Category: Speeches

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what means she will assess the risk to bee populations when considering emergency applications for the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on crops.

    George Eustice

    Emergency authorisation is a procedure set out in law which allows for the authorisation of a pesticide product for a period not exceeding 120 days, for “limited and controlled use, where such a measure appears necessary because of a danger which cannot be contained by any other reasonable means”.

    All applications for emergency authorisation in the UK, including those for neonicotinoids, are decided according to these criteria following an expert assessment of the scientific data.

  • Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-06-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many electric vehicles they estimate will be using British roads by 2030.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    There are currently over sixty thousand ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) on the road in the UK. The Government has the goal that by 2040 all new cars and vans will be zero emission vehicles. The uptake trajectory between now and then will depend on a range of factors including technological developments, consumer attitudes, international regulations and Government incentives, but by 2030 we would expect ULEVs to be firmly into the mass market. The Government will be spending more than £600 million by 2020 to support uptake and manufacturing of ULEVs in the UK.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for reviewing the legislation concerning the safe use of electrical products at home.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Government takes consumer safety extremely seriously. This country has some of the most robust product safety legislation in the world. We cannot be complacent. We have the legislation in place to protect consumers, but we do sometimes see unsafe products on the market. That is why in November 2014 the Government announced an Independent Review of the Product Recall System.

    Following this review we invited a team of industry experts to form a Steering Group to consider how the review’s recommendations might be implemented. The Steering Group has set itself a timeframe of 2 years in which to complete its work.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on measures to improve air quality in each year since 2010-11; how much funding has been allocated to air quality improvement in the 2015-16 financial year; and what estimate she has made of the funding needed until 2020 to bring air pollution levels to within legal limits.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government has committed over £2 billion since 2011 in measures to improve air quality. As road transport is the dominant source of pollution most of the funding has been allocated from the Department for Transport. Defra’s contribution has taken the form of payments made under the Air Quality Grant Scheme to support local authority action on air pollution. Total payments made under the Scheme in each year are as follows:

    2010-11

    £2,361,000

    2011-12

    £3,078,745

    2012-13

    £3,100,000

    2013-14

    £1,000,000

    2014-15

    £1,000,000

    2015-16 (allocated)

    £500,000

    Future funding will depend on the outcome of the current Spending Review.

    The government has recently consulted on draft national and local Air Quality Plans for the UK. The finalised plans will be submitted to the European Commission by 31 December.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his Department’s target is for time taken to respond to letters and emails from hon. Members; what the average time taken by his Department to respond to such letters and emails is; and how many such letters and emails received between 1 January and 30 September 2015 remained unanswered after eight weeks.

    Brandon Lewis

    My Department aims to reply to all correspondence from hon. Members within 15 working days.

    Guidance for Departments on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, Members of the European Parliament and Members of Devolved Administrations is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441892/Cabinet_Office_Guidance_on_correspondence.pdf”

    Departmental performance on handling correspondence is published annually. The latest publication is available at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-06-03/HCWS11/”

    “

  • Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-01-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of vehicles operated by central Government, or the wider public sector, are wholly electrically powered.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    We do not have detailed numbers on the information requested.

    According to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) statistics some 133 public transport buses, coaches and minibuses are wholly electrically powered. There are no purpose built electric taxis recorded on the DVLA records, although electric cars are used as minicabs and private hire vehicles, and a number of plug-in hybrid purpose built taxis are in development.

    This Government has a comprehensive £600 million package of measures over the course of this parliament to keep Britain at the forefront of the ultra-low emission vehicle technology. This includes grants encouraging low emission buses and taxis.

    The proportion of wholly electric vehicles operated by central Government is not recorded by the DVLA. However, the total number of central government electric vehicles that have been purchased via the Crown Commercial Service framework is 20. Just over 300 ultra-low emission vehicles are being integrated into public sector fleets under the ULEV readiness project; with over 70% being fully electric.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints his Department received about the standard of its recent consultation document on court closures.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    There has been one complaint about the standard of the recent consultation on the provision of court and tribunal estate in England and Wales.

    The complaint, received by email, was from a member of the judiciary and related to St Alban’s County Court. It noted that the consultation document was inaccurate as it stated that no enabling work was required at the receiving court, Watford County Court. On investigation, it was determined that some enabling work would be required. The written response to the complaint corrected this inaccuracy. The published consultation response document was updated to present corrected information.

    During the consultation process we were notified about inaccuracies in the consultation documents. These have all been corrected in the published response documents. All decisions were based on correct information together with the careful consideration of the consultation responses.

    The consultation response is available online at www.gov.uk/moj.

    “

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to page 15 of the Government’s publication, The Process of withdrawing from the European Union, CM 9216, for what reason the rights and obligations which the UK currently has with other non-EU WTO members would not subsist when the UK leaves the EU.

    Anna Soubry

    As set out in Cm 9216, in the event that we leave the EU, we would need to update the terms of our WTO membership where the commitments taken have previously applied to the EU as a whole. This would not be a straightforward process as, if we leave the EU, then we would need all other WTO Members to agree how the UK will take on the rights and obligations which we have formerly taken as part of the EU. This would mean submitting UK schedules and, until this process was completed, there could be questions surrounding our rights to access WTO members’ markets, and our ability to enforce those rights. These issues are also addressed in the Government publication, Alternatives to Membership: possible models for the United Kingdom outside the European Union.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what modelling she has conducted to assess the likelihood of the emergency brake mechanism to control immigration from the rest of the EU into the UK being utilised in the next five years.

    James Brokenshire

    The European Commission has clearly said that the UK already meets the criteria for the implementation of the ‘emergency brake’ and the text of the agreement makes clear that, once the necessary legislation is in place, EU workers newly arriving in the UK will not have full access to our in-work benefits for up to four years.

    The Home Office accepted the view of the independent Migration Advisory Committee that to produce such estimates "would not be sensible, or helpful to policymakers" and did not prepare specific forecasts of likely inflows from Romania and Bulgaria once restrictions expired on 1 January 2014. There are no plans to undertake a review of this decision.

  • David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34094, by what deadline clinical commissioning groups will be required to report on whether they have increased investment in mental health services above their overall increase in allocation each year.

    Alistair Burt

    Spending on mental health is expected to increase to £11.7 billion and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are required to continue to increase their spend on mental health each year.

    NHS England’s published planning guidance for 2015/16 for commissioners made the expectation clear that each CCG’s spend on mental health services in 2015/16 should increase in real terms, and grow by at least the same percentage as each CCG’s allocation increase.

    Detail on planned spend on mental health is captured as part of the National Health Service financial plan returns for 2016/17 with follow up as part of the plan assurance process. This information is being assessed during May by NHS England.