The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsty Blackman on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 14925, what for reason his Department’s quarterly report of transparency information from July to September 2014 took four months longer to prepare than the report on that information from January to March 2015.
David Mundell
I refer the hon Member to my answer of 9 November 2015 (UIN 14925).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-12-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much was spent on lead ammunition by her Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1999.
Rory Stewart
Defra was created in 2001. It is therefore not possible to provide an answer in respect of the years prior to this. Natural England was established on 1 October 2006, so no data is available until the 2006-07 financial year.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has identified that it has spent £300 on lead ammunition in the past three years, but is unable to provide a breakdown by year. Prior to this, the shooting of pests was outsourced and Kew is unable to identify the cost of ammunition provided through this service.
Financial records do not always specify the type of ammunition purchased or the material from which it was made. Our records – with the caveats above – imply that Natural England has spent an average of £253 per year on lead shot since records began.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-12.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to assist students with minimising the accrual of credit card debt.
Harriett Baldwin
The Government has fundamentally reformed regulation of the consumer credit market, which includes the credit card sector. Consumer credit regulation transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 1 April 2014.
The FCA is currently undertaking a thorough review of the credit card market through its ‘credit card market study’. The market study is investigating three areas, including the extent of unaffordable credit card debt and how consumers can drive effective competition through shopping around and switching.
On the 3rd November 2015 the FCA published its interim report which found that the market was working reasonably well for most customers. However, the FCA expressed concern about the scale of potentially problematic debt in this sector, and the incentives for firms to manage this.
The interim report also included the FCA’s early thinking on potential remedies which include measures to give consumers more control over their credit limits, measures to encourage customers to pay off debt quicker when they can afford to, and proposals that firms do more to identify earlier those consumers who may be struggling to repay and take action to help them manage their repayments.
The FCA also set out potential measures to allow consumers to open access to their credit card usage to other market participants, as well as clarifying standards for price comparison websites, in order to facilitate shopping around and switching. The FCA is currently asking for feedback on the findings and potential remedies.
The Government is looking forward to the full report in the spring, and would encourage interested parties to give their views to the FCA to assist it in addressing the issues it has identified.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-02-04.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to develop the model of co-location of urgent and emergency primary care service with accident and emergency departments.
Lord Prior of Brampton
In August 2015, NHS England published Safer, faster, better: good practice in delivering urgent and emergency care. A copy is attached. This provides guidance to help frontline providers and commissioners re-design urgent and emergency care services, including considering locating urgent care centres in emergency departments.
Safer, faster, better notes that urgent care centres co-located with emergency departments provide an opportunity to stream patients with less serious illnesses and injuries to a service that is resourced to meet their needs, while reducing crowding in emergency departments. It also sets out that to preserve flow, urgent care centre staff and cubicles must wherever possible be entirely separated from the majors/admission stream and that where urgent care centres are co-located with emergency departments, there must be appropriate integration, with shared governance arrangements and clearly defined protocols for the two-way transfer of patients.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people in Bristol West constituency have taken more than 60 days to process in the last 12 months.
Karen Bradley
The number of applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) from people living in the Bristol West constituency that have taken more than 60 days to process in the last 12 months (for which data is available) is listed in the table below.
|
Month |
Number of certificates issued by DBS to applicants in Bristol West |
Applications that took longer than 60 days |
|
February 2015 – January 2016 |
12,934 |
392 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2016 to Question 23756, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of funds within NHS organisations to eradicate backlog maintenance repairs which are considered to be high risk.
George Freeman
National Health Service organisations are locally responsible for the quality of their estate and the management of their own backlog maintenance. They decide on the investment needed to reduce backlog maintenance levels based on their own local plans and financial situation. Capital investment by NHS providers continues to be financed locally through income and/or through access to external financing.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-05-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the position taken by the European Parliament that products containing glyphosate should be banned where alternative weed killers exist, and for use in public parks and playgrounds.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government recognises the importance of effective pesticides and believes that they should be authorised where the scientific evidence shows they do not pose unacceptable risks to human health or the environment.
The European Food Safety Authority concluded that glyphosate met these standards and UK experts agree. We therefore consider that glyphosate should be approved. If this happens, all authorised products which contain glyphosate will be individually re-assessed at a Member State level to ensure that they also meet safety standards.
The scientific assessment carried out so far does not suggest that blanket restrictions to prevent certain uses across the EU are justified. The Government therefore does not favour the inclusion of such restrictions in any future approval of glyphosate. It should be for Member States to consider whether restrictions are needed for particular glyphosate products in particular circumstances. This would form part of the normal product re-assessment process.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Earl Attlee on 2016-06-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether draft regulations will be made available under Clause 5 of the Bus Services Bill [HL] relating to the provision of relevant information that a franchising authority may obtain from local bus operators, and if so, when.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government will work closely with both local authority stakeholders and bus operators to develop sensible proposals that both meet the needs of franchising authorities and do not place unnecessary burdens on local bus operators.
Policy discussions with key stakeholders were started in May, and policy scoping notes, setting out the policy intent of each of the regulations, were circulated to Noble Peers on 15th June. Our intention is to continue to engage with bus operators and local authorities to produce draft regulations for consultation in the autumn.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-09-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the disclosure by Equal Justice of details of six new discrimination claims involving race, sex and gender against the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), what action they are taking to ensure that MPS black and ethnic minority groups are able to work in an environment that is safe and free from abuse.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The Government takes allegations of unlawful discrimination in the police very seriously and is firmly committed to ensuring the highest possible standards in policing. Such allegations must be investigated thoroughly and, when and where required, perpetrators must be dealt with robustly.
We are reforming the police disciplinary system to ensure it delivers greater transparency and accountability. We are implementing the recommendations of the Chapman Review to make the police disciplinary system less adversarial with a greater focus on rehabilitation, development and improvement where possible, whilst ensuring the most serious matters are dealt with appropriately and robustly through the police conduct system.
It is essential that the actions and behaviour of racist police officers are not allowed to undermine public confidence in the police’s ability to respond to, investigate and fight crime, or to tarnish the reputation of the police and the majority of officers who work closely and effectively with people from all communities.
The public must also have trust that the police represent the communicates they serve, and the proportion of police officers who are from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds has now risen to its highest level ever with forces taking important steps to attract staff from a diverse range of backgrounds.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many strategic rail freight interchanges have been granted planning permission since 2000; and of those granted permission how many have been built.
Paul Maynard
Since 2000, development consent has been given for ten Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges across Great Britain. The Department for Transport does not monitor progress in constructing these sites. However we understand that not all of these interchanges have yet been constructed.