Category: Speeches

Deidre Brock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the coastguard search and rescue capability for the Firth of Forth is.

Mr Robert Goodwill

HM Coastguard search and rescue capability consists of the tasking and coordination of rescue resources, the volunteer Coastguard Rescue Service (CRS) and the provision of Search and Rescue Helicopters.

Tasking and Coordination of Rescue Assets

HM Coastguards ‘National Network’ enables the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) and 9 Coastguard Operations Centres (CGOC) to coordinate any incident anywhere around the UK coast. Workload is therefore managed on a national basis enabling national capability and resource to be available to any incident, for example in the Firth of Forth, on the basis of the nature of the incident.

Volunteer Coastguard Rescue Service

There are 4 volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRT) covering the Firth of Forth with the following operational capabilities.

CRT	Water Safety and Rescue	Land Search	Mud Rescue	Rope Rescue	First Aid
Leven	✓	✓		✓	✓
Kinghorn	✓	✓		✓	✓
South Queensferry	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Fisherrow	✓	✓		✓	✓
North Berwick	✓	✓		✓	✓

Additionally there are 5 full time Maritime Coastguard Agency employees who are responsible for the management, training and oversight of these teams.

Search and Rescue Helicopters

The Search and Rescue Helicopters based at Inverness and Prestwick provide capability for the Firth of Forth. However, it should be noted that the speed and range of the aircraft located at the four HM Coastguard bases in Scotland means that HM Coastguard has the ability to surge up to five SAR helicopters to a single incident in Scotland, should it be necessary to do so.

01/01/2023

Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with representatives of car manufacturers who have construction plants in the UK about expanding their operations in this country.

Mr Nick Hurd

The automotive sector is of vital importance to the UK. In 2015, car production hit a ten year high at almost 1.6 million units adding £14.6 billion of Gross Value Added to the UK economy. We are in regular dialogue with companies in the sector on a range of issues and work in partnership with the Automotive Council on an Automotive Industrial Strategy to deliver sustainable growth in the sector.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many pregnant women have been offered personal birth budgets since February 2016.

Mr Philip Dunne

Personal budgets for maternity services is one of the recommendations in Better Births, the report of the independent review of maternity services. Implementation of the review is being taken forward through the Maternity Transformation Board.

NHS England is working with seven Maternity Choice and Personalisation Pioneers, encompassing 36 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in total, to develop and test ways of improving choice in maternity services. The pioneer sites, each made up of clusters of CCGs, are working to widen choice across CCG boundaries and deepen choice by providing opportunities for new providers.

The first stage of this is the development of Personal Maternity Care Budgets (PMCBs) as mechanisms to empower women to take control in choosing who provides their care. Unlike Personal Health Budgets, PMCBs do not offer the option of direct payments to women. They are intended instead to provide a visible, transparent and active mechanism for women to choose where they wish to receive their antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care and will facilitate the flow of money between providers, depending on these choices.

NHS England is working with pioneers on the design of PMCBs and the pioneers are also developing local implementation plans, including support tools for women, general practitioners, midwives and other relevant healthcare professions, to help women make meaningful choices, with the aim of rolling them out progressively in the seven Pioneer areas from November 2016. Their impact will be evaluated to inform the promotion and adoption of PMCBs across the country.

01/01/2023
Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what information they have about the number of persons brought to justice for trafficking in persons, enslavement, forced prostitution, labour exploitation, and other similar crimes in the last three years, both in the UK and in other jurisdictions.

Lord Bates

The number of perpetrators of ‘slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour’, ‘human trafficking for sexual exploitation’ and ‘human trafficking for non-sexual exploitation’ found guilty and sentenced in each of the last three years is available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014

The ‘Outcomes by Offence Tables’ should be selected, and can be filtered for each of the three offences listed above. The UK Government does not hold information on the numbers brought to justice in other jurisdictions.

01/01/2023
Callum McCaig – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Health and Safety Executive on ensuring reductions in operators’ production costs do not adversely affect the safety of offshore workers in the oil and gas industry.

