Category: Speeches

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect on high streets of ending small business rate relief.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Chancellor announced at the Autumn Statement that the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief will continue for a further year and therefore apply for the whole of 2016-17. Approximately 600,000 properties are benefitting, with 400,000 paying no business rates at all.

  • Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Garnier on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on proposed fixed recoverable costs in clinical negligence cases of concerns expressed in a letter to him of 9 November 2015 from Action against Medical Accidents, Sands, National Voices, Meningitis Now and the Birth Trauma Association.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department is currently preparing to go out to public consultation on the introduction of fixed recoverable costs (FRCs) for clinical negligence claims as originally proposed by Lord Woolf and Lord Justice Jackson in 1996 and 2009 respectively. The Department undertook a pre-consultation process in late 2015 and obtained feedback from a range of respondents. Since the pre-consultation, the Department has been working to assess how concerns raised can be addressed and reflected in the formal consultation.

    Respondents to the pre-consultation exercise in August confirmed that there is no exact correlation between value and complexity of clinical negligence claims. The consultation will include consideration of the maximum value of claims that will be covered by the FRC regime, whether there should be any exemptions; and thedate and method of implementation. The consultation is also looking at how behaviours can change to streamline and speed up the way in which clinical negligence claims are processed through the legal system. We, therefore, do not agree with the suggestion in the 9 November letter to delay the consultation whilst a review takes place.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to ensure that its buildings are open for wider community use.

    Mrs Caroline Spelman

    The Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings Division developed the open and sustainable churches initiative five years ago, and now 80% of churches provide a function beyond purely worship, with 54% of Anglican parishes running at least one organised activity to address social or community need. Churches are being used as citizen’s advice bureau, post offices, shops, night shelters and food banks. Two recent examples of local projects where the Church has opening its buildings for the wider community in the Lincoln Diocese include:

    St Peter & Paul Church, Algarkirk has been successful in getting through the first stage of HLF funding for a project to host a local heritage center, explaining the history of the area including an oral history project and fascinating details about this Grade I medieval church. The Parish Church has a collection of Victorian stained glass of national quality and furnishings by J.G. Grace who also furnished the Houses of Parliament.

    All Saints Church, Winterton is a Grade 1 Medieval church which has been restored with new community facilities installed to make it more accessible with the help of HLF and other grants.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Mayor of London on the effect on black taxi drivers of the operation of Uber in London.

    Andrew Jones

    We receive representations on a number of issues from the Mayor of London, and this has included the impact of the increasing number of private hire vehicles in London on congestion, air quality and parking issues on London’s road network.

    The Government is continuing to discuss with the Mayor ways of addressing these issues.

  • Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Saville Roberts on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential of small modular reactors as a heat source.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The techno-economic assessment of small modular reactors, which is due to conclude at the end of March at the earliest, will consider applications for SMRs in the UK context including how they could operate within the energy system.

  • Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what, if any, variables are used to determine whether main service providers of patient transport are delivering satisfactory services.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    It is the responsibility for individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to commission and performance manage patient transport services, in line with the national guidance Eligibility for Patient Transport Services. This guidance is attached.

    CCGs will manage performance of patient transport providers through regular monitoring performance against Key Performance Indicators and have a range of interventions to improve performance, which are available through the NHS Standard Contract.

    NHS England ultimately maintains oversight of CCG commissioning, and holds CCGs to account for their commissioning decisions. In addition, NHS Improvement has a role in ensuring that procurement, patient choice and competition operate in the best interests of patients, and to step in if anti-competitive behaviour by National Health Service commissioners or providers goes against patients’ interests.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 3 June (HL311), whether one of the ideologies they are directly challenging is Wahhabism.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Counter-Extremism Strategy set outs our approach to tackling extremist ideologies. We will challenge all those groups or individuals who vocally or actively oppose our fundamental values, who seek to promote, encourage and spread intolerance of individuals of different faith and beliefs. We are clear that this approach tackles all forms of extremism: violent and non violent, Islamist and neo-Nazi.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2016 to Question 40286, asked by the hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich, what the title is of the group that meets monthly.

    Paul Maynard

    The title of this group is the South East Quadrant.

  • Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Hodge on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 September 2016 to Question 44352, for what contracts the largest three total payments were made to (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young and (d) KPMG in the last three years.

    David Mowat

    Information on all contracts as identified from the largest three total payments made to the top four consulting firms across financial years 2013-14 to 2015-16 are contained in the attached table.

    Values for all four suppliers relate to cash payments made against purchase orders as per Crown Commercial Services requirements and is not comparable with any consultancy expenditure data that may be published annually by the Department, which are resource (accruals) based.

  • Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been identified for resettlement in the UK as part of the vulnerable Syrian refugee resettlement programme since 20 September 2015.

    Richard Harrington

    UNHCR identifies and proposes Syrian refugees for the VPR scheme from among the whole of the registered refugee population in the region, over 4 million people. This includes people in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities. Approximately 430,000 registered refugees meet UNHCR’s vulnerability criteria.

    We will not be giving a running commentary on how many people have been identified for resettlement in the UK. Not all referrals translate into arrivals for a variety of reasons. We therefore do not consider it would be appropriate to provide this figure.

    Notwithstanding this the Home Office is committed to publishing data on arrivals through the resettlement programme in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 26 November 2015 and will cover the period July-September 2015. These numbers will be updated each quarter.