The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she expects a new Chair for the Environment Agency to be appointed.
George Eustice
Defra has appointed Emma Howard Boyd as Acting Chairman. She will lead the Board until a permanent Chairman is recruited in due course following an open competition.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the access to therapeutic services for children who enter the care system.
Edward Timpson
Local authorities are required to comply with a robust care planning framework which clearly sets out their duties in meeting the needs of looked-after children. This includes the assessment of a child’s emotional and mental health and requires the local authority to set out how they will address any needs.
This framework should ensure that every looked-after child can access the support and services they need. At the Education Select Committee hearing on the mental health and wellbeing of looked-after children on 3 February 2016, the Minister for Community and Social Care announced that the Departments of Health and Education will be setting up an expert group working with NHS England, Health Education England, and sector partners to develop care pathways to support an integrated approach to meeting the needs of looked-after children with mental health difficulties. The experts will be drawn from across the health, social care and education sectors, with input from children, young people, carers and families with experience of the care system.
In addition, the Department for Education’s £100 million Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme currently supports 53 projects in the development, testing and spreading of more effective ways of supporting children and families who need help. This includes projects focused on providing therapeutic services to improve outcomes for young people, including those looked-after and on the edge of care. The projects are being independently evaluated.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, in how many operations the UK Reaper force has transferred operational control of UK Reapers to (a) the US Air Force and (b) embedded RAF personnel in the US Air Force in Syria and Iraq since 2 December 2015.
Penny Mordaunt
I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 23 November 2015 to Question 16741. It remains the case that provisions set out in the UK-US Memorandum of Understanding have not yet been enacted by either party.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32366, what assessment he has made of trends in the proportion of the NHS budget spent on general practice over the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Alistair Burt
Overall National Health Service investment increased from £97.47 billion in 2010/11 to £110.56 billion in 2014/15, the last five years for which data is available. Over the same period, spending on general practice increased by £651 million in cash terms. The percentage of total NHS spend on general practice decreased from 8.6% to 8.1%.
NHS England has committed to increasing the funding it invests in primary medical care by an average of 4.5% each year until 2020/21.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-05-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much funding the Government provided to each (a) Israeli and (b) Palestinian non-governmental organisation through the (i) Conflict Security and Stability Fund and (ii) bilateral programme budget in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
(a)The provisional project spend for 2015/16 for non-governmental organisations registered in Israel provided through: (i) the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund is: The Peres Centre for Peace – £44,592; Injaz – Centre for Professional Arab Local Governance – £60,608; Kids Creating Peace – £40,000; Yesh Din – £196,084; Gisha – £53,126; Peace Now – £124,361; Terrestrial Jerusalem – £51,040; The International Peace and Cooperation Centre – £232,933; and Rabbis for Human Rights – £101,441; (ii) the Bilateral Programme Budget is: none.
(b)The provisional project spend for 2015/16 for non-governmental organisations registered with the Palestinian Authority provided through: (i) the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund is: Jerusalem Community Advocacy Network (also registered in Israel) – £141,679 (ii) the Bilateral Programme Budget is: Society for the care of Disabled People – £9,117; Nawa Association for Culture and Arts Association – £7,111; Al Aqsa Sports and Social Club- £9,602; Society for Physically Handicapped People – £9,602; Ibda’a for children development and institutional cultural exchange – £5,062; Idna Cooperation – Women Capacity Building- £6,658; Sourif Association for Higher Education – £2,920; Iman and Baraem Kindergartens – £4,865 ; ADWAR Association for Social Change – £5,516; Assembly of Benevolent Operation – £7,061; Atwar centre – £1,282; Diyar Sports school for Girls – £6,328; Saint Nicolas Home for the Elderly – £5,183; Hebron Rehabilitation Committee – £5,010; Ashtar Theatre – £2,127; The Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry – £9,963; Aqaba Club for Unity and Hope – £5,169; Burj Al Luqluq Youth Centre (also registered in Israel) – £19,297; and Silwan Youth Centre (also registered in Israel) – £7,173
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the foreign aid budget was given directly to the governments of recipient nations in each of the last three years.
Sir Desmond Swayne
Direct financial aid to governments of recipient nations constituted 14%, 12% and 9% of DFID’s total programme expenditure for years 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively. These are the three most recent years for which this data is currently available. General Budget Support reduced from 2.2% to 0.5% of DFID’s total programme expenditure over the same period.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the Financial Reporting Council’s ability to work with other financial regulators in the UK to address the systematic financial risk of climate change.
Margot James
Although the Financial Reporting Council’s remit does not extend to the systemic financial risks of climate change, I am confident of its ability to collaborate effectively with any financial regulators, as required, within whose remit such risks fall.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason it is her policy that scores attained through the Reception Assessment baseline will not be scaled for age; if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy of the findings of research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in October 2013 on the academic performance in school of pupils born later in the academic year; and if she will make a statement.
Nick Gibb
The reception baseline provides a score for each child, at the start of reception, which reflects their actual attainment at that point in time. The reception baseline outcome will be used as the basis for an accountability measure of the relative progress of the school’s cohort throughout primary school. If the results were to be scaled to a pupil’s age it would not be a true reflection of the pupil’s attainment at the start of school. For pupils born later in the academic year, scaling the score by age would disadvantage the school as it would result in a higher baseline from which the pupil’s progress would be measured.
Reception baseline criteria is published online at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415142/Baseline_criteria.pdf
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-12-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the reasons for regional variation in the condition of local authority A roads that merit the indicator which states that they are roads where maintenance should be considered.
Andrew Jones
The Department for Transport regularly publishes Official Statistics on the proportion of roads where maintenance should be considered by region in England. The latest available published data are for the financial year 2013/14.
Road maintenance is a matter for individual local highway authorities, and it is for them to prioritise work according to local need. However, we are providing local highway authorities with record funding of £6 billion for local highways maintenance plus a £250 million pothole action fund as recently announced by the Chancellor on top of this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures and regulations are in place to ensure that clinical drug tests are low-risk and safe.
George Freeman
Clinical trials of medicinal products in the United Kingdom are strictly regulated by European Union and UK legislation in order to ensure that the studies achieve their scientific targets while safeguarding the trial participants. Before any trial of a new medicine is initiated in humans, the medicinal product will have undergone extensive non-clinical testing, both in the laboratory and in animals as appropriate. The organisation responsible for proposing the trial (the Sponsor) will submit a Clinical Trial Authorisation application that will be reviewed by both the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and a research ethics committee.
The MHRA assesses the safety and scientific value of the trial. A team of assessors will review the pharmaceutical quality of the medicinal product, the supporting data from pre-clinical testing and the details of the trial design and methodology, along with all available clinical data. The research ethics committee will ensure that the participant has been fully informed of all the necessary information about the trial, including information on potential risks and side effects.
All Phase I trials in healthy volunteers are assessed taking into account European guidelines on strategies to identify and mitigate risks for first in human (FIH) trials. In the UK, trials that are identified as being higher risk are referred by the MHRA to an Expert Advisory Group of the Commission on Human Medicines for advice.
The MHRA has instituted a Phase I accreditation scheme for organisations conducting phase I trials, in particular for those conducting FIH trials. MHRA Inspectors will grant Phase I accreditation only to those research units that exceed the basic regulatory Good Clinical Practice standards by having additional procedures that include the highest standards for avoiding harm to trial subjects and for handling any medical emergencies.