Category: Speeches

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nurses were brought before a fitness to practise panel for lack of competence, communication issues between 2013 and 2015; and how many such nurses (a) were and (b) were not suspended.

    Ben Gummer

    The information requested is not held by the Department. As an independent body the Nursing and Midwifery Council is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties including fitness-to-practise investigations in respect of its registrants.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission is taking to ensure that Members of Parliament are providing good value for money in communications to their constituents using franked House of Commons envelopes.

    Tom Brake

    Under the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament, Members are personally responsible and accountable for the way they use resources provided at public expense. The House of Commons provides each Member with prepaid envelopes and stationery up to a value of £9,000 a year. In addition, specific rules on prepaid envelopes, available via the Members’ Handbook, preclude their use for communications within Parliament, or for circulars or business, personal or party political purposes. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is responsible for enforcing the rules on the proper use of prepaid envelopes and stationery.

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of damage caused to the gardens of urban and rural householders by badgers in England.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Defra is not aware of any studies that quantify the extent of garden damage by badgers. Where serious damage is, or is likely to be, caused by badgers or their setts, there is provision within the legislation for action to be taken under licence. Garden damage due to foraging alone is not normally considered sufficiently serious to warrant the issue of a licence.

    Natural England receives around 800 licence applications per year to interfere with badger setts. Of these, just over 50% relate to damage caused by badgers but not all involve residential properties or gardens. With regard to gardens, the usual action is to exclude badgers from the sett and proof the area against further damage. There is a presumption against licensing trapping and relocating badgers on disease and animal welfare grounds.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to ask NHS England to publish the initial Sustainability and Transformation plans submitted on 15 April 2016 to permit scrutiny of those plans.

    George Freeman

    The arm’s length bodies that developed the NHS Five Year Forward View – NHS England, NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission, Public Health England, Health Education England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – plan to publish Sustainability and Transformation Plans once they are final. They do not plan to publish the April submissions, on the basis that they are not formal plans but set out only an interim position.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans for the EU Unit to include voluntary sector representation or request input from that sector.

    Mr Oliver Letwin

    The new Europe Unit will bring together officials with a wide range of policy expertise from across Government. Many interest groups have directly approached Government Ministers, and Departments will look to ensure stakeholders’ views are properly captured and considered.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by his Department are non-UK nationals.

    Joseph Johnson

    All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

    Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

    More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Christina Rees – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christina Rees – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what process her Department identified the areas of policy within its responsibility proposed for reservation in Annex B of the publication Powers for a Purpose: Towards a lasting devolution settlement for Wales, published on 27 February 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    Annex B to the Powers for a Purpose Command Paper provided an illustrative list of the main areas in which reservations would be needed in a reserved powers model. The list described the Government’s emerging thinking as the new reserved powers model was being developed. The Government published its full proposals in the draft Wales Bill on 20 October.

  • Ian Austin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Ian Austin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment on whether businesses in Dudley North constituency will be at a competitive disadvantage to businesses in Scotland when the Scottish Government halves the Air Passenger Duty for all flights leaving from Scotland.

    Damian Hinds

    The government is currently undertaking a consultation into options to support regional airports from the impacts of air passenger duty devolution. We are carefully considering the evidence we have received from stakeholders and will respond in due course.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with representatives of the maritime sector to improve safety in that sector.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    In accordance with the Department’s priority of maintaining high standards of safety and security in transport, matters relating to improving safety are frequently discussed at our meetings with a range of maritime organisations.

  • Liam Byrne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Liam Byrne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information she holds on the progress made by South Yorkshire Police in its review of its handling of allegations made against Sir Cliff Richard in August 2014; and what discussions her Department has had with South Yorkshire Police on that review.

    Mr John Hayes

    Any investigation, or subsequent review of any investigation, is an operational matter for the relevant Chief Officer. The Department does not routinely discuss, or seek information, from the force concerned and is not aware of the review into the force’s handling of allegations made against Sir Cliff Richard referred to by the Rt. Hon. Member.