Category: Speeches

John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the thresholds for council homes to be taken into account when calculating the levy on councils contained in part 4 of the Housing and Planning Bill.

Brandon Lewis

The Housing and Planning Bill requires the Secretary of State to define ‘high value’ in regulations.

We are currently in the process of updating data that will be used to help inform the high value threshold. Further details will be available shortly.

01/01/2023
Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the US Department of Defense’s decision to delay the acceleration of orders of the F-35 until 2021.

Mr Philip Dunne

The US Department of Defense budget decision in relation to accelerating F-35 orders does not impact on the UK’s F-35B Lightning II procurement policy, which we will continue to progress in line with the Strategic Defence and Security Review. The programme remains on track for initial operating capability in 2018.

01/01/2023
Stephen McPartland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen McPartland on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2016 to Question 28942, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to people who pay council tax of that tax in (a) England and (b) each region of England in (i) 2016-17 and (ii) 2017-18.

Mr Marcus Jones

Council tax decisions are a matter for individual local authorities and we have not made estimates of council tax in individual areas for future years.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability of qualified paramedics within the NHS to meet demand.

Ben Gummer

Health Education England (HEE) has worked closely with all English ambulance services through the Paramedic Evidence Based Education Project programme, both to modernise the future training of paramedics and other ambulance service workers to be fit for future services.

The national commissioning of paramedic training has increased significantly since 2013 and in the last year alone HEE has commissioned an additional 605 places on 2015/16 figures, which is an increase of 53.8%.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which countries attended the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

Matthew Hancock

44 countries (including the UK) attended the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May. A attach a list.

01/01/2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of NHS efficiency savings on waiting times in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The Government has fully funded the National Health Service’s Five Year Forward View, so that the NHS will receive £10 billion more in real terms by 2020-21 than in 2014-15. This additional funding, alongside measures to improve efficiency and reduce waste will enable delivery of the Government’s mandate to NHS England.

The Government’s mandate to NHS England for 2016-17 sets out objectives to 2020. These include the objective that it should support the NHS to maintain, and where possible improve, performance against core standards in line with the NHS Constitution, and the objective to balance the NHS budget and improve efficiency and productivity.

At the same time, the Government is addressing the longer term issues that lead to increased demand by more strongly coordinating health and social care, increasing access to the services seven days a week, reducing unwarranted variations in performance between providers, and supporting the public and patients to take the right steps to look after their own health.

01/01/2023
Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that the Financial Reporting Council has in place adequate processes to monitor disclosure on climate-related risk.

Margot James

Companies are required to prepare an annual report. As part of this, companies are required to make disclosure on environmental matters containing information necessary for their shareholders to gain a proper understanding of the company’s business, including the principal risks faced by the company during the company’s previous financial year.

With their knowledge of the company, it is the directors who are best placed to assess the quality of any disclosure relating to climate change. In addition, shareholders can challenge any disclosure or its absence, including those relating to climate change, either at a meeting with the board or at the company’s Annual General Meeting, should they feel this is a key risk that needs to be addressed.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any grant application by or award made to Action on Smoking and Health by the Department of Health in the last five years was not considered first by the Voluntary Sector Grants Hub.

Lord Prior of Brampton

All grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in the last five years have been awarded under Section 64 powers. There are a range of different circumstances under which it would not be appropriate or represent best value for money to run a competed scheme. The grants awarded to ASH have been assessed as most appropriate for the non-competed route.

The assessment of any grant application for funding from ASH is undertaken by members of the Tobacco Control policy team. Following this assessment, the Grants Hub makes a decision regarding whether or not to approve the application. These policy assessments contain policy advice to Ministers and so are not made public. Approvals are required from Ministers and from HM Treasury or are subject to a Departmental approval process that has been agreed with HM Treasury.

To identify relevant representations the Department has received would result in disproportionate cost.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-12-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps will be taken to improve attitudes of hospital staff in NHS trusts towards patients with Down’s syndrome.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government’s response to the recommendations in the report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry included a wide range of measures aimed at improving safety and quality as well as ensuring compassionate care for everyone who uses National Health Service services, including people with disabilities.

NHS organisations should comply with existing legislation, frameworks and guidance aimed at ensuring they identify and meet the needs of people with learning disabilities in commissioning and delivering safe, high quality care to all individuals, groups and communities of their populations.

From June 2016, the Department will publish independently assured, ratings of the quality of healthcare offered to people with learning disabilities in all clinical commissioning group areas, to highlight variations and to allow rapid action to be taken when improvement is needed.

NHS England continues to work to improve access to good quality healthcare for people with learning disabilities, including:

‒ improving identification of people with learning disabilities in health care records to ensure that reasonable adjustments can be made, communication needs addressed and crisis plans developed;

‒ encouraging the use of health passports when people access services so that professionals and staff are aware of their needs;

‒ improving identification on cancer screening information systems;

‒ ensuring that people with learning disabilities are identified as a priority group to receive flu vaccinations;

‒ improving access to NHS 111, Accident and Emergency and other services; and

‒ increasing the number of people who are eligible getting an annual learning disability health check from their general practitioner.

NHS England has also commissioned a learning disabilities Premature Mortality Review programme led by the University of Bristol from June 2015 to review and learn from deaths of people with a learning disability with the aim of improving services, care and support nationally.

These initiatives will help to raise awareness and to tackle the inequalities experienced by those with learning disability, including where associated with Down’s syndrome.

In addition, the Care Certificate, which was introduced in April 2015, is helping NHS service providers to ensure that their new healthcare assistants have the right fundamental skills and knowledge, including in communication and awareness of learning disability.

Health Education England will work with healthcare providers to ensure that the continuing personal and professional development of staff continues beyond the end of formal training to enable staff to deliver safe and high quality healthcare and public health services both now and in the future.

01/01/2023

Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British servicemen and women are based on British military bases abroad.

Penny Mordaunt

There are 9,360 British Service personnel permanently based on British military bases abroad. This figure includes those based in Cyprus, Gibraltar, the South Atlantic Islands, Diego Garcia, Germany, Canada, Kenya, Brunei, Nepal and Belize. This figure represents the number of Service personnel who are stationed at that location. It may differ from the actual number of people working on the base at the time, for example due to deployments. The breakdown of these figures into country and service is shown below; where countries have five or less personnel, these are rounded to zero and the country does not appear in the table. The Ministry of Defence regularly publishes the location figures for both military and civilian personnel, which can be accessed on the GOV.UK website at:

https//www.gov.uk/government/statistics/location-of-uk-regular-service-and-civilian-personnel-quarterly-statistics-2015

UK Base Country	Navy	Army	RAF	TOTAL
Germany	20	5,900	130	6,050
Canada	10	360	20	390
Kenya	0	210	10	220
Brunei	10	130	10	150
Nepal	0	20	0	20
Cyprus	20	1,480	730	2,230
Gibraltar	110	30	30	170
South Atlantic Islands	10	50	20	80
Diego Garcia	40	0	0	40
Belize	0	10	0	10
TOTAL	220	8,190	950	9,360

(Location of UK regular service and civilian personnel quarterly statistics- 1 October 2015)

01/01/2023