Category: Speeches

  • Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wendy Morton on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how she plans to implement the cross-governmental aid strategy.

    Justine Greening

    The UK aid strategy sets out our strategy to defeat poverty, tackle instability and create prosperity in developing countries. Not only is this the right thing to do; it is also strongly in our national interest. For the first time ever, development is becoming a truly cross-Government agenda and I am working with my colleagues to deliver that.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on measures to improve air quality; and what discussions he has had with Highways England on the level of priority it accords to issues of air quality.

    Andrew Jones

    Ministers and officials in the Department for Transport regularly meet with both Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Highways England on measures to improve air quality, public health and achieve compliance with EU air quality standards. On 17 December 2015 Government published the Air Quality Action Plan which sets out a comprehensive approach for meeting these goals. Air Quality is a clear priority for Highways England, backed up by a dedicated £100 million fund as part of the Road Investment Strategy published in December 2014.

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his most recent assessment is of the number and location of sites which will be affected by construction of phase one of High Speed 2 which are known habitats of species subject to the strict protection requirements in Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Phase one of High Speed 2 does not adversely affect any sites designated as a Special Protection Area or a Special Area of Conservation.

    HS2 Ltd have carried out habitats regulations screening assessments to determine if the railway might indirectly affect certain species associated with the Southwest London Waterbodies SPA/Ramsar site in the Colne Valley, and to consider potential effects of traffic pollution in the Chilterns Beechwood Special Area of Conservation. No significant effect was determined in either case.

  • Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the number of people who died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome in each of the last three years.

    Mr Rob Wilson

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

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will take steps to ensure that the proposals to more closely align the approval process for the new cancer drugs fund with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence do not limit access to potential life-saving treatments such as Avastin for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

    George Freeman

    Since October 2010, the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) has helped over 84,000 people in England in accessing life-extending cancer drugs that would not otherwise have been available to them.

    NHS England is responsible for the operational management of the Fund and has consulted, jointly with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, on new arrangements for the CDF which will go live on 1 July 2016.

    NHS England has advised that, under these new arrangements, it envisages that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.

  • Lord Richards of Herstmonceux – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Richards of Herstmonceux – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Richards of Herstmonceux on 2016-07-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to terminate the contract with CarillionAmey for service family accommodation, and if so, what plans they have for the service to be provided in-house.

    Earl Howe

    In response to the ‘Get Well Plan’ agreed with the Secretary of State for Defence in February, CarillionAmey’s performance has improved. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is now seeking assurances that the performance improvements made are sustainable over the life of the contracts for which CarillionAmey is responsible. The MOD will continue to prepare contingency plans, for potential termination, in the event that sustained improvements are not made.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with her counterparts in (a) Chad, (b) Cameroon, (c) Niger and (d) Nigeria on the humanitarian situation in the Lake Chad basin.

    James Wharton

    We are deeply concerned about the scale of the humanitarian crisis across the Lake Chad Basin. This will require a sustained, multi-year response to support communities devastated by the conflict. The UK is scaling up our support.

    In addition to the £90 million of humanitarian assistance we are already delivering in the region, the UK has now pledged a further £80 million of humanitarian funding. £50 million will go towards meeting the needs of the worst affected communities in Nigeria with food assistance and access to essential household items and services, and £30 million to support those who have been affected by the spread of Boko Haram into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

    HMG is using a range of opportunities to push our partners and governments across the region on scaling up and improving the quality of the response. This includes calling for a Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation which took place in July 2016; a joint demarche to the UN with the French and USA on the need to improve humanitarian capacity and performance in mid-August; chairing a Lake Chad Basin meeting in the margins of UN General assembly in September 2016, and ongoing high level bilateral meetings with UN officials.

  • Jo Stevens – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jo Stevens – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on (a) IT systems and (b) cyber-security in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12, (iii) 2012-13, (iv) 2013-14, (v) 2014-15 and (vi) 2015-16 to date.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The available information is set out below:

    (a) IT costs which can be found in the published DWP Annual Report and Accounts, are summarised as follows:

    £ (to nearest 1,000)

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    2015-16 to September

    Total IT

    960,572,000

    926,912,000

    1,111,308,000

    802,134,000

    732,352,000

    327,006,000*

    *Please note that the figure for 2015/16 to September has not yet been audited for accounts.

    (b) DWP has tracked all core aspects of expenditure on cyber security, apart from in specific IT systems, since April 2015. The current estimate up to September 15/16 is £5.6m, with further significant investment planned for the second half of the year.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the effectiveness of Government’s response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

    James Duddridge

    The UK intervention in Sierra Leone was instrumental in containing the Ebola epidemic and preventing the dire predictions from global health bodies materialising. Now that Sierra Leone has been declared Ebola transmission-free, our focus is to help the Government to develop a new approach to the delivery of services that will improve resilience and enable the country to handle future crises independently, whether they be health-related or caused by other factors.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she expects to be able to announce how carbon capture and storage research and deployment will be funded in future; and if she will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Decisions on which technologies to support with research, development and demonstration funding will be made in due course, in the context of our agreed policy objectives, with a clear focus on targeting investment in areas of demonstrable market failure. A generating station connected to a complete CCS system is an eligible technology for Contracts for Difference under the Contract for Difference Regulations. Contracts for Difference for CCS are awarded on direction of my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Whether or not the Secretary of State would consider awarding a CfDs to a specific project would be subject to the circumstances at the time, including factors such as the value for money and affordability of a project and competing demands on available budgets.