Category: Speeches

  • Kirsten  Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times have mines and improvised explosive devices been detected in the vicinity of UK military bases in the last 10 years.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Specific statistics regarding mines and IEDs either detected or causing injuries or fatalities in the vicinity of UK military bases are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what decisions his Department has made on the distribution of funding to relieve the immediate pressures in general practice, set out in NHS England’s General Practice Forward View, published in April 2016.

    Alistair Burt

    The General Practice Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016, sets out that an extra £2.4 billion a year will be invested in general practice services by 2020/21, representing a 14% increase in real terms. This means that investment will rise from £9.6 billion a year in 2015/16 to over £12 billion a year by 2020/21.

    There will be a national £508 million five year Sustainability and Transformation package for general practice to help support struggling practices, develop the workforce, stimulate care redesign and tackle workload. This package will include:

    ― £56 million, to include a new practice resilience programme starting in 2016/17, and the offer of specialist services to general practitioners suffering from burn out and stress;

    ― £206 million for workforce measures to grow the medical and non-medical workforce; and

    ― £246 million to support practices in redesigning services, including a requirement on clinical commissioning groups to provide around £171 million of practice transformational support and a new national £30 million development programme for general practice.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which agencies perform child protection checks prior to a self-employed adult being permitted to provide extracurricular activities to children for which activity or sport there is no governing body.

    Tracey Crouch

    The current system relies on parents to ask self-employed coaches or private providers whether DBS checks have been obtained and what their safeguarding arrangements are.

    Sport England has recently provided input on safeguarding into Baroness Grey-Thompson’s Duty of Care Review, which is exploring issues around the duty of care that sport has towards its participants. The terms of reference for the review are wide ranging, covering many aspects relating to safety and wellbeing, and safeguarding is one area under consideration.

    Sport England is also currently looking at how it can improve safeguarding through its sponsorship of and investment into the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), a partnership between the NSPCC, Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland and Sport Wales.

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass contract in Scotland with Serco for asylum accommodation and the press notice issued by Serco on 21 September 2016, Compass contract in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which headings will be covered in the due diligence process.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Serco are considering the acquisition of their sub contractor in Scotland and Northern Ireland region and are undertaking analysis of all pertinent matters. The due diligence activity is a matter for Serco.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he plans to take in response to Bermuda’s decision to (a) reject the Prime Minister’s request to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership and (b) reject the Prime Minister’s request to hold a consultation on adopting such a register.

    James Duddridge

    We have asked the Bermudian authorities to meet the following criteria: a) UK law enforcement and tax authorities must be able to access company beneficial ownership information without restriction, subject to relevant safeguards; b) These competent authorities should be able to quickly identify all companies that a particular beneficial owner has a stake in without needing to submit multiple and repeated requests; and c) Companies or their beneficial owners must not be alerted to the fact that an investigation is underway. We are continuing our dialogue with the Bermudan authorities on this and have offered any technical support that might be required as they develop their proposals My Rt Hon Friend, the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Philip Hammond MP), Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, met with Premier Dunkley on 26 August in London.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many recorded suicides there were by (a) men under 18, (b) men aged 18 to 30, (c) men aged over 30, (d) women under 18, (e) women aged 18 to 30 and (f) women aged over 30 in each London borough in each year since 2010.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Leeds North West of 12 January 2016 on meeting hon. Members with constituencies along the River Wharfe.

    Rory Stewart

    The Secretary of State received five letters in January from the hon. Member for Leeds North West about the recent flooding in Leeds. The Secretary of State met him and all Members for Leeds constituencies on 20 January to discuss the flooding in Leeds, as well as flood defences on the nearby River Aire (to which the River Wharfe is a tributary). The Secretary of State will be responding to the specific points raised by the hon. Member for Leeds North West within the next week. In the meantime, I can confirm that I am happy to meet MPs with constituencies along the River Wharfe

  • Lucy Allan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lucy Allan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Allan on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle cyber harassment.

    Karen Bradley

    Legislation is in place to deal with internet trolls, cyber-stalking and cyber harassment, and perpetrators of grossly offensive, obscene or menacing behaviour. Through the Criminal Justice Act 2015, we have strengthened two communications offences which can be used to prosecute misuse of social media: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, giving the police longer to investigate either offence, and increasing the maximum penalty for the former to two years imprisonment.

    Through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, we have brought together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups to work in partnership to help keep children and young people safe online.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of her Department’s reform of AS and A-level qualifications on the number of hours of study students are undertaking in post-16 education.

    Nick Gibb

    The number of guided learning hours for AS and A levels have not changed as a result of our reforms. However, with the move to linear qualifications, there will no longer be the routine and automatic external assessment of students at the end of year 12 which places unnecessary burdens on students’ and teachers’ time.

    Study programmes are funded per student rather than per qualification. Funding rates are based on an average of 600 hours per year of planned activities per student.

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to support the efforts to find a cure for the Zika virus.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK is supporting and commissioning research to better understand Zika virus, its epidemiology and impacts, with a particular focus on the risk to developing countries, and research into interventions to address this virus. This includes:

    • DFID and Wellcome providing funding to commission Zika research on specific topics including understanding the spread of the disease and variation between Zika strains, the effectiveness of new and existing approaches to vector control.
    • A general call for research proposals jointly issued by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the Newton Fund for rapid turnaround projects. These studies will include disease surveillance, epidemiology, Zika transmission, research into Zika virus and clinical outcomes.
    • The Department of Health’s UK Vaccine Network funding the University of Glasgow to develop explore a Zika vaccine.