Category: Speeches

  • Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-04-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that defence contracts offered to overseas manufacturers benefit the UK economy.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Ministry of Defence will always seek to procure the best capability for our Armed Forces while delivering value for money for the taxpayer. In line with Government policy, this is primarily through the use of open competition.

    When wider economic factors, such as skills growth, are relevant to the contract, they are taken into account in our contract award decisions. This applies equally to UK and overseas suppliers.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of Ivory Coast about the number of prisoners being held for political reasons following the elections of 2010; what responses, if any, they have had; and whether they are in touch with local Roman Catholic bishops about that issue.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK has worked closely with the UN Special Representative for Côte D’Ivoire, and international partners to ensure that, as part of the national reconciliation process, those held in detention since the 2010/11 post-electoral crisis without formal criminal charges, or no charges to answer, were released. We welcome President Ouattara’s release of the final 3,100 such prisoners in January 2016. A further 265 prisoners remain on remand: all have been charged with criminal offences committed during the crisis. Following the visit of the UN Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Abidjan Prison on 10 June and subsequent meeting with President Ouattara, the Justice Minister has given an assurance that the trials will be completed by the end of December 2016. The UK continues to urge for the trials to be held in a timely manner.

    To promote national reconciliation, the UK and other international partners continue to press for the Government of Cote d’Ivoire to ensure that all parties responsible for human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law are brought to justice, no matter what their political affiliation. Whilst local Roman Catholic bishops have not directly contacted us, officials from our Embassy in Abidjan will engage with them on this issue.

  • Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-07-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 13 July (HL1006), whether they have any plans to monitor private access to (1) Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) from clinics within England, and (2) generic versions of Truvada for PrEP online from overseas.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    It would not be possible or practical to monitor how individuals choose to access medicines or services outside of the National Health Service or to assess the impact on that individual. Registered pharmacies that operate online and that may supply drugs for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are the responsibility of the General Pharmaceutical Council. We are aware that some local authority commissioned sexual health services are offering monitoring of the pharmacological efficacy of generic PrEP however this is a matter for local decision.

  • Helen Goodman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Helen Goodman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-10-30.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to assess, mitigate and monitor macro-economic risks associated with trends in (a) environmental degradation, (b) resource scarcity, (c) climate change and (d) other aspects of the natural environment.

    Greg Hands

    HM Treasury regularly undertakes activities to monitor and assess key macroeconomic risks across all sectors of the economy, in line with current priorities.

    The Treasury also feeds into the wider work on environmental risks that is undertaken across government: and in particular, through consideration of the analysis, advice and recommendations of the Natural Capital Committee which reports to the government, including HM Treasury, via the Economic Affairs Committee. The NCC’s work includes assessments of environmental trends and their impacts on the economy. The government’s response to the NCC’s third State of Natural Capital Report sets out how this work will be taken forward, including through the development of a 25 Year Environment Plan which will focus on those environmental assets that are most vulnerable to unsustainable use and where investment will deliver the greatest benefit.The Treasury is working closely with Defra to develop this plan.

    Departments also work together on the UK contribution to the activities of the EU Raw Materials Initiative, which includes ongoing work that assesses and mitigates materials risks. Additionally, under the Climate Change Act 2008, the Government has a statutory role to produce, on a five-yearly cycle, an assessment of the risks and opportunities for the UK arising from climate change. Reporting under the Adaptation Reporting Power (as set out under the Climate Change Act), allows us to assess how key sectors are identifying risks from climate change and addressing them.

  • Andrew Tyrie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Tyrie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Tyrie on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons the Airports Commission used his Department’s National Air Passenger Demand Model and National Air Passenger Allocation model in its work; whether the assumption of homogenous capacity in those models affected the net present value figures in Table 7.1 of the Commission’s Final Report, published in July 2015, compared with a model that distinguished between long and short-haul, business and leisure, and domestic and international capacity; and what assessment he has made of whether the use of a model that distinguishes between such different types of capacity would increase or decrease the net present value of each of those shortlisted schemes.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government is currently considering the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report before taking any decisions on next steps.

    The Government will carefully consider all the evidence set out, including that on costs, when making a decision on additional runway capacity.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-01-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish minutes or a statement of the topics of discussion at the dinner attended by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury hosted by Tolley in May 2015.

    Mr David Gauke

    I attended the dinner in May 2015 in a personal capacity.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

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

    To ask the Attorney General, if he will estimate the costs attributed to the Department for Education in cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by the Government Legal Department since 2010.

    Robert Buckland

    The Treasury Solicitor’s Department was renamed the Government Legal Department (GLD) on 1 April 2015. It is primarily funded through the fees it charges for its legal services. It provides Litigation, Employment, Commercial and Advisory legal services to the Department for Education (DfE). The fees charged to DfE for this work, including the cost of disbursements, are as follows:

    Financial year

    Fees (excluding VAT) £

    2010-11

    4,208,845

    2011-12

    4,499,546

    2012-13

    4,805,840

    2013-14

    4,409,976

    2014-15

    4,098,629

    Providing information on the costs attributed to cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would incur disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual exercise to identify those historical cases that relate to FOI.

  • Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Metcalfe on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what (a) human resources, (b) communications, (c) grant administration, (d) building and estates management and (e) other administrative functions are shared by the seven research councils; and which such services are delivered independently by each research council.

    Joseph Johnson

    The seven Research Councils currently operate their own corporate functions, with separate Human Resources, Finance, Communications and IT operations.

    The Research Councils are working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on a new digital grants system and common technology platform.

    The Research Councils share a number of services including a main campus in Swindon at Polaris House; access to the London base of the Medical Research Council (MRC); and Internal Audit and Assurance functions, which are hosted by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). BBSRC also operate the estates and facilities management of Polaris House.

    All seven Councils have their transactional HR, finance, payroll, systems and grants administration provided by UK Shared Business Services and six of the seven Councils share a pension scheme and its administration, with MRC running its own pension scheme.

    The Government is implementing Sir Paul Nurse’s report, which recommended an evolution of the Research Councils into a formal organisation with a single Accounting Officer. Sir Paul advised that a new Research UK body could support the whole system to collectively become more than the sum of its parts, including by simplifying transactional operations, reducing the burden of administration currently placed on each individual Research Council, and enabling a stronger focus on multi-disciplinary research. We also want to strengthen collaboration between the research base and the commercialisation of discoveries in the business community and this is why we are looking to integrate Innovate UK into Research UK. Innovate UK will retain its clear business focus and separate funding stream.

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

    Lord Higgins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Higgins on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the increase in road congestion and the construction of Cycle Superhighways in London, how they will ensure that fire, ambulance, and other emergency service vehicles are able to use Superhighways in the event of a terrorist attack or other major incident.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    London’s cycle superhighways are the responsibility of the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL). Emergency service vehicles operating under blue lights will always find the safest and fastest way possible to arrive at a major incident or terrorist attack. This could mean using any part of the highway, including, where necessary and where the road layout allows this, part of a cycle superhighway.

  • Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-04-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on patient welfare of proposals made by some clinical commissioning groups to discontinue funding IVF treatment.

    Jane Ellison

    The level of provision of infertility treatment, as for all health services they commission, is decided by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will take into account the needs of the population overall. The CCG’s decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services will vary in response to local needs.

    The Government has made it clear that blanket restrictions on treatment are unacceptable and all decisions on treatment should be made by doctors based on a patient’s individual clinical needs and in line with the National Institute for health and Care Excellence guidelines.