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Category: Speeches

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-10-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department received any bid from steel companies with plants in the UK to supply plate steel for the Successor class of nuclear submarines.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The management of the steel procurement process for the Successor Programme is the responsibility of the Prime Contractor, BAE Systems. The Ministry of Defence’s involvement with suppliers was limited to conducting a technical assessment during the tendering process to ensure bids met specifications.

    The tendering process was progressed and concluded by the Prime Contractor, no viable UK bid was received for this part of the Successor submarine manufacture. Other stages of construction will include grades of steel manufactured by British suppliers and I encourage them to take the opportunity to bid.

    Overall, 85% of BAE System’s supply chain for the new submarines is based in the UK.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much is available to each NHS trust to fund new drugs and treatments assessed and recommended by NICE.

    George Freeman

    The Government believes that National Health Service commissioners and providers are best placed to decide how to allocate their budgets to deliver improvements in the outcomes for patients.

    There is no separately identified ring-fenced funding stream associated with drugs and treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NHS commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments recommended by NICE.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2015-11-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of working families earning at least £23,000 in Greater London, or at least £20,000 outside Greater London, receive (1) child benefit, and (2) child tax credit.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The government is committed to achieving a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy. That means more emphasis on support to working families on low incomes through reducing tax and increasing wages, than on topping up low wages through tax credits.

    The Chancellor is listening to concerns raised by colleagues and will announce in his Autumn Statement how he plans to achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits and saving the money we need to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition.

    HM Revenue & Customs publish statistics about individuals and households claiming tax credits and child benefits, which are available on the gov.uk website.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many civil servants in his Department are in the redeployment pool.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    There are currently 14 people in the Departmental redeployment pool.

  • Ms Gisela Stuart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ms Gisela Stuart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Gisela Stuart on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken, subsequent to its accepting recommendation 274 of the Francis report on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Enquiry, published on 6 February 2013, to (a) issue guidance to NHS Trusts and their legal advisers and (b) monitor implementation of that guidance on disclosure of information to coroners, patients and families.

    Ben Gummer

    Recommendation 274 was in line with the government’s commitment to greater openness and transparency across the National Health Service, particularly when things go wrong.

    The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 gives coroners powers to require a person or organisation in England and Wales to provide evidence and to require a witness in England and Wales to give evidence at an inquest. The 2009 Act makes it, “an offence for a person to do anything that is intended to have the effect of (a) distorting or otherwise altering any evidence, document or other things that is given, produced or provided for the purpose of an investigation…. (b) preventing any evidence, document or other thing from being given produced or provided for the purposes of such an investigation or to do anything that the person knows or believes is likely to have that effect.” This offence is limited to actions where there is “intention” to distort or alter evidence, and is punishable by a fine and / or imprisonment. The Ministry of Justice is currently conducting a post-implementation review of the 2013 coroner reforms in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, which includes the reforms’ provisions on disclosure of information. The call for evidence and survey element of the review finished at the end of 2015, and the Ministry of Justice is now considering the responses received. The Department of Health understands that it hopes to publish a response document in the spring.

    In response to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry the Government introduced a statutory duty of candour which came into force on 27 November 2014 for NHS Trusts, Foundation Trusts and some special health authorities that provide care and treatment to people that is regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and for all other providers registered with CQC on 1 April 2015. The statutory duty of candour applies to organisations, rather than to individual members of staff. However, it is designed to foster an open culture throughout the organisation, and providers are accountable to CQC for meeting the duty of candour. CQC are able to take enforcement action against the provider, and in certain circumstances its board and senior management, where breaches of the duty of candour have been found. Providers of care will therefore be expected to implement the new duty of candour through staff across their organisations – including educating, training and, if needs be, disciplining their staff appropriately.

    In addition, The NHS Serious Incident Framework published in 2015 provides advice on provision of information regarding serious incidents to coroners, patients and their families. It is available at

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/patientsafety/serious-incident/

    CQC will look at how safe care is for patients as part of the inspection of NHS Trusts.

    “

  • Colleen Fletcher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Colleen Fletcher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Colleen Fletcher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of primary school places in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.

    Edward Timpson

    Supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of the Department’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to investing £23 billion in school buildings between 2016 and 2021 to create 600,000 new school places, open 500 free schools and address essential maintenance needs.

    We allocate basic need funding to local authorities to create the new places required, based on data supplied by authorities themselves. Coventry received £41 million in basic need funding between 2011 and 2015. Local authorities across the West Midlands received a combined total of £305 million over the same period. This support helped to add more than 3,500 primary school places in Coventry between 2010 and 2014, with many more delivered since then and in the pipeline. Nearly 25,000 primary places were added across the West Midlands during this period, and over 300,000 nationally.

    The free schools programme is also helping create school places where they are needed; the Sidney Stringer Primary Academy opened in Coventry in September 2015, and will provide 420 primary places once at full capacity.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department does not directly employ cleaners. Cleaners employed by the Department’s contractors are paid £8.25 an hour.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25292, to which countries RAF Reaper or Watchkeeper drones have been deployed on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sorties since 5 February 2016.

    Penny Mordaunt

    From 5 February until 4 April 2016, UK Reapers have been deployed on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Iraq and Syria.

  • Will Quince – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Will Quince – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Will Quince on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34465, if his Department will take steps to allow web-users to include honours when completing government online forms.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Department has no plans to include space for people to include their honours in Government online forms.

    Space to include honours in online forms produced by the Department’s arm’s length bodies, executive agencies, non-ministerial departments, advisory bodies and other accountable statutory bodies is a matter for those bodies.

  • Stephen Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Stephen Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Twigg on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will suspend arms export licences and reject new applications for arms exports to Saudi Arabia while there is a risk that they could be used in contravention of international humanitarian and human rights law.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application.

    Risks around human rights violations are a key part of our assessment against the Consolidated Criteria. A licence will not be issued for any country, including Saudi Arabia, if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the mandatory Criteria, including where we assess there is a clear risk that the items might be used for internal repression or in the commission of a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law.

    Our export licensing system allows us to respond quickly to changed circumstances, with the option to suspend or revoke any export licence, where we consider that this is a necessary step. The Government is confident in its robust case-by-case assessment and is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.