Category: Speeches

Bridget Phillipson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-11-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support is offered to families with children suffering from life-limiting or life-threatening conditions in England.

Jane Ellison

Information is not held centrally on how many children in England required 24-hour care due to life-limiting or life-threatening conditions in 2014-15. The local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) do not collect information for the North East and Sunderland.

CCGs (and in the case of specialised services, NHS England), will commission a range of care to support children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, including paediatric care, and community-based nursing. A child with a life-limiting condition may be eligible for a package of continuing care, where their needs are such that they require clinical care in addition to that routinely commissioned. This might include one-to-one support. NHS England also allocates an annual grant of £11 million to children’s hospices to support their provision of palliative and respite care.

Children and young people with complex needs may also be eligible for local authority-commissioned social care to support living, short-breaks, and special educational support, where they have a special educational need.

01/01/2023
Bernard Jenkin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bernard Jenkin on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many staff in her Department are working on matters related to (a) European policy, (b) the future of Europe, (c) reform of the EU, (d) the renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU, (e) the EU referendum and (f) the consequences of the EU referendum; how many full-time equivalent staff are working on such matters; what the (i) staff and (ii) other cost of such work is; what proportion of that work is undertaken by such staff on (A) communications, (B) strategy and (C) policy; whether her Department has established any specific unit or units to deal with those matters; to whom such (1) staff and (2) units report; whether her Department has issued guidelines to staff on those matters; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in Britain – so we get a better deal for our country and secure our future. Departments are appropriately resourced to support the Government’s priorities in Europe, including the renegotiation and referendum.

01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the finding in the annual report to Parliament of the Lord Chief Justice, dated 16 January 2016, that the UK’s system of justice has become unaffordable to most; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Penning

As the Justice Secretary said in June, we have a two nation justice system at present. Those who have benefitted financially need to do more to protect access to justice for all and we are discussing with the profession how this can be taken forward.

As the Lord Chief Justice made clear in his annual report, the investment the Government is making to modernise our courts and tribunals is a significant step, and one which will enable us to tackle many of the issues he identified.

01/01/2023
Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has made representations to the EU on its funding of aid and development projects in Eritrea.

Mr Nick Hurd

Between 2013 and 2015 DFID provided UNICEF in Eritrea with £10 million for child and maternal health and the provision of clean water and sanitation.

In December 2015 DFID provided a further £3 million for nutrition support activities and water and sanitation in areas affected by El Nino in the Horn of Africa through UNICEF’s regional programme, which covers Eritrea.

Over the past 2 years funding to support primarily Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia totalled £1.6 million and focussed on child protection and related work on anti-smuggling and trafficking.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost was of producing single departmental plans for each central government department.

Mr Oliver Letwin

All departments undertake business planning and performance management as part of business-as-usual to ensure the effective delivery of government. Single departmental plans have been introduced in this Parliament to be a common framework by which departments manage this business and the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury tracks progress against its commitments to the public.

The production of plans is part of this routine business planning, rather than an additional activity at additional cost. By rationalising reporting, we expect the process to become more efficient as it embeds.

01/01/2023
Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals on the Port and Marine Safety Code.

Mr Robert Goodwill

There are no plans to make the Port Marine Safety Code mandatory. The non-statutory status of the Code is vital to its success, enabling port operators to apply industry-agreed good practice flexibly in ways most appropriate to the size and operations of their facility.

01/01/2023
Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-05-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of Israel regarding the demolition of Palestinian houses in al-Sowana neighbourhood and Shu’fat village.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Whilst we have not raised these specific demolitions, our Ambassador in Tel Aviv has raised our concerns on demolitions with the Israeli authorities, most recently on 15 May, and urged them to provide a legal route for Palestinians to obtain building permits.

01/01/2023
Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people working for his Department or its executive agencies on a (a) directly employed, (b) agency or (c) outsourced basis are paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation; and how many of those people are employed on zero-hours contracts.

David Mowat

No civil servants employed by the Department or its executive agencies: Public Health England and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency are paid less than the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.

The Department currently has no agency worker paid less than the living wage. As at 22 July 2016, 23 people employed via outsourced contract companies were paid less than the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation, none of these were on zero hours contracts. Six other people, on zero rated hours are paid the Living Wage or more.

The Department’s executive agencies do not routinely collect information on the salaries of employees working for their contracted companies. However, all service providers are required to comply with the law in respect of the ‘National Living Wage’ or the ‘minimum wage’ where appropriate.

01/01/2023

Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, 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.

Harriett Baldwin

Details of the Ministry of Defence contracts with the highest expenditure over the past three years, with PwC, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, and KPMG are provided in the following table.

Contract title	Supplier	Total expenditure – 2013-14 to 2015-16 £
MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER CONTRACT FOR HUMAN RESOURCES	PWC LLP	11,866,144
PROVISION OF EXTERNAL SUPPORT TO DEFENCE INTERNAL AUDIT	PWC LLP	7,453,821
SUPPLY OF CONSULTANCY SERVICES TO SUPPORT THE DELIVERY OF DE&S RECRUITMENT AND DELIVERY PROGRAMME	PWC LLP	7,395,956
EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE FOR THE PROVISION OF IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT FOR THE DEFENCE INFRASTRUCTURE ORGANISATION TRANSFORMATION LOT 1 & 2	DELOITTE LLP	11,274,792
HUMAN RESOURCES EXTERNAL SUPPORT FOR DE&S	DELOITTE LLP	3,900,000
EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT THE DELIVERY OF THE DE&S OUTPUT REVIEW PROGRAMME	DELOITTE LLP	3,360,000
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION PHASE 3	ERNST & YOUNG LLP	38,215,660
EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE SUPPORT FOR LOGISTIC COMMODITIES AND SERVICES INVENTORY MANAGEMENT OPTIMISATION PHASE 2 PROJECT	ERNST & YOUNG LLP	7,000,888
EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE SUPPORT FOR LOGISTICS, COMMODITIES AND SERVICES PROJECT	ERNST & YOUNG LLP	3,546,641
MOD COST ASSURANCE AND ANALYSIS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME	KPMG LLP	56,484,928
MATERIEL STRATEGY-PROVISION OF FINANCIAL ADVISOR	KPMG LLP	18,161,930
COST ASSURANCE AND ANALYSIS SERVICE (CAAS) DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME – COST ESTIMATING	KPMG LLP	4,905,124

The information provided reflects the fact that we are making fundamental changes to the way we manage the business of Defence, and independent experts with specialist skills are making a valuable contribution to this work. They benefit our permanent workforce by making us more self-reliant and resilient in providing the cutting-edge capabilities our Armed Forces need to keep our country safe.

01/01/2023

Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his Department’s primary objectives are at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.

Mr Hugo Swire

The 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is an opportunity to demonstrate the continued relevance of the organisation in the 21st century. The British Government will pursue its commitment to strengthen the Commonwealth’s focus on promoting democratic values and development. We will also use the Heads of Government Meeting to shape a Commonwealth role in implementing the new Sustainable Development Goals, and consider how the organisation can help address other global challenges. A new Secretary General will also be announced at this meeting.

The Heads of Government Meeting also takes place the week before the Paris Climate Conference. The British Government will therefore use the meeting as an opportunity to build support amongst Commonwealth members for an ambitious agenda and targets.

01/01/2023