Category: Speeches

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to Belize and Guatemala on (a) adhering to the provisions established under the 2005 Confidence Building Measures related to the disputed border between those countries and (b) steps to improve confidence and trust between those countries.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I last met Foreign Minister Elrington of Belize and Foreign Minister Morales of Guatemala on 25 May to discuss confidence building measures and further steps towards referring the border dispute to the International Court of Justice. We continue to encourage both countries to enhance confidence and trust between them by engaging in constructive dialogue, building on the provisions established by the 2005 Confidence Building Measures. We fund a number of projects to support increased economic activity in the border region, with the aim of reducing the need to cross the border illegally.

  • Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-09-02.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to minimise the administrative effect on small businesses of information requests from the Financial Ombudsman.

    Simon Kirby

    The issue raised is a matter for the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) who are operationally independent from Government.

    The question has been passed on to the FOS. The FOS will reply directly to the Honorable Member by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-10-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, at what (a) ministerial (b) official level the Government will be represented in the next round of the human rights dialogue with the Chinese authorities.

    Alok Sharma

    ​I intend to open the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue later this month. As in previous years, the UK delegation will be led by the Director of Asia Pacific Directorate in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

  • Lord Berkeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Berkeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2015-11-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 28 October (HL2659) stating that there was no intention to seek a derogation from the technical specifications for interoperability in respect of dimensions of the GC structure gauge for new high-speed lines for station platforms, whether HS2 have withdrawn their letter to the European Commission dated 21 July that seeks such a derogation.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Department for Transport with HS2 Ltd are discussing with the Commission compliance requirements with the technical specification for infrastructure dealing with platform heights. These discussions are ongoing. The intention is, irrespective of the outcome of discussions on platform height, to meet the GC gauge requirements.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many health trusts (a) Simon Stevens and (b) Sir Bruce Keogh have visited in each year since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively of NHS England; and on what dates they visited which health trusts in which locations.

    George Freeman

    This information is not held by the Department. NHS England has advised that this information is not routinely collected and it could only be collated and provided at disproportionate cost.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what actions she will take to improve the quality of education provision by free schools in the South West.

    Edward Timpson

    The Government is committed to achieving educational excellence everywhere so that children in every part of the country, regardless of their background and circumstances, have access to an outstanding education.

    Free schools benefit from the ability to act quickly to improve standards. The Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) for the South West is responsible for taking action to improve underperforming free schools in the region. Where a free school is identified by Ofsted as under-performing the RSC takes swift action, working with the school to develop robust plans for improvement including, for example, appointing strong new sponsors to run the school.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many acute beds there were in each mental health trust in London since 2010.

    Alistair Burt

    The information is shown in the following table.

    General and acute beds open overnight in mental health trusts in London

    Quarter

    Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

    East London NHS Foundation Trust

    North East London NHS Foundation Trust

    West London Mental Health NHS Trust

    2011-12 Q1

    0

    0

    135

    0

    2011-12 Q2

    51

    0

    82

    0

    2011-12 Q3

    51

    0

    83

    0

    2011-12 Q4

    73

    0

    84

    0

    2012-13 Q1

    73

    61

    126

    0

    2012-13 Q2

    73

    61

    124

    0

    2012-13 Q3

    73

    61

    115

    0

    2012-13 Q4

    75

    61

    134

    0

    2013-14 Q1

    75

    61

    112

    0

    2013-14 Q2

    75

    61

    178

    0

    2013-14 Q3

    75

    61

    214

    0

    2013-14 Q4

    75

    61

    225

    0

    2014-15 Q1

    73

    61

    203

    0

    2014-15 Q2

    75

    61

    180

    0

    2014-15 Q3

    74

    51

    174

    0

    2014-15 Q4

    80

    51

    188

    0

    2015-16 Q1

    73

    51

    192

    0

    2015-16 Q2

    73

    51

    180

    0

    2015-16 Q3

    72

    51

    176

    20

    Source: Bed availability and occupancy, NHS England

    Notes:

    1. Mental health trusts in London did not report general and acute beds in any quarter in 2010-11.

  • Lucy Frazer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lucy Frazer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Frazer on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to undertake the review of shared ownership announced in the report, Proposals to streamline the resale of shared ownership properties, Consultation: summary of responses, published in March 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government carried out an internal review of Shared Ownership policy last year. Following this, the Autumn Statement confirmed £4.1 billion for 135,000 new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership starts by 2021. It also raised the income cap on Shared Ownership in England from £60,000 to £80,000, removed restrictions on who can buy Shared Ownership homes, enabled existing shared owners to climb the Shared Ownership ladder and removed restrictions on how many bedrooms Shared Ownership buyers can purchase.

    The prospectus for the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016 to 2021 was launched on 13 April 2016 and invites applications for up to £4.7 billion of funding to increase the supply of new shared ownership and affordable homes.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect of active service on the mental health of (a) drone operators and (b) conventional pilots.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Government is committed to improving the mental health of our Armed Forces and has long recognised that Service life can cause stress. Support to all personnel (including pilots of Remotely Piloted Air Systems) is continually improving. We provide pre- and post-operational stress management training; a wide range of psychiatric and psychological treatments; and initiatives such as Decompression, Trauma Risk Management (TRiM), and post operational stress management. Measures are in place to increase awareness at all levels of the risk of mental health disorders and indicators to help identify these.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward proposals to change surrogacy law to give single parents with children born through surrogacy the same rights as couples.

    Jane Ellison

    The Government has accepted the judgment by Sir James Munby from the High Court. We will be looking to update the legislation on Parental Orders, and are now considering how best to do this.