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Tag: 2015

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the outcomes were of her visit to China in November 2015; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    During her visit the Secretary of State met a number of her counterparts, supported the two week long Food is GREAT Campaign in China and took with her the largest ever UK delegation to the Food and Hotel China trade show. She signed agreements to open the markets for UK barley and pigs trotters worth up to £190m over 5 years and discussed the forward plan for opening up the markets for poultry, beef and lamb. She discussed shared priorities with the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Water Resources and agreed programmes of closer collaboration.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations his Department has made to the Israeli government on the Children in Military Custody report, funded by his Department, which was published in June 2012.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have held roundtable meetings with Israeli officials to discuss the Children in Military Custody report, most recently on 19 May. Since the publication of the report, there has been some progress on the issue of children held in military detention. This includes piloting of sending summons instead of carrying out night-time arrests, changes to standard operating procedures on methods of restraint, and steps to reduce the amount of time a child can be detained before seeing a judge. There has also been a reduction in the use of solitary confinement and an increase in the use of Arabic to give notifications of arrest. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv continue to push for further progress with Israeli officials. On 27 August, our Ambassador to Tel Aviv lobbied the Israeli Military Advocate General on Children in Detention where the issue of child detention was discussed.

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with clinical commissioning groups on commissioning of off-patent drugs for use in new indications.

    George Freeman

    NHS England supports the national commissioning system in England, including the provision of guidance to the service, where appropriate.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not routinely appraise drugs outside their licensed indications. Where drugs are not appraised by NICE, it is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to decide how drugs should be funded locally, in line with any guidance from NHS England. The Department has produced no guidance and had no discussions with CCGs on off-label drug use.

    Many thousands of patients benefit from the use of off-patent drugs, off-label, every day in the National Health Service. NICE publishes Evidence Summaries on unlicensed and off-label medicines. These provide a summary of the published evidence for selected unlicensed or off-label medicines that are considered to be of significance to the NHS, usually when there is no licensed medicine for the condition requiring treatment or no licensed medicines are appropriate for a significant proportion of people requiring treatment.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will introduce multi-year funding for child protection programmes in the Central African Republic.

    Grant Shapps

    Since 2013, DFID has committed £58 million to address the needs of Central Africans, Central African children and of refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR). This funding has enabled agencies to support children who have been separated from their families, to provide services for girls and boys who have suffered sexual and gender-based violence, to reduce malnutrition, and give children access to education and training. DFID monitors needs in CAR and reviews regularly the strategy and level of support it provides. DFID are currently considering options for programming in CAR after the end of our current programme, which runs until March 2016.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2015 to Question 14816, how much funding was allocated to local authorities for road resurfacing in 2014-15.

    Andrew Jones

    For 2014/15, the Department for Transport allocated £1.133 billion of funding to local authorities in England for highways maintenance, comprising maintenance block funding, block funding top-up and the pothole repair fund, plus the winter weather repair fund which was allocated in March 2014 but where most of the money would have been spent in 2014/15. This sum represents record funding over the two Parliaments from 2005/06 to 2014/15 for local roads maintenance. (Note that in the figure above London is not allocated maintenance block funding). It is for local authorities to determine how this money is spent, according to local priorities. This includes road resurfacing, as well as other work on the highways network, which includes roads, street lighting and bridges.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of tenants in the private rented sector were in receipt of housing benefit in each of the last 10 years.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information from 2008 to 2015 is available and is published at:

    https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk

    Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

    https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started—SuperWEB2.html

    Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit caseload data prior to 2008 can be found at:

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107093842/http:/statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/index.php?page=hbctb_arc

    “

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of households in receipt of universal credit who receive support for housing costs are also subject to all work-related requirements.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

    The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

    “

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of bevacizumab in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    No assessment by the Government has been made on the effectiveness of bevacizumab (Avastin) in the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as there are two other effective, licensed treatments for wet AMD which have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Bevacizumab is not licensed for use in the treatment of wet AMD.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will hold discussions with the devolved administrations on sharing best practice on steps to reduce (a) self-harm and (b) suicide rates.

    Alistair Burt

    Departmental officials are in regular contact with colleagues in devolved administrations, sharing best information on suicide and self-harm prevention around cross-cutting issues.

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

    Lord Pendry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pendry on 2015-11-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much funding they provide for (1) research and development in new technologies to monitor inactivity, and (2) evaluating the impact of local programmes to tackle inactivity.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The usual practice of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and of the Medical Research Council (MRC) is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available.

    Public funders including the NIHR, the MRC, other Research Councils and Innovate UK fund a wide range of research relating to monitoring of physical activity/inactivity and the development and evaluation of interventions to support and encourage healthy behaviours including physical activity.

    For example, the NIHR has recently funded a £0.8 million trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Football Fans in Training (FFIT) – a group-based, weight management and healthy living programme delivered by community coaches. The report of the study has been published in the NIHR Journals Library and is attached.