The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many companies have been ordered by the NHS Identity Team to stop using the NHS logo in the last three years.
George Freeman
Over the last three years, approximately 250 companies have been informed by the NHS Identity team that they are not permitted to use the National Health Service logo.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve links between schools and elite sports organisations.
Edward Timpson
The national curriculum sets out the expectation that pupils should be provided with opportunities to engage in a broad range of competitive sports and activities.
Many national governing bodies of sports and elite sporting organisations offer a programme for schools, to engage children and young people in their sports. Through their school sports programme, the Premier League is currently working in over 4,000 schools to support the PE curriculum, provide sports clubs, and deliver enrichment activities. In October 2015, the Premier League announced that they will expand their schools offer to every primary school in the country within 6 years.
The Department funds ‘On the Front Foot’, a programme designed and delivered by Premiership Rugby to develop character and resilience in primary and secondary schools across the country. The programme delivers classroom based and physical activity character building programmes to 17,250 pupils.
The Football Association’s Skills programme is a nationwide football coaching programme working in over 1,000 primary schools a year, providing specialist football coaching for children and supporting teachers in their delivery of sport. Sessions are offered during PE lessons, extra-curricula clubs and holiday clubs.
The Tennis Foundation and the Lawn Tennis Association support teachers with training, resource and equipment to help them deliver tennis in schools. Their aim is to increase access to tennis across schools, further and higher education through a wide range of programmes. They offer support to make tennis inclusive and accessible to all pupils. Over 60,000 primary, special and secondary school pupils take part in schools tennis competitions every year.
The Rugby Football Union works with hundreds of maintained schools as part of its ‘All Schools Plan’ to help more secondary school children play rugby. This was launched by the RFU and the Rugby Football Foundation in 2012, as part of the RFU’s Rugby World Cup 2015 legacy plans.
The School Games is the Government’s framework for competitive school sports. The programme provides a national final event where the most talented young people in the UK compete in 12 different sports. More than 150 of the athletes who competed at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow had previously competed at the School Games and 59 athletes claimed 84 medals.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the nature of the contribution of Mr Paul Newby was to the drafting of and consultation process for the Pubs Code; and when those contributions were delivered.
Anna Soubry
Mr Newby has not been involved in the drafting of and consultation process for the Pubs Code.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-04-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33749, on Department for Transport: IBM, when the contracts referred to in that Answer were awarded.
Mr Robert Goodwill
My department has 4 contracts with IBM (UK) Ltd and details are contained in the table below
|
Agency |
Purpose of contract |
Award date |
|
DfTc |
Annual Software maintenance on IBM SPSS licensing for statistical analysis |
30/04/2014 |
|
DVLA |
Q Radar Security Monitoring Tool |
28/09/2015 |
|
DVLA |
IBM Software-Extended Support |
01/10/2015 |
|
DVLA |
IBM Enterprise Licensing Agreement (ELA) |
01/01/2016 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average hourly earnings were of her Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.
George Eustice
Defra employees are paid within salary bands according to their grades, they are not paid by the hour. The tables below set out a calculation of average hourly pay for all employees within the central department, by grade, and by BME, Non-BME, and Undeclared ethnic status (employees that have not declared their ethnicity).
|
2015 |
BME |
Non BME |
Undeclared |
|
AA |
* |
* |
£8.96 |
|
AO |
£12.15 |
£12.17 |
£11.43 |
|
EO |
£14.96 |
£13.92 |
£13.80 |
|
HEO |
£17.29 |
£16.79 |
£15.98 |
|
SEO |
£20.54 |
£19.96 |
£20.05 |
|
G7 |
£27.43 |
£27.33 |
£26.30 |
|
G6 |
* |
£32.62 |
£33.10 |
|
SCS |
* |
£39.77 |
£46.42 |
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2016 |
BME |
Non BME |
Undeclared |
|
AA |
* |
* |
£9.84 |
|
AO |
£12.06 |
£12.17 |
£12.16 |
|
EO |
£14.89 |
£14.41 |
£13.99 |
|
HEO |
£17.23 |
£16.66 |
£16.05 |
|
SEO |
£20.47 |
£20.51 |
£20.42 |
|
G7 |
£27.40 |
£27.35 |
£26.65 |
|
G6 |
* |
£33.04 |
£32.84 |
|
SCS |
* |
£42.62 |
£48.85 |
*Number of staff in this group are below publishable level
Good progress is being made on actions in the Government’s Talent Action Plan and Defra’s Diversity Strategy to ensure that Defra is able to recruit and retain employees from a diverse range of backgrounds, and to enable them to develop and progress on merit.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-07-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will include provision in the planned Prisons and Courts Reform Bill to make the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman a statutory body.
