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Tag: 2014

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what written correspondence he has had with (a) the Mayor of London and (b) officials from Transport for London within the last 24 months regarding proposed river crossings east of Tower Bridge that are included within the Mayoral Transport Strategy; and how they impact on the options for the proposed Lower Thames Crossing.

    Stephen Hammond

    The Secretary of State for Transport has regular meetings with the Mayor of London at which a range of London transport measures are discussed. Other Ministers also discuss various London transport issues and projects with senior officials from Transport for London.

    The Mayor of London wrote to the then Secretary of State for Transport on 1 June 2012 to request the designation of the proposed Silvertown tunnel as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. The Secretary of State responded on 26 June 2012 outlining her agreement to grant the request.

    On 16 July 2013, the Mayor of London wrote to me to respond to the Department’s consultation on the Lower Thames Crossing proposals.

    The Department’s review of options for a new Lower Thames Crossing included a sensitivity test to assess whether the proposed Silvertown Crossing scheme would be likely to impact on the forecast flows for the existing Dartford crossing, and any potential new crossing.　The conclusion of that test was that the effect was likely to be negligible. The review findings were published in May 2013 as part of consultation on the options.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of history lessons were taught by non-subject specialists in each of the last five years.

    Mr David Laws

    Information on the percentage of history lessons taught to pupils in years 7 to 13 by non-subject specialists is publicly-available online, and published in the Main Tables at the following links:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2010-provisional (Table 14)

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2011 (Table 14)

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2012 (Table 14)

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2013 (Table 13)

    Data for 2009 is not available.

    “

  • Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Nigerian counterpart on the recent kidnapping of schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria.

    Mark Simmonds

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) spoke to the Nigerian Foreign Minister on 18 April when he condemned the abductions and offered UK assistance in securing the release of the schoolgirls.

  • Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of maintaining court buildings which are not listed as closed and which had fewer than five cases listed each week for (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months.

    Jeremy Wright

    Providing a detailed response to these questions will require officials to manually collate data. This cannot be accomplished in the time available. My honourable friend Shailesh Vara will therefore write with a detailed response as soon as possible, and will place a copy of this letter in the library of the house.

  • Virendra Sharma – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Virendra Sharma – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for a decision on an individual funding request for the prescription of Duodopa to a patient with Parkinson’s disease.

    Norman Lamb

    Prior to April 2013, primary care trusts were responsible for dealing with individual funding requests and information on individual funding request decisions, or on the time taken to consider such requests, was not collected centrally.

    From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.

    NHS England has informed us that information on the number of individual funding requests made to NHS England is not currently available. NHS England is improving its data collection mechanisms and aims to improve availability of such information in the future.

    NHS England has advised us it aims to inform the requesting clinician of the outcome of the individual funding request panel decision within 40 working days from the date of receipt of a completed request form. There are no plans to collect information on the average time taken for these decisions to be made.

  • Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he is making to encourage the government of St Lucia to take steps to progress the trial of the defendants accused of murdering Gloria Greenwood.

    Mark Simmonds

    As soon as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was informed of the death of a British national, consular officials contacted the St Lucian authorities about the investigation into Mrs Greenwood’s tragic death. They remain in regular contact. Most recently, St Lucia’s Crown Prosecution Service informed our officials that a pre-trial hearing had been adjourned until 8 May. We will continue to press upon the St Lucian authorities the importance we place on bringing this case to trial. Consular officials have updated Mrs Greenwood’s family and continue to provide full consular assistance.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that governors are disqualified when a school governing body is found guilty of disability discrimination.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    Regulations set out the circumstances in which a person is disqualified from holding or continuing to hold office as a governor at a maintained school. These include bankruptcy, conviction for an offence carrying a sentence of imprisonment, disqualification from being a company director or charity trustee, and persons whose employment is prohibited or restricted.

    The Department for Education has issued advice to school governing bodies on their duties under the Equality Act 2010, including in respect of disability.

    It is for governing bodies of state-funded schools to comply with any orders of the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) in relation to claims of disability discrimination.

  • 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 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to encourage NHS England to respond to the Oxford Radiosurgery Centre’s request that NHS patients in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties who require radiosurgery be treated there.

    Jane Ellison

    The business case for the gamma-knife centre at Oxford was originally agreed with the primary care trust (PCT) prior to April 2013, with an assumption that the PCT would stop sending patients to other centres elsewhere, and start sending them to the new centre once it was completed.

    As of April 2013, commissioning of these services transferred to the specialist commissioning team in NHS England.

    NHS England is currently undertaking a review of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) (e.g. Gamma Knife) and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR, e.g. Cyber-knife) for intracranial conditions to establish what the national demand is in line with its national clinical commissioning policies on SRS and SABR, and what the national capacity requirements are for this specialised treatment.

    Until the capacity requirements are clear, NHS England has said that it would be inappropriate to encourage new market entrants to provide this service as it cannot be clear what the potential consequential impacts on service quality, sustainability (financial and clinical) and potential unintended changes to patient pathways will be. Until the review is complete NHS England has said no substantive changes will be made to the current provision.

    As part of the transition of this service to NHS England, it developed, consulted upon and published a series of national clinical commissioning policies for intracranial SRS and SRT treatment.

    A report setting out the emerging findings of this review has been shared with clinical reference groups to seek their views and help NHS England develop a final draft. Once the views of stakeholders have been gathered, this will then go to Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group (SCOG) to agree a preferred option. Once the SCOG has a preferred option, NHS England will consult with patients and professionals and take account of those views when taking a final decision. If it is concluded there are to be significant changes in the provision of services, there will be a full public consultation before any changes are made.

    NHS England is expecting that the draft report will be ready for consideration at SCOG in June and then it would commence a public consultation on the draft report and preferred option during July to September. The report and recommendations will then be finalised after taking account of the views expressed during the consultation stage and a final decision taken by SCOG in September 2014.

    NHS England inherited the range of gamma knife providers currently in place, of which University College London Hospitals (UCLH) was not one. NHS England is currently undertaking a review of stereotactic radiosurgery provision and will consult widely with stakeholders and providers prior to making changes to service provision. There are two long established providers of gamma knife surgery commissioned by NHS England located in central London to whom patients from all six London specialist neurosurgical centres have been referred for gamma knife treatment for a number of years, including patients from UCLH.

    Finally, there was no contract in place with UCLH to provide gamma knife surgery for any PCT prior to 1 April 2013. Any activity that may have been undertaken there would have been done on an ad-hoc, non-contracted basis and NHS England does not hold this information.

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the reasons are for the time taken to answer question 191956 tabled for answer on 8 April 2014.

    Stephen Williams

    I refer the rt. hon. Member to my answer of 1 May, Official Report, Column 803W.

  • Stephen Barclay – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Stephen Barclay – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Barclay on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 237W, on large goods vehicles: speed limits, what progress has been made on the Government’s further impact assessment of increasing the speed limit for hauliers from 40mph to 50mph.

    Stephen Hammond

    Ministers are giving careful consideration to any potential impacts of raising the speed limit for HGVs over 7.5t from 40mph to 50 mph on single carriageway roads and a further impact assessment has been undertaken as part of that process.

    I want to make sure careful consideration is given to the evidence of all of the effects of raising the speed limit; on the economy, environment and road safety before a decision is made. I will consider the responses received and evidence presented before publishing a Response Report and impact assessment on our website.