Tag: 2014

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether public funds are used by the Police Federation to support defamation litigation.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    Funding provided by the Government to the Police Federation of England and Wales may only be used for specific purposes. These are to pay part of the salaries of its principal officers, and to support their statutory function in negotiating the pay of police officers.

    As the Home Secretary announced on 21 May, all Government funding provided to the Police Federation will cease by August this year.

  • Lord Patel of Blackburn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Patel of Blackburn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patel of Blackburn on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the proportion of Muslims in senior positions in British diplomatic missions abroad.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion for all its employees. The FCO’s management information system shows that, out of the 246 Senior Management positions overseas, 80 members of staff have declared their religion. Of these, three are Muslim, which corresponds to 3.75% of those who declared and 1.22% of the overall total.

    All FCO UK based staff are asked to provide diversity information about their ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation and religion or belief. Supplying this data is voluntary. The FCO is working to improve diversity declaration rates by staff, including for religion and belief, and as part of this effort a three month campaign titled “Why Should I Tell You” was run between November 2013 and January 2014 to encourage staff to provide their diversity information. Over this period declaration rates for religion and belief increased from 31 to 35%.

    The FCO launched the Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) Campaign in Summer 2013 aimed at the recruitment, progression and development of BME staff. The campaign aims to improve young people’s understanding of the organisation and to encourage more applications to our fast stream, particularly from BME communities. It also includes a leadership programme for high performing BME staff to prepare them for senior management and other targeted career development courses, mentoring and coaching. The initial results have been very encouraging.

    The FCO publishes an annual Equality Report which provides information about the diversity and makeup of our staff, as required by the Equality Act 2010. The 2014 report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diversity-and-equality-report-2014.

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  • Lord Hoyle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hoyle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hoyle on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many experiments were carried out on animals in the United Kingdom each year from 1997 to 2014.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    The following table contains information on the number of procedures undertaken for the years 1997 to 2012.

    The Home Office expects to publish, for Great Britain, 2013 statistics on 10 July 2014 and 2014 statistics in summer/autumn 2015.

    The publication of 2013 and 2014 statistics for Northern Ireland is a matter for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland (DHSSPSNI), which separately publishes Northern Irish statistics.

  • (4) in local authority schools – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    (4) in local authority schools – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by (4) in local authority schools on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 14 May (WA 532) stating that the Ofsted Report for 2013 found there were 700,000 pupils in schools where behaviour is just not good enough”

    Lord Nash

    Ofsted’s annual report (2012/13) indicates that around 700,000 pupils are in schools where behaviour needs to improve.

    This figure is based on Ofsted’s behaviour inspection judgement for 2013, which shows that nationally 8 per cent of schools in England are rated less than ‘good’, and the number of pupils on roll in schools taken from the rounded January 2013 School Census Data. Information in the form requested is not held by the Department.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are taken to verify the competence of (a) doctors and nurses and (b) staff of pharmaceutical companies involved in the conduct of clinical trials.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) expect everyone involved in a clinical trial to be qualified and trained to perform their tasks (as per Schedule 1, part 2 (2) of the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations(SI 2004/1031).

    Staff of pharmaceutical companies are not “conducting” a trial as defined in the clinical trial regulation (SI 2004/1031 Reg 2 “interpretation”). However, the same Good Clinical Practice principles apply to those involved in clinical trial activities; i.e. they should be qualified and trained to perform their tasks. At sponsor site inspection, inspectors will verify the training records, CV, and job description of selected employees to confirm adequate training has been given.

    Sponsors are expected to carry out checks in audits or monitoring to ensure that on completion of training, staff are indeed carrying out their duties according to requirements and/or procedures (these checks should be documented in monitoring/audit reports). Inspectors check the monitoring visit reports to determine non-compliances are adequately followed up and re-training is given to site personnel when necessary.

