Category: Speeches

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-09-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 25 July (HL1340), what assessment they have made of the relative clinical benefits of the drug lenvatinib as opposed to sorafenib.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Ministers asked the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop technology appraisal guidance on the use of lenvatinb for the treatment of thyroid cancer on 22 July 2016. NICE plans to develop guidance on lenvatinib and sorafenib through the same technology appraisal and currently expects to publish draft guidance in October 2017.

    In the absence of NICE guidance, it is for commissioners to make funding decisions based on the available evidence and on the patient’s individual clinical circumstances.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the Indian government on steps to lift the fuel blockade on Nepal and facilitate the release of humanitarian supplies.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I refer my honourable friend to the answer I gave on 10 November 2015 to Question 14391, located at: www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/.

    In addition to the above answer, our Ambassador to Nepal discussed the blockage at the Nepal-India border in his introductory meeting with the Indian Ambassador to Nepal on 9 November. I also raised the matter with General Vijay Kumar Singh, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, when we spoke in the margins of the Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers Meeting on 5 November 2015 in Luxembourg.

  • Carol Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Carol Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to ring-fence the capital and resource elements of the science budget settlement announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Greg Hands

    Total science resource spending of £4.7 billion will be protected in real terms for the rest of the Parliament.

    Government has also made a long term science capital commitment of £6.9 billion between 2015-2021 to support the UK’s world-class research base.

  • Mark Prisk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Prisk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Prisk on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will assess the effect of individual funding requests for palivizumab on premature babies at risk of severe complications from respiratory syncytial virus.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that it is monitoring the level of individual funding requests for patients who do not meet the criteria for palivizumab. NHS England aims to finalise an analysis of this data in April 2016 and will report its findings to the neonatal care clinical reference group.

  • Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-02-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of non-combatant deaths on military bases have been subject to an inquest by jury in each of the last five years.

    Mark Lancaster

    The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

  • Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many incidents of loss of radar or command and control networks have been attributed to interference caused by electronic warfare devices in Syria since 1 December 2015.

    Penny Mordaunt

    I am withholding this information for reasons of operational security. The Coalition has appropriate air command and control (C2) and radar capabilities to allow RAF aircraft to operate in a safe and professional manner when conducting missions inside Syrian airspace.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations his Department has (a) received and (b) made on guidance on volume controls of mobile phones and other devices using headphones.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department has received no representations nor made any guidance regarding the volume controls of mobile phones and other devices using headphones.

  • Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-05-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the level of fund management fees charged to consumers reflects a competitive market, in the light of the variable performance of such funds.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The Government is committed to the principle that people who have worked hard and saved should have access to appropriate and accessible investment options and understand the charges that they face. We appreciate the efforts that industry have made to fulfil this aim.

    Since last April, the Government has ensured that trustees of defined contribution pension schemes report charges levied on members in schemes used for auto enrolment.

    We are also engaging with international work on transparency, such as the legislation agreed at European Union level through the Packaged Retail and Insurance Based Investment Products (PRIIPs) and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). MiFID II will introduce new measures to increase transparency of research costs for clients of portfolio managers. Under these new measures, portfolio managers may only pay for research through their own funds or from a specific research payment account funded by its clients and subject to specific controls, including a research budget.

    The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is also currently conducting a market study into asset management, which covers the issue of whether the level of fund management fees charged to consumers reflects a competitive market. We await the FCA’s assessment of competition in this sector. The FCA expect to publish an interim report in summer 2016 and a final report in early 2017.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the EU Third Directive on Driving Licenses on the motorcycle assessment industry.

    Andrew Jones

    There has not been an assessment made of the effect of the EU Third Directive on Driving Licences (2006/126/EC) on the motorcycle assessment industry.

  • Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-09-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Offender Management Service plan to adopt a regime based on isolation and solitary confinement for all those Muslim prisoners who are assessed as posing a risk of encouraging Islamic radicalisation whilst in prison.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    The government is committed to tackling all forms of extremism. Keeping the most dangerous extremists away from other prisoners is essential to the safe running of our prisons and fundamental to public protection. Planning is under way to create specialist units within the high security estate to allow greater separation and specialised management of extremists who pose the highest risk to other prisoners. The regime of the new units will not be based on isolation or solitary confinement but on removing a small subset of the most dangerous and subversive radicalisers from the mainstream prisoner population.