Category: Speeches

Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has to hold further D-Day commemorations.

Anna Soubry

Following the very successful commemorations to mark this year’s 70th anniversary of D Day we will be discussing with the Normandy Veterans Association how we might approach future commemorations once the Association disbands later this year. We are sure that veterans will continue to return annually as long as they are able and that particular plans will again be made as the 75th anniversary, another significant milestone, approaches.

01/11/2022
Rosie Cooper – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of applications made to the appeals service for parking on private land have related to parking charge notices on NHS hospital car parks; and what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health on the issues raised in such appeals.

Mr Robert Goodwill

I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 25 February 2014, Official Report, column 331W (UIN 188122).

01/11/2022
Tim Loughton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department have had with Dominic Cummings since Mr Cummings left his Department; and what the purpose of those meetings was.

Matthew Hancock

Mr Cummings is an ex-employee of the Department for Education. It is not uncommon for ex-employees to be in contact with Ministers and the Department. As the Secretary of State for Education explained to the House on Monday 16 June, many people seek to visit and contact the Department for Education to exchange ideas with old friends and colleagues.

01/11/2022
Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to increase understanding of pensions and retirement planning amongst women.

Steve Webb

The Department is taking a range of steps to address understanding of pensions and retirement planning, including amongst women.

The DWP is working closely with the Money Advice Service (MAS), the government body with responsibility for improving the British public’s financial capability, including tackling the knowledge gaps which can inhibit individuals from saving into pensions.

The Department is facilitating joint-working between its information services and those of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS), which is playing an important role in supporting individuals who are automatically enrolled, and MAS. The DWP will also support MAS in increasing its reach, including through contact channels with DWP customers.

As part of automatic enrolment, to encourage women to continue to save in a workplace pension we are running an awareness campaign with supporting information that emphasises the importance of saving for retirement and outlines the benefits of saving in a workplace pension. This reaches women via the use of appropriate media channels and by working in partnership with trusted brands.

We are creating a simpler state pension so that everybody can know both what counts towards their state pension and how much they can expect to receive. We will take account of the different ways in which men and women are affected by the reforms in our communications approach. Our strategy includes using partnerships with media outlets most likely to reach these women to make them aware of the changes. We will evaluate the impact of our communications to make sure we are reaching women to increase their awareness and understanding.

01/11/2022
Huw Irranca-Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any phyto-sanitary and plant-disease expertise from the UK has been involved in helping to address the shortcomings identified by the EU Commissioner necessitating the recent ban on importation of mangoes from India.

Dan Rogerson

Defra’s Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) has offered to deliver a technical training programme for Indian Plant Health Inspectors to help address some of the issues raised in the previous European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) audits of the Indian plant health export certification systems. A Plant Health and Seeds Inspector from Fera will be also be assisting the FVO when it undertakes its audit visit to India in September.

01/11/2022
Ian Murray – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who made the decisions and on what basis were the decisions made on how many shares would go to each priority investor, each institutional investor and each retail investor in respect of the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Michael Fallon

The Government set the overall allocation policy with the aim of getting the right balance between longer-term, stable investors, retail investors and shorter-term investors who provide liquidity in the market.

Allocations were made to a number of institutions who in the early stages of engagement were willing to place non-binding orders despite the risks attached to the IPO such as the industrial relations situation. These investors gave us confidence that there was sufficient demand to proceed with the IPO.

We had nearly three-quarters of a million retail applications so their allocations were scaled back as they were for institutional investors. Given this high demand, Ministers decided to prioritise smaller investors and put in place a cut-off above £10,000 and give everyone below that the same number of shares. Around 95% of retail investors were allocated shares.

01/11/2022

David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average ambulance response time for each category of call was in Bolton in each year since 2010.

Jane Ellison

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.

