Category: Speeches

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data his Department collects on drunkenness of passengers on commercial flights.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government does not collect specific data on the frequency of incidents involving drunk or aggressive passengers.

    If serious enough such incidents would be counted amongst data for safety related events. In accordance with (EU) Regulation No 376/2014, safety-related events which endanger or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person have to be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority as part of the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme (MORS). The Regulation requires that the reporting, analysis and follow-up to such occurrences remain confidential. However, the Regulation does permit information to be released on request to interested parties that have a genuine safety related need for the information. An application can be made at www.caa.co.uk.

    “

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many employees of (1) NHS England, and (2) Arden GEM Commissioning Support Unit, were seconded to the Special Projects Team in (a) 2014, and (b) 2015, and how many are currently seconded from each.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Special Projects Team (SPT) is a service hosted by Arden and GEM Commissioning Support Unit (CSU). In 2014 and 2015 the team had two full-time employees, one employed by NHS England, and then seconded to the CSU to work directly on SPT issues, and one person employed by the CSU (through the NHS Business Services Authority) working directly on SPT matters. This position continues at present.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what legal costs (a) his Department and (b) NHS England have incurred to date in relation to decisions on access to (i) narcolepsy drugs, (ii) hepatitis C drugs and (iii) pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV.

    George Freeman

    The Department’s legal costs are met from individual teams’ existing legal budgets and cannot be broken down further. NHS England also advises that it is not able to provide this information as these are live issues incurring ongoing legal costs.

  • David Simpson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    David Simpson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent changes her Department has made to licensing criteria for badger control in England.

    George Eustice

    Following a public consultation, the following changes to licensing conditions were published on 17 December 2015:

    • Enabling Natural England to keep the duration of annual badger control operations under review rather than limiting them to six weeks.

    • Reducing the minimum size of an area from 150km2 to 100km2.

    • Removing the requirement for at least 70% of the land in candidate areas to be accessible but retaining a requirement that approximately 90% of the land in the control area be either accessible, or within 200m of accessible land.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department has allocated to schemes to encourage investment in solar energy in each of the last five years.

    Jesse Norman

    Over the past five years, solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, wave and tidal electricity projects have received support from either the Renewables Obligation (RO) or the Feed-in Tariff (FITs).

    Expenditure through the Renewables Obligation in 2011/12 to 2015/16 can be broken down by power generation technology shown in the table (£million in nominal prices). Solar PV and some small-scale onshore wind are also supported by the Feed In Tariff scheme, but costs are not available disaggregated by technology. Total support is shown below (£million).

    RO (£million)

    11/12

    12/13

    13/14

    14/15

    15/16

    Onshore wind

    £482.6

    £557.1

    £755.6

    £786.8

    £803.0

    Offshore wind

    £371.1

    £698.5

    £988.7

    £1,108.0

    £1,429.7

    Solar PV

    £0.1

    £0.9

    £34.9

    £133.9

    £264.8

    Wave & Tidal

    £0.1

    £0.4

    £0.4

    £0.1

    £0.2

    TOTAL RO

    £1,457.7

    £1,991.3

    £2,599.3

    £3,114.2

    £3,743.2

    TOTAL FITs

    £151

    £506

    £691

    £866

    £1,110

    Renewables Obligations: Source Ofgem:

    www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/ro/contacts-publications-and-data/publications-library-renewables-obligation

    www.ofgem.gov.uk/publication-and-updates/renewables-obligation-ro-annual-report-2014-15

    www.renewablesandchp.ofgem.gov.uk/Public/ReportManager.aspx?ReportVisibility=1&ReportCategory=0

    FITs: Source Ofgem:

    https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/fit/contacts-guidance-and-resources/public-reports-and-data-fit/levelisation-reports

    The Contracts for Difference Scheme opened for delivery from 2015/16 onwards. No projects started deploying in 2015/16 so no payments were made.

    “

  • Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the estimate of surface access costs associated with an expansion of Heathrow Airport produced by (a) the Airports Commission and (b) the Mayor of London in his response to the Airports Commission consultation, published in February 2015.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Airports Commission, in undertaking its work consulted widely, engaging with a broad range of organisations and people, and considered a wide range of views and information from stakeholders, including the Mayor of London, to inform its recommendations.

    The Government is currently considering the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report, including its examination of the costs of the surface access proposals associated with airport expansion, before taking any decisions on next steps.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) nurse consultants, (b) modern matrons and (c) community matrons were employed in the NHS in the (i) latest period for which figures are available and (ii) same period in 2009-10.

    Ben Gummer

    The following table shows the number of nurse consultants, modern matrons and community matrons employed in the National Health Service in England.

    full-time equivalent

    August 2010

    August 2015

    Nurse consultants

    1,007

    882

    Modern Matrons

    4,802

    3,919

    Community Matrons

    1,536

    1,214

    Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre monthly workforce statistics

    Data is not available for August 2009 as the monthly workforce statistics commenced in September 2009.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many employees in his Department have (a) taken the CESG Certified Cyber-Security Training Course and (b) received other relevant cyber-security training.

    Penny Mordaunt

    CESG certify a range of cyber security training courses, such as the Open University Introduction to Cyber Security and the MSc in Cyber through Cranfield University. As most employees complete these courses in their own time, it is not a requirement to record it on departmental systems. It would be impossible to present accurate statistics for their take-up as this information is either not held, or not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

    All users of MOD IT systems, some 255,000 people (both civilian and military), are mandated to undertake the Defence Information Management Passport, an e-learning course, which includes a cyber security element. In addition all Services have now implemented Cyber Awareness Training across their Single Service introductory training. Further, a range of cyber security material is promulgated, including briefings, online and hardcopy materials, in order to maintain awareness across Defence.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who were victims of domestic abuse were incarcerated for violent crimes committed in response to the abuse they had received in each of the last three years.

    Caroline Dinenage

    This information is not held centrally, and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-03-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to limiting the proportion of places that schools can allocate using religious admissions criteria, in line with the cap that currently exists for free schools.

    Lord Nash

    The Government greatly values the contribution that existing church and faith schools play in our education system, including those of free schools, and we have no plans to change their admission arrangements since they are providing places for the communities they serve.

    Not all faith schools choose to allocate places by faith. It is for the admission authority of the school to decide whether or not to include faith-based priorities within their oversubscription criteria.

    When constructing faith-based oversubscription criteria, including deciding how membership or practice of the faith will be determined, admission authorities must have regard to the guidance of their relevant religious authority and their arrangements must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code.