Category: Speeches

Rachel Reeves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated for asbestos removal for schools in each year from 2010 to 2016.

Nick Gibb

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) does not hold a breakdown of funding information, in the format requested, in relation to the removal of asbestos or renovation of school buildings.

Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, the primary responsibility for managing asbestos lies with the person or persons responsible for the maintenance or repair of a building. For schools, this will be the local authority, school governors or academy trust.

The table below summarises the capital budgets from 2011-12 to 2016-17 that were provided for school maintenance, refurbishment and rebuilding, including where appropriate the removal and/or safe containment of asbestos-containing materials. As these works are covered by the capital funding programmes listed below, the Department does not allocate a separate budget for this purpose; and there are no plans to do so in future years.

The Department does not hold directly comparable allocation or expenditure data on prior years.

(All values £m)	2011-12 Budget	2012-13 Budget	2013-14 Budget	2014-15 Budget	2015-16 Budget	2016-17 Budget
School Condition Allocations (funding provided to local authorities and voluntary-aided schools)	1,054	861	749	699	690	661
Devolved Formula Capital (funding provided direct to schools)	185	162	149	138	134	130
Funding for academies, multi-academy trusts, state-funded special schools and other specialist providers for state-funded pupils (including DFC).	161	376	504	562	576	617
Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP) (delivered by central government)	0	0	90	603	999	1,050
Total	1,400	1,399	1,492	2,002	2,399	2,458

01/01/2023

Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the seaworthiness is of (a) HMS Torbay, (b) HMS Trenchant, (c) HMS Talent and (d) HMS Triumph.

Mr Philip Dunne

The safety of the UK submarine fleet is of paramount importance. The Ministry of Defence assesses seaworthiness for submarines through a robust sea clearance process. This assessment is kept under continuous review.

I am withholding the seaworthiness state of each submarine as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.126 of Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what funding for Discretionary Housing Payments he plans to provide to local authorities in addition to that announced in Summer Budget 2015.

Justin Tomlinson

In the Autumn Statement it was announced that additional Discretionary Housing Payment funding will be made available to Local Authorities, including those in supported accommodation. A further £70 million will be made available on top of the Summer Budget announcement across 2018-19 and 2019-20.

01/01/2023
Lord Whitty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Whitty on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are undertaking, both nationally and internationally, to reverse the global decline in the bee population.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government is committed to supporting pollinators, including bees, through the National Pollinator Strategy for England. This is an exciting 10 year plan, with comprehensive action to protect pollinators on farmland and across towns, cities and the countryside.

In November 2015 Defra published an implementation plan highlighting significant progress in the first year of the strategy, delivered through collaboration between government and non-government partners. This includes £900 million Defra has made available for the new Countryside Stewardship scheme, launched in July 2015. For the first time ever this contains dedicated management options for pollinators as part of the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package.

We have been working to raise public awareness and engagement, holding the first Pollinator Awareness Week in July 2015. This promotes our Bees’ Needs Call to Action, setting out simple actions that any individual or business can take to provide food and shelter for pollinators.

Internationally, Defra hosted two successful events on pollinators at the Milan Expo in July 2015, and following this is working with academics to explore opportunities to build on the innovative work the UK is doing for bees. The UK is also an active member of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), with UK experts contributing to the IPBES assessment of the state of knowledge on pollinators, the reasons for their decline and the policy options to protect them. The final report of this assessment will be considered and approved by Governments at the 4th IPBES Plenary Meeting in February 2016.

01/01/2023
Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who sits on the Child Protection Task Force; and if she will publish dates and minutes of meetings of that body to date.

Edward Timpson

Membership of the Child Protection Implementation Taskforce can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-announces-new-taskforce-to-transform-child-protection

Information relating to the proceedings of recent meetings of Implementation Taskforces is not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.

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01/01/2023
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 4 January (HL4800), what evidence they have that suggests that the complexity of choice in wound dressings for nurses and clinicians makes their clinical decisions more difficult and can lead to over-specification and variation in standards of care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The NHS Catalogue contained over 600,000 products, many of which had been not used in excess of the last 12 months or were seemingly duplicate items. Given the sheer volume of products, this creates the complexity faced by clinicians and nurses when determining the appropriate products to use, which directly makes their decisions more difficult.

By undertaking the planned clinical rationalisation of the products available via NHS Supply Chain, the Department aims to reduce this complexity, removing unnecessary products, ensuring that those available to the National Health Service are of an appropriate specification in order to maintain high standards of patient care.

The clinical rationalisation work is being undertaken by practising clinicians taking into account feedback from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and other relevant programmes, such as ‘ Getting it Right First Time’.

01/01/2023
Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Prime Minister, which representatives of the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories the Prime Minister has met since August 2013.

Mr David Cameron

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Mr Gwynne) on 14 January 2016, UIN 21230.

01/01/2023
Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will raise with his Algerian counterpart threats of legal proceedings being instituted against a church in the North Eastern province of that country for conducting religious services.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are aware of the Algerian investigation of two Protestant house churches in the north eastern area of Algeria, known as the Kabylie, in January 2016. We understand that the issue has been resolved and that the churches continue to conduct their business.

01/01/2023
Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to address the decline in cervical screening uptake in the 25 to 29 age group.

Jane Ellison

There is a range of work going on to understand the reasons for the decline in cervical screening uptake amongst women aged 25 to 29 and to try to address them. They include:

a) Data and information – access to data, cleansing, benchmarking for providers, timely and useful information for commissioners;

b) Behavioural insight – communication with commissioners, providers, patients and public;

c) Commissioning levers – commissioning contracts in public health (S7a) and primary care;

d) Partnership work – relationships with commissioners and providers; and

e) Sharing best practice – what works well, evaluation and how to embed quality improvement

Public Health England (PHE) is working with colleagues in NHS England and Health and Social Care Information Centre to implement the Accessible Information Standard which is intended to improve access to services for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Through the re-development of cervical Information Technology systems opportunities will arise to review how to help improve uptake.

PHE supports providers to help meet the Accessible Information Standard through the provision of high quality information for people with learning disabilities or sensory loss. A national group of experts and service users has been set up to oversee this work and will be updating the existing easy read leaflets and developing new materials over the next 18 months.

PHE is aware that there are a range of factors which may act as barriers in hindering women from attending cervical screening. It is hoped that through the STRATEGIC (Strategies to Increase Cervical screening uptake at first invitation) interventions will be identified to help minimise barriers and assist women to attend screening whilst increasing uptake across all quintiles. The STRATEGIC trial was completed in 2015 and researchers are expected to publish findings later this year.

01/01/2023
Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, which social and workers’ rights protected in existing EU treaties it is his policy to protect during negotiations on the UK leaving the EU.

Mr Robin Walker

We are about to begin negotiations and at every step of these we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for British workers. We will speak to as many other firms, organisations and bodies as possible – research institutes, trade unions, regional and national groups and businesses up and down the country, to establish the priority issues and opportunities for the whole of the UK.

01/01/2023