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Tag: 2014

  • Tim Loughton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tim Loughton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department have had with the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families since she took up her post.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    Since starting as the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families in September 2013, Isabelle Trowler has spoken at a wide range of events. In particular she has made presentations to and engaged in discussion with more than 2,500 social workers to support and challenge the profession and spoke at the National Fostering Association conference on 13 May 2014. Isabelle’s presentations are not published.

    As the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, Isabelle provides independent expert advice to Ministers on social work reform. She meets my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and other Ministers in the Department for Education frequently to discuss her ideas for social work reform and to provide policy advice.

  • Maria Eagle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the Flood Relief Fund for Sport announced to restore damaged pitches, sport centres and facilities has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by sports facilities to date.

    Mrs Helen Grant

    Sport England’s Flood Relief Fund has made a total of 225 awards to date, totalling £515,542, of which:

    (a) Three awards totalling £6,560 have been made to Local Authorities.

    (b) 222 awards totalling £508,982 have been made to sports clubs.

    The fund will remain open for applications until Autumn.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much (a) his Department and (b) the Joint Nature Conservation Committee spent on biodiversity research in (i) the UK and (ii) the Overseas Territories in each of the last four years.

    Dan Rogerson

    We are collating the information requested and will place it in the House Library as soon as possible.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on a Tornado Collision Warning System since 1991.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Total spend from 1999 to 31 March 2014, including the concept, assessment and development, manufacture and In-service phase, is some £49.7 million.

    It is not possible to confirm the total spend on a Tornado collision warning system prior to 1999; expenditure records are no longer held centrally and the retrieval of available information would be possible only at disproportionate cost.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the outbreak of the ebola virus in Western Africa.

    Mark Simmonds

    We continue to monitor the Ebola outbreak in West Africa closely. As of 6 June there had been over 220 confirmed cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

    International health agencies are providing support to affected countries. There is no specific vaccine or anti-viral drug available, so the priority is to contain the outbreak by limiting human to human transmission by early identification and care for those affected.

    We are keeping our Travel Advice for British nationals under regular review and in line with WHO guidance. There have been no reports of British citizens being infected and there have been no known imported cases of Ebola in the UK to date.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many men have been diagnosed with prostate cancer in each of the last five years.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Andrew Selous – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Selous – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Selous on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 30 April 2014, Official Report, column 760W, on driving under influence: drugs, what the proposed timetable is for the steps his Department proposes to take to communicate the new drug driving offence.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Officials working on the new drug driving legislation meet regularly with stakeholders from both the law enforcement and healthcare sectors. These meetings include discussions on how the new offence will be communicated.

    The medical profession has assisted the Department in developing guidance to healthcare professionals to use in discussion with their patients. We expect to publish the guidance later in the summer and will circulate it to the medical profession. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is currently working with pharmaceutical companies to update the product information of those medicines implicated by the new legislation. MHRA also expect to issue a ‘Drug Safety Update’ article later in the summer to include details about the new offence for healthcare professionals. This will be accompanied by an article for patients. MHRA also work closely with the British National Formulary to update the prescribing information for medicines as new safety information emerges and will ensure this new information is brought to their attention. The Think! campaign is in the process of being developed but we expect to start informing the public about the new offence just prior to its introduction followed be a more concentrated campaign on its introduction.

  • Alison McGovern – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Alison McGovern – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will provide an update on the use of his Department’s resources to help efforts to locate abducted girls in northern Nigeria.

    Mr Mark Francois

    The Ministry of Defence is contributing to the international effort to find the missing school girls through the deployment of a Sentinel surveillance aircraft to help improve the intelligence picture, complementing other international intelligence and surveillance assets. UK military personnel have also been deployed to a multi-national intelligence fusion team based in Nigeria, whose role is to assist the Nigerians in their efforts to locate the girls.

  • Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dobbin on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 41W, on drinking water, whether his Department has conducted a study of levels of psychotropic drugs in UK rivers and seawater.

    Dan Rogerson

    Currently no psychotropic drugs have been identified as Priority Hazardous Substances, Priority Substances or UK Specific Pollutants under the Water Framework Directive. As such no routine monitoring is carried out for these substances in England.

    However, previous research by the Environment Agency on pharmaceuticals in surface waters included environmental monitoring for the psychotropic drug fluoxetine (an anti-depressant). In 2005, monitoring was undertaken in rivers downstream of a number of sewage works across England and Wales. Thirty-nine samples were taken with fluoxetine occurring in 85% of samples with a maximum concentration of 0.044 microgrammes/litre (µg/l), and norfluoxetine in 51% of samples with a maximum concentration of 0.083 µg/l.

    During 2011, a programme of monitoring for pesticides was undertaken in six catchments. The psychotropic drugs carbamazepine and gabapentin were detected in all six catchments with maximum levels of 0.7 µg/l and 1.2 µg/l respectively.

    The report published by the Drinking Water Inspectorate evaluated the risk from psychotropic drugs in river water used for abstraction for drinking water supplies.

  • Gordon Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Gordon Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Brown on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will visit Dalgety Bay to discuss the time taken to clean up radiation contamination there.

    Mr Mark Francois

    In 2006 the then Health Protection Agency (HPA) Radiological Protection Authority advised that radioactive contamination on Dalgety Bay presented a low risk to the public. A more recent scoping risk assessment undertaken in 2011 by the HPA Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards at the bequest of the Scottish Government concluded that the risk to health was very low.

    The view of the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (now part of Public Health England) remains unchanged. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is completing a detailed quantitative risk assessment to inform the longer term management strategy which will be available in due course.

    Copies of the advice received by MOD together with a copy of the more detailed risk assessment, when published, will be placed in the Library of the House.