UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Uncategorized

  • Baroness Gale – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Gale – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gale on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that clinicians making Individual Funding Requestsfor the prescription of Duodopa to people with Parkinson’s are informed of the outcome within 40 days.

    Earl Howe

    From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.

    NHS England has advised that it does not routinely fund Duodopa (co-careldopa) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Clinicians can submit individual funding requests for this treatment on behalf of their patients as per NHS England’s individual funding requests standard operating procedure, which is at:

    www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cp-04.pdf

    NHS England has advised that its individual funding request process is monitored against the standard operating procedure to ensure that referring clinicians are informed of outcomes in a timely manner.

  • Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which schemes have provided support for small and medium-sized from central government funds in each of the last 10 years; what the total amount of funding so provided was in each such year; and how much such funding was spent in each local authority are in each such year.

    Matthew Hancock

    Support for small and medium-sized businesses is an important objective for a number of Government Departments and schemes can take various forms which can include direct and indirect support, advice and information. Over the last 10 years the range of support measures has been very wide and a full answer to this question cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs. Additionally, the Department does not record how much spending or funding is given by local authority area so would not be able to provide this information.

    However, since May 2010 the Department has routinely published details of all expenditure including funding provided through Departmental schemes and programmes. Additionally, the Department’s annual report and accounts also provide summary information on a range of programmes that include direct and indirect support to all businesses – including some that directly support SMEs. The most recent annual report can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bis-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013

    “

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the highest total number of life sentences given to any single offender is in the last 30 years.

    Jeremy Wright

    A life sentence is mandatory for murder and discretionary life sentences are available for other very serious offences. This Government has introduced an automatic life sentence for a second very serious violent or sexual offence.

    The number of offenders who receive two or more life sentences is small. A number of life sentence prisoners commit offences in prison which result in a second life sentence, as is the case with the offender identified in response to this question. Some life sentence prisoners can also receive a second life sentence on conviction for offences committed prior to being imprisoned (e.g. a previous murder or rape).

    Of all offenders sentenced to life imprisonment between the years 2000 and 2013, the offender with the highest number of life sentences imposed on separate sentencing occasions in the 30 years prior to their most recent life sentence is an offender with four life sentences. All of the offender’s life sentences were imposed for the attempted murder of fellow inmates and a guard.

    The figure provided has been drawn from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) data held by the Department. The PNC holds details of all convictions and cautions given for recordable offences committed in England and Wales. Full criminal histories are only available for offenders convicted or cautioned for a recordable offence from the year 2000 onwards. In addition, as with any large scale recording system the PNC is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average waiting time for people (a) applying for a passport renewal and (b) waiting for a call back from the Passport Office.

    James Brokenshire

    The information requested is as follows:

    (a) Expected service standards for passport renewals are published at
    https://www.gov.uk.
    (b) The current guideline for returning calls to customers is to do so within
    48 hours. Her Majesty’s Passport Office gives priority to those with the
    most immediate travel plans.

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to carry out a post-implementation review of the local government standards framework in the Localism Act 2011.

    Brandon Lewis

    [Holding Reply: Thursday 12 June 2014]

    As stated in the impact assessment on the abolition of the Standards Board regime (published in January 2011), a post implementation review will be carried out three to five years after implementation of the policy which was in July 2012.

    My Department routinely receives representations about standards arrangements in local government, and indeed, on a whole range of local government issues. We will have regard to representations and comments when we undertake our post implementation review.

    However, Ministers are clear that the new provisions are a significant improvement on the old, discredited regime. The Localism Act has clarified predetermination rules allowing elected councillors to campaign and speak up on local issues. We have reversed the petty culture of malicious and unfounded complaints that wasted time and energy and undermined the good reputation of local government. We have increased transparency on councillors’ interests, and put in place criminal sanctions for the very rare instances of corruption. This is complemented by the role of political parties in ensuring good conduct, the law of libel, and the ultimate sanction: the ballot box.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which charitable projects based in Northern Ireland have benefited from the armed forces covenant (Libor) fund.

    Anna Soubry

    The importance of the covenant to the Government was highlighted by the decision of the Chancellor to transfer £35 million from fines levied on the banks for attempting to manipulate LIBOR to the Ministry of Defence for use in supporting the Armed Forces community. The fund has now closed and money has been allocated to some 97 projects.

    The Northern Irish Armed Forces community will benefit from a number of UK-wide projects which have been allocated over £16 million of LIBOR funding. In addition, we have provided £50,000 of funding to the UDR & Royal Irish Aftercare Service to set up a welfare support network and advisory service for veterans and their dependants in Northern Ireland.

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of claimants of (a) jobseeker’s allowance and (b) employment and support allowance on Help to Work who will enter employment within (i) six months and (ii) 12 months.

    Esther McVey

    The information requested is not available.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will revise the Government’s Responsibility Deal to include sugar in the list of ingredients that companies should work with caterers to reformulate in meals as part of the H4 pledge on Healthier Staff Restaurants.

    Jane Ellison

    There are 169 organisations currently signed up to the H4 pledge which includes a requirement for employers to work with caterers to reformulate recipes to ensure staff meals are lower in fat, salt and energy and do not contain artificial trans fats. There are currently no plans to include sugar in this list of ingredients. However, as part of the Public Health Responsibility Deal, 11 catering companies have signed up to take a range of actions to help people consume fewer calories, including through reformulation to reduce sugar content.

  • Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of allegations of repressive measures taken towards civil society activists in China related to commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown; and whether the Government has made representations to the Chinese government on that matter.

    Mr William Hague

    We are concerned at reports of detentions in relation to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident, and we raised our concerns about this with the Chinese authorities during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue in London on 20 May 2014. The Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), also raised this issue with the Chinese authorities on 19 May and made a statement on 21 May. We also fully support the EU statement of 28 May calling for the release of all those imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their views.

    We were pleased to see that on 5 June the Chinese authorities released a number of those who had been arrested after attending an event to commemorate the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989.

  • Nic Dakin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Nic Dakin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many recruits under the age of 18 years at (a) enlistment and (b) the point of submitting their application to join the armed forces who stated in section 3 of AFCO Form 4 that they were unemployed, completed training and moved into trained strength in the most recent year for which figures are available.

    Anna Soubry

    This information is not held in the format requested.