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Tag: 2015

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the fitness-for-purpose of the Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Nuclear Installations) Regulations 2007 and their applicability to technical developments for unmanned aerial vehicles since their coming into force in 2007.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The airspace over UK nuclear licensed sites is restricted by the Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Nuclear Installations) regulations 2007. These impose restricted airspace of a radius between 0.5 and 2 miles to a height of between 1000 and 2400 feet around the centre of all nuclear sites. Airspace usage in the UK is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Therefore it is a criminal offence to fly in the vicinity of nuclear sites without the permission of the CAA. The CAA and nuclear sites work closely together on this.

    All of Britain’s nuclear power stations are robust and designed with safety in mind and are stress-tested to withstand a vast range of potential incidents. The independent regulator continuously monitors and evaluates the safety of each plant alongside the operator to protect it from outside threats.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will urge his Australian counterparts, on the grounds of the right to democratic self determination, to return Norfolk Island to its previous system of self-government.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Governance of Norfolk Island is a matter for Australia, in consultation with Norfolk Islanders. I am confident that Australia’s respect for democratic self-determination is undimmed: before introducing recent reforms, it ran a full consultation process, which included a number of public hearings with Islanders, and have committed to retaining a local regional council with responsibility for local services and with powers to legislate on local issues.

  • 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 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on the Help to Work scheme in the 2014-15 financial year; and how much of the budget for that scheme for the 2015-16 financial year has been spent to date.

    Priti Patel

    The Help to Work scheme contains a number of initiatives and programmes, delivered through Jobcentre Plus and Contracted Employment Provision.

    It is not possible to identify the costs of Help to Work activities separately from the total expenditure in Jobcentre Plus. The relevant data is not held in a form which allows it to be clearly identified and separated from other Jobcentre Plus activities.

    The two elements delivered through Contracted Employment Programmes are Community Work Placements and the Supervised Jobsearch Pilot. Expenditure on Community Work Placements was £1.8m in 2014-15. Expenditure on Supervised Jobsearch Pilot in 2014-15 was £6.3m. This is funded by income from the European Social Fund

  • Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the role of the Free Syrian Army in the conflict in Syria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Free Syrian Army is a collective term used by a range of moderate opposition groups in Syria who are fighting the regime and ISIL. The Free Syrian Army call for a pluralistic system that respects the rights of all Syrians. They reject terrorism and terrorist tactics, and have condemned Islamic extremism. They have been fighting both the regime and ISIL in Syria for over two years with success in a number of areas, in particular in Idlib and Aleppo in Northwest Syria and in Dera’a Province in the South.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.123 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect of uprating the individual threshold in the minimum income floor for self-employed people on the household income of a tax credit claimant family with two children and one self-employed earner under the age of 25 earning £12,194 over the course of a year.

    Priti Patel

    There is no Minimum Income Floor (MIF) in the tax credit system.

    In Universal Credit the MIF is designed to address issues in the current system which enable self-employed claimants to receive full State support while declaring low or zero earnings indefinitely.

  • Carolyn Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Carolyn Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carolyn Harris on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department’s Accelerated Access Review will consider issues relating to the routine availability of off-patent, repurposed drugs.

    George Freeman

    The Accelerated Access Review (AAR), chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government on reforms to accelerate access for National Health Service patients to innovative medicines and medical technologies making our country the best place in the world to design, develop and deploy these products. The terms of the reference for the review focus on faster access to innovations, which may include certain off-patent repurposed drugs, as opposed to the routine availability of medicines or medical technologies.

    Prior to establishing the terms of reference for the AAR, the Department reviewed evaluation reports and met with officials from previous initiatives on the uptake of innovation in the NHS including the Innovation, Health and Wealth report. As a result, building upon the lessons of previous reviews is explicit with the terms of reference of the AAR.

    The AAR has regular meetings with senior officials from NHS England via a steering group as recommendations are being developed. In addition, some staff from NHS England have been assigned to support the review team.

    Sir Hugh is still in the process of developing final recommendations which will be published in spring 2016. In his Interim Report published in October, Sir Hugh sets out a proposition on “galvanising the NHS”. This involves supporting the NHS to adopt innovation, more rapidly through better practical support, stronger incentives and the potential streamlining of local structures.

    The Department reviewed evaluation reports and met with officials from previous initiatives on the uptake of innovation in the NHS prior to establishing the terms of reference for the AAR. It was clear that whilst progress has been made on the uptake of innovation in the NHS there is still much to do. Sir Hugh and the head of the External Advisory Group, Professor Sir John Bell, set out the case for uptake of innovation in the recently published AAR Interim Report.

    The AAR has senior level contact with officials working on Lord Carter’s review of NHS efficiency to ensure that information is shared between the two teams.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 1 December (HL3647), why they have not yet published the 2014 feasibility study on caste discrimination.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    We are currently considering the conclusions and recommendations of the caste feasibility study as part of our wider consideration of the implications of the Tirkey v Chandok tribunal judgments. As I said in my reply of 1 December, we will keep the House informed of further developments on this matter.

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

    Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the potential proportion of local authorities which will experience (a) any reduction in their allocation and (b) a reduction of 20 per cent or more in their allocation as a result of the new proposed public health funding formula.

    Jane Ellison

    On 8 October 2015, the Department published Public health grant: proposed target allocation formula for 2016/17, an engagement of behalf of the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA), a technical consultation to inform ACRA’s recommendations to Ministers on target shares of the local authority public health grant.

    ACRA is currently considering the responses before providing its final advice to ministers. Actual allocations for 2016-17 will be determined separately and will be announced in due course.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding the IDF Fence that separates nursing ewes from their lambs at Qalqilyah in the West Bank.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    While we have not discussed this specific incident with the Israeli authorities, we remain deeply concerned about restrictions on freedom of movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Our Ambassador in Tel Aviv raised the issue of freedom of movement with Israeli National Security Advisor Cohen on 2 November. Our Consul-General in Jerusalem also raised this issue with the Mayor of Jerusalem on 28 October.

  • Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what remedy exists for enquirers whose electronic communications with the International Enquiry Service are not answered.

    James Brokenshire

    The International Enquiry Service currently handles approximately 12,000 emails a week and, from management information received, continues to answer all emails within the published service standards (100% of emails responded to within one working day (24 hours)) . In addition, all email enquiries receive an auto response which states “Your email has been submitted – We have received your email. You will receive a response within one working day.”