Category: Speeches

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which services have been sold for profit by (a) her Department and (b) the College of Policing to the Saudi criminal justice system in the last five years.

    Mike Penning

    We are rightly proud of the British model of policing by consent and of the high level of skill and expertise across policing in this country. The College of Policing, which is independent of Government, ensures that respect for human rights and dignity is integral to each programme it delivers.

    Course developers and trainers are required to include a bespoke human rights and ethical decision-making element in each course. Before undertaking any international work, the College refers to the International Policing Assistance Board (IPAB), which assesses all requests against British values and interests. IPAB comprises policing representatives and those from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development and devolved administrations.

    The College always acts in accordance with HM Treasury’s guidelines on ‘Managing Public Money’, which includes guidance on commercial charging rates. The Home Office do not keep records on the travel of College of Policing officials.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of relapsed blood cancer patients who will no longer be able to access second stem cell transplants as a result of the NHS England decision published on 11 July 2016 to no longer routinely fund second stem cell transplants for those patients.

    David Mowat

    The Clinical Priorities Advisory Group which makes recommendations to the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group uses a defined process to prioritise treatments based on a combination of cost and patient benefit. The process includes an impact assessment that estimated that up to 22 patients per year by 2021 might be affected by this decision.

  • Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-11-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the last five years, what proportion of the UK’s aid budget was allocated to research into mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

    Baroness Verma

    DFID has not supported any research into mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases in the last five years.

  • Lord Campbell of Pittenweem – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Campbell of Pittenweem on 2016-01-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether their most recent estimate of the unit cost of the UK’s F-35Bs has been revised (1) upwards, or (2) downwards, as a result of updated information provided by the US Joint Strike Fighter programme.

    Earl Howe

    We continue to see a reduction in aircraft unit costs which is in line with the estimates shown in the annual US Selected Acquisition Report. The UK’s F-35 programme remains within its cost approval limit as detailed in the National Audit Office Major Projects Report 2015.

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Zephyr 8 UAVs his Department plans to buy; what the estimated cost per unit is of that equipment; what the programme through life cost is of that equipment; and where he plans units of that equipment will be based.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    As part of our commitment to providing next-generation battlefield intelligence capabilities to the UK Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defence is planning to contract for the demonstration of two Zephyr Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. This contract will allow the UK to understand whether Zephyr can fulfil the requirement for a high-altitude persistent surveillance capability, as announced in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

    The £10.6 million contract, due to be signed imminently with Airbus Defence and Space, is for an operational concept demonstration rather than individual platforms, so unit costs are not held. Furthermore, as the Zephyr demonstrators will not be in-service, they will not be based at a particular location and there will be no related support or through-life costs.

    Tests are due to take place in 2017 to assess Zephyr’s capabilities and explore its potential.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

    Alun Cairns

    Cleaning services within the Wales Office are undertaken by outsourced providers under Ministry of Justice contracts.

    Rates of pay for cleaners are determined by their respective employers and not held by the Wales Office or Ministry of Justice.

    All employers are obligated to pay at least the National Minimum Wage and the new National Living Wage from April 2016.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 31078, on immigration officers, what policy, guidance or code of practice is provided to immigration officers carrying out equipment interference.

    James Brokenshire

    The Office of Surveillance Commissioners (OSC) provides independent oversight of the use of property interference powers by law enforcement, including immigration officers. The Police Act 1997 was amended in 2013 to enable immigration officers to carry out property interference. The OSC regularly inspects law enforcement use of the power and scrutinises all individual property interference authorisations. A statutory code of practice for covert surveillance and property interference which can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/384975/Covert_Surveillance_Property_Interrefernce_web__2_.pdf

    applies to all agencies with property interference powers.

    The Investigatory Powers Bill will provide enhanced safeguards for the use of equipment interference, including the requirement that equipment interference warrants are subject to the double-lock authorisation safeguard. The Bill will also create a new and more powerful Investigatory Powers Commissioner who will keep the use of this important power under close and regular review. A new Equipment Interference Code of Practice was published in draft alongside the Investigatory Powers Bill. This Code will provide further guidance on the use of equipment interference powers to all relevant agencies.

  • Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the target time is for processing applications to the Social Fund; and what performance was against that target in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16.

    Justin Tomlinson

    There is no overall target or performance data for the Social Fund as they vary depending on each of the individual programmes.

  • David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36277, how many requests have been made for asylum applications to be transferred for consideration by the UK from (a) Greece and (b) Italy since UK experts were deployed to support the respective Dublin units.

    James Brokenshire

    Whilst all asylum claims including those accepted under Dublin III are registered on the Home Office Case Information Database (CID), this data is not currently held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) improve access to and (b) decrease waiting times for services provided by GPs.

    David Mowat

    To implement the Government’s commitment to transform access to general practice (GP), £175 million has been invested in the GP Access Fund to test improved and innovative access to GP services. Across the two waves of the Access Fund, there are 57 schemes covering over 2,500 practices and 18 million patients – a third of the population – have benefited from improved access and transformational change at local level.

    This includes more appointments being made available, especially at times more convenient for patients, such as weekday evenings and weekends. It also includes different approaches like telephone consultations and better use of the wider primary care workforce (such as Advanced Nurse Practitioners, pharmacists, the voluntary sector, physiotherapists and paramedics) to deliver improved access to patients.

    These approaches have helped release local GP capacity, improve patient choice, and more appropriately matched the needs of patients with the most appropriate professional to care for them. In addition to Access Fund sites, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) may offer local initiatives for improving access to GPs.

    Practices in the GP Access Fund are testing an automated appointment measuring interface (the GP Appointment Tool) to give them detailed information about their activity and how it varies over time. This will help practices match their supply of appointments more closely to demand. It will be available for every practice from 2017-18.

    The General Practice Forward View, published in April 2016, announced that an extra £2.4 billion a year will be invested in GP services by 2020-21. As part of overall investment in general practice, NHS England will provide over £500 million of recurrent funding by 2020-21, on top of current primary medical care allocations, to enable CCGs to commission and fund extra capacity across England. This is to ensure that by 2020, everyone has access to GP services, including sufficient routine appointments at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand, alongside effective access to out-of-hours and urgent care services.