Category: Speeches

Ian Lavery – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what arrangements have been made to ensure that fire cover remains available whilst fire crews are responding to major floods.

Mike Penning

I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires that fire and rescue services have plans in place, working with local partners, to deal with emergencies such as flooding, and to ensure that the appropriate level of resource is available. Fire and rescue authorities are also required by the statutory Fire and Rescue National Framework for England to produce Integrated Risk Management Plans which identify the full range of risks to which an authority’s service is expected to respond, and to consult the local community on those plans.

In addition, fire and rescue authorities’ mutual aid arrangements are well established under Section 13 and Section 16 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. These arrangements ensure continuity of service provision across authority boundaries, through mutual assistance from supporting authorities and other agencies other than the host fire and rescue authorities. The National Coordination and Advisory Framework, a collaborative arrangement between the Government, the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser and Chief Fire Officers Association, is in place to both support and supplement these arrangements.

01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of people who live within 30 minutes’ travel time of Stratford International Station by public transport.

Claire Perry

The Department for Transport has made no assessment of the number of people who live within 30 minutes’ travel time of Stratford International Station by public transport.

01/01/2023
Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Migration Advisory Committee did not provide its report by the end of January 2016.

James Brokenshire

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published its Tier 2 report on 19 January. We asked the MAC to provide its report on whether nurses should remain on the Shortage Occupation List in February, to allow time for a full review of the evidence.

01/01/2023

Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost of fuel was for the Government Car Service fleet in each month since May 2015.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The table shows the cost of fuel for the Government Car Service fleet in each month since May 2015

Month	Exc. VAT	Inc. VAT
May	£10,429.57	£12,515.48
June	£9,946.79	£11,936.15
July	£12,540.02	£15,048.02
August	£7,126.37	£8,551.64
September	£8,861.36	£10,633.63
October	£11,239.51	£13,487.41
November	£10,417.58	£12,501.10
December	£9,101.75	£10,922.10
January	£9,682.24	£11,618.69
February	£9,278.99	£11,134.79

01/01/2023

Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what would be the residency status of UK expatriates currently living permanently in EU member states in the event that the UK votes to leave the EU.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

As set out in the Government’s White Paper: ‘The process for withdrawing from the European Union’, published on 29 February, the withdrawal process is unprecedented. No country has ever used Article 50 and this will be an area of discussion with EU member states in such a scenario.

01/01/2023
Rupa Huq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rupa Huq on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effects of childhood obesity on the development of musculoskeletal conditions.

Jane Ellison

Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce anxiety disorder in women under 35.

Alistair Burt

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services treat common mental health conditions, including anxiety. More than 3.5 million adults have entered the IAPT programme since its inception in 2008. Of that 3.5 million, over 2.1 million have completed treatment and over 725,000 are in recovery and more than 100,000 people have moved off sick pay and benefits.

We have introduced waiting times standards to ensure better access to IAPT so that 75% of people referred to IAPT receive treatment within six weeks and 95% receive treatment within 18 weeks.

In January 2016, the Government announced almost £1 billion of additional investment for mental health, which included £290 million of new investment over the next five years to provide mental healthcare for perinatal care.

01/01/2023
Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, if he will take steps to make international collaboration between UK and EU universities a key part of the negotiations on the UK leaving the EU.

Mr Robin Walker

The Government has been clear that we will make a success of Brexit, including for our world class universities. The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK remains a world leader in international research and innovation collaboration and that is why the Government has been consulting, and will continue to consult, with a broad range of stakeholders in this sector.

We are not going to provide a running commentary on every twist and turn of the negotiations, but we will work hard to get the best deal for Britain, its universities, and the wider research sector.

01/01/2023
Carol Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to improve the availability of off-patent drugs for novel uses through non-legislative measures.

George Freeman

Clinicians can already prescribe off-patent drugs off-label on clinical grounds if they judge this is the right thing to do to meet the individual clinical needs of their patients.

The Government is keen to accelerate the adoption of innovative medicines and increase the innovative use of existing medicines where the evidence reports clinical benefits and cost effectiveness to patients. To that end, we are seeking a number of initiatives to provide innovation but whilst supporting the aims of the Private Member’s Bill on this subject, we do not believe the proposed mechanism is either practicable and desirable.

We are working with NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the General Medical Council and the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency to ensure that there is better information available to support clinicians who wish to prescribe off-patent drugs for off-label indications, and to ensure that new evidence is picked up more quickly and reliably and translated into clinical practice and can be fed through into licensing applications.

A huge amount of work is also going on in the Accelerated Access Review which will support the “pull” of innovation through to clinical practice.

As part of the debate on the Access to Medical Treatments Bill, we are working with officials in the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre to see how the power in the Bill, if it were to pass, could address the lack of provision of information on new uses for existing medicines via the power to create a database of innovations in order to support evidence-based prescribing.

01/01/2023
Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on the Northern powerhouse of the closure of the Business Growth Service.

Anna Soubry

We do not expect closure of the Business Growth Service to have an impact on the growth of Small and Medium sized Enterprises or the Northern Powerhouse.

01/01/2023