The median response times to treatment for category A¹ calls in the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust², April 2011³ to April 2014

Month	Median time (in minutes)
April 2011	4.2
May 2011	5.0
June 2011	5.2
July 2011	5.0
August 2011	4.7
September 2011	4.8
October 2011	4.9
November 2011	4.9
December 2011	5.0
January 2012	4.8
February 2012	5.1
March 2012	5.0
April 2012	5.6
May 2012	5.7
June 2012	5.1
July 2012	5.1
August 2012	5.2
September 2012	5.3
October 2012	5.4
November 2012	5.4
December 2012	5.7
January 2013	5.5
February 2013	5.6
March 2013	5.6
April 2013	5.8
May 2013	5.4
June 2013	5.5
July 2013	5.8
August 2013	5.7
September 2013	6.1
October 2013	6.0
November 2013	6.1
December 2013	6.1
January 2014	5.8
February 2014	6.1
March 2014	6.1
April 2014	6.1

Source: Ambulance quality indicators, NHS England

Notes:

¹Category A calls are defined as those that are the result of immediately life threatening incidents.

²North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust provides services to the Bolton area. Ambulance response times are not readily available for areas smaller than those covered by one Ambulance Trust.

³Information is not available before April 2011.

01/11/2022

Chuka Umunna – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of people of Latin American ethnicity in (a) the UK, (b) England and Wales, (c) London, (d) each London borough and (e) Streatham constituency.

Mr Nick Hurd

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

01/11/2022
Roger Godsiff – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to ensure that patient data extracted under care.data shared with countries inside the European Economic Area cannot be shared outside that area.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Data Protection Act (1998) allows personal data to be transferred to countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) on the same basis as transferring data within the United Kingdom. Personal data can only be sent to a country or territory outside the EEA if an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of individuals when processing their personal data is ensured.

Every application for information will be considered by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), in line with the Data Protection Act, taking account of their location if it is outside the UK.

Recipients of data from the HSCIC must agree to certain terms and conditions of use, i.e. a data sharing contract, before any data is disclosed. Those terms and conditions include measures intended to safeguard the use of information that may identify individuals, including:

– limiting the use of information to a specific purpose, which must also be both legitimate, compatible and shared only for the benefit of the health and social care system;

– prohibiting onward disclosure of information to an additional organisation;

– ensuring the security of the data once it is in the possession of another organisation that applied successfully for the data; and

– the right of HSCIC to audit where it is suspected the terms and conditions have not been complied with.

The HSCIC announced on 17 June 2014 that a new, strengthened audit function will monitor adherence to data sharing agreements and halt the flow of data if there are any concerns exposed. This will include scrutiny of how the data is being used and stored by those receiving it. This will also monitor that data has been deleted when an agreement comes to the end. Any failure on the part of data users to abide by their agreements will entail no further release of data to them.

01/11/2022
Ian Lavery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2014-04-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average annual (a) cost of employing HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) debt management collectors and (b) value of interventions undertaken by individual HMRC debt management collectors are in (i) debt management telephony centres, (ii) field force, (iii) debt collection intervention teams, (iv) debt technical offices and (v) late stage intervention.

Mr David Gauke

Staff numbers fluctuate throughout the year but the following numbers of staff were in post at 31 March for each of the last three years:

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

DMTC/DCIT

1,276

1,194

1,336

Field Force

631

601

531

DTO

1,012

1,223

1,113

LAST

242

277

Total

2,919

3,260

3,257

· HMRC uses an appropriate mix of interventions to recover outstanding debt based on assessments of previous behaviour, [credit] risk and likely ability to pay. The allocation of various activities to specific debts is not mutually exclusive – some debtors may experience multiple contacts if they do not respond to initial attempts at recovery.

· The table below shows the overall annual amounts of debts which HMRC has pursued and cleared in recent years.

£billion

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

Total Debt processed

51

53

47

59

01/11/2022

	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14
DMTC/DCIT	1,276	1,194	1,336
Field Force	631	601	531
DTO	1,012	1,223	1,113
LAST		242	277
Total	2,919	3,260	3,257

£billion	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14
Total Debt processed	51	53	47	59