The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Kerevan on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on and what the timescale is for implementation of a Horserace Betting Right as a replacement for the Horserace Betting Levy.
Tracey Crouch
Work is continuing on the detailed policy design of the Horserace Betting Right.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Bone on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the (a) average cost of building new prisons planned by the Government and (b) length of time it will take from conception to completion to build such a prison.
Andrew Selous
£1.3bn will be invested to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation. The government will build nine new, modern prisons, five of which will open in this Parliament and the rest shortly after.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications for the High Speed 2 (a) need to sell scheme and (b) exceptional hardship scheme have been received from constituents in Chesham and Amersham constituency; how many of those applications have been completed with the property now in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd; how many of those properties in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd have been (i) sold, (ii) rented and (iii) remain vacant; for how many of those applications that have been accepted the price has not been agreed; how many of those applications are awaiting a decision on whether they will be accepted; how many of those applications have been rejected; and of those rejected how many times each such application has been rejected and for what reasons.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The information requested is in the table below:
|
Chesham and Amersham constituency |
||
|
(a) Need to Sell (NTS) scheme |
(b) Exceptional Hardship Scheme (EHS) |
|
|
Applications received |
34 |
49 |
|
Applications accepted |
17 |
12 |
|
Applications rejected |
8 |
31 |
|
Applications withdrawn |
1 |
6 |
|
Applications pending a final decision |
8 |
0 |
|
offers made |
12 |
12 |
|
offers accepted |
10 |
9 |
|
offers declined/no longer active |
0 |
3 |
|
Properties acquired |
6 |
9 |
|
How many of those properties in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd have been: |
||
|
(i) sold |
0 |
|
|
(ii) rented |
10 (with 2 under offer) |
|
|
(iii) remain vacant |
3 |
|
|
(a) Need to Sell (NTS) scheme |
(b) Exceptional Hardship Scheme (EHS) |
|
|
Total number of unsuccessful applications (of which were reapplications) |
8 (1) |
31 (5)* |
|
Unsuccessful for reasons including criterion 1 (Property Type) |
1 |
1 |
|
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 2 (Location of property) |
2 |
18 |
|
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 3 (Effort to Sell and impact of blight) |
3 |
23 |
|
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 4 (No prior knowledge) |
0 |
0 |
|
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 5 (NTS-Compelling reason to sell/EHS- Exceptional Hardship) |
6 |
25 |
*of the five rejected reapplications none are from the same applicant.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the finding of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year An Unholy Mess that a significant number of religiously selective schools are asking parents for information they do not need, and are not allowed to ask for, such as whether they are UK nationals or speak English as an additional language.
Lord Nash
Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.
Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.
We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any changes are necessary to make the admissions system work more effectively for parents, these will be subject to a full public consultation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel are expected to be deployed in support of the UN and African Union missions to Somalia.
Penny Mordaunt
The UK is preparing to deploy approximately 300 troops to the UN mission in South Sudan, focussed on providing vital engineering support. Up to 70 troops will also deploy to Somalia, as part of UN support for the African Union force building stability in the country and countering the threat posed by the terrorist group al-Shabaab.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Mullin on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to promote the take-up of employee ownership schemes by small and medium-sized businesses in each nation of the UK.
Anna Soubry
In 2012, the previous Government asked Graeme Nuttall to advise on what more could be done to increase the number of businesses with employee ownership. The Nuttall Review identified 28 recommendations to address three main constraints: lack of awareness of the concept; lack of resources to support the model; and actual or perceived legal, tax and other regulatory barriers. The action taken to address the recommendations is explained in the ‘The Nuttall Review of Employee Ownership – One Year On’ report published in November 2013 and available on the gov.uk website.
The Government now expects the private sector to make the business case for this model through organisations such as the Employee Ownership Association – the representative body for employee-owned businesses.
Ongoing encouragement for employee ownership is provided through four approved share schemes which have tax-advantages for both employees and employers. These are the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI), Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) which are administered by HMRC. In 2013-14 the total value of shares and options awarded under these schemes was around £3.45bn with over £1bn of income tax and national insurance relief given.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether coal is being stockpiled in any location in the UK.
Andrea Leadsom
DECC publishes data on coal stocks held in the UK. The latest data show, that at the end of February 2016, 11,981 thousand tonnes were held in stocks. This includes stocks held at electricity generators, ports and undistributed stocks held at coal mines. The data is not available split by region.
Source: Energy Trends Table 2.6, March 2016, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-section-2-energy-trends
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has made an assessment of how the uptake rate for cervical screening in England compares to that in the rest of Europe.
Jane Ellison
NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups. NHS England is committed to improving coverage and reducing variation between all age groups.
Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and work with general practices to improve coverage by sharing best practice. In addition a primary care cancer screening best practice guide has been developed jointly with the transforming cancer services team, clinical commissioning groups and local authority public health representatives.
NHS England is working in partnership with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support on the ACE (Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate) Programme aiming to generate knowledge about effective approaches to achieve earlier diagnosis. A number of ACE test sites are evaluating approaches to increase screening rates in a range of groups.
A range of research studies are also underway, such as Imperial College conducting a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of texting non-responders on improving coverage. In addition, the Department’s Behavioural Insight team has undertaken a trial to investigate the use of behavioural insights to optimise the content of the invitation letter for cervical screening. Results are due shortly.
The Independent Cancer Taskforce recognised the importance of screening for cervical cancer and the potential of the new human papillomavirus (HPV) test in their report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, published in July 2015. NHS England has appointed Cally Palmer as National Cancer Director to lead the implementation of the strategy, and an implementation plan outlining the key first steps for the national cancer programme was published on 12 May. In addition, the routine HPV vaccination programme, offering immunisation to girls aged 12-14 years, is expected to reduce the already low rates of cervical cancer in these young women and allow them to be protected for years to come.
Ministers welcome cervical cancer prevention week and we are fully supportive of the work Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust does to raise awareness of cervical cancer and the importance of cervical screening for eligible women.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Health at a Glance 2015: How does the United Kingdom compare?, the UK has cervical screening rates well above the OECD average. Further information is available at:
https://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/Health-at-a-Glance-2015-Key-Findings-UK.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many meetings he has had with the BMA in each of the last 12 months.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Secretary of State for Health has always made clear that he wishes to work with the British Medical Association to address Junior Doctors’ concerns. He has met with the BMA on 11 occasions between September 2015 and August 2016. The meetings were held on 10 September, 30 September (two separate meetings), 1 December, 28 April 2016, 12 May, 16 May, 26 May, 7 July, 28 July and 30 August.
The meetings on 12 May and 16 May were part of contract negotiations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones on 2016-10-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the estimated value of UK aerospace exports in the last five years for which figures are available.
Lord Price
Estimates of the value of UK exports of Aerospace products for the last five years are provided below:
|
Year |
Exports (Current prices, £million) |
|
2011 |
20,728 |
|
2012 |
22,328 |
|
2013 |
24,275 |
|
2014 |
22,580 |
|
2015 |
24,864 |
Source: ONS Trade in Goods Classified by CPA