Category: Speeches

  • Paul Blomfield – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Paul Blomfield – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants of what grades have been employed on the Crown Oversight Function since its creation.

    Francis Maude

    Prior to the last General Election the Civil Service lacked commercial and procurement skills. This Government’s commercial and procurement reforms saved taxpayers £3.8 billion last year alone. The Government is strengthening central procurement skills to ensure further savings can be realised. The Crown Oversight Function was created on 1 November 2013 and has 52 Civil Service roles. Further details will be available via the department’s organogram. Consultants were not employed at Government expense.

  • Andrew Selous – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Selous – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Selous on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 30 April 2014, Official Report, column 760W, on driving under influence: drugs, what the proposed timetable is for the steps his Department proposes to take to communicate the new drug driving offence.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Officials working on the new drug driving legislation meet regularly with stakeholders from both the law enforcement and healthcare sectors. These meetings include discussions on how the new offence will be communicated.

    The medical profession has assisted the Department in developing guidance to healthcare professionals to use in discussion with their patients. We expect to publish the guidance later in the summer and will circulate it to the medical profession. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is currently working with pharmaceutical companies to update the product information of those medicines implicated by the new legislation. MHRA also expect to issue a ‘Drug Safety Update’ article later in the summer to include details about the new offence for healthcare professionals. This will be accompanied by an article for patients. MHRA also work closely with the British National Formulary to update the prescribing information for medicines as new safety information emerges and will ensure this new information is brought to their attention. The Think! campaign is in the process of being developed but we expect to start informing the public about the new offence just prior to its introduction followed be a more concentrated campaign on its introduction.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-04-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful bids from Local Enterprise Partnerships for the Local Growth Fund to date.

    Michael Fallon

    All 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) submitted their Strategic Economic Plans to Government by 31 March 2014. Given the highly competitive nature of the Local Growth Fund (LGF), it will be over-subscribed and therefore there will be successful and unsuccessful bids to the fund. The assessment process is underway, but it is too early to say how many bids will and will not be successful.

  • Alison McGovern – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Alison McGovern – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will provide an update on the use of his Department’s resources to help efforts to locate abducted girls in northern Nigeria.

    Mr Mark Francois

    The Ministry of Defence is contributing to the international effort to find the missing school girls through the deployment of a Sentinel surveillance aircraft to help improve the intelligence picture, complementing other international intelligence and surveillance assets. UK military personnel have also been deployed to a multi-national intelligence fusion team based in Nigeria, whose role is to assist the Nigerians in their efforts to locate the girls.

  • Mr David Anderson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Mr David Anderson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr David Anderson on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in (a) Gateshead Council and (b) Blaydon constituency.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

    The ward results for Gateshead Council were as follows:

    Ward

    Green matches

    Amber matches

    Red matches

    BIRTLEY

    85.6%

    1.4%

    13.0%

    BLAYDON

    84.0%

    1.2%

    14.8%

    BRIDGES

    73.7%

    2.0%

    24.3%

    CHOPWELL & ROWLANDS GILL

    85.1%

    1.8%

    13.1%

    CHOWDENE

    88.7%

    1.3%

    10.0%

    CRAWCROOK & GREENSIDE

    84.6%

    1.9%

    13.5%

    DECKHAM

    82.8%

    1.5%

    15.7%

    DUNSTON & TEAMS

    80.5%

    1.4%

    18.1%

    DUNSTON HILL & WHICKHAM EAST

    87.6%

    1.4%

    11.0%

    FELLING

    84.5%

    1.3%

    14.2%

    HIGH FELL

    85.5%

    1.9%

    12.6%

    LAMESLEY

    84.8%

    2.0%

    13.1%

    LOBLEY HILL & BENSHAM

    82.1%

    1.7%

    16.2%

    LOW FELL

    85.1%

    1.3%

    13.6%

    PELAW & HEWORTH

    85.6%

    1.2%

    13.2%

    RYTON, CROOKHILL & STELLA

    85.3%

    1.6%

    13.1%

    SALTWELL

    76.9%

    2.1%

    21.0%

    WARDLEY & LEAM LANE

    88.0%

    1.0%

    11.0%

    WHICKHAM NORTH

    86.4%

    1.2%

    12.4%

    WHICKHAM SOUTH & SUNNISIDE

    88.2%

    1.4%

    10.4%

    WINDY NOOK & WHITEHILLS

    88.1%

    1.0%

    10.9%

    WINLATON & HIGH SPEN

    87.1%

    1.7%

    11.2%

    The ward results for the Blaydon constituency were as follows:

