Category: Speeches

Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will respond to the conclusion of the Amnesty International Report 2015-16, the State of the World’s Human Rights, relating to the UK.

Dominic Raab

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Hammersmith on 1 March 2016, which can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-25/28489/

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01/01/2023
Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to increase the funding available for disability sports which are not currently paralympic sports.

David Evennett

Government recognises the importance of sport and physical activity to disabled people who take part at both grassroots and the elite level. Our new sport strategy, ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’, published in December 2015, emphasises the importance of getting people active, particularly those groups currently under-represented, including disabled people.

Sport England is investing over £170 million in England to get more disabled people playing both Paralympic and non-Paralympic sports; and it will shortly publish its own strategy for England, following a wide public consultation, setting out how it intends to deliver against the government’s sport strategy, including how it will promote grassroots sport and physical activity for all.

Elite disability sport is funded by UK Sport whose role it is to ensure that the resources available to support Paralympic athletes are targeted to maximise medal success.

01/01/2023
Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department’s news story of 27 April 2016, Update on a new clause to be inserted into grant agreements, what guidance his Department has given to departments which have already inserted an anti-lobbying clause into grant agreements made with organisations since the start of the current financial year.

Matthew Hancock

As I made clear in the House on 27 April, we are committed to protecting taxpayers’ money from being wasted on government lobbying government. We are pausing the implementation of this clause into grant agreements, pending a review of the representations made.

01/01/2023
Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had in recent months with (a) Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (b) Nottingham University Hospitals Trust on potential financial support from his Department to cover the costs of Sherwood Forest’s PFI arrangements.

George Freeman

The Department has not received an application for Private Finance Iinitiative financial support associated with the proposed Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust long term partnership.

The Department has taken part in a brief initial discussion with Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust’s advisors and NHS Improvement in relation to the process, timescales and other relevant issues associated with the long term partnership. However financial plans for the long term partnership have not yet been put forward to the Department to enable formal financial discussions.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the military (a) capabilities and (b) asset levels in Northern Ireland to deal with the threat level.

Mike Penning

Both the adequacy of military capabilities and asset levels in Northern Ireland are continually reviewed with the Northern Ireland Office and civil authorities, who lead on security in Northern Ireland, to ensure our support is proportionate, effective and efficient. Policing and security remains the responsibility of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Security Service and therefore this includes our support to civil authorities. For example, support routinely provided in Northern Ireland includes explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and Defence are currently undertaking an enhancement of military vehicles used for the provision of this support.

I am withholding further information on assessments as its disclosure would prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of our armed forces.

01/01/2023
Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2015 to Question 227900, how much of the £250 million additional funding that was committed has been spent; and how many children and young people with mental health problems this funding has supported.

Alistair Burt

The Government will be making available £1.4 billion over the course of this Parliament to transform children and young people’s mental health. £173 million of this has been allocated in 2015-16.

It is too early to quantify how many Children and Young People have benefited from this additional investment.

A significant proportion of the additional funding is being allocated to clinical commissioning groups upon completion of the assurance of Local Transformation Plans which every area has produced on children and young people’s mental health. These plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues, from prevention and resilience building, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. Plans are currently being assured by NHS England’s regional assurance teams. Funding is being released as individual plans receive a satisfactory assessment and expenditure will be monitored over the remainder of this financial year.

In addition, the additional funding available this year will support continued improvement of existing services through the expansion of the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme. It will also strengthen the capacity and capability of workforce including providing training and improve data and information in order to deliver the vision set out in Future in Mind by 2020.

01/01/2023
Derek Twigg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Twigg on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote compliance by clinical commissioning groups with the NICE Quality Standard on Autism.

Alistair Burt

The Department issued new statutory guidance in March this year for local authorities and National Health Service organisations to support the continued implementation of the 2010 Autism Strategy, as refreshed by its 2014 Think Autism update. This sets out what people seeking an autism diagnosis can expect from local authorities and NHS bodies.

The Department has also discussed with NHS England the difficulties that people on the autistic spectrum can have in getting an appropriate diagnosis in a timely manner. With support from the Department, NHS England and the Association of Directors of Social Services will undertake a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to discuss good practice in meeting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard 51 Autism, and those that do not, with the aim of supporting more consistent provision. The Quality Standard, which applies to children, young people and adults, recommends that there should be a maximum of three months between a referral and a first appointment for a diagnostic assessment for autism. We expect the NHS to be working towards meeting the recommendations.

We understand that NHS Halton CCG is working on improvements to the paediatric neurological pathway which incorporates children with autism. This will see the Child Development Centre (CDC) in Halton become a single access point of assessment for the most complex children. It is expected that the CDC will ensure that the first appointment for a child referred to them is well within the three months recommended by NICE.

The service commissioned by Halton CCG will also comply with NICE guidelines by ensuring that the appropriate mix of clinicians is available for a multi-disciplinary assessment, which also includes Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

In regard to adults, NHS Halton CCG is currently meeting its statutory requirements with autism by purchasing a diagnostic service on a cost per case basis from our provider of mental health services, 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The CCG is working with other partners who receive the same service from the same provider with a view to pooling resources to commission a diagnostic and post diagnostic service.

01/01/2023
Lord Campbell of Pittenweem – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Campbell of Pittenweem on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what conclusions they have drawn from the document Future Operating Environment 2035 published by the Ministry of Defence on 14 December 2015.

Earl Howe

Whilst formally released outside the Department in December, the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) published the "Future Operating Environment 2035" (FOE35) internally so that it was available throughout the SDSR period. FOE35 was a source of information on the threats and challenges that Defence would be asked to address in the future. Consequently, SDSR decisions were informed by the Future Operating Environment work and, in particular, the need to focus on being more agile and innovative. The Ministry of Defence continues to consider how the future operating environment will shape the business of Defence. DCDC will take this work forward as it develops the Defence Joint Operating Concept and the Joint and environmental future operating concepts in 2016.

01/01/2023

David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average hourly earnings of (a) female, (b) male, (c) full-time and (d) part-time employees of his Department were in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The following table shows the average hourly rates of pay for all Civil Servants in the Department by gender and by working pattern for the last five years. The average hourly rate calculation uses net hours for both full-time and part-time staff.

	March 2012	March 2013	March 2014	March 2015	January 2016
Female	£22.34	£22.23	£22.23	£22.45	£22.48
Male	£25.37	£25.41	£21.69	£24.40	£24.56
Part-time	£22.95	£22.64	£23.60	£24.08	£23.95
Full-time	£23.74	£23.75	£23.12	£23.11	£23.21

01/01/2023

Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to discuss e-cigarettes and other reduced harm smoking products with tobacco companies.

Jane Ellison

Supporting smokers to quit successfully is an important part of reducing the prevalence of smoking in England today. We know that a large number of smokers have and continue to use nicotine delivery devices to support their quit attempts.

We will consult a range of stakeholders to consider how the use of these products fits with overall tobacco policy as we start to develop the new tobacco control plan.

01/01/2023