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Tag: 2015

  • Helen Goodman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Helen Goodman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations set out in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report revealed deep-rooted and historical challenges which will take time for the Government of Bahrain to address fully. The BICI put forward 26 recommendations. As a trusted partner we will continue to offer practical and technical assistance to help the authorities deliver reforms that benefit all Bahrainis.

  • Nic Dakin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers or trainee teachers received each of the scholarship and bursaries for teacher training courses in each subject in each of the last four years.

    Nick Gibb

    Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries of varying amounts are available to eligible trainees, depending on the academic year in which they undertake their ITT, the subject in which they are training to teach and their highest relevant academic award. The amounts and eligible subjects change each year based on assessment of need informed by the targets and past performance.

    Scholarships are awarded to those trainees who have gone through an additional selection procedure over and above that of their chosen ITT provider. These were available in 2012/13 in physics, and from 2013/14 in chemistry, computing, maths and physics.

    The table below shows a breakdown of the total number of trainees who have received training bursaries and scholarships (where relevant) over the last full four academic years, 2011/12, 2012/13, 20/13/14 and 2014/15.

    Table 1: Summary of the number of trainees that received training bursaries or scholarships in academic years 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15

    Academic year

    Bursary

    Scholarship

    Total

    2011/12

    6348

    0

    6,348

    2012/13

    16759

    87

    16,846

    2013/14

    17434

    201

    17,635

    2014/15

    16359

    422

    16,781

  • Bob Stewart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Bob Stewart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bob Stewart on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he has any plans to inform NHS users of the actual costs of visits, treatments and prescriptions.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government intends to publish the indicative medicine costs to the National Health Service on the dispensing label of all medicines dispensed in the community in England costing more than £20 from late 2016.

    Reference costs, which show the average unit costs to National Health Service hospital trusts of treatments and visits, are published annually by the Department on the Government website. There are no plans to inform patients of these costs each time they use the service.

  • Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department made of the value for money of the carbon capture and storage project bids.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The provision of ring-fenced capital support for CCS was judged against other Government funding priorities as part of the Spending Review. We are currently engaging with both bidders regarding the implications of this decision on their Bids.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12901, on mental health services, whether the figures in that Answer include children and young people.

    Alistair Burt

    The figures set out in the answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12901 include children and young people. The number of times people aged under 18 were taken to police custody as a place of safety under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act fell from 256 in 2013/14 to 161 in 2014/15 (37% reduction)[1].

    [1] National Police Chief’s Council: http://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/fall-in-use-of-police-custody-for-those-in-mental-health-crisis

    “

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of trends in media ownership in Romania.

    Mr David Lidington

    The British Embassy in Bucharest follows developments in the Romanian media closely, including changes in media ownership. The economic crisis of 2008 resulted in questions over the profitability of many media outlets and changes in ownership. The Government considers that a pluralist media is important for media freedom and the freedom of speech as provided for in the Romanian Constitution.

  • Jessica Morden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jessica Morden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of standard passport applications made in the last six months were processed within three weeks.

    James Brokenshire

    Between 1 May 2015 and 31 October 2015, 96% of UK standard applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office were done so within 3 weeks.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether hospitals will incur financial penalties if they breach performance standards as a result of the suspended industrial action on 1 December 2015.

    Ben Gummer

    In the normal course of events, a hospital which misses a key national standard (such as the 18-week referral to treatment waiting time standard or the six-week diagnostic wait standard) will incur a mandatory financial sanction applied by its commissioners, as set out in the NHS Standard Contract.

    However, the Contract also includes a ‘Force Majeure’ clause (General Condition 28) which would, in principle, apply to planned industrial action. Under this clause, a provider is able to claim relief from its liabilities under the Contract, to the extent that an event outside of its reasonable control has directly caused it to fail to meet its contractual obligations.

    Therefore, if a hospital were to breach an operational standard for the month, but could demonstrate to the commissioner that:

    * this was solely and directly due to the action it had reasonably taken in anticipation of the industrial action proceeding; and

    * it had done everything reasonable to mitigate the impact of its actions on achievement of the standard in that month

    then the commissioner could set aside the sanction for that month.

    If the breach of the standard was only partly due to the impact of the planned industrial action, only the relevant proportion of the sanction would be set aside.

  • Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to help establish an international agreement on surrogacy arrangements and harmonisation of the law and practice on surrogacy overseas.

    Jane Ellison

    The Hague Conference on Private International Law, of which the United Kingdom is a Member State, has set up an Experts’ Group to examine whether there is a realistic prospect of progress in this area. The Experts’ Group will report in March 2016.

  • David Burrowes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Burrowes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to lay before Parliament a report on the steps the Government proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates, pursuant to section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    Section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act requires the Government to lay before Parliament a report setting out the steps it proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates within nine months of Royal Assent of the Modern Slavery Act. The Government will publish this report by 16 December, whilst Parliament is sitting.