Category: Speeches

  • Gerry Sutcliffe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gerry Sutcliffe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerry Sutcliffe on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers at local authority community schools have achieved Learning Outside the Classroom accreditation in each of the last 10 years.

    Mr David Laws

    The Learning Outside the Classroom accreditation is run by an independent organisation. The Department for Education does not collect information on which schools have achieved the accreditation or quality mark. Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rightly rest with schools, individual teachers and heads, as they are in the best position to make judgements about their requirements to help their pupils achieve good outcomes.

  • Lord Storey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-02-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 3 February (HL4358), what assessment they have made of the placement of defibrillators in schools in Liverpool; and whether there are plans to increase the number of defibrillators in schools across the country.

    Lord Nash

    The Department for Education is encouraging schools to purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as part of their first aid equipment. To help them do this, on 26 November 2014, we announced new arrangements to allow schools to purchase AEDs at a competitive price. This is the result of a unique agreement between the Department for Education and the Department of Health, enabling NHS Supply Chain to purchase devices in batches from approved framework suppliers via a reverse auction process. The discount achieved on each batch is then passed on to schools through a reduced unit price.

    The Department for Education does not collect information about the placement of defibrillators in schools but is able to provide details of which schools have purchased an AED under the arrangements described above.

    To help schools in considering whether to purchase a defibrillator, the Department has also published advice on installing and maintaining AEDs on school premises. This has been developed drawing on the expertise of NHS ambulance services and voluntary and community sector organisations.

  • Tom Watson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Watson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether a research analyst is advising his Department on the deployment of remotely piloted aircraft systems.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    No.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to increase the number of practice staff working in GP surgeries in North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    There are now 36,294 full-time equivalent general practitioners (GPs) working and training in the National Health Service, an increase of 1,051 (3.0%) since September 2010 and a commitment to train and retain 5,000 additional GPs by 2020.

    NHS England is working with the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, and Health Education East Of England to increase the number of practice staff working in GP surgeries across north east Essex.

    NHS England is also working with the Royal College of General Practitioners, and the British Medical Association nationally to produce a 10 point action plan to increase the size of the general practice workforce, which this Government has supported with £10 million of funding.

  • Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to review the Mitochondrial Donation Regulations 2015 in the event that (a) research by Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health and Science University and (b) other research in non-human primates shows pro-nuclear transfer to be unsafe or ineffective.

    Jane Ellison

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 require the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to assess each application for mitochondrial donation on a case-by-case basis. This will include consideration of the evidence of safety and effectiveness.

  • Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the guaranteed fulfilment period is for (a) issuing new and (b) renewing (i) children’s and (ii) adult passports.

    Mike Penning

    The gov.uk website sets out expected turnaround times for applications made in
    the UK and, on a country-by-country basis, for applications made overseas. HM
    Passport Office aims to deal with applications within published turnaround
    times, but this is a guideline only as there are a number of factors that can
    affect how long it takes to process an application.
    The premium and fast track service provide a guaranteed turnaround period of
    four hours and seven days respectively on payment of an additional fee,
    provided the applicant has submitted all the relevant information and the
    necessary security requirements are met.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Leader of the House, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Government’s policies of the report from the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy entitled Open Up, published in January 2015; and which recommendations of that report he plans to implement.

    Mr William Hague

    The majority of the recommendations in the report from the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy are for the House itself to consider and respond to.

    In relation to the recommendations regarding the legislative process, the Government is committed to ensuring that the legislation it puts before Parliament is of a high standard and to ensuring that Parliament has the necessary means by which to perform its scrutiny function.

    In April 2013, the Government launched the Good Law initiative, designed to promote law which is effective, clear and accessible. Various initiatives have been introduced this Parliament designed to improve the legislative process, including the use of explanatory statements on amendments, improved explanatory notes and piloting public reading stages of Bills. The Government has also given sufficient time to allow proper scrutiny in public bill committees and provided additional days at Commons report stages where necessary.

    The Speaker’s Commission also recommended that secure online voting should be an option for all voters by 2020. To make online voting available for UK elections could be attractive in light of current advances in IT. However, there are concerns that e-voting is not sufficiently transparent or secure.

    The major issue raised by those opposed to the introduction of e-voting is that it is not sufficiently robust or trusted. In addition, the cost of introducing such a system would be substantial. Public support for such measures is still far from universal and traditional means of voting (such as polling stations and postal voting) remain popular with the electorate. Therefore, any means of e-voting would have to be introduced as an additional voting channel. Whilst e-voting may be something for the Government to consider in the future, it is not an immediate priority. The experience of the referendum on Scottish independence shows us that if people are engaged in the democratic process they will turn out to vote using the existing mechanism.

  • Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government and Merseyrail on electrification of the Wrexham to Bidston railway line.

    Alun Cairns

    On 30 January, I held a transport summit with businesses and local stakeholders in north Wales including Merseytravel and Arriva Trains Wales. The summit discussed transport priorities across north Wales and the case for investing in cross border routes including the rail line between Wrexham and Bidston.

  • Jim Murphy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Murphy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Murphy on 2015-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many DWP sanctions there were relating to each benefit in each Scottish parliamentary constituency in 2013-14.

    Esther McVey

    The information requested for Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance adverse sanctions, by Scottish Parliamentary constituency, for each of the last four years is published at:

    https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

    Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

    https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm

    The available information in respect of Income Support Lone Parents (ISLP) sanctions is shown in the attached table.

    “

  • Tom Watson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Tom Watson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has issued to local authorities about the use of (a) Twitter and (b) other social media to communicate with the public.

    Kris Hopkins

    Digital and social media are an effective and low-cost way of communicating with the public.

    This Government has amended the law to strengthen the rights of the press and public to report and film council meetings using digital and social media. In August 2014, we published a plain English guide to help councils, the press and the public with these new rights.

    We made clear that there is no prohibition on councillors from tweeting and blogging at meetings, and they should be able to do so provided it is not disruptive and does not detract from the proper conduct of the meeting.

    Local authorities should have regard to the local government Publicity Code, which seeks to prevent the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources, including social media.

    Notwithstanding, last June, Ministers challenged and criticised guidance to parish councils issued by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) that sought to prevent elected councillors from issuing media comments without prior written permission of the council. NALC has now produced a new Media Policy Example that takes into account the new national rules on filming and recording at parish and town council meetings.

    In December, we invited bids for local pilots to bring statutory notices into the 21st Century. This could include supporting the increased use of digital and social media by councils and commercial partners, as one of the ways that such notices could be improved and reformed.