The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of differences in mortality rates for (a) permanent and (b) temporary workers.
Nick Boles
My Department has not made an assessment of the differences in mortality rates for permanent and temporary workers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-04-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of defence expenditure was spent through small and medium-sized enterprises in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2013-14.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes data on direct expenditure with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), excluding its trading funds, in the Finance & Economics Annual Bulletin: Trade, Industry & Contracts Statistics on the Gov.UK website. The final figures for financial years 2014-15 and 2013-14 are available at the link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/defence-trade-and-industry-index. The final figures for financial year 2015-16 are not yet available.
The MOD does not hold data on expenditure with SMEs through the supply chain (indirect expenditure). The Cabinet Office has published indicative indirect expenditure with SMEs, collated from spend figures reported by suppliers, in their publication ‘Central Government direct and indirect expenditure with SMEs’. Figures for 2014-15 and 2013-14′ are available at the respective links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-spend-with-smes-2014-to-2015
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/central-government-spend-with-smes-2013-to-2014.
Figures released by the Cabinet Office in this publication indicate that MOD direct and indirect spend with SMEs was 19.4% in each year. The figures for 2015-16 are not yet available.
The MOD has agreed a new target with the Cabinet Office of 25% procurement spend (both direct and indirect) with SMEs by 2020.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his (a) US counterpart and (b) other NATO counterparts on the role of the 77th Brigade.
Penny Mordaunt
None.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when funding bands for apprenticeships starting after April 2017 will be published.
Robert Halfon
Details of proposed funding bands for existing apprenticeship frameworks and standards were published on 12 August: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-proposals-for-funding-from-may-2017. The proposals were supported by a short employer survey which closed on 5 September.
We aim to publish final funding bands for apprenticeship frameworks and standards in October for those that start on or after 1 May 2017.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cleverly on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent engagement his Department has had with the Commonwealth Secretariat over the efficient and transparent expenditure of funds received from the public purse.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Through regular attendance at meetings of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Executive Committee (ExCo) and Board of Governors (of which we are a member), the UK is fully engaged to ensure that UK funds are allocated and spent in an efficient and transparent manner. ExCo meets three times a year to review papers, including the budget, which is presented to the Board of Governors at its annual meeting. The role of ExCo is to receive and review reports from the Secretariat on the operations of individual funds; oversee budgets and audit functions; make policy recommendations to the Board of Governors with respect to the individual funds; and make recommendations, as appropriate, on any matter referred to it by the Board of Governors.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many official Royal British Legion Remembrance events have received logistical police support other than wreath laying in a ceremonial capacity in each year since 2010.
Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold the information requested. The police have never had a policy of routinely attending remembrance parades. Decisions on the operational deployment of resources are matters for Chief Constables, in association with Police and Crime Commissioners. There are no plans for the Home Office to issue guidance to the police on this matter.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government undertook of consumer needs before announcing its plan to introduce a 10Mbps universal broadband speed.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Prime Minister’s excellent announcement to give people a legal right to request a connection to broadband with speeds of 10 Mbps, no matter where in the country they live through a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO)followed reports of consumers’ broadband needs from a range of sources, including Ofcom’s annual infrastructure reports.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what system of monitoring is in place to ensure that local authorities meet their duty to commission open access, confidential services for sexually transmitted infections and contraception.
Jane Ellison
The Department’s Framework for Sexual Health Promotion in England (2013) sets out our ambitions and objectives to improve sexual health for all people. It takes account of the commissioning arrangements from 2013 including the new role for local authorities (LAs) as commissioners of most sexual health services. Later this month Public Health England (PHE) will undertake a survey of local commissioning arrangements for sexual health. It has also produced sexual health and reproductive health profiles to help LAs and others monitor the sexual and reproductive health of their populations and the performance of local public health related systems.
It is for LAs to decide on what research and evidence they need to inform their tenders for sexual health and reproductive health services in line with procurement requirements and good practice. In 2014 PHE published Making it Work, a guide to commissioning for sexual health across the whole system, to improve the sexual health of both individuals and the wider public.
We have made no formal assessment of the effect on sexual health services of reductions in the Public Health Grant to LAs for 2015/16, although PHE continues to monitor relevant outcomes data for every LA in England. Decisions on local public health spending are a matter for LAs. They are mandated by legislation to commission open access sexual health services that meet the needs of their local population. Officials meet regularly with sexual health organisations who would raise any concerns if LAs were not meeting their mandatory requirements for sexual health services.
The Framework for Sexual Health Improvement includes as a priority reducing unwanted pregnancies and highlights the need to increase access to long acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods and emergency contraception for women of all ages. We have no plans to evaluate the effect on general practitioner surgeries of LA commissioning of LARCs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he raised the alleged breaches of international humanitarian law outlined in the final report of the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen with the Saudi Arabian government during his recent visit to Rome.
Mr Philip Hammond
We regularly raise the importance of compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) with the Saudi government and other members of the military coalition. I raised the issue of IHL compliance on my recent trip to Rome where I had a bilateral meeting with my Saudi Arabian counterpart Adel Al-Jubeir. The Saudis have their own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail of how they investigate such incidents on 31 January.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what projects her Department sponsors in Kashmir; and how much her Department spent in Kashmir since May 2010.
Mr Desmond Swayne
Kashmir benefits from national programmes in Pakistan and India to promote economic growth and improve education and health services across each country.
DFID does not routinely measure total expenditure directed to sub-national geographies outside our focal states or provinces. We focus our work on the states of India and provinces of Pakistan where we can have the largest impact and where the need is greatest. Currently, these areas do not include Kashmir.