Category: Speeches

Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to improve flood defences on the River Ribble from the Ribble Estuary to junction 31 of the M6 at Preston; what proposals have been prepared for flood defences along that section of the River Ribble; and what funding is in place to finance such proposals.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The Environment Agency is developing a flood defence scheme for Preston and South Ribble. A full business case is being progressed with detailed modelling and outputs expected during January 2017.

Subject to funding and business case approval, the project is expected to improve defences for around 3000 properties and the area from Preston Docks to the M6 at junction 31.

01/01/2023
Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their most recent assessment of the annual cost of mesothelioma to the NHS.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Financial information is not held at this level, and we are not aware of any recent assessment of the annual cost of mesothelioma to the National Health Service.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to increase the level of home ownership relative to other EU countries.

Brandon Lewis

This Government is committed to increasing opportunities to help people achieve the aspiration of home ownership. Almost 270,000 people have been helped to buy a home since 2010 using government-backed schemes. In the Autumn Statement we announced that the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme will be extended for five years to 2021 with £8.6 billion of additional funding. This will assist the sale of up to 145,000 more new-build homes. We will also launch London Help to Buy in early 2016, increasing the equity loan in London from up to 20% to up to 40%, in recognition of the specific affordability issues resulting from higher house prices in the capital.

The Autumn Statement also confirmed a total of £8 billion for over 400,000 affordable homes, including £4.1 billion for 135,000 new Shared Ownership homes. This also includes delivery of 200,000 Starter Homes at a 20% discount for young first time buyers, with £2.3 billion committed to supporting these. As well as reinvigorating the Right to Buy in 2012, we have secured a historic deal with housing associations to give their tenants the opportunity to buy their home with an equivalent discount to the Right to Buy.

01/01/2023
Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to publish draft regulations on housing benefit for 18 to 21 year olds.

Justin Tomlinson

Removal of automatic housing support for 18 – 21 year olds, announced in the Summer Budget 2015, will be introduced in April 2017. The Department is liaising with a range of key stakeholders as we develop the detail of the policy. Once this work has been completed we will bring forward detailed proposals.

01/01/2023
Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to ensure that every academy has its own governing body.

Lord Nash

Under the Academies Act 2010 an academy is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is therefore required under the Companies Act 2006 to have members and a board of trustees/ directors.

In a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), individual academies do not have a separate legal identity and are all under the control of the trust board. Whether the board establishes local governing boards for each academy or local governing bodies to oversee groups of academies, and the range of functions delegated to any such boards, are both a matter for the board to determine – but in all cases the board remains accountable for all the academies in the MAT.

Fewer, higher quality and more highly skilled boards overseeing groups of schools is central to the Government’s strategy for improving the quality of governance. It is also the key to schools realising a wide range of other financial and educational benefits. While every academy may not therefore have its own governing body, our guidance in the Governance Handbook makes clear that boards should have meaningful and effective arrangements in place for engaging with and listening to the views and needs of parents, staff and the wider local community.

01/01/2023
Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what infrastructure the UK has in place to ensure that households and businesses do not face energy shortages in the next (a) five and (b) 10 years.

Andrea Leadsom

In addition to the generation capacity within the market, National Grid has already procured 3.6GW of reserve capacity for next winter and, in January, the Capacity Market Transitional Arrangements auction bought 800MW of demand side response capacity for winter 16/17 which will also help secure the system.

In the medium to long term, the capacity market will ensure we have the electricity infrastructure to prevent energy shortages. On 1 March 2016, DECC announced that we are consulting on changes to the CM, to buy more capacity and earlier; tighten the sanctions on those who fail to deliver on their obligations; and bolster energy security in the short–term, by holding a new auction bringing forward the first Capacity Market delivery year to 2017/18.

We are confident that the Capacity Market is the right mechanism to bring forward the necessary new capacity as older, less efficient plants close.

Furthermore, Hinkley will be the first new nuclear power plant built in the UK for 20 years. Once up and running in 2025, it will provide 3.2 Giga Watts of secure, base-load and low carbon electricity for around 60 years, meeting 7% of the UK’s energy needs.

GB also has 4GW of electricity interconnection infrastructure across 4 interconnectors to France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Around 7GW of projects are currently proceeding through Ofgem’s cap and floor regulatory regime, with a further 1GW progressing under the “merchant-exempt” route, more than doubling our capacity in the early 2020s. Ofgem will open a further cap and floor application window at the end of March.

As for gas, GB has a total gas infrastructure deliverability of around 700 mcm/d compared to average winter demand of 290 mcm/d (record demand 465 mcm/d, Dec 2010) giving a surplus capacity against average winter demand of 410 mcm/d.

01/01/2023
David Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Jones on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effect of microbeads on marine ecosystems.

George Eustice

Defra has funded a project, undertaken by the University of Plymouth, to study the effects of microplastics in the marine environment. The project studied whether chemical pollutants stick to plastic particles, whether marine organisms ingest plastic particles and pass them along the food chain, and whether the plastics themselves, or associated chemical pollutants, could cause harm to those organisms. The final report for this project is expected to be published shortly.

01/01/2023
Baroness Featherstone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Featherstone on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the carbon savings that could result from increasing the use of biofuels in UK aviation.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government believes sustainable aviation fuels are of strategic importance, both in reducing carbon emissions and to drive the development of an advanced biofuels industry in the UK.

Those developing sustainable aviation biofuels were eligible to apply for funding under the Department’s Advanced Biofuel Demonstration Competition, the winners of which were announced last September.

In early 2015 a Transport Energy Taskforce including aviation industry experts considered, amongst other things, the potential for sustainable aviation fuels to contribute to our climate change commitments to 2030 and beyond. Further to that work we are planning to consult on potential changes to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation later this year, including to make renewable fuels used in aviation eligible for reward under the scheme.

01/01/2023

Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding from the (a) European Regional Development Fund and (b) European Social Fund was spent in (i) Liverpool, Wavertree constituency and (ii) each borough of the Liverpool City Region in each year since 2010.

Margot James

Information is not held for individual constituencies or boroughs. Figures are recorded for Merseyside and are from the 2007-13 programming period where projects could spend money up to the end of 2015, with some reimbursements taking place in 2016.

The figures for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) are:

Year	£m Merseyside
2009	£77.30
2010	£25.00
2011	£28.80
2012	£27.00
2013	£29.70
2014	£21.60
2015	£33.50
2016	£20.75
Total	£263.65

For the European Social Fund (ESF) figures as follows:

Year	£m Merseyside
2010	£44.04
2011	£20.58
2012	£11.61
2013	£8.75
2014	£7.70
2015	£9.93
2016	£0.29
Total	£102.90

01/01/2023

Heidi Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Allen on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on the case of the Syrian journalist, Zaina Erhaim.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

My officials have been in contact with the UK Border Force about this case. We are aware that the passport presented by Zaina Erhaim has been retained by UK Border Force officials. The passport was listed on an international database as lost or stolen. In such circumstances the Border Force will confiscate the document. Since the passport is listed as lost or stolen, it is no longer valid for travel to the UK or elsewhere and as such the Border Force is not able to return the passport to Ms Erhaim. The passport is therefore being retained by the British authorities.

01/01/2023