Sir Oliver Heald
We are carefully considering options for future legislation on prisons, including the role of the current Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and will announce proposals in due course.
Previous governments have made unsuccessful attempts to secure a statutory status for the Ombudsman. We are confident that the Ombudsman has been able to operate effectively with full functional independence without statutory status but note the arguments for statutory footing to strengthen their current position.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Efford on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the 46th Report of the Public Accounts Committee, Session 2014-15, HC971, An update on Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, what the cost is to the public purse of Circle Holdings Plc’s withdrawal from delivery of its contract to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Trust paid no management fee to Circle under the contract. Costs incurred by the Trust as a result of the termination of the franchise were agreed as £130,000 and billed directly to Circle. Costs included recruiting to new Board positions and those filled by Circle partners; an expected increase in the scope of External Audit due to termination of the contract; time of the Department’s Legal and NHS England Estates teams; and removing the Circle branding from the hospital.
During the operation of the franchise agreement, the Trust received £5 million from Circle between 2012 and 2014 – the maximum deficit support payment required under the contract.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the usefulness of self-testing kits for (a) sexually transmitted diseases, (b) fertility, (c) human papilloma virus, (d) blood pressure, (e) bowel cancer and (f) cholesterol.
George Freeman
Self-testing and self-sampling kits have an important part to play in the detection of a number of conditions provided they are used in conjunction with advice from a healthcare professional.
To be placed on the market in the United Kingdom, they must satisfy the necessary requirements of European Union legislation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dr Tania Mathias on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of putting health warnings on cigarette packaging in different languages as well as English.
Jane Ellison
No assessment has been made of the putting health warnings on cigarette packaging in different languages as well as English. The labelling of tobacco products is harmonised at European Union level and mandates that the official language of the Member State is used on health warnings for tobacco. In the United Kingdom the official language is English.
Local Stop Smoking Services may choose to publish smoking cessation materials in a range of languages if they consider it beneficial to the local population.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure that rail commuters have greater access to the cheapest available tickets (a) on the day they travel and (b) when booking in advance; and if he will make a statement.
Claire Perry
We recognise the pressure on hardworking families and have put a stop to increases in regulated fares until 2020, extending the cap on rail fares which we regulate introduced in 2014. This will save the average season ticket holder £425 in this Parliament and means average earnings are outstripping rail fare increases for the first time in a decade. We are also taking a number of steps that will make it easier for people to obtain the best value ticket for their journey. We have committed to introducing more flexible tickets for people who work or commute part-time, which could enable customers to buy discounted advance carnet-style tickets. Arriva Trains Wales and Great Northern already offer flexible products and both GTR and c2c have commitments to introduce more flexible tickets on their smartcards.
The evidence also shows that advance fares, which can offer good value for people who are able to book in advance, are a key rail success of recent years where we have seen huge growth. Unregulated advance tickets have increased from 8% of revenue in 2007/08 to 15% of revenue in 2014/15.
In December 2014, I challenged the rail industry to improve the information they provide through ticket vending machines. The industry has responded positively with a code of practice on retail information published in March 2015. Most train operators now have actions underway and complete, including providing new messages on screens and improved availability of off-peak tickets through vending machines. The Department continues to monitor progress closely in this area.