Category: Speeches

  • 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 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect that changes in qualification requirements for studying a BSc in paramedicine will have on recruitment into that profession.

    Ben Gummer

    There are currently 30 Higher Education Institutions across the United Kingdom delivering Health Care Professions Council approved pre-registration paramedic programmes. Of these, there are now 22 (73%) that are delivering BSc (Hons) degrees.

    The commissioned numbers in 2012/13 were 563, in 2013/14 were 722 and in 2014/15 were 853. Planned commission numbers for 2015/16 are 1,124 and for 2016/17 are 1,729. This shows there has been an increase of successful applicants who wish to enter the profession and are undertaking an appropriate pre-registration programme of higher education.

  • Baroness Whitaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Whitaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Whitaker on 2016-04-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, where a dog or horse is being micro-chipped and its owner is of no fixed abode, such as in the case of Gypsies and Travellers, whether they have considered allowing a mobile phone number or address of a friend or relation of the owner to be recorded rather than the owner’s address.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Owners of horses and dogs without a fixed address should provide the address of a family member or close friend with whom they keep in contact. Defra have worked with the veterinary representative organisations on their guidance for vets on microchipping of dogs.

  • Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many foreign military sales contracts there have been since 2010; and what the value was of those contracts.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The proportion of the defence procurement budget, and the defence budget spent on foreign military sales in each financial year cannot be provided. Under the Foreign Military Sales Agreement (FMS), Her Majesty’s Government commits to FMS cases with the US Government which then places contracts with industry to deliver our requirements. Additionally, FMS cases typically cover differing periods of performance, thereby making estimation of the commitment that would fall within each financial year unreliable.

    The number of new cases, together with their values, committed to under FMS for each financial year is given in the table below. They do not equate to actual expenditure, accruals or contractual commitments and include contingency provisions.

    Financial Year

    No. of new cases

    Value of new cases ($millions)

    2009-10

    22

    995

    2010-11

    30

    111

    2011-12

    33

    284

    2012-13

    23

    137

    2013-14

    25

    301

    2014-15

    26

    328

    2015-16

    32

    245

    2016-17 to date

    6

    13

    Totals

    197

    2,414

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to (a) track and (b) report progress made against the Sustainable Development Goals by applying the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

    James Wharton

    DFID helped to establish the use of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. This is the method the UN’s Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators has recommended for tracking and reporting on the prevalence of food insecurity for Global Goal 2.

    DFID is in the process of reviewing its results framework and is also considering ways to apply the Food Insecurity Experience Scale in relevant programmes. For example, this year DFID supported the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme to agree a new Monitoring and Evaluation framework which will use the Food Insecurity Experience Scale to track progress on food security for households supported by the programme.

  • Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential merits of requiring the use of sealed tamper-proof bags for duty-free alcohol sales at airports to prevent excessive drinking on board aircraft.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government welcomes industry’s commitment to tackling the issue of excessive alcohol consumption in airports and on-board aircraft. The use of tamper-proof bags for duty-free purchases is currently being trialled at a number of UK airports and as part of that trial industry will reach a view on the potential merits of this approach.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether introducing an elected mayor will be a requirement of all future devolution deals with combined authorities.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    Development of devolution deals is a bottom up process, in which areas bring us their proposals for the powers and budgets they want devolved to them. The accompanying governance arrangements they propose to support those powers and budgets must be commensurate with the scale of devolution they are seeking.

    Elected mayors provide that strong, single point of accountability which is essential for any devolution deal of the scale and ambition of the deals we have announced for Greater Manchester, Sheffield City Region, Tees Valley and the North East.

  • Nicola Blackwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Nicola Blackwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicola Blackwood on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much of his Department’s funding allocated in the Spending Review 2015 will be for research and development expenditure up to 2020.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not have a dedicated research and development fund. Research to inform policy is conducted by FCO Research Analysts and by individual Directorates and overseas Posts, and funded from devolved budgets. It is therefore not possible to identify how much of the FCO’s allocated funding will be spent on these activities over the Spending Review 2015 period.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to fund co-ordination of the seabird census planned for 2016.

    Rory Stewart

    The Chancellor announced budgets for all Government Departments covering the Spending Review period (2016/17 to 2019/20) on 25 November 2015. Defra is currently deciding how this translates into internal allocations for both the core Department and its Network Bodies.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what criteria were applied when determining the boundaries of blocks offered in the 14th Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round by the Oil and Gas Authority.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The boundaries of those blocks offered in the 14th Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round mirrored those covered by the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) assessment carried out prior to the launch of the 14th Round. The area of the SEA was determined by the areas with most potential for hydrocarbons in Great Britain.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what financial and other resources the Government makes available to UK Trade and Investment trade envoys.

    Anna Soubry

    To fulfil their overseas and UK travel commitments, there is a dedicated budget for the Trade Envoys.

    Total cost of the programme to date has been £424,529