    Ward

    Green matches

    Amber matches

    Red matches

    BIRTLEY

    84.0%

    1.2%

    14.8%

    BLAYDON

    85.1%

    1.8%

    13.1%

    CHOPWELL & ROWLANDS GILL

    84.6%

    1.9%

    13.5%

    CRAWCROOK & GREENSIDE

    87.6%

    1.4%

    11.0%

    DUNSTON HILL & WHICKHAM EAST

    84.8%

    2.0%

    13.1%

    LAMESLEY

    85.3%

    1.6%

    13.1%

    RYTON, CROOKHILL & STELLA

    86.4%

    1.2%

    12.4%

    WHICKHAM NORTH

    88.2%

    1.4%

    10.4%

    WHICKHAM SOUTH & SUNNISIDE

    87.1%

    1.7%

    11.2%

    WINLATON & HIGH SPEN

    84.0%

    1.2%

    14.8%

    Results for all wards are available on the Commission’s website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

    “

  • Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dobbin on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 41W, on drinking water, whether his Department has conducted a study of levels of psychotropic drugs in UK rivers and seawater.

    Dan Rogerson

    Currently no psychotropic drugs have been identified as Priority Hazardous Substances, Priority Substances or UK Specific Pollutants under the Water Framework Directive. As such no routine monitoring is carried out for these substances in England.

    However, previous research by the Environment Agency on pharmaceuticals in surface waters included environmental monitoring for the psychotropic drug fluoxetine (an anti-depressant). In 2005, monitoring was undertaken in rivers downstream of a number of sewage works across England and Wales. Thirty-nine samples were taken with fluoxetine occurring in 85% of samples with a maximum concentration of 0.044 microgrammes/litre (µg/l), and norfluoxetine in 51% of samples with a maximum concentration of 0.083 µg/l.

    During 2011, a programme of monitoring for pesticides was undertaken in six catchments. The psychotropic drugs carbamazepine and gabapentin were detected in all six catchments with maximum levels of 0.7 µg/l and 1.2 µg/l respectively.

    The report published by the Drinking Water Inspectorate evaluated the risk from psychotropic drugs in river water used for abstraction for drinking water supplies.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Frank Field on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households which claim housing benefit do not have access to a kitchen.

    Steve Webb

    The information requested is not available.

  • Gordon Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Gordon Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Brown on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will visit Dalgety Bay to discuss the time taken to clean up radiation contamination there.

    Mr Mark Francois

    In 2006 the then Health Protection Agency (HPA) Radiological Protection Authority advised that radioactive contamination on Dalgety Bay presented a low risk to the public. A more recent scoping risk assessment undertaken in 2011 by the HPA Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards at the bequest of the Scottish Government concluded that the risk to health was very low.

    The view of the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (now part of Public Health England) remains unchanged. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is completing a detailed quantitative risk assessment to inform the longer term management strategy which will be available in due course.

    Copies of the advice received by MOD together with a copy of the more detailed risk assessment, when published, will be placed in the Library of the House.

  • Lord Mendelsohn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Mendelsohn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2014-03-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many staff are currently employed for more than 50 per cent of their working week to support the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education in his role as Accounting Officer; and what are their job titles.

    Lord Nash

    A large proportion of the staff who work in the Department for Education support the Permanent Secretary in his role as Accounting Officer.

    The information requested about those who do so for more than 50% of their working week is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the efficacy of the General Dental Council’s fitness to practise regime.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The Department has made no recent assessment of the efficacy of the General Dental Council’s fitness to practise regime.

    It is the role of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) to independently review the performance of the regulators on an annual basis, to check how effective the regulators have been in protecting the public and promoting confidence in health and care professionals.

    Further information on the PSA reviews can be found on their website using the following link:

    www.professionalstandards.org.uk/