Category: Speeches

Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department plans to make extension of the 1966 UK-US Agreement on the British Indian Ocean Territory conditional on a commitment by both parties to support and facilitate resettlement of the Chagossians.

Sir Alan Duncan

The US presence on the island of Diego Garcia is governed by a series of agreements, called Exchanges of Notes, of which the overarching agreement sets out the whole Territory should be made available for UK and US defence purposes for an initial 50 year period of 1966 to 2016. If neither side object during a two year window of December 2014 to December 2016, the agreement will continue as it stands until end December 2036. The Government welcomes the US presence on Diego Garcia and we continue to discuss with the US Government their continued presence beyond 2016. We have consulted a range of stakeholders, including the US, as we work towards a decision on resettlement of BIOT. The Government is examining its policy closely and will announce developments to Parliament and the public in due course.

January 1, 2023

Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many incidents of A&E departments diverting admissions to other hospitals there were in London in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

The information is not available in the format requested.

The following data includes incidences of accident and emergency departments diverting admissions to other hospitals in London during the period April 2012 to December 2015.

Total Hospital Redirects: April 2012- December 2015
	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
April	19	32	18	9
May	10	6	6	12
June	9	16	10	6
July	6	17	8	9
August	7	4	10	7
September	10	19	13	21
October	6	25	17	21
November	24	5	8	39
December	21	13	42	29
January	36	16	17
February	22	22	16
March	31	13	14

Source: NHS England

Note:

NHS England was formed in 2012. Therefore data are not available prior to this period.

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January 1, 2023

Owen Thompson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Thompson on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of national lottery sales income has been allocated to the Big Lottery Fund budget for Scotland in each of the last five years.

Tracey Crouch

The Big Lottery Fund decides how much of its funding to allocate to each of the home nations. Scotland is allocated 11.5 per cent of the Big Lottery Funds proceeds from the National Lottery after administration costs, and 10 per cent of the Fund’s Lottery income is allocated to a UK portfolio, from which Scotland also benefits.

January 1, 2023
Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2015-12-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the new Ebola medal takes precedence over jubilee medals in the order of wear.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The Jubilee Medals come ahead of the Ebola Medal for Service in West Africa in the current Order of Wear.

January 1, 2023
Clive Efford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Efford on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 22575, whether failure to inspect equipment or buildings situated adjacent to Bexleyheath rail line contributed to the line being blocked during the week beginning 11 January 2016; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

Network Rail has advised that a signalling control cabinet was pushed over by the recent landslip at Barnehurst, and then had to be moved to a location away from the affected area to enable access to temporarily stabilise the landslide. This involved moving the staging on which the cabinet was sited, the cabinet itself, and the cables.

Network Rail further advises that the earthwork was last examined on 5 February 2015, when its condition showed no signs of impending failure. Its condition prior to the earthworks failure was such that its next inspection would have been three years from that date.

January 1, 2023
Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people with epilepsy have been offered a personalised care plan since 2013 in accordance with the Department of Health’s mandate to NHS England; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of such people.

Jane Ellison

This information is not available in the format requested. The GP Patient Survey measures the number of patients with a long term condition (LTC) who say they have care and support plans.

NHS England advises that information from the patient survey for 2013/14 shows that of the 9,540 people with epilepsy that responded, 15% (1,463) reported they had a care plan, whilst 79% said no and 6% did not know. This survey does not record the number of people who were offered a care plan but did not feel they needed or wanted one.

As set out in our Mandate to NHS England, all patients with a LTC should be offered a personalised care plan.

To deliver this, NHS England is implementing the House of Care model for care planning, which takes into account the expertise and resources of the people with LTCs and their communities to provide a holistic approach to their lives and help them achieve the best outcomes possible.

NHS England has developed tools and guidance on personalised care planning and provided examples of delivery for the local National Health Service. They have also provided a LTC dashboard providing a wealth of data about LTCs in each local area, helping clinical commissioning groups to plan services for local people.

