Category: Speeches

  • Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Garnier on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of times that lawyers have not been able to meet their clients in custody in England and Wales at less than 12 hours’ notice due to staff shortages, staff disputes or other administrative reasons in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how many Crown or magistrates’ court hearings have been adjourned or delayed as a result in each of those years.

    Mike Penning

    The specific information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. We are committed to ensuring that prisoners have appropriate and early access to their legal representatives. Guidance to both prisons and legal practitioners on facilitating legal visits is published in Prison Service Instruction 16/2011.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on a person providing child maintenance having their payments regarded for the purpose of an income assessment for means-tested benefit.

    Priti Patel

    A person who is providing child maintenance does not have their payments disregarded for the purpose of an income assessment, in a means-tested benefit, as this would amount to the tax payer meeting a person’s liabilities.

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

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when children’s social care services in Doncaster were transferred to a trust; what were the costs, including legal fees, of making the transfer; how long the transfer took to implement once the decision in principle was made; what Ofsted inspections have taken place in Doncaster since the trust’s establishment; and what was the Ofsted rating of the services in any such reports.

    Lord Nash

    Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council was issued with a Statutory Direction in August 2013, which required the Council to cooperate in setting up a Trust. The Trust became operational on 30 September 2014. The Department for Education met the costs of setting up the trust, which came to £2.9 million.

    Ofsted inspected children’s services in Doncaster in September 2015. The judgement was inadequate overall. However, the inspection found improvement since the previous inspection in 2012, when all sub-judgements were inadequate. In 2015 all sub-judgements were requires improvement, save for children in need of help and protection, which was inadequate; and adoption performance, which was good.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the number of eye clinic liaison officers.

    David Mowat

    The Government fully appreciates the impact that sight loss can have on a person’s life and the importance of information being available for those newly diagnosed with sight loss, including signposting patients to appropriate support and rehabilitation services.

    Eye clinics and their staffing, including eye clinic liaison officers, are commissioned and funded by individual clinical commissioning groups on the basis of local assessments of need.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions Ministers in his Department have declined to disclose information to the Intelligence and Security Committee under Schedule 1 of the Justice and Security Act 2013; and if he will make a statement.

    Michael Fallon

    None.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current foodbank provision in London.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The Government does not hold data on numbers of food banks. We commissioned a study to look at this issue in 2013. The “Review of Food Aid in the UK” published in February 2014 was a short, literature based study designed to improve understanding of food aid provision in the UK, who makes use of it, and why. It was not a complete assessment of food aid as it found a variety of types of food aid, with mostly community-led provision responding to local needs.

    Defra does not estimate numbers of households experiencing food insecurity. There is no single definition of food insecurity. The factors that impact on household food security are complex and include economic, social and environmental issues.

  • John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage the take up of organ donor cards among South Asian and other minority ethnic communities.

    Jane Ellison

    UK Government provides NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) with around £60 million a year to support organ donation. In 2013, NHSBT launched a UK – wide organ donation and transplantation strategy Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020, setting the agenda for increasing organ donation and transplantation rates. The Department has also established the National Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Transplant Alliance with the aim of raising awareness about the need for stem cell and organ donation, and increasing the number of people from BAME communities who can benefit from either a stem cell or organ transplant.

    South Asian people are more likely to need a kidney transplant than a Caucasian person but families are less likely to consent to organ donation. The result is that patients from South Asian background wait much longer for organ transplants, particularly for a kidney transplant. Therefore, to support the wider 2020 strategy, the Department funded Kidney Research UK to undertake a Peer Educator Programme within the Pakistani Muslim community in Birmingham with the aim of raising awareness of the lack of donors and increasing the numbers on the bone marrow and organ donation registers. Lessons learnt will support the roll-out of the programme in other similar areas of work.

    NHSBT also has a wide range of leaflets promoting organ donation that are translated into a number of different South Asian languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

  • Huw Irranca-Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Huw Irranca-Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2016 to Question 22432, what the figure is for high actual or potential loss listed in the Statement of Principle.

    Robert Buckland

    The Criminal Justice Act 1987 provides that “The Director may investigate any suspected offence which appears to him on reasonable grounds to involve serious or complex fraud.”

    Each case is assessed on its own facts and merits.

    The Statement of Principle sets out some of the factors that the Director will take into account when considering the matter for investigation. All of these will be considered, and there is no minimum requirement or measure in respect of the different factors.

    Each on its own or taken in combination can establish sufficient grounds for the Director to decide that the case is sufficiently large, complex or of wide public interest that it should be dealt with by the Serious Fraud Office.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what checks his Department has in place to ensure that credit reference firms do not sell-on electoral roll data.

    John Penrose

    Under the Regulation 115 of the Representation of the People (England and Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2002, anyone who is supplied with the full register is not permitted to sell a copy to any person, disclose any information contained in it, or use it for anything apart from the specified purpose for which the full register has been supplied. In contravening this provision, a person would be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, which currently stands at £5000.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessments his Department has made of the potential economic benefit of (a) opening new stations on the Great Western Main line, (b) running later services on the Great Western Main line and (c) reducing rail fares on the Great Western Main line.

    Claire Perry

    Any specific project that may bring such benefits to passengers is assessed during the planning stage of that project.

    I completely understand your concern about the cost of some rail fares and the impact that this can have on people’s budgets. That is why we have capped the rail fares we regulate at inflation (RPI) for three years running, and will continue to do so for the life of this parliament. We have also stopped operators increasing individual fares by up to 2% more. This means those fares we regulate will only rise by 1% in 2016 making it the lowest fare increase since 2010.