The below Parliamentary question was asked by MiDavies on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many confirmed cases of bovine tuberculosis there were in each of the last five years.
George Eustice
Statistics on the incidence of tuberculosis in cattle within Great Britain are published monthly on GOV.UK
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/incidence-of-tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of people with sight loss in the UK and (b) likely number of people who will have sight loss in 2050.
Alistair Burt
The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.
Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.
Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 20091, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.
Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published2 for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’3 sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.
1 http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf
2 http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/
3 http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) financial implications for her Department and (b) potential risks to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and the public of proposals to give PCSOs powers of arrest.
Mike Penning
The Home Office has no plans to give powers of arrest to police community support officers (PCSOs); we have therefore made no assessment of the consequences of making such a change.
On Wednesday 9 Septemer 2015, my Right Honourable friend the Home Secretary launched a consultation on reforming the powers of police staff and volunteers. The proposals set out in the consultation document seek to make police staff and volunteers more flexible in their roles by enabling Chief Constables to designate them with a wider range of powers, ensuring that they have the police powers necessary to do their job. The consultation also proposes a list of core powers that will be exclusively available to Constables, including Special Constables, and this list includes the power of arrest.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what procedures are in place in his Department to consider the implications of a decision by the Court of Appeal that a sentence has been unduly lenient; and what steps his Department takes in relation to the judge in the case concerned as a result of such a ruling.
Mike Penning
Whether or not a judge has correctly applied the law is a matter for the Court of Appeal alone. It is the responsibility of the Government to uphold the independence of the judiciary and that includes the judicial decision making process.
The unduly lenient scheme currently allows anyone to ask for a Government Law Officer to consider referring a sentence to the Court of Appeal for consideration that it was unduly lenient. The scheme applies to all indictable-only offences and a specified selection of either-way offences sentenced at the Crown Court.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to amend the Blue Badge scheme to allow badges to be awarded to those with severe cognitive disabilities.
Andrew Jones
The Disabled Persons (Badges for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000 allow badges to be awarded to people with any permanent and substantial disability which causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking, which may include those with cognitive disabilities. The Government has no plans to amend the eligibility rules for Blue Badges.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2015-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether road safety targets are at present set for local authorities; and, if not, whether they have considered reinstating them.
Baroness Kramer
The Government has not set road safety targets for local authorities, and is not considering reinstating them. However, local authorities are free to set their own targets if they find this useful.
The fact that the Government has not set a target does not mean that it does not consider road safety to be a high priority. The strategic framework includes forecasts of the casualty numbers that we might expect to see through to 2030 from the measures implemented by Government, and the actions of local authorities.
While we believe that previous road safety targets have been useful we do not consider that over-arching national targets are necessary for road safety in Great Britain. This is because we do not believe that further persuasion is needed on the importance of road safety. We expect central and local government to continue to prioritise road safety and continue to seek improvements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Morrow on 2015-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, if the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are passed, any person created by the procedures provided for by that legislation will be followed-up in the way recommended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s Expert Panel on page 5 of their report, Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception: update, 2013.
Earl Howe
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 will not come into force until 29 October 2015. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will consider how best to apply a monitoring framework to clinics awarded a licence to carry out mitochondrial donation treatment, against which it would inspect.
The HFEA will announce its proposals for the regulation and monitoring of mitochondrial donation treatment cycles following the approval of regulations by Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much was spent on HIV-related information campaign advertising in 2014.
Earl Howe
The Department holds a contract with the Terrence Higgins Trust to deliver targeted HIV prevention programmes for those groups most at risk of HIV which in the United Kingdom is men who have sex with men (MSM) and black African communities. The current contract delivers the HIV Prevention England programme. In 2014-15 the value of this contract was £2.450 million and of this £550,000 was spent on social marketing activity including advertising.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2015 to Question 223589, what the value was of the support provided by Network Rail to the National Task Force in each year since 2009-10.
Claire Perry
The Government, and Network Rail, to further their objective of supporting a safe, reliable and efficient rail network, engage with and support a broad range of stakeholders and initiatives across Government. These include the Technical Strategy Leadership Group; Rail Delivery Group Limited; the Planning Oversight Group; and the National Task Force.
The Department provided the following funding towards the Technical Strategy Leadership Group’s strategic research programme through a grant to RSSB which facilitates the group:
|
Year |
DfT grant towards TSLG’s research programme (£m) |
|
2010/11 |
1.25 |
|
2011/12 |
1.75 |
|
2012/13 |
3 |
|
2013/14 |
3.5 |
Network Rail does not provide direct financial support to the Technical Strategy Leadership Group.
Network Rail, between 10th August 2012 and 31st March 2014, paid £240,000 to Rail Delivery Group Limited in membership fees. For the year April 2014 – March 2015, Network Rail has paid or is due to pay £1,568,509 in membership fees. The increased fees paid by Network Rail in the most recent year are as a result of the Group assuming responsibility for policy formulation and communications on behalf of the rail industry. Network Rail provides staff to Rail Delivery Group Limited, for which it is due to charge the group £261,312.
The Planning Oversight Group is funded and supported by Rail Delivery Group Limited and does not receive direct financial support from the Department or Network Rail. The National Task Force does not have a budget, but those who attend are drawn from the various industry members.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roberta Blackman-Woods on 2015-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the potential (a) number of job losses at and (b) redundancy costs to local authorities as a result of the proposed takeover of responsibility for LLC1 searches by the Land Registry.
Matthew Hancock
At this stage it is not possible to quantify whether there will be any redundancies at local authorities or if so, how many there could be.
Land Registry’s current research suggests approximately 850 local authority staff deal with Local Land Charges as all or part of their roles. Land Registry acknowledges the possibility that there may be redundancies among these staff, but they will typically have additional responsibilities alongside their Local Land Charges role.
Further work is required to understand exactly how much time is spent by each individual officer on the Local Land Charges service. Land Registry will, of course, fulfil any TUPE obligations if applicable in any particular case.