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Category: Speeches

  • David Crausby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Crausby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to improve access to food hygiene score information in England.

    Jane Ellison

    The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has responsibility for the Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme. The FSA is currently collecting evidence on the impact of the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings at food outlets in Wales. The Government will consider this evidence carefully once it is available. In the meantime, the FSA will continue working with its local authority partners to encourage businesses to voluntarily display their ratings and to promote the scheme to consumers.

    Ratings are published on the FSA website (and via phone apps), and there is open access to the data.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the additional cost to the public purse will be of storage of additional spent fuel arising from the lifetime extension of nuclear reactors.

    Andrea Leadsom

    EDF Energy has contracts with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for the management of AGR fuel. Under these contracts EDF Energy, not the public purse, pays the NDA for the storage of each tonne of AGR fuel that is loaded into the reactor, including for each tonne of fuel loaded during the lifetime extension of the AGR reactors.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the remit is of the NATO operation in the Aegean Sea relating to the refugee crisis.

    Mr David Lidington

    I refer the Hon. Member to answers the Secretary of State for Defence, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr Fallon), gave to the House on 7 March (Official Record, Cols 23-37). The purpose of this NATO operation is to provide monitoring, surveillance, and reconnaissance (MSR) of the Aegean migration routes to better enable Turkish and Greek coastguards and Frontex (the EU’s border management agency) to intercept the migrant boats and disrupt the business model of illegal migration. It is worth noting that the formal mandate of NATO’s activity is neither interdiction nor search and rescue, but if UK vessels encounter migrants in distress at sea, they will be rescued in accordance with international obligations and arrangements made for them to be returned to land.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contracts IBM currently holds with his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    My department has 4 contracts with IBM (UK) Ltd and details are contained in the table below

    Agency

    Purpose of contract

    DfTc

    Annual Software maintenance on IBM SPSS licensing for statistical analysis

    DVLA

    Q Radar Security Monitoring Tool

    DVLA

    IBM Software-Extended Support

    DVLA

    IBM Enterprise Licensing Agreement (ELA)
  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 3 May 2016 to Question 35165, on Personal Independence Payments, what steps his Department is taking better to understand why sufficient documentary evidence is not being sought during the assessment and mandatory reconsideration stages.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The 75% can be broken down as follows:

    Cogent oral evidence – 66%

    Cogent documentary evidence supplied at the appeal – 9%

    These figures are from internal DWP systems, where only one of possible multiple reasons can be recorded, and are derived from unpublished information and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics standard.

    The Department encourages claimants to provide as much relevant evidence as necessary to support their claim. The “How your disability affects you” form and accompanying guidance sets out the range of information that can help the Department reach a decision. The guidance for Health Professionals also sets out sources of further evidence which could help inform their advice to the Department.

    At the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, again claimants are encouraged to provide any further evidence about their disability. Following the first independent review of Personal Independence by Paul Gray, the Department is reviewing all communications (including those used by Assessment Providers) it has with claimants throughout the claim, assessment and reconsideration process to ensure that claimants clearly understand the importance of providing sufficient evidence to support their claim and application.

    Further, once a claimant has submitted their claim, the Department has created a new Standard Work Instructions (SWI) for its decision making staff to gain further evidence, where appropriate. For Mandatory Reconsideration, the SWI puts a process in place to establish what the areas for dispute are, consider any gaps in the evidence, ensure any expected further medical evidence is received and referring that to the Assessment Provider. “

  • Baroness Northover – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Northover – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Northover on 2016-07-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support humanitarian and human rights organisations that seek the ability to cross the border at Semalka between Iraqi Kurdistan and Northern Syria in order to provide humanitarian aid.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    DFID currently funds a number of NGO partners who use the Semalka border crossing to provide humanitarian aid –health, food, livelihoods, and protection programmes – to people in parts of northern Syria. In general, access across the border is negotiated by agencies themselves.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the future sales projections for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter in the last two years.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Initial Operating Capability for the UK’s F-35B Lightning aircraft is scheduled for December 2018.

    The most recent US Selected Acquisition Report (SAR 2015) estimates that the production, sustainment and support revenue generated by the global F-35 fleet through the life of the programme will be over one trillion US dollars. The UK manufactures approximately 15% of each F-35 aircraft, however as the F-35 programme is still determining its Global Support Solution footprint, we are not yet in a position to determine the potential revenue for UK industry.

    The programme is expecting to procure over 3,000 aircraft across the F-35 Partner Nations. This will be further supplemented by Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. FMS engagement and future sales projections are managed by, and are a matter for, the US Government.

  • The Marquess of Lothian – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The Marquess of Lothian – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2015-11-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of recent comments by European Council President Donald Tusk that Russian military action in Syria is increasing the number of refugees to Europe; and what assessment they have made of the impact of the US-led coalition’s military action on the number of Syrian refugees.

    Baroness Verma

    We continue to closely monitor the humanitarian impact of Russian airstrikes in Syria. We are particularly concerned at UN reports that Russian-backed regime offensives have caused the displacement of at least 140,000 people in Aleppo, Hama, and Idlib governorates since 5 October. We are currently not aware that the flow of refugees has increased as a result of Russian military action. However with displacement on such a scale we cannot rule out that it will have an impact on refugee flows.

    Unlike the Assad regime and its allies, who are bombing indiscriminately, Coalition military efforts in both Iraq and Syria are specifically designed to minimise civilian casualties in line with International Humanitarian Law.

    We continue to call upon all parties to the conflict to uphold International Humanitarian Law and protect civilians.

  • and (4) more than 30 – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    and (4) more than 30 – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by and (4) more than 30 on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, on the current definition of coasting”

    Lord Nash

    No school can be defined as coasting under the government’s proposed coasting definition until after the 2016 results are available. The definition of coasting is determined by performance over a three year period.

    Progress 8 results for 2015 will be published as part of the key stage 4 performance tables in January 2016 for schools which chose to opt-in early. Progress 8 was not used as an accountability measure in 2014, and does not form part of the government’s proposed definition for coasting in that year.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provision is made for victims of crimes committed by foreign prisoners to access information about the progress of their deportation.

    James Brokenshire

    A victim may contact the Home Office directly or make a request via their Victim Liaison Officer (VLO) for information on the progress of a foreign prisoner’s deportation. The Home Office will inform the victim or their VLO on whether deportation is being pursued or has been enforced.