Category: Speeches

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to tackle fuel poverty in the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    A reformed domestic supplier obligation (ECO) from April 2017, which will run for 5 years, will upgrade the energy efficiency of over 200,000 homes per year tackling the root cause of fuel poverty. Our extension of the Warm Home Discount to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per annum will also help vulnerable households with their energy bills.

    We intend to focus our efforts through ECO and the Warm Home Discount more effectively on the fuel poor, and will be consulting on our future approach in the spring.

  • 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 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by what proportion the number of senior military officers ranked one star and above, and the civil service equivalent, employed by his Department, changed between 2011 and 2015.

    Mark Lancaster

    At 1 April 2011, 38.8 per cent of Senior Personnel in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) were Senior Civil Servants (SCS) and 61.2 per cent were UK Regulars at One Star (Army Brigadier and equivalent) and above. At 1 April 2015, 39.2 per cent were SCS and 60.8 per cent were UK Regulars at One Star and above.

    At 1 April 2011, there were 480 UK Regular personnel ranked One Star and above; by 1 April 2015 this figure had decreased by 6.9 per cent to 450.

    At 1 April 2011, there were 300 SCS personnel in the MOD; by 1 April 2015 this figure had decreased by 5.3 per cent to 290.

    The following tables provide the requested breakdown, by year, of UK Regular Strength at One Star and above, and SCS headcount:

    UK Regular Strength at One Star and above

    1 April 2010

    1 April 2011

    1 April 2012

    1 April 2013

    1 April 2014

    1 April 2015

    1 Oct 2015

    500

    480

    470

    440

    440

    450

    440

    SCS Headcount

    1 April 2010

    1 April 2011

    1 April 2012

    1 April 2013

    1 April 2014

    1 April 2015

    1 January 2016

    320

    300

    270

    280

    280

    290

    310

    The strength of UK Regular Personnel at 1 April 2011 was 186,360. The strength of UK Regular Personnel at 1 April 2015 was 153,720. This represents a 17.5 per cent decrease between 2011 and 2015.

    The MOD civilian staff (CS) headcount at 1 April 2011 was around 87,000. The CS headcount at 1 April 2015 was 59,900. This represents an estimated decrease of 31.2 per cent between 2011 and 2015.

  • Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy that volunteers should not be used in the operational areas of (a) child sexual exploitation, (b) serious crime and (c) counter-terrorism under proposals in the Policing and Crime Bill.

    Mike Penning

    Our consultation on the reform of the roles and powers of civilians and volunteers demonstrated the demand from forces for flexibility in how they deploy volunteer staff, and therefore we should not make assumptions about the operational areas where volunteers can make a contribution. For example, they can play a hugely valuable role in supporting vulnerable victims. As Victim Support told the consultation: “enabling chief officers to designate powers to volunteers would allow them to assist police officers in supporting victims of crime and improving service delivery.”

    Volunteers will be subject to the same tests as police staff before they are designated with powers, namely that the chief officer must be satisfied that they are suitable, capable and adequately trained (that is, the tests set out in section 38(4) of the Police Reform Act 2002), so police forces will not be able to deploy volunteers on tasks they are not capable of performing.

    If it is acceptable to confer all the powers of a constable on one type of volunteer, namely special constables, it is inconsistent to object in principle to conferring a narrower set of powers on other suitably trained volunteers. Under this Bill, however, Parliament will retain control of the list of core powers that will only be available to police officers. For example, all powers under counter-terrorism legislation are listed in Schedule 7 to the Bill as core powers of police officers.

    These reforms will place the individual decision-making as to which personnel perform which roles firmly in the hands of chief officers, who have the professional expertise and local knowledge to know which powers are needed in their area. It is important that we do not restrict the operational powers of the police, who retain the right to deploy staff as they see fit.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his Department’s planned expenditure on resources is for Ofcom in each year up to 2028.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government and Department set Ofcom’s overall spending cap as part of the 2015 Spending Review. Where significant changes are made to Ofcom’s remit or activities, Government will review the spending cap to ensure Ofcom is adequately resourced.

  • Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will assess the potential merits of a cost cap applying to welfare claimants requiring a medical certificate as part of a work capability assessment.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Prior to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) claimants are advised that they should only submit information that they already hold with their claim. During the WCA additional evidence may be requested from doctors on behalf of the Department, at no charge to the claimant.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.

    Guto Bebb

    The Wales Office does not employ any cleaners. The Department uses Ministry of Justice facilities management contracts, including the provision of cleaning for its Westminster estate.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans the Government has to improve employment support for people with disabilities who are in receipt of the support component of employment and support allowance.

    Priti Patel

    In the Autumn Statement on Wednesday 25 November, the Chancellor announced a real terms increase in funding to help people with health conditions and disabilities including those in receipt of the support component of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), return to, and remain in, work.

    Government will be launching a new ‘Work and Health Programme’ – restructuring our current provision so that it provides the best possible support for people with health conditions or disabilities, including those classed as economically inactive due to long term sickness or disability.

    At least £115m of funding will go to the Work and Health Unit, including a work and health innovation fund to test new ways to join up health and employment to help people with disabilities and health conditions to return to and stay in work.

    Government will publish a White Paper in the New Year that will set out further reforms to improve support for people with health conditions and disabilities and further reduce the disability employment gap.

  • Baroness Falkner of Margravine – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Falkner of Margravine – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Falkner of Margravine on 2015-12-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they made to the October 2014 findings by the International Council on Clean Transportation that some vehicles were producing emissions at seven times the legal limit.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government did not respond to the findings of the ICCT. This research confirmed the importance of ongoing work by Department for Transport officials on the development of a new European regulation to address issues around real world driving emissions.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the £20 million funding for English language tuition to isolated women announced by the Prime Minister on 18 January 2016 will come from the Home Department’s counter-terrorism budget.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    No. The £20 million community-based English language training offer is new funding which will be routed through DCLG and will form part of its Integration Programme.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 5 January 2015 to Question 219046, what response his Department has received from Democratic People’s Republic of Korea authorities; and whether progress has been made on improving North Korean women’s rights in China.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We continue to urge the DPRK authorities, through both our Embassy in Pyongyang and the DPRK Embassy in London, to respond in detail to the contents of the Commission of Inquiry report, including the violence and exploitation of women that it documents. The DPRK continues to reject the Commission’s findings and will not engage on the detail of the Commission’s report.

    Women trafficked out of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are among the most vulnerable of those who flee the country. We call on the DPRK to improve its appalling human rights record and create better conditions for its women. We regularly discuss our concerns about the DPRK with China, as I did with the Vice-Minister of the Chinese Communist Party, Chen Fengxiang, in December 2015. We will seek to include this issue in the next UK-China Human Rights Dialogue due to be held in April. We also work directly with the Chinese authorities on a number of projects to counter human trafficking, which seek to protect the most vulnerable from exploitation, abuse, neglect and violence.