Tag: 2014

Robert Buckland – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Buckland on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many complaints were received by each ombudsman service in England in each of the last five years.

Mr Francis Maude

The Government is considering recent reports of the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) into how complaints about public services are handled. As part of this, the Cabinet Office is working to investigate further how public services can make best use of complaints and also to take a wider look at the role and powers of the Public Sector Ombudsmen. The Government will respond to the PASC in due course. I am happy to discuss this matter further with my Hon. Friend.

The annual reports and accounts of the public service ombudsmen in the UK provide details of their performance over the past 12 months including information about complaints received.

01/11/2022
Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of export of refuse-derived fuel and solid recovered fuel for use in energy from waste plants overseas on the availability of such fuel for similar plants in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson

We published a call for evidence on the refuse-derived fuel market in England on 12 March. This included a request for evidence on the effect that exports of refuse-derived fuel had on its availability on the domestic market. The call for evidence closed on 9 May. We are currently analysing the evidence submitted, which will aid our understanding of the situation, help us to determine whether there is a need for some form of intervention and, if so, help us to develop policy options.

01/11/2022
Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of revenue accruing to the Exchequer from air passenger duty in respect of (a) domestic and (b) international flights from each airport in Scotland in 2013-14.

Nicky Morgan

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not collect information on the contribution to air passenger duty (APD) revenues made from flights to or from specific airports or countries.

HMRC has published a set of statistics presenting estimates of the disaggregation of tax receipts between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disaggregation-of-hmrc-tax-receipts

The estimate for the total amount of APD revenues attributable to Scotland in 2012/13 was £227 million. This estimate is not broken down by revenues from domestic and international flights.

Information on APD revenues and passenger numbers by band is available at:

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Pages/TaxAndDutyBulletins.aspx

Information on the number of passengers flying to and from UK airports is available at:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=80&pagetype=88&pageid=3&sglid=3#Data

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01/11/2022

Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for passports have been made by residents in Kilmarnock and Loudoun in each of the last 12 months.

James Brokenshire

Expected service standards for passport applications are given at
www.gov.uk.

Information in respect of the Member’s constituency is not available and the
cost of collating it would be disproportionate.

The table below shows the proportions of UK passport applications in each of
the last 12 months which have been processed within the published service
standards.

2013	% straightforward applications processed within the published timescales	% non-straightforward applications processed within the published timescales
June	100%	97.8%
July	100%	96.9%
August	100%	96.4%
September	100%	96.0%
October	100%	95.9%
November	99.99%	96.5%
December	99.99%	96.3%
2014
January	99.99%	96.8%
February	99.98%	98.1%
March	99.95%	96.8%
April	98.59%	99.6%
May	92.26%	93.9%

01/11/2022

Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what preliminary hearings in the case of Huber Ballesteros officals from the British Embassy in Bogota have attended.

Mr Hugo Swire

The UK cannot interfere in Colombia’s judicial process but will continue to raise any concerns regarding due process and conditions with the Colombian authorities.

The Embassy is currently awaiting authorisation from the Municipal Criminal Court to visit Huber Ballesteros in prison.

To date, the British Embassy has not yet been authorised to visit Huber Ballesteros in prison, this is despite requesting permission on six different occasions.

No representatives of the British Embassy were able to attend the preliminary hearings in the case of Huber Ballesteros due to unrelated security concerns. His trial will take place on 26 and 27 of June and the British Embassy intends to send Officials to observe this.

01/11/2022
Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether it is her Department’s policy to send only departmental development experts to oversee development projects overseas.

Justine Greening

DFID sends a variety of developmental experts to oversee projects overseas.

01/11/2022
Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on the role of police and crime commissioners in the commissioning of probation services within their force areas; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright

The Offender Management Act 2007 places the responsibility for the provision of Probation Services on the Secretary of State for Justice. Under the Act, the Secretary of State may make contractual or other arrangements with any other person for the making of the probation provision. The process of commissioning probation services will be informed by engagement with co-commissioning partners including, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Local Authorities. Contracts will be responsive to changing demands and priorities at local and national levels.

During the Transforming Rehabilitation Programme, we have undertaken extensive engagement at a national and local level with PCCs and Local Authorities. As part of this process, we have established a national PCC Reference Group and a Local Authority Reference Group which have proved to be useful forums to engage with those PCCs and Local Authorities which are most interested in our reforms and enabled them to scrutinise the commissioning and delivery of the Programme. PCCs and Local Authorities, together with other key local stakeholders have also been able to provide structured advice on what works locally via the creation of competition local advisory panels.

No organisations are prohibited from bidding in the competition. However, to bid successfully to own and run Community Rehabilitation Companies, they will need to meet the criteria we set, which will include the ability to take on the necessary financial risk under our proposed payment by results mechanism.

01/11/2022
Graham Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many black and minority ethnic personnel have served in each regiment of the Army in each of the last 10 years.

Anna Soubry

The number of black and minority ethnic personnel serving in each Regiment of the Army in each of the last 10 years is detailed in the tables below:

01/11/2022
Jamie Reed – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent representations he has received on the reopening of the Keswick to Penrith railway line.

Stephen Hammond

In the last two years the Department for Transport has received four letters on the matter. The Department for Transport is aware of an on-going campaign led by a group called CKP Railways to re-open the Penrith to Keswick line. As any re-opening would primarily address local rather than strategic transport needs, it would be for Cumbria County Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership to determine whether the re-opening of the line is a priority and secure funding from locally allocated funds, such as the Local Growth Fund. We have received no indication that this scheme is a priority for the Council.

01/11/2022
Julian Sturdy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s report entitled Hope for More: Improving access to lung transplantation and care for people with cystic fibrosis, what assessment he has made of the donor lung utilisation rate for transplantation; and what measures he has identified as having the greatest potential to increase such utilisation.

Jane Ellison

Currently donated lungs are allocated to the designated cardiothoracic transplant centres on a zonal basis. However, the Cardiothoracic Organs Advisory Group (CTAG) have recently reviewed the allocation policy and have recommended that the size of the allocation zones be adjusted to help ensure equity of access. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) have therefore confirmed that for cardiothoracic organs, the zones will be reviewed in August 2014 to coincide with changes in liver allocation zones and from August 2015, heart and lung zones will be disaggregated and the zones reviewed separately.

CTAG have also recommended that NHSBT reviews the consequences of introducing two levels of priority for listing for lung transplants – urgent and routine, and suggest a national allocation scheme for urgent listed patients, and zonal allocation for routine listed patients.

Any proposed change would need to be validated by NHSBT, who will review the criteria for urgent listing and the statistical modelling of the potential impact of such a system. NHSBT will continue to work closely with the Cystic Fibrosis Trust to improve outcomes for patients requiring lung transplants.

01/11/2022