2015 the Secretary of State announced a review of the quality of education in prisons, chaired by Dame Sally Coates, which will report later in the year.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many existing tax credit claimants had their payments stopped in the most recent 12 months for which data is available.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs do not hold the requested data.

  • Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the procurement of a human papilloma virus vaccination programme currently taking place includes the vaccine needed for men who have sex with men.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Department and Public Health England are currently undertaking a procurement exercise to secure vaccine to support the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for girls. The procurement will take account of the costs and benefits of all vaccines offered to establish which provides best value for money for the National Health Service.

    In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted HPV vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price. The JCVI acknowledged that finding a way to implement its advice would be challenging and made clear that work was needed by the Department and others to consider commissioning and delivery routes for this programme. This work is already underway and we will announce our plans as soon as we can.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2016 to Question 27312, what proportion of children whose Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire score has suggested that there may be a problem have subsequently been assessed further.

    Edward Timpson

    The Department for Education and Department of Health strengthened the statutory guidance Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked after children[1] in March 2015 to include information on how Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQs) should be used. The Department wrote to local authorities in 2014 and 2015 to remind them about the purpose and importance of SDQs. Ahead of this year’s data collection (published in September 2016), the Department will also write to Virtual School Heads and Independent Reviewing Officers about the use of SDQs for looked-after children. In addition we are considering how to utilise best practice from local authorities that have had consistently good return rates for SDQ scores in their annual children looked after data returns to the Department.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-looked-after-children–2

    “

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) received from the Government in the last three years; for what reasons that funding is provided; against what criteria the decision to fund that organisation was made; and what obligations the ETI places on its member companies with respect to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    In the last three years the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) has received £1.2m in funding from DFID, through a Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA). PPA funding supports ETI to improve working conditions for poor and vulnerable people, this includes workers in top tier farms and factories, as well as those in the lower tiers of supply chains (such as women homeworkers, smallholders and migrant workers) who are harder to reach and more vulnerable to exploitation. PPA funding is not tied to specific initiatives or interventions but ETI are expected to meet objectives set out in a robust performance framework, agreed between DFID and ETI.

    PPA funding was based on competitive selection and open to organisations who were regarded as leaders in their field and who could deliver on DFID’s objectives. Organisations were selected following a rigorous assessment and quality assurance process.

    Freedom of Association and collective bargaining is a component of the ETI Base Code and therefore every ETI member commits to taking action to support this right.

  • Antoinette Sandbach – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Antoinette Sandbach – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Antoinette Sandbach on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35403, on High Speed 2 railway line: Eddisbury, for what reasons no intrusive geological surveys have been carried out at this stage; when HS2 Ltd commissioned from a mining engineer, in consultation with the Cheshire Brine Subsidence Compensation Board, a study of the historical subsidence effects and ongoing extractive processes in relation to salt; on what date HS2 Ltd received or will receive that report; and when he expects to receive the conclusions of the re-review of the usefulness of satellite interferometry to evaluate historical ground movement across Cheshire.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    HS2 will negotiate access to land with landowners to undertake geological surveys as a part of the Hybrid Bill process following the decision of the route as done on Phase 1 and Phase 2a. It would not be appropriate to intrude on landowners where there is no confirmation of the route.

    Both the study and the re-review will be used to support technical decisions contributing to a route announcement scheduled for later in 2016.

  • Alan Mak – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Alan Mak – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Mak on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that school standards in England match those of the best international competitors.

    Nick Gibb

    In 2014 we introduced a new, ambitious national curriculum to match the best education systems in the world. We are also reforming GCSEs, A Levels and primary school assessment to represent a new gold standard which enables students to compete with their peers in the world’s best school systems. From summer 2017 the standard of a GCSE “good pass” will be in line with the average performance in high-performing countries.

  • Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrea Jenkyns on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times the Junior Doctors’ Committee of the British Medical Association has (a) left negotiations already in progress and (b) refused written requests to return to negotiations on the proposed junior doctors’ contract since any negotiations on that proposed contract began.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee walked away from negotiations twice. The first time was after almost a year of negotiations on 16 October 2014. The second time was on 4 January 2016 during negotiations following an agreement at ACAS.

    Ministers wrote to the BMA on a number of occasions – four of these letters, between July and November 2015, were explicit requests to enter negotiations. The BMA refused on each occasion.

  • Alasdair McDonnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alasdair McDonnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alasdair McDonnell on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy that the Common Travel Area be maintained in the event that Great Britain and Northern Ireland leave the EU.

    James Brokenshire

    Our focus is the reform of the EU and the Prime Minister clearly set out in his speech on 10 November and his letter to the President of the European Council, the issues where we are seeking change. We recognise the important economic and social benefits of the Common Travel Area, and our priority is to strengthen the external border of the Common Travel Area through collaboration with Ireland and the Crown dependencies, to ensure the benefits of the Common Travel Area can be preserved whilst maintaining a secure border.

  • Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations have been made to his Department on fraud involving the tax status of lorry drivers.

    Andrew Jones

    The Road Haulage Association has made my Department aware of concerns about widespread fraud involving the tax status of lorry drivers. The Road Haulage Association has raised these concerns directly with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.