January 1, 2023
Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with mental health charities on the potential effect of the removal of mental health quality premium measures in NHS England’s Quality Premium Guidance 2016-17 on mental health outcomes.

Alistair Burt

The 2016/17 Quality Premium (QP) scheme has been designed to support the delivery of the major priorities for the National Health Service, as set out in the Five Year Forward View and in the NHS Mandate. The QP scheme is reviewed annually, with the intention of having a range of high impact measures addressing a range of priorities across the Five Year Forward View.

However, there is scope for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to focus on mental health, if this is a local priority area in 2016/17. Each CCG is expected to select three local indicators from a menu of suitable measures aligned to the Right Care programme, which sets out a clinically led methodology for improvement and reducing variation in care. This menu includes 17 mental health indicators.

The QP scheme is a part of NHS England’s wider incentive system, including the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme, which includes an incentive focussing on improving the physical health for patients with severe mental illness.

As the QP will be retaining mental health as an indicator there has been no new assessment of the effect of removing.

While there have not yet been any formal meetings with mental health charities about this, following the Mental Health Taskforce report, NHS England are keen to work with stakeholders-including mental health charities- to develop a new and robust mental health indicator for potential inclusion in the 2017/18 QP. This will align with the additional funding to drive improvements in ‘Improved Access to Psychological Therapies’ access from April 2017.

January 1, 2023
Iain Stewart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Stewart on 2016-04-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on which other European countries have introduced a soft drinks industry levy in the last five years; and what research the Government has commissioned or undertaken on the effects of such levies on levels of obesity.

Damian Hinds

Other European countries have introduced a soft drinks tax in recent years. For example, Hungary in 2011 and France in 2012.

These taxes however are not identical in design to the new soft drinks industry levy the Chancellor announced at Budget 2016. The levy is a lever to encourage producer-led reformulation.

The Chief Medical Officer has said that reformulation is a key win for tackling obesity and soft drinks are the single largest source of sugar intake for children and teenagers.

This levy will be an important part of the government’s comprehensive childhood obesity strategy.

January 1, 2023
Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-05-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to require bus operators to make buses disability friendly.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Single deck buses designed to carry over twenty two passengers on local and scheduled routes must already comply with the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR), including incorporating a designated wheelchair space and boarding facilities, priority seating and colour-contrasting hand-holds. Double deck buses must comply by the 1^st January next year, and coaches by 2020. As at 2014/15, 95% of buses in England were low floor or had an accessibility certificate, compared to 80% in 2009/10.

Positive driver interactions and accessible on-board information also make a big difference for many disabled passengers. We are developing best practice guidance on providing disability awareness training for drivers, and have supported innovative approaches for providing next stop information on-board vehicles.

January 1, 2023
Lord Maclennan of Rogart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maclennan of Rogart on 2016-07-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of victims of female genital mutilation in each of the four nations of the UK; and what steps they are taking to eradicate that practice throughout the UK.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The most recent NHS data released on 7 June showed 1,242 newly identified cases of FGM within the NHS between January and March 2016. 98% of cases were in adult women, and in the vast majority of these the FGM took place in Asia or Africa.

A 2015 prevalence study part funded by the Home Office estimated that approximately 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales are affected by FGM and 60,000 girls were born to women who had undergone it.

We have significantly strengthened the law through the Serious Crime Act 2015, including introducing FGM Protection Orders to protect girls at risk, and a mandatory reporting duty requiring specified professionals to report known cases in under 18s to the police.

We are improving the response of professionals through the Department of Health’s £4m FGM prevention programme, up to £2m from the Department for Education to support the Barnardo’s and Local Government Association’s National FGM Centre which is strengthening the social care response; and updated multi-agency guidance which we published on the 1 April and which is statutory for the first time.

FGM is a devolved matter and we work closely with the Devolved Administrations in taking forward this work.

January 1, 2023