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 2016-03-24.

    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.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what representations he has received from universities on the effect of the UK leaving the EU on those institutions; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Robin Walker

    ​​The Department for Exiting the EU has engaged with a number of higher education institutions and groups including Universities UK and Royal Academies. Over the next few months the department will continue to engage with key stakeholders in business and civil society, including universities, through a series of roundtables, bi-laterals and visits across the UK.

    We have been clear that we want to create an environment in which the UK as a whole can continue to be a world leader in research, science and the tertiary education sector more broadly. The government has already announced that UK researchers can still apply for Horizon 2020 projects and the Treasury will underwrite the payment of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU. Equally, EU students applying for a place at an English university or further education institution in the 2017 to 2018 academic year will continue to be eligible for student loans and grants – and will be for the duration of their course.

  • Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-11-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the change in tax revenue as a result of the introduction of new pension freedoms.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The expected impact over the forecast period of the changes made to private pensions taxation as announced at Budget 2014 can be found in Table 2.1 (p.56) of the Budget 2014 document here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293759/37630_Budget_2014_Web_Accessible.pdf

    Following a consultation period the Chancellor made subsequent announcements relating to this measure. The Exchequer impact of these can be found in Table 2.1 (p.65) of the Autumn Statement 2014 document here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/382327/44695_Accessible.pdf

    “

  • Lord Glenarthur – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Glenarthur – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Glenarthur on 2016-01-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government at what date they expect the new rolling stock for the Caledonian Sleeper operated under franchise by Serco Group to be brought into service.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    Responsibility for the Caledonian Sleeper service is devolved to the Scottish Government.

    At Autumn Statement 2011 the government committed to invest £50m in the Caledonian Sleeper service, conditional on co-funding from the Scottish Government, to support this valuable cross-border service. This funding was transferred as part of the 2012 Supplementary Estimates round.

  • Jonathan Lord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jonathan Lord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Lord on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the proportion of students who left school with work experience in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) the South East in each year since 2010.

    Nick Boles

    The Department does not collect data on the proportion of students that have left secondary education having undertaken a work experience placement.

    Most students aged 16-19 benefit from work experience to inform career choices, develop the relevant occupational skills and help instil the attitudes and behaviours expected at work. Work experience can take many forms including work tasters, participation in social action projects, or a work placement.

  • 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 2016-02-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to acquire Zephyr high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, and if so, for what purpose.

    Earl Howe

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

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the additional cost to his Department in the last year of appeal hearings at the First Tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) which were adjourned because the Department of Work and Pensions did not send a representative in the last 12 months.

    Mike Penning

    The information requested is not held centrally.