The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2014-04-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to reintroduce the artificer rate into the Royal Navy.
Lord Astor of Hever
No, the Royal Navy has disestablished the Artificer system in favour of a more coherent engineering technician structure which sets a headmark of achieving accreditation through the appropriate professional institutions and apprenticeships.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the value of the land for which academy trusts currently have leasehold interest.
Mr Edward Timpson
When community schools convert to academies, the freehold is retained by the local authority and a lease is granted to the academy trust. In some circumstances, where the school governors or supporting foundation already hold the freehold, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, may allow publicly-funded school land to be transferred to an academy trust, which will have satisfied the Secretary of State as to its ability to operate a state-funded school.
There are strict rules protecting publicly funded land used by academies, regardless of who holds the freehold. This is set out in published guidance, which is available online:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/protection-of-school-playing-fields-and-public-land-advice
A copy of the guidance has been placed in the House Library.
The Department does not hold information about the average value of land used for academies on a freehold or leasehold basis. Information about the number of academies that occupy land on a leasehold and freehold basis is not held centrally.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-09.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 8 April 2014, Official Report, column 193W, on electoral register, for what reasons the Electoral Commission does not collect data on the number of attainers registered as part of its monitoring of electoral registration officers.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that it reviews the data on registered attainers collected by the Office for National Statistics and, separately, carries out assessments of the accuracy and completeness of the registers periodically.
The Commission also informs me that its current performance standards framework is designed to support Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in preparing for and delivering the transition to Individual Electoral Registration. The standards seek to ensure that EROs have appropriate plans in place to address the particular challenges in their registration area in order to maximise registration, and that they monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their activities.
The Commission will continue to keep its performance standards framework under review and will consider whether specific information on the number of attainers registered should be included as part of the data it requests from EROs in the future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to enforce the waste hierarchy in managing food waste and to prioritise prevention and redistribution for human consumption ahead of anaerobic digestion and composting
Dan Rogerson
In accordance with the waste hierarchy, voluntary agreements with business and the Waste and Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP’s) Love Food Hate Waste Campaign encourage action by households, food manufacturers, retailers and the hospitality and food service sectors to prevent food waste.
If surplus food cannot be prevented, the next best option is to ensure it is redistributed for human consumption, and I have met with a number of companies and organisations which are looking at innovative ways to redistribute food.
The Courtauld Commitment 3 supply chain target includes action on both prevention and redistribution. This dual target approach encourages redistribution as the most desirable route for any surplus food suitable for human consumption. Defra convened a Ministerial round table in July 2012 and requested WRAP to lead an industry working group to follow up on recommendations. As a key output of the group, WRAP has recently published research, guiding principles and good practice case studies to help industry take action. Further information is available at http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/foodredistribution.
There will always be some unavoidable food waste. The Government’s Anaerobic Digestion Strategy is in place to reduce the amount of organic material going to landfill and drive the waste that is produced into energy recovery or recycling.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times the date set for the implementation of the personal independence payment programme has changed since that policy was introduced.
Mike Penning
Personal Independence Payment was introduced, as planned, to a limited geographical area from 8 April 2013 for new claimants. As further planned, it was extended nationally from 10 June 2013 for new claimants.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much in real-terms was spent on cancer services in each of the last five years.
Jane Ellison
The information is shown in the following table:
Estimated expenditure on cancer services and radiotherapy, 2008-09 to 2012-13, £ millions in 2012-13 prices
|
Year |
Cancers and tumours |
Radiotherapy |
|
2008-09 |
5,281 |
401 |
|
2009-10 |
5,908 |
435 |
|
2010-11 |
5,685 |
467 |
|
2011-12 |
5,565 |
473 |
|
2012-13 |
5,681 |
485 |
Sources:
Programme budgeting data, NHS England
Reference costs, Department of Health
It is not appropriate for a given service to present reference costs as a proportion of programme budgeting expenditure. This is because radiotherapy data are calculated from reference costs, which are the unit costs to National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients. Reference costs do not represent all expenditure in the NHS, and are costs to NHS providers whereas programme budgeting data are expenditure by NHS commissioners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-04-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the criteria is by which his Department determined the successful bidders for management of the administration of the personal independence payments contracts.
Mike Penning
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Providers were selected following a fair and open competition.
Tenders were assessed against a detailed set of criteria which covered key aspects of PIP service delivery. A wide range of areas were assessed but particular weighting was given to bidders’ management of the claimant journey, staff recruitment, delivering assessments by Health Professionals, performance management, estates and overall implementation.
Providers were selected on the basis of the most economic advantageous tender which overall assessed a combination of qualitative, risk and financial factors to determine the preferred supplier for each contract to be awarded.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) amount and (b) proportion of Public Health England’s total budget has been allocated to (i) tobacco, (ii) obesity, (iii) alcohol, (iv) TB, (v) dementia and (vi) the Best Start in Life strategy for 2014-15.
Jane Ellison
Public Health England’s (PHE) financial reporting is currently based upon the Directorates and teams around which their work is focused. The six areas of focus identified in the Parliamentary Questions are currently supported by individuals and teams across PHE’s various directorates (Operations, Health Protection, Health and Wellbeing, Knowledge etc.), so the total cost of each of the above areas cannot currently be accurately provided.
During the course of 2014-15, one of the priorities identified by PHE’s Finance team is to enhance and tailor their inherited financial reporting arrangements so that it can report on their activities and priorities as well as its Directorates and teams. PHE will be able to provide this information in the future, but it is unfortunately not available now. Once PHE has developed new financial reporting arrangements they will ensure that this is published transparently.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-04-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the UK is deploying any military assets to assist the NATO patrol over Ukraine.
Mr Mark Francois
NATO is not patrolling Ukranian airspace. Therefore, nor is the UK. However, the UK is contributing an E3-D aircraft to the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force flying in NATO airspace and it will be deploying four Typhoon aircraft to enhance the Polish rotation of NATO’s peacetime Baltic Air Policing mission, which polices NATO airspace.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the volume of overseas applications for passports has been in each month since her Department assumed responsibility for such applications.
James Brokenshire
The table below shows the number of overseas passport applications received by Her Majesty’s Passport Office each month since it assumed responsibility for such applications.
|
Month |
Number of overseas applications received* |
|
December 2012 |
145 |
|
January 2013 |
1014 |
|
February 2013 |
2401 |
|
March 2013 |
2767 |
|
April 2013 |
3543 |
|
May 2013 |
4662 |
|
June 2013 |
5862 |
|
July 2013 |
7053 |
|
August 2013 |
7216 |
|
September 2013 |
11035 |
|
October 2013 |
13832 |
|
November 2013 |
10881 |
|
December 2013 |
12324 |
|
January 2014 |
26897 |
|
February 2014 |
43327 |
|
March 2014 |
40935 |
*Note: HMPO took responsibility for overseas passports applications in April 2011, commenced the repatriation of the printing of overseas passports in summer 2011, but only commenced repatriating application processing in December 2012 with that repatriation completed in February 2014.