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Tag: 2015

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons his Department sought the deemed consent arrangements for grants from HM Treasury under Section 64 of the Health and Public Act 1968; and what the job titles are of the officials in his Department that were involved in those discussions.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department agreed deemed consent arrangements with HM Treasury to reduce the administrative burden, recognising that newer grant giving legislation did not require similar approvals, and to streamline the grants making process, whilst maintaining the same level of oversight and scrutiny of cases. The decision was made with the agreement of the Director of Group Finance and the Deputy Director – Voluntary Sector Grants.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish the Synnex-Concentrix business case.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 4457 on 9th July 2015.

  • Anna Turley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Anna Turley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who will be affected by the introduction of the individual award limit to the Access to Work scheme.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The annual limit on Access to Work awards of 1.5x average salaries (which currently equates to £40,800 per person per year) will be introduced for new customers from October 1st 2015.

    There are 200 current customers, (approximately 0.5% of the current caseload) who are currently above this level. Current customers with awards above that level as of 1st October 2015 will have their existing award levels protected until 1st April 2018, provided their needs remain the same.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what additional financial support he is making available to the NHS to help it deal with winter pressures.

    Mr Jeremy Hunt

    £400 million in resilience money has been invested in the National Health Service for winter 2015-16. Learning from previous years, we have put this money into the NHS baseline for 2015-16 so that the NHS can plan effectively at local level for the long-term and take earlier action to tackle the symptoms of seasonal pressures.

    There will be no further additional money for the NHS ahead of winter.

  • 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.