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Tag: 2015

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-09-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to bring forward legislation to regulate (a) digital currencies, (b) crowdfunding and (c) peer-to-peer lending.

    Harriett Baldwin

    At the March Budget, the Government said it would consult on how to regulate digital currency exchanges in the new Parliament.

    Operating a P2P platform has been an activity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) since 2014. Crowdfunding is also a Regulated Activity and is subject to FCA rules.

  • MiDavies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    MiDavies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by MiDavies on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of new houses was built on brownfield land between May 2010 and May 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    Statistics for 2013/14 were published in August 2015. These statistics showed that in 2013/14, 60 per cent of new residential addresses, including conversions to residential use, were created on previously developed land.

    The figures in the 2013/14 publication are the first in the new series and so are not directly comparable to the previous Land Use Change Statistics which last published data covering the year 2011.

    The Land Use Change Statistics provide the Department’s official source for estimating the proportion of new residential development on previously developed land (brownfield). They were historically collected from 1985 to 2011. The previous data collection was expensive to run. By switching to an innovative new methodology the Department has made significant savings whilst providing a statistical series more suitable for detailed statistical and spatial analysis than before.

    Historical Land Use Change statistics are available on the Department’s website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/land-use-change-statistics#archived-publications

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  • Douglas Chapman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost is to the public purse of the contract to purchase the ASRAAM missiles from MBDA (UK) Ltd; and how many such missiles will be purchased as part of that contract.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The ASRAAM contract awarded to MBDA(UK) Limited is worth some £300 million (excluding VAT) and covers the development, qualification and manufacture of operational, telemetry, and training missiles. I am withholding details of the number of missiles ordered as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of our Armed Forces and allies.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent illegal trade in ivory products.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK has played a leading role in galvanising international action to combat the illegal wildlife trade, including the illegal trade in ivory. We hosted the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade in February 2014 and actively supported the Government of Botswana in its hosting of a follow-up Conference in Kasane in March 2015. The UK has also supported the Elephant Protection Initiative, of which nine African elephant range states are now members and which is designed to help them to secure and maintain healthy elephant populations.

    The UK is committed to maintaining the current global ban on any new international trade in ivory, established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In addition, the UK does not permit trade in raw ivory tusks of any age and we are pressing for this approach to be taken across the whole of the European Union.

    We have committed £13 million to support projects around the world to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. These projects seek to reduce demand, strengthen law enforcement and develop sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by illegal wildlife trade, principally through Defra’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. A second round of the Challenge Fund was launched on 5 August.

  • George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average annual cost to the NHS of the effects of sight loss; and if he will make a statement.

    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

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  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to make the register of deaths of UK residents available online.

    Richard Harrington

    Under present legislation, the register of deaths in England and Wales contains details of all deaths which have taken place there, regardless of whether the deceased was a UK resident. Similar arrangements are in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Civil registration is a devolved matter.

    In England and Wales, information from the register of deaths is made available in the form of a certificate, on payment of the appropriate fee. Currently, there are no plans to change this process.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the fine levels for offences related to section 168 of the Equality Act 2010.

    Andrew Selous

    The figures do not suggest that courts are finding their sentencing powers inadequate.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the noise impact of the Future Airspace Strategy on Windsor constituency.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government has not made such an assessment.

    The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) led Future Airspace Strategy provides a framework for how the UK’s airspace should be managed in the future. It is a CAA requirement that any proposer of an airspace change should consult with their local communities on how the implementation of the strategy will affect them.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    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.

  • Lord Morrow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Morrow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    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.