Category: Speeches

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information is recorded by the Cancer Registry on secondary breast cancer.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for collecting cancer data to support national cancer registration in England and recognises the importance of collecting data on recurrent breast cancer; however data on the number of people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer is not currently available. Pilot work undertaken in April 2012 in acute trusts has improved the reporting for breast cancer recurrence and metastasis to the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS). In order to drive up data completeness for the submissions to the NCRS, monthly reports on data quality and completeness of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset are made available to all acute providers.

    Since the completion of the pilot project the NCRS in PHE has been working with all acute National Health Service providers in England to improve the reporting of breast cancer recurrence. The collection of this particular item of data remains challenging because relapsed patients may represent in many different ways and through many referral routes.

    Further work is being scoped by NHS England and PHE based on the recommendation in the recent Independent Cancer Taskforce report to establish robust surveillance systems to collect this data on all cancers.

  • Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robert Flello – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Ministers have made to their counterparts abroad or to their diplomatic representatives in the UK on the practice of consuming and selling dog meat for consumption subsequent to the debate in the House on the dog meat trade of 5 November 2015.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Since the debate on 5 November my Department has not received any representations from any diplomatic missions in the UK on the dog meat trade, nor have Ministers made representations to their counterparts abroad. As highlighted during the debate by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), I am contacting our Ambassadors in the countries concerned to review our activities in this area.

    The Government is committed to raising the standards of animal welfare at home and abroad. I raised animal welfare issues during my visit to the region in February and will continue to make representations when appropriate.

  • 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 buses, taxis, and other public transport road vehicles 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.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Attorney General, what planning his Department has undertaken in the event of the UK voting to leave the EU.

    Jeremy Wright

    At the February European Council the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department plans to announce the net allocations from the primary care transformation fund.

    Alistair Burt

    The Primary Care Transformation Fund is a multi-year programme and the first tranche of local estates and technology projects to improve general practitioner premises and supporting infrastructure across the country are already underway. Expenditure on 2015/16 projects will be finalised with the audit of NHS England’s national accounts, which is expected to complete in July.

    Clinical commissioning groups have commissioned the development of Strategic Estates Plans that include the individual estates and technology projects for years two to four, which are due for submission later in the spring. These will then be assessed during the summer and the allocations required to support them developed later this year.

  • 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.

  • Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students currently receive the NHS bursary in (a) England and (b) Manchester, Withington constituency.

    Ben Gummer

    The latest available figures provided by the NHS Business Services Authority show that there were 99,549 students attending a university in England who received an NHS Bursary payment in the financial year 2014/15. Of the students receiving an NHS Bursary payment, 48 provided their current address with a postcode in the Withington constituency of Greater Manchester.

  • John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities will be affected by the sale of higher value council homes under the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

    Brandon Lewis

    The requirement to make a payment in respect of higher value vacant housing and to consider selling such housing applies to local authorities with a Housing Revenue Account. The scheme will therefore affect any such authorities who hold housing which falls within the definition of "higher value". That definition will be set out in regulations which are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. In addition Government has the power to exclude types of housing from the policy through regulations.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to restore compensation for war widows who remarried between 1973 and 2005.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Government remains sympathetic to the circumstances of those affected. We are reviewing the position, but need to take account of the wider consequences for other public sector schemes of making retrospective changes.

  • Holly Lynch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Holly Lynch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS staff can report patient safety incidents quickly and efficiently.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS England is responsible for the National Reporting and Learning System which collates information on patient safety incidents reported by staff working in NHS funded care.

    There are plans to develop a new patient safety incident management system and one of the aims will be to make it quicker and easier for staff to report.