Category: Speeches

  • Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Leader of the House, what visits each of the Ministers in his Office have made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.

    Mr Andrew Lansley

    In February 2013, I visited the Scottish Parliament to examine Parliamentary procedures and practices.

    In May 2013, the Deputy Leader of the House and I undertook an overseas visit to the European Institutions in Brussels. This visit provided an opportunity to consider and promote the role of national parliaments, including the House of Commons, in the processes of European legislation.

    In December 2013, the Deputy Leader of the House visited Northern Ireland to engage with various Northern Irish charities and campaign groups on the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill.

    In February 2014, I and the Deputy Leader of the House visited the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff to examine Parliamentary procedures and the work of the Petitions Committee.

  • Mike Gapes – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mike Gapes – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Gapes on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Debate of 3 March 2014, Official Report, columns 726-32W, on Census (Kashmiri ethnic representation), if he will add a category of Kashmiri to the tick boxes on the Census.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    No decision has been made on the topics or questions that could be considered for a future census.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gordon Marsden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the (a) availability and (b) effectiveness of scrubber technology on maritime vessels.

    Stephen Hammond

    In October 2012, and again in March 2013, I chaired ‘round table’ meetings of industry stakeholders (from the shipping, ports, exhaust gas cleaning system technology, oil refining and logistics sectors) to consider the best way forward for compliance with the new international and EU sulphur requirements. The potential for reverse modal shift, the maturity and efficacy of scrubber technology and the scope for financial assistance to industry were all key to those discussions. The report commissioned by the UK Chamber of Shipping was produced as a result of those meetings, and officials have taken it into account in producing the Government’s Impact Assessment on the draft UK Regulations to implement the sulphur limits in national law.

    The Government went out to an eight-week public consultation on 29 April 2014 on those draft UK Regulations. Meanwhile, Government officials continue to work closely with the industry and to explore the scope for securing EU finance, possibly under the Trans-European Network (commonly known as TEN-T) programme and affordable capital from the European Investment Bank, for shipowners and ports who wish to invest in scrubber technology or in technology associated with the use of an alternative fuel, such as liquefied natural gas, to comply with the new limits.

    The UK Regulations will be reviewed in accordance with normal Government practice and consistent with the principles of better regulation.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many gun dogs have been stolen in each of the last three years in each region in England.

    Norman Baker

    The information requested is not available centrally.

    It is not possible to identify offences of gun dog thefts from the police recorded crime statistics collected by the Home Office.

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of jobseeker’s allowance claims processed within (a) 10, (b) 20, (c) 30, (d) 40, (e) 60 and (f) more than 60 working days.

    Esther McVey

    The information requested is not available.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff were employed by Directly Operated Railways in March (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

    Stephen Hammond

    The total budgeted staff costs for the years in question are as follows.

    £000’s

    Salaries

    Other Staff Costs

    Consultants

    Total

    2010/11

    539

    77

    412

    1028

    2011/12

    476

    52

    386

    914

    2012/13

    194

    32

    853

    1079

    2013/14

    378

    10

    455

    843

    2014/15

    1245

    61

    187

    1493

    2015/16

    No Budget

    As with all other costs associated with Directly Operated Railways (DOR), these are recovered through a combination of a management charge to their subsidiary (East Coast Main Line Company Ltd), charges to the performance bond which was secured from National Express following the early termination of their franchise in 2009 and fees charged to the Department for Transport for services in connection with the Rail Franchising (Direct Awards) programme.

    The total headcount in DOR for the years in question are set out in the table below.

    Year ending March

    Core DOR

    Direct Award

    2010

    7

    2011

    7

    2012

    7

    2013

    8

    2014

    7

    6*

    *Prior to the year ending March 2014, DOR’s work in respect of the Direct Award programme was staffed by a combination of the core DOR team and consultants.

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he intends to respond to the recommendations made by the Social Security Advisory Committee in Occasional Paper 12 published in April 2014; and if he will make a statement.

    Steve Webb

    The Department is currently considering its response to the Social Security Advisory Committee’s recent study “The Cumulative Impact of Welfare Reform: a Commentary“. A response will be published in due course.

  • Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Harriet Harman on 2014-03-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of secondary school children in England learning to play a musical instrument in school (a) paid a charge and (b) received their tuition free of charge in school years (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11, (iii) 2011-12, (iv) 2012-13 and (v) 2013-14.

    Elizabeth Truss

    I refer the Rt. Hon. Lady to the Answer I gave on 1 April 2014, Official Report, col. 631W, on Schools: Musical Instruments.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which GP practices have been identified by NHS England as potentially losing more than £3 per patient in 2014-15 following the withdrawal of the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    NHS England has published an anonymised list of ‘outliers’ which can be found at:

    www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gp-gms-practices.pdf

    Because the information is commercially sensitive, details that could identify individual practices have not been released.

    The Minimum Practice Income Guarantee is being phased out over a period of seven years because it is inequitable, and the money released will be reinvested into basic payments made to all General Medical Services practices.

    NHS England is supporting the most affected practices.

  • Ben Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ben Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2014-03-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information (a) his Department and (b) HM Tribunals Service hold on the gender of people (i) prosecuted and convicted for television licence evasion and (ii) imprisoned for non-payment of a fine for television licence evasion.

    Jeremy Wright

    No published information is available. The information in the table is taken from a live case management system. As such, it is subject to change and is not checked to the level of Official Statistics. No information is available in respect of socio-economic status of those prosecuted or convicted or imprisoned for non-payment of a fine in respect of television licence evasion. The Government has said that it will examine whether television licence evasion should be decriminalised.