    The voluntary MHRA Phase 1 Accreditation Scheme requires that a Principal Investigator (PI) for a First in Human study has relevant experience and a post graduate qualification in pharmaceutical medicine (such as a Diploma in Pharmaceutical medicine, Diploma in Human Pharmacology, MSc in Clinical Pharmacology or equivalent). An exemption to this requirement has been issued for PI’s that do not have a post graduate qualification but are able to demonstrate that they have a significant amount of experience in this field (and are often involved in teaching the post-graduate courses). An application for an exemption is assessed independently by the Faculty of Medicine.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 66W, on asylum: children, which local authorities have been granted extra funding because of their special circumstances.

    James Brokenshire

    The following local authorities receive additional funding due to special
    circumstances:

    Croydon, Kent, and Hillingdon local authorities have been granted additional
    funding which in the past was part of the "Gateway" arrangements, that has been
    superseded by enhanced rates. This is due to the larger than normal volumes of
    care leavers received in those local authorities, in comparison to other local
    authorities.

    Solihull local authority were not part of the "Gateway" arrangements but have
    since been granted additional enhanced payments for the same reasons.

  • Henry Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Henry Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many animals have experienced severe suffering in scientific research funded by the Government since 2010; and if he will provide funding aimed at developing scientific advances allowing the reduction or avoidance of severe suffering of animals used in procedures.

    Mr David Willetts

    The Government does not hold the information you have requested. The Home Office has published advisory notes on recording and reporting actual severity. From data collected, the Home Office will provide clarity on the burden of harm and, over time, should give an indication of the effectiveness of refinement methods, particularly for the most severe procedures.

    It is important to note that procedures classified as severe represent only a small percentage of the total.

    The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) was established by the Government in May 2004 to advance and promote the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of animals used in research and testing (the 3Rs). The NC3Rs primarily receives Government funding through BIS from the science and research ring-fenced budget via the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The projected budget for the NC3Rs is £7.88m in 2014/15 and £7.84m in 2015/16.

    BBSRC also provides further funding for the 3Rs under its responsive mode schemes, and the MRC and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council support research projects which contribute to the development of new knowledge and new methods that help replace or refine animal use. However, figures on future spend are not available.

    For a detailed breakdown of past funding I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion on 11 March 2014, Official Report, column reference 167W.

  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate the UK Statistics Authority has made of average net weekly household income in the City of York Council area in each year since 2004-05 in (i) cash terms and (ii) at current prices.

    Mr Nick Hurd

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

  • Caroline Flint – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Caroline Flint – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer of 10 April 2013, Official Report, column 1119W, on energy prices, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) wholesale and (b) retail cost of (i) electricity and (ii) gas in 2013.

    Gregory Barker

    The average GB wholesale electricity price in 2013 was 4.98 pence/kWh.[1] For gas, it was 2.32 pence/kWh.[2]

    These prices do not necessarily reflect the costs faced by energy suppliers, who typically buy their energy over a period of time using forward contracts – a practice known as hedging. The particular hedging strategies employed by different suppliers are commercially confidential and not known to Government.

    [1] Source: data received by DECC from commercial price reporting companies

    [2] Ibid

  • Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to improve job security for people employed indefinitely on temporary or fixed-term contracts.

    Jenny Willott

    The Government is committed to achieving a labour market that is both fair and flexible, which gives employers the confidence to create jobs, and individuals the choice to find work that suits them and their circumstances.

    Temporary, agency and fixed term contracts are an important, but relatively small part of our labour market, as they give companies flexibility in how staff are hired and workers flexibility in how they work. In February to April 2014 there were 1.673 million temporary employees – 6.5% of all employees. Of these, ONS estimate that 35.9% were working temporarily because they could not find a permanent job – down from 39.7% a year ago.

    Under this Government employment growth continues to be exceptionally strong, with levels up by 345,000 in the past quarter, and 780,000 in the past year – a record. Overall, in the 12 months to April 2014:

    · Employment increased by 780,000.

    · The number of employees working full time increased by 441,000 and the number of people working part time increased by 17,000.

    · The amount of people in self-employment rose by 337,000

    · The amount of temporary employees was 1.67 million in the three months to April 2014, up 79,000 on the same period last year. The amount of employees working temporary jobs because they could not find permanent jobs fell by 33,000 over the past year.