Category: Speeches

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the UK is caused by emissions from private cars.

    Rory Stewart

    We assess emissions in terms of nitrogen oxides (NOx) rather than nitrogen dioxide (NO2) because the proportion of NO2 varies significantly across vehicle types. Passenger cars (including both petrol and diesel vehicles) contribute 29% of the total emissions of NOx in the UK. Passenger cars contribute 45% of NOX emissions from road transport.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new employment support allowance claimants there were in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West in each of the last six years.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested has been published and can be found at: http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/flows/flows_on/tabtool.html.

    Guidance on how to extract the information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance.

    “

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-02-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the decision by Germany to give refuge to 1,000 Yazidi women and girls freed from Islamic State slavery, whether they will table the Resolution of the European Parliament declaring a genocide against Yazidis and Christians in Syria and Iraq at the UN Security Council.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    As the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), and other ministers have explained in response to similar questions, it is the long-standing policy of successive governments that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred are a matter for the international judicial system rather than legislatures, governments or other non-judicial bodies. Our approach is to seek an end to all violations of International Humanitarian Law, and to prevent their further escalation, irrespective of whether these violations fit the definition of specific international crimes. We welcome the European Parliament resolution. However, European Parliament resolutions are not binding and do not create legal obligations on Member States. We have no plans to table this resolution at the UN Security Council.

    Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology. That’s why the UK is playing a leading role in a Global Coalition of 66 countries and international organisations to respond to Daesh’s inhumanity.

  • Margaret Beckett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Margaret Beckett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Beckett on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the letter from the National Security Adviser to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy of 10 March 2016, how many GCHQ staff have been (a) recruited to and (b) completed the CyberFirst scheme.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The CyberFirst scheme was launched in 2015 and met its initial target of awarding 21 bursaries, of which 19 have been taken up and committed to by UK students. Eight of the students are in the first year of their degree, ten are in their second year and one student is in the third year of a four year course. The first students will be able to join the department when they graduate in 2017. As announced by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, we will have 1000 students on the scheme by 2020. During summer 2016, five of the students will attend GCHQ Student Technical Internships, seven will attend the various GCHQ summer technical schools, one will start a 1 year industrial placement at GCHQ and six will attend internships in other government cyber operations.

  • Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what programmes are in place to increase the numbers of children cycling to school.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government would like to see an increase in the number of children cycling to school. We believe that cycle safety training can give children the skills and confidence they need to cycle on local roads.

    Bikeability is the Government’s long-standing programme of cycle training for school children, with over 1.7 million children trained since 2010. It is available to every local body in England (London has separate funding arrangements for Bikeability). Funding of £12 million a year has been confirmed for the next four years. This will provide a range of cycling activities to schools including on-road cycle training and Bikeability Plus, a new suite of training modules focussed on increasing levels of cycling school and cycle safety.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether meeting notes, correspondence and plans produced by the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprint leadership teams are included within the remit of clinical commissioning groups in their capacity as public authorities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if he will place in the Library a list of contacts for each footprint area.

    George Freeman

    Every health and care system in England is producing a multi-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), showing how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years – ultimately delivering the Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved NHS efficiency. Freedom of Information (FoI) requests would be responded to in line with the FoI Act. It is the intention is to publish STPs once they are final and agreed. Organisations within footprints such as clinical commissioning groups will adhere to their own local governance and engagement arrangements.

    The list of Footprint leads is attached and also contained on the NHS England website:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/03/leaders-confirmed/

    “

  • Chris Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chris Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish his evaluation of the National Stroke Strategy for England and the Government’s approach to outpatient rehabilitation services for stroke survivors.

    David Mowat

    There has been no formal evaluation of the National Stroke Strategy. However there is a continuous evaluation of the quality of stroke care via the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP). This measures most of the key indicators defined as important in the strategy and findings are freely available on the SSNAP website:

    https://www.strokeaudit.org/

    The Government’s approach to outpatient rehabilitation services for stroke survivors is to encourage clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to commission evidence based care such as early supported discharge and longer term neurorehabilitation. There are some areas where these services are incomplete and NHS England is working with CCGs and the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints to address this.

    “

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the outcome of the consultation on the community pharmacy contractual framework, if he will introduce a maximum (a) distance and (b) travel time to a community pharmacy.

    David Mowat

    The Government announced the package of reforms for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond on 20 October 2016. This included full details of how the Pharmacy Access Scheme will operate. This can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-pharmacy-reforms

    “

  • Nia Griffith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Nia Griffith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nia Griffith on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, with reference to the draft Wales Bill, for what reason it is his policy to remove the wording of the Government of Wales Act 2006 which states that an Act of the Assembly may make any provision that could be made by an Act of Parliament.

    Stephen Crabb

    The current conferred powers model of Welsh devolution sets out what an Assembly Act can do. In contrast, a reserved powers model need only set out what an Assembly Act cannot do. Under the draft Wales Bill an Assembly Act would be able to include any provision that is not outside the Assembly’s legislative competence. The wording is not therefore needed.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on the emergency services mobile communications programme.

    Mike Penning

    The purpose of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is to deliver a mobile communications network for use principally by the Emergency Services – the Emergency Services Network (ESN). The ESN will deliver integrated critical voice and broadband data services to all three emergency services (3ES) and other users throughout England, Wales and Scotland. The aim is to provide a mobile communications network capable of providing the full coverage, resilience, security and public safety functionality required by the 3ES.

    The procurement of the ESN is divided in 3 main procurement lots supplemented by a number of related projects. The contract for Lot 1 – Delivery Partner was awarded to Kellogg Brown and Root in August 2015 . The Home Office announced it’s intention to award contracts to Motorola – Lot 2 User Services and EE Lot 3 Mobile Services on 13th November 2015. The procurement process was halted following a legal challenge by Airwave Solutions Limited, the incumbent supplier, on 23 November 2015, the last day of the 10 day standstill period. The Home Office submitted an application to lift the automatic suspension of the procurement and had been working with Counsel preparing for a hearing in the High Court on 8th and 9th Dec.

    On Saturday 5th December, the Home Office was informed that ASL would no longer contest the Home Office application to lift the suspension and that subject to the consent order being agreed by the Court today, the Home Office will seek to sign contracts with Motorola and EE on 8th December. This will then start the Mobilisation phase of the programme during which the network will be designed, built and tested over a 21 month period. The 3ES will start to use the network from late 2017 following extensive tests and trials.