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Tag: 2014

  • Julie Elliott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julie Elliott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of EU state aid rules on the UK feed in tariff policy framework; and if he will make a statement.

    Gregory Barker

    The European Commission adopted new guidelines for Energy and Environmental Aid (EEAG) on 9 April. Existing schemes, such as the Feed-in Tariff scheme (FITs), are not required to be brought into line with these new guidelines for as long as the relevant scheme remains covered by its existing EU state aid approval. It would only need to be brought into line if we were to introduce a change to the scheme that would, in itself, require state aid notification, as this would be outside the existing approval. If, after consultation on any alterations to FITs, we were to propose such a change, we would consider the trade-offs and risks for the scheme as a whole before reaching a final policy decision.

  • Julie Elliott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julie Elliott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much solar PV was installed under the 250kW to 5MW feed-in tariff band in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014 to date.

    Gregory Barker

    The table below shows the total number of 250kW to 5MW solar PV installations accredited under the Feed-in Tariff scheme.

    From April

    Number of installations

    Total installed capacity (kW)

    2010

    0

    0

    2011

    53

    65,002

    2012

    8

    6,428

    2013

    7

    4,594

    2014 [1]

    0

    0

    Installations are grouped into years based on their ‘commissioning date’ i.e. the date the technology was physically installed and deemed to be up and running.

    [1] Includes installations commissioned to the end of March 2014. April 2014 statistics will be published at 09:30am on Thursday 22nd May 2014 on the DECC website (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monthly-small-scale-renewable-deployment).

    “

  • Ronnie Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ronnie Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Campbell on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in Northumberland received prison sentences for harassment or stalking in the last two years.

    Jeremy Wright

    A comprehensive framework of civil remedies and criminal offences is available to deal with stalking and harassment. This framework was strengthened by this Government by amendments to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 made by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which introduced new stalking offences. These offences are designed to address specific stalking behaviour as opposed to harassment more generally. The new offence under section 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 covers a course of conduct which causes serious alarm or distress which has a substantial adverse effect on the day-to-day activities of the victim. This recognises the overall emotional and psychological harm that stalking may cause to victims, even where there is no explicit fear of violence. The maximum penalty for the section 2A offence is six months’ imprisonment and for the section 4A offence the maximum penalty is five years’ imprisonment.

    The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants sentenced for criminal offences by Police Force Area in England and Wales. The number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody for offences related to harassment and stalking (relating solely to racially or religiously aggravated stalking with or without fear of violence under Section 32 (1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998) in the Northumbria Police Force Area from 2008 to 2012 can be viewed in the table. The Northumbria Police Force Area covers Newcastle, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Sunderland and Northumberland.It has not been possible to separately identify those offenders in the county of Northumberland.

    There were new triable-either-way offences for stalking introduced by Sections 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, as inserted by Section 111 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which commenced on 25th November 2012. Between this point and the end of December 2012, there were no defendants proceeded against in England and Wales under this.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with senior management of NHS England about redundancies.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The Secretary of State meets regularly with NHS England to discuss a wide variety of issues. The Department is clear on the need to ensure that redundancy payments are made only in circumstances where it is appropriate to do so and has been working with NHS England to ensure that payments are tightly controlled, whilst meeting contractual obligations.

    Redundancies are subject to rigorous scrutiny and challenge before being approved. Additionally, any individual redundancy compensation payment in excess of £100,000 also requires Departmental approval. Where redundancies do occur, NHS England ensures that these are formally subject to national NHS provisions to claw back any redundancy payment received where an individual then goes on to be re-employed within the National Health Service, further ensuring better value for the tax payer.

    NHS England takes seriously its responsibilities to ensure that redundancy is a last resort and has implemented a system to seek to re-deploy any staff affected by such change to retain knowledge, skills and capability within the organisation, where at all possible.

    NHS England has a responsibility for ensuring that maximum value for money for taxpayers is delivered, whilst seeking to improve health outcomes for patients through effective commissioning arrangements. As a direct employer of 6,000 people, NHS England has a responsibility to continually improve the way it delivers both commissioning and the provision of the services for which it is directly accountable, which includes the regular review of its workforce arrangements.

    NHS England has advised that its redundancy costs for 2012-13 were £54,000, which represented 0.1% of total expenditure. For 2013-14 the costs were £1,017,000, which represented 0.003% of total expenditure.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in how many immigration appeal hearings lost by the Government her Department failed to send a presenting officer in each of the last four years.

    James Brokenshire

    I will write to the Rt Hon Member.

  • Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what active steps his (a) Department has taken and plans to take to facilitate the convening of a conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons.

    Hugh Robertson

    The UK is fully committed to convening a Conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction as soon as possible, in line with the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference Action Plan. The Foreign Secretary, Ministers and officials have discussed the Conference with their counterparts from the region, and will continue to do so. Officials have attended, and supported, recent informal consultations between the Facilitator and states of the region at Glion in Switzerland, and will engage in future informal consultations to build agreement. The UK continues to provide financial support for the work of the Facilitator, Finnish Under Secretary of State Jaakko Laajava.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Egyptian counterpart about the mass trial of and death sentences on members of the Muslim brotherhood.

    Hugh Robertson

    In a meeting with the Egyptian Foreign Minister on 2 April, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) raised his concern over the death sentences imposed on 529 people. He asked the Egyptian Government to review these issues as a matter of urgency and to ensure that individuals’ human and legal rights were properly upheld.

    The Foreign Secretary also made a statement on 28 April expressing deep concerns that a further 683 people had been sentenced to death by the same court and that 37 of the original death sentences handed down on 24 March had been upheld. He expressed concern at the potential negative impact of such sentences on the Egyptian Government’s ability to take forward an inclusive political process, and urged that the sentences be reviewed. We will continue to raise this issue in our conversations with the Egyptian Government.

  • Gerald Kaufman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gerald Kaufman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Kaufman on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she intends to reply to the letter to her dated 24 March 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr Abdul Rehman.

    James Brokenshire

    I wrote to the Rt. Hon. Member on 8 May 2014.

  • Tessa Munt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tessa Munt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tessa Munt on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to section 2 of the guidance issued by Monitor on the Commissioning of Radiosurgery Services on 4 April 2014, if he will request that NHS England reinstates the commissioning of stereotactic radiotherapy to the level before 1 April 2013 while it conducts its review into the future use of this treatment.

    Jane Ellison

    All existing contracts for stereotactic radiotherapy services were transferred to NHS England on 1 April 2013 and it continues to commission against these contracts, as previously.

    NHS England commenced the review of stereotactic radiosurgery in August 2013 and expects a final report to be considered at its specialised commissioning oversight group, post a public consultation period, in October 2014.

    NHS England will consult with the public, patients and professionals and take account of those views when taking a final decision. A summary of the responses received will be included when publishing the final report post the consultation period.

  • Thomas Docherty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Thomas Docherty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thomas Docherty on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2014, Official Report, column 413W, on Falkland Islands, if he will discuss the correct use of the name Falkland Islands with the Secretary of State for the Home Office; and given the misuse of the name by his Department in its internal guidance if he will now issue cross-Department guidance.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials have been in contact with the Home Office to remind them of the appropriate terminology for the Falkland Islands. All Government departments and agencies should refer to ‘the Falkland Islands’ in all instances. There is no evidence that incorrect terminology has been used other than in the isolated cases which the Honourable Member highlights. Therefore no cross-Departmental guidance has been issued.