Justin Tomlinson

I have had discussions with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) officials on the range of factors affecting offshore safety. HSE has confirmed that it is placing increasing emphasis upon maintenance standards as part of its interventions at offshore installations. I support this approach.

01/01/2023
Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many persons are now officially held in detention without charge in Iraq, and their affiliations, and what steps they are taking to collect accurate data about such detainees.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We do not have accurate figures on the numbers being held without charge or their affiliations. During my visit to Iraq in November, I met the Iraqi Minister of Justice, Haider Al Zamili, and raised a number of issues relating to the justice system, prison system and rehabilitation processes. Our Ambassador in Baghdad has raised detention without charge with the Minister of Justice on several occasions.

Last year, the Iraqi Minister of Justice visited London to gain a better understanding of how the prison system operates in the UK. The Minister has committed to ensuring that the issue of detention without charge is addressed and is investigating how the process of charge and trial can be speeded up, as part of the Government of Iraq’s strategy to combat overcrowding in prisons. We will continue to encourage the Ministry to improve the prison system and offer assistance where we can.

01/01/2023
Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 8 February (HL5407), whether they were consulted before NHS England announced that it would be introducing a sugar tax by 2020, and if so, what views they expressed.

Lord Prior of Brampton

There has been a wide-ranging public debate on tackling childhood obesity. We are interested to see the results of NHS England’s consultation on these proposals.

The Childhood Obesity Strategy will be published in the summer.

01/01/2023

Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much UK steel in (a) value and (b) weight his Department has used in projects it funds in each of the last 12 months.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Network Rail procures approximately 120,000 tonnes of steel rail per annum from Tata’s plant in Scunthorpe. Network Rail procures a further 8,000 tonnes of steel per annum for niche products supplied by Arcelor Mittal (Spain) and Voestalpine (Austria). Steel requirements for other projects funded by the Department are procured by prime contractors and therefore figures are not available. A breakdown of directly sourced UK steel is shown below for the last 13 rail periods.

Railway period	Tonnes	Spend £m
P1, 15/16	13,599	8.7
P2, 15/16	13,151	8.8
P3, 15/16	9,744	6.0
P4, 15/16	9,091	5.8
P5, 15/16	6,560	4.2
P6, 15/16	9,109	5.9
P7, 15/16	9,416	6.1
P8, 15/16	10,494	6.9
P9, 15/16	6,752	4.2
P10, 15/16	4,640	3.0
P11, 15/16	4,636	2.8
P12, 15/16	7,526	4.7
P13, 15/16 (Forecast)	18,251	8.7
TOTAL LAST 12 MONTHS	122,969	75.7

01/01/2023

Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they propose to increase immigration and asylum chamber fees, and what assessment they have made of the likely impact of those increased fees on access to justice.

Lord Faulks

We’re protecting the most vulnerable from any fee increase, including those who receive asylum support and cases involving children being supported or housed by a local authority. But it is also right that the taxpayer does not subsidise those who choose to challenge a decision made by the Home Office before the Tribunal.

We have a duty to the public to reduce the deficit and ensure sustainable funding for Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service.

We have published a full impact assessment alongside the consultation document published on the Government website.

01/01/2023
Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the annual saving which would be generated by the planned replacement of widowed parent’s allowance by bereavement allowance.

Priti Patel

Bereavement support payments will be introduced from April 2017 for new claimants only. Existing claimants of Widowed Parent’s Allowance and Bereavement Allowance will remain on those benefits for the lifetime of their awards therefore there will be no impact on them or their families.

Bereavement Support Payment is forecasted to cost the Department for Work and Pensions an extra £100m in the first three years. The full cost to the exchequer will be greater than this as, unlike its predecessors, Bereavement Support Payment will not be taxable.

Further information on forecast expenditure is provided via the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487612/outturn-and-forecast-autumn-statement-2015.xlsx

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01/01/2023