Category: Speeches

  • Colleen Fletcher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Colleen Fletcher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Colleen Fletcher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appellants in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England are waiting for the Tribunals Service to list their first-tier tribunal social security and child support appeal in respect of employment and support allowance.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service, hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ decisions on a range of benefits including employment and support allowance (ESA).

    There are always a number of ‘live’ appeals at the various stages of processing before being listed for a tribunal hearing, and not just those waiting for a listing date to be allocated. The data also includes appeals which may not require a final hearing; have had an initial hearing but have not had a final decision; or are stayed, pending the outcome of other proceedings.

    As at 30 September 2015 there were a total of 106 ESA appeals waiting to be heard in the Coventry venues; for the West Midlands[1] 783; and for England[2] 11,976.

    1. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Worcester (Fownes), Kidderminster, Coventry (CMCB), Worcester (Magistrates Court), Hereford (Magistrates Court), Leamington Spa, Nuneaton and Walsall
    2. Excludes SSCS Scotland processing centre and the following venues: Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Cardiff, Caernafon, Carmarthen, Colwyn Bay, Cwmbran, Haverfordwest, Llandrindod Wells, Langstone, Llandudno, Llanelli, Llangefni, Llwynypia, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Port Talbot, Newtown, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Prestatyn, Swansea, Welshpool, Wrexham, Bargoed and Ebbw Vale

    Data are drawn from a live administrative database. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system and are the best data available.

  • Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Murrison on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what metrics she uses in monitoring human rights abuse (a) by governments and (b) in countries in receipt of UK aid.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID works closely with the FCO to assess and monitor the civil and political rights context in the countries where it has programmes. DFID draws on the FCO’s annual Human Rights and Democracy Report, which takes international human rights obligations as its starting point, and assesses FCO country specific updates to that report. It takes into account the views of a range of sources including EU and other development partners, and civil society reports.

    DFID provides aid to governments when it is satisfied that they share Britain’s commitments to reducing poverty and to respecting human rights. Before providing aid to a partner government, DFID assesses their commitment to four Partnership Principles. These include a commitment to poverty reduction; respecting human rights and other international obligations; improving public financial management, promoting good governance and transparency, and fighting corruption; and strengthening domestic accountability.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to increase the level of voter registration in schools, colleges and universities.

    John Penrose

    The Government has made it easier and quicker to register to vote than ever before through online registration. Since June 2014, 3.6 million people aged 16-24 have applied to register to vote, with 2.7 million of these applications made online. The Government has also worked with various youth organisations such as NUS and Sixth Form Colleges Association, to encourage voter registration among students.

  • Will Quince – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Will Quince – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Will Quince on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34465, if his Department will take steps to allow web-users to include honours when completing Government online forms.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    My Department provides a wide variety of online forms across multiple systems. Most of these are designed to enable web users to use perform a transaction, such as to book a driving theory test. Therefore we only ask our users the minimum information required to process their requests to enable them to complete these transactions as quickly as possible.

    I am mindful that there could be an additional cost to the taxpayer in making changes to online systems to capture and store additional data.

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

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the annual cost of providing assessment and testing materials in primary schools in England in each of the last five years.

    Lord Nash

    The comprehensive net expenditure of the Standards and Testing Agency in each of the last five years was as follows:

    Year ending

    Cost

    Year ending March 2015

    £46.2m

    Year ending March 2014

    £45.9m

    Year ending March 2013

    £38.7m

    Year ending March 2012

    £28.8m

    Year ending March 2011

    £40.3m
  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NICE about the effectiveness of guidelines to tackle urinary tract infections that are (a) acute and (b) chronic.

    Nicola Blackwood

    No such discussions have taken place.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline on Urinary tract infection in under 16s: diagnosis and management (CG54) in August 2007. NICE has also published Quality Standards on Urinary tract infection in children and young people (QS36) in July 2013 and Urinary tract infections in adults (QS90) in June 2015.

    NICE periodically reviews its technology appraisal methods and processes to ensure that they remain appropriate in the light of wider developments.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the statement by Ned Price, US National Security Council Spokesman, of 8 October 2016, on reviewing the US support provided to the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemen, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the UK Government carrying out such a review of UK support.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    ​The UK Government is deeply concerned by the conflict in Yemen, including recent events in Sana’a. All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application. The key test for our continued arms exports to Saudi Arabia in relation to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is whether there is a clear risk that those items might be used in a serious violation of IHL. The situation is kept under careful and continual review.

  • Keith Vaz – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Keith Vaz – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve children’s oral health in England through (a) diet and (b) other methods.

    Jane Ellison

    Our comprehensive childhood obesity strategy, due to be published in the new year, will be looking at areas for potential action including diet and sugar consumption which are risk factors in poor oral health and tooth decay.

    The Department is working with NHS England to test a possible new dental contract which will increase access and improve oral health. Building on earlier pilots we are about to move to a new stage of testing by establishing prototypes. The new dental prototypes will continue to test a clinical care pathway focussed on preventing future dental disease. This approach includes offering patients personalised care plans and advice to both patients and parents on diet and good oral hygiene.

    In 2014 Public Health England (PHE) published an evidence informed toolkit for local authorities to support their work on oral health improvement among children and young people. PHE also published an evidence based toolkit for dental teams to support preventive advice and treatment for their patients. These toolkits include oral health improvement programmes and advice focussing on a healthier diet and reducing the consumption of free sugars.

    In addition these toolkits include other methods to improve oral health, for example tooth brushing programmes and fluoride varnish application.

    The PHE report Local authorities improving oral health: commissioning better oral health for children and young people: An evidence-informed toolkit for local authorities is attached and can be found at:

    www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321503/CBOHMaindocumentJUNE2014.pdf

    The PHE report Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention is attached and can be found at:

    www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367563/DBOHv32014OCTMainDocument_3.pdf

    “

  • Lucy Powell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lucy Powell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Powell on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in receipt of free school meals dropped out of grammar schools in each selective and partially-selective education authority area in the most recent year for which data is available.

    Nick Gibb

    The information required to answer this question is not held and compiling it would be a very complex task which would incur disproportionate cost.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her policy is on river dredging as a means of reducing flood risk.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government’s flood risk management work focuses on where it delivers the greatest flood risk benefit to people and property. Dredging and other kinds of conveyance work form an important part of the Environment Agency’s maintenance regime. The effectiveness of dredging in managing flood risk varies substantially for each stretch of river. The Environment Agency is spending a total of £21m on dredging in 2014/15 and 2015/16.