Category: Speeches

  • Ian Murray – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ian Murray – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the future use of the Post Office Card Account; and if he will make a statement.

    Steve Webb

    The Post Office card account (POca) contract expires in March 2015 with the possibility of a 2 year extension beyond that date.

    The POca is a very simple account designed for the receipt of pensions and legacy benefits. It cannot be used for the payment of wages/salaries and does not offer transactional services such as direct debits so will not be suitable for the majority of working age claimants eligible for Universal Credit.

    No decision has been made on the future of the POca but discussions are currently taking place between DWP, Post Office Ltd and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to consider the future needs of customers beyond 2015 and any announcement on this matter will be made in due course.

    Ministers and Officials have also met with relevant stakeholders, including the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters to discuss POca related issues.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to ensure that patients with prostate cancer receive the highest quality treatment.

    Jane Ellison

    Newly updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on how best to diagnose and treat prostate cancer will help doctors to ensure that men are given information about the treatment options available and help in choosing the best option to suit them. The updated guidance also aims to reduce the uncertainty and variations in practice that remain in some areas of prostate cancer diagnosis and management.

    Since the original recommendations were published in 2008, a number of new treatments have been licensed for the management of hormone-relapsed metastatic prostate cancer. There is also more information now available on the best way to diagnose and identify the different stages of the disease in a hospital setting, as well as how best to manage the side effects of radical treatment. NHS England would expect providers to take account of best evidence and treatments in their delivery of services.

  • Lord Jopling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Jopling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jopling on 2014-03-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 10 March (WA 342), whether they will now answer the questions.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    Cabinet office does not hold data centrally on the transfer of civil servants across regions and it could only be collected centrally at disproportionate cost. Workforce planning is primarily the responsibility of each individual Department to determine. It is for individual departments to provide such information, where it exists.

  • Dame Tessa Jowell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dame Tessa Jowell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dame Tessa Jowell on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many funding applications were made by GPs for new premises in 2013; and how many of such applications have been approved by NHS England.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    NHS England has advised that information about the number of funding applications, the number of applications which have been approved and the number of applications which include a rent increase is not held centrally.

    However, NHS England has been collating all applications transferred from predecessor primary care trusts concerning funding for general practitioner (GP) practice premises, after which prioritisation decisions will be made for each of the application categories in the system.

    NHS England is working with clinical commissioning groups, health and wellbeing boards and other partners to develop a new strategy for premises and to support timely decisions on GP premises funding.

  • Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr David Hanson on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passengers travelled to the UK on routes connected to the Semaphore system in (a) 2011, (b) 2012 and (c) 2013.

    James Brokenshire

    The total number of passengers who travelled to the UK on routes connected to
    the Semaphore system were approximately as follows:

    (a) 66.5 million in 2011

    (b) 64.5 million in 2012

    (c) 78.8 million in 2013

  • Alison McGovern – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison McGovern – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Immigration and Passport Service on (a) the service’s ability to meet the three-week timescale for processing an application for a child passport and (b) possible extension of that timescale.

    James Brokenshire

    Expected service standards for processing passports are given at: www.gov.uk.

    My Rt. Hon. Friend the Home Secretary explained in the House on 12 June 2014
    a set of measures to deal with the high level of passport demand has been put
    in place. I refer the Hon. Member to the statement of 12 June 2014, Official
    Report, columns 693 and 694.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of eligible (a) male and (b) female offenders were recalled on a fixed term recall instead of a standard recall (i) in 2008, (ii) in 2009, (iii) in 2010, (iv) in 2011, (v) in 2012 and (vi) since 3 December 2012.

    Jeremy Wright

    It has not been possible to obtain this information. I will write to the Honourable member in due course.

  • Mike Weir – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    Mike Weir – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Weir on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if he will publish the (a) scope, (b) date of commissioning, (c) date of polling and (d) cost of polling commissioned by the Devolution Team in his Department on attitudes in Scotland towards Scottish independence and related matters from (i) Ipsos-MORI and (ii) other opinion survey companies since May 2011.

    Greg Clark

    The UK Government regularly commissions independent research to inform and evaluate major policy programmes. Cabinet Office has contracted Ipsos MORI for the purposes of providing market research in relation to the Scotland Analysis Programme. Two formal tenders for this research were issued in March and August 2013 respectively and, as with other tenders for Government contracts, these processes were managed by the Government Procurement Service (now part of the Crown Commercial Service).

    Cabinet Office has also contracted Engine Partners LLP for the purposes of providing communications support work in relation to the Scottish independence referendum. A formal tender for this work was issued in September 2013 and was managed by the Government Procurement Service.

    As part of the Government’s commitment to transparency in expenditure information relating to the costs of both sets of work is publicly available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-spend-data

    “

  • Caroline Flint – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Caroline Flint – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in (a) Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and (b) Don Valley constituency.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

    The ward results for Doncaster Metropolitan borough Council are shown in the following table:

    The ward results for the Don Valley constituency are shown in the following table:

    Results for all wards are available on the Commission’s website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

    “

  • Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 10 February 2014, Official Report, column 474W, on unmanned air vehicles: guided weapons, if he will take steps to receive parliamentary approval before the deployment of the armed forces to the redeployment of armed drones abroad.

    Mr Mark Francois

    There is no intention for Parliamentary approval to be sought before decisions on deployment or redeployment of individual items of equipment are made, though the Ministry of Defence may of course notify Parliament of significant deployments, as it does at present.