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Tag: 2015

  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-11-24.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many fuel laundering plants were discovered in Northern Ireland in 2014; and how many of those plants were (a) fully operational at the time of discovery and (b) within ten miles of the border of the Republic of Ireland.

    Damian Hinds

    31 fuel laundering plants were discovered in Northern Ireland in 2014. All 31 were considered to be operational at the time of discovery.

    Area specific information cannot be supplied as it is likely to be used by those minded to undermine HMRC’s strategy in dealing with fuel fraud and as such have a detrimental impact

    on its ability to assess and collect tax.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to paragraph 13 of the report commissioned by her Department on Paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, published 19 October 2015, what assessment she has made of the extent to which the IRA’s Provisional Army Council oversees the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    Further analysis of intelligence and actions relating as a consequence of the recent report is a matter for the Security Services and the Police. Ministers do not interfere with such operational decisions nor is it the policy of Her Majesty’s Government to comment publicly on such intelligence matters.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the cost of using external agencies for recruitment to Senior Civil Service posts in his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    As part of its long-term economic plan, this Government has reduced the size of the Civil Service by 22%, adjusting for Machinery of Government changes that moved staff into and out of the Civil Service since the 2010 General Election, representing a significant increase in efficiency and productivity that helped save taxpayers £2.8 billion last year alone.

    In the past five years, Department costs for using external agencies in the recruitment of two Senior Civil Service posts are recorded as below:

    Financial Year

    Recruitment Costs (£)

    2011/2012

    2012/2013

    2013/2014

    2014/2015

    £33,019.00

    2015/2016

    £26,300.00

    Background Information

    We hold no records for years 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/2014.The Department has used external agencies to recruit for specialist SCS roles. Departments have a number of routes available to them to procure recruitment agency services. These include their own departmental procurement processes and the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), which has been in place since April 2014.

    The roles recruited for were Chief Executive of BDUK and Deputy Director of Telecoms Business Intelligence Centre

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

    Daniel Kawczynski – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the cost of line speed upgrade on the railway line between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.

    Claire Perry

    Network Rail and the relevant train operators terminated a line speed improvement assessment in 2014. Detailed work had identified an estimated cost of up to £12.45m to clear structures for higher speed. With these costs the scheme was poor value, having a benefit cost ratio of less than 1.0. No assessment has been made since then.

  • Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of costs arising from a school becoming an academy on (a) school budgets and (b) educational standards.

    Edward Timpson

    There are no changes to an individual school’s core funding when it converts to academy status, since academies are funded on an equivalent basis to maintained schools in the same area. Schools take on additional functions when becoming an academy, which local authorities provide for maintained schools; academies receive funding for those functions on an equivalent basis to local authorities.

    On educational standards, we continue to see the positive effects of academisation. Results in primary academies open for two years have improved, on average, by 10 percentage points since opening, a result which is double the rate of local authority maintained schools over the same period. Similar results are seen for secondary schools where the recently opened academies are matching or bettering their performance year on year.

  • Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people who started employment through the Work Based Sector Academy scheme were still in employment with the same organisation after 13 weeks since that scheme began.

    Priti Patel

    Official statistics record starts to sector-based work academy pre-employment training only. The Department does not collate information on outcomes, nor the number of benefit claimants finding work through a sector-based work academy placement. There are no current plans to do so.

    Official statistics are available on GOV.UK at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-contract-april-2012-to-may-2015

    “

  • Craig Whittaker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Craig Whittaker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to work with local authorities to reduce the level of fly-tipping.

    Rory Stewart

    Tackling fly-tipping is a Government priority and manifesto commitment. Next spring we will be giving councils the power to tackle small scale fly-tipping through fixed penalty notices as an alternative to prosecutions.

    This builds on other Government action to tackle fly-tipping, which has included:

    • working with the Sentencing Council on its guideline for sentencing for environmental offences, which came into force on 1 July last year;
    • making it easier for vehicles suspected of being involved in waste crime to be stopped, searched and seized; and
    • continuing our work with the Defra-chaired National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to promote and disseminate good practice in the prevention, reporting, investigation and clearance of fly-tipped waste.
  • Lord Rooker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Rooker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rooker on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 22 July (HL1237), whether any proposed change to the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 will be forwarded to the relevant scientific committee for consideration.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    In June this year the Government held an informal consultation in order to seek views on possible additions to the exemptions currently allowed under the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 from the requirement to fortify flour with calcium, iron, niacin, and thiamine. The exemptions that were envisaged would allow more efficient and streamlined manufacturing operations for foods produced for export as well as for the home market, without compromising the public health benefits which accrue from fortification. A range of interested parties were consulted including millers, flour users, retailers, fortificant manufacturers and health professionals.

    The options proposed in the consultation would allow millers to produce unfortified flour in England when used as a secondary ingredient which undergoes further processing, or is used in relatively small quantities in products. This approach was welcomed by most consultees and the Government is now considering how to take this forward.

    The Department of Health and Public Health England has considered the proposals and concluded that it is unlikely that an exemption from fortification for flour used in such products will have a nutritionally significant impact on the intakes of calcium, iron, thiamine or niacin.

    The changes proposed would apply to England only since food legislation is a devolved matter. The devolved administrations are aware of these proposals but have not yet made any decisions on whether to introduce similar changes.

    Respondents to the consultation also asked for some additional flexibility around the point at which the fortificants are added to flour. At the moment flour must be fortified at the mill and the four fortificants are added as a premix at the end of the milling process. Many businesses which manufacture foods both for the home market and for export requested the flexibility to be able to add the fortificants at the bakery stage. They highlighted that the requirement for separate storage and handling for, both fortified and unfortified flour (which is used for exported products) was creating significant manufacturing complexities. That resulted in a more restricted product range and is having an adverse effect on their export potential and their ability to diversify into new global markets. The Government is currently considering this.

  • Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answers of 16 November 2015 to Questions 15277 and 15193, what the outputs are from the NHS England expert forum which were originally initiated in the Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Strategy; and what plans the NHS England expert group has for future work on familial hypercholesterolemia.

    Jane Ellison

    The expert forum – the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Collaborative Strategy Group – has representation from key CVD stakeholders including NHS England, Public Health England, Department of Health and third sector organisations such as the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and the National Kidney Federation. It provides leadership to the National Health Service in developing approaches to improve the prevention, early diagnosis and management of CVD as highlighted in the CVD outcomes strategy.

    As part of its work, the group is exploring approaches to support the earlier diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, heart failure and valve disease and to improve outcomes from out of hospital cardiac arrest. It is also considering how it can support wider strategic developments arising from the Five Year Forward View, such as the development of seven day services.

    In addition, NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Heart Disease continues towork with partners on familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). Working with Public Health England, they aim to identify more families with FH and address the importance of cholesterol on general as a risk factor for CVD. The National Clinical Director alsochairs an FH Steering Group, which brings together relevant stakeholders, and supportsStrategic Clinical Networks around the country so that good practice can be shared more widely.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to prevent armed opposition fighters funded by Western countries from using their arms and training against unintended targets, or acting in a way that contradicts the Government’s overall strategy in the Middle East, in particular in Syria.

    Earl Howe

    The US-led programme to Train and Equip members of the moderate Syrian opposition, to which the UK has contributed, incorporated a screening process to determine the suitability of candidates. The training programme itself was designed to reinforce positive behaviours and on completion, successful candidates were required to make a formal declaration committing themselves to the fight against ISIL. Efforts continue to be made to monitor the activities of such individuals and the groups to which they are affiliated, to mitigate the risk that they engage thereafter in activities inconsistent with the aims of the programme.