UKPOL.CO.UK

Tag: 2015

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of whether the must offer provision of the Communications Act 2003 is sufficient to ensure access to public service broadcast channels on non-discriminatory terms for all TV platforms.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government’s consultation ‘the balance of payments between television platforms and public service broadcasters’ examined how the public service broadcasters’ business models for the distribution for television content work. The focus of this consultation was on the commercial arrangements between broadcasters and PSB platforms – not subscription-free DTT platforms.

  • Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government is providing to the Women’s League of Burma.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    Officials at the British Embassy in Rangoon regularly meet representatives of the Women’s League of Burma and its member groups of civil society organisations. The UK has also provided occasional funding support to the Women’s League of Burma, including towards the publication of some of their research. Representatives from the Women’s League of Burma attended the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June 2014 at our invitation, and the UK assisted with the cost of that visit.

  • Lucy Powell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lucy Powell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Powell on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her most recent estimate is of the average annual cost to a (a) school and (b) local authority of employing a (i) teacher and (ii) classroom assistant; and what forecast she has made of the likely equivalent cost in each year from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

    Nick Gibb

    The latest statistics on the average salaries of teachers employed by schools and local authorities in England are in Tables 8 and 9 of the ‘School Workforce in England: November 2014’ statistical release which was published in July 2015: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014

    The latest available statistics on the average salaries of teaching assistants employed by schools and local authorities in England were published in PQ856 in June 2015 in Hansard at the following link:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-06-02/856/

    The Department for Education’s pay reforms have given schools greater flexibility to decide how much to pay their teachers and how quickly their pay progresses over time.

    Future average salaries of teachers will be informed by the annual recommendations of the School Teachers Pay Review Body; the pay of teaching assistants and school support staff are set by schools themselves. The department does not produce forecasts of future average pay for these staff.

    “

  • 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 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many secondments have taken place between his Department and the Chartered Institute of Trading Standards in the last 15 years; and in what capacity each such secondment was undertaken.

    Jane Ellison

    At senior civil servant level (SCS) there have been no secondments between the Department and the Chartered Institute of Trading Standards.

    For civil servants and posts at grades lower than SCS, no such secondments have taken place, as far back as our central records for these secondments extend, that is, back to 2009.

  • Huw Irranca-Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Huw Irranca-Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether it is her policy that anaerobic digestion will continue to be supported under the reformed Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.

    Andrea Leadsom

    We are still at an early stage in the process of reforming the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Therefore, I am unable to make specific commitments as to the future shape of the scheme at this point.

    However, Ofgem will continue to run the RHI under the current rules, while we consider reform of the scheme.

  • Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to set additional access and waiting time standards for NHS mental health services following the introduction of standards for adult IAPT and Early Intervention in Psychosis services.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England (NHSE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health published on 3 August 2015, a commissioning guide for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that will set out how to implement the access and waiting time standard for children and young people with an eating disorder. The standard will be refined for implementation from 2017–18. From 2017, NHSE will set a minimum proportion of young people referred for assessment or treatment that are expected to receive treatment within the standard’s timeframe.

    We expect that the Mental Health Taskforce report and Mental Health Five Year Forward View will set a plan for developing appropriate pathways and we will work with NHSE to agree next steps.

    Departmental Ministers meet with the Chief Executive of NHS England regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including access and waiting time standards for mental health services.

    CCGs do not receive a specific allocation for mental health services, but are required to allocate funds as appropriate to all the services that they are responsible for commissioning. For 2015/16, CCGs received increases in allocations in total of 3.7%, though the increase varied for each CCG.

    In the planning guidance for 2015/16, NHS England asked that all CCGs increase their spend on mental health by at least as much as their overall increase in allocation.

    In total, CCGs have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure which exceeds the increase in their allocation.

  • Crispin Blunt – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Crispin Blunt – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Crispin Blunt on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with health experts on the human health implications of the veterinary use of colistin for colistin resistance in slaughtered animals, food and humans; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department of Health is working closely with Public Health England (PHE), the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Veterinary Medicines Directorate to ensure that the risk assessment to public health from colistin-resistant bacteria from slaughtered animals, food and humans considers all available evidence. While PHE and the FSA judge that the public health risk of colistin-resistant bacteria from slaughtered animals and the food chain is very low, the use of colistin for animals will be reviewed following recent reports of transferable colistin resistance in China and Europe.

    I regularly discuss the issue of antimicrobial resistance with the Chief Medical Officer.

  • Stuart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart McDonald on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees selected for resettlement from UN camps to the UK had previously been selected for resettlement in the US.

    Richard Harrington

    The Government has committed to resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees in the lifetime of this Parliament. The Prime Minister has said that we want to see 1,000 Syrian refugees brought to the UK by Christmas. We use the established UNHCR process for identifying and resettling refugees and have been working closely with them to achieve a significant uplift in the scheme.

    The UK collaborates closely with the major countries involved in resettlement, notably the US, Australia and Canada. In the expansion of the UK Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme we have worked with the US Government to take 500 people from the UNHCR’s pool of registered refugees that might otherwise have been passed to the US for consideration. No refugee actually selected for resettlement in the US has been passed to the UK; and all refugees being resettled in the UK have opted for this route.

  • 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, pursuant to his oral contribution of 30 November 2015, Official Report, column 33, on the estimated number of patients who may have had a vital operation cancelled, how many patients who had such an operation cancelled had it rescheduled to a time within 24 hours of the original scheduled operation.

    Ben Gummer

    On 30 November, based on information provided by hospital trusts, NHS England estimated that around 3,000 procedures that were due to take place on 1 December 2015 were planned to be rescheduled. It has not collected information or estimated how many of these could not be rebooked for 1 December 2015 once the proposed industrial action was suspended. There has been no estimate of how many vital procedures that were cancelled were rescheduled within 24 hours. These are operational matters for hospital trusts.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Government’s report, Fixing the Foundations; creating a more prosperous nation, Cm 9098, published in July 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect of (a) proposed changes to the rail industry and (b) the rail investment programme on productivity.

    Claire Perry

    The country’s railways are an important enabler of productivity and national prosperity, which is why the Government has committed to delivering investment of a record £38 billion across the country’s network.

    We have appointed Sir Peter Hendy as Chair of Network Rail to ensure the rail investment programme is delivered sustainably.

    We have also asked Nicola Shaw to advise Government on how we should approach the longer-term future shape and financing of Network Rail. She will publish her final report before Budget 2016. In addition, we have appointed Crossrail chair Terry Morgan to develop a transport and infrastructure skills strategy. We will consider their recommendations in due course.