Tag: 2015

  • Caroline Nokes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Nokes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Nokes on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of increasing free childcare provision to 30 hours per week on (a) the number of childcare places, (b) child to adult ratios in nursery settings and (c) the number of nurseries which offer free childcare provision.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Introducing the new entitlement to 30 hours of free childcare for working parents will require growth in the childcare market which the Government is confident can be achieved. We know that many working families with three- and four-year-olds already use more than 15 hours of childcare so many of the required childcare places already exist. We also believe that there is some existing spare capacity in the system to help deliver the new entitlement. The Government is committed to keeping the existing child to adult ratios and has no plans to change them to deliver the extended entitlement.

    We have already made significant progress in ensuring that there are more childcare places available with an increase of 230,000 places since 2009. Furthermore, data from the Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey (2013) showed that 97% of full day care settings that took three and four-year-olds offered funded places. The childcare sector is healthy, vibrant and growing. During the last Parliament, it demonstrated its ability to respond to the extension of the free entitlement to disadvantaged two-year-olds.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps each Anglican church in the Diocese of Blackburn is taking to assist Syrian refugees.

    Mrs Caroline Spelman

    The Diocese of Blackburn is working alongside other dioceses of the Church of England and local faith communities to coordinate their response to assist Syrian refugees. Churches in the diocese have been advised of the type of assistance that can most usefully be offered, working in conjunction with local authorities and other faith communities.

    The three bishops of the Diocese of Blackburn were amongst the signatories to the letter from Church of England bishops to the Prime Minister, which welcomed the commitment of the Government to provide aid and resettlement, while calling on it to resettle substantially more than 20,000, and made clear the Church’s commitment to help in that task.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2015 to Question 13263, whether energy produced by the proposed VikingLink project would be regarded as contributing towards the carbon reduction targets in the Climate Change Act 2008.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The carbon reduction target is defined in terms of the carbon intensity of generation in the UK. As such, energy imported from Denmark over the proposed VikingLink will not contribute towards the target directly. However, the link will contribute to wider decarbonisation goals by providing access to Danish wind power, and by supporting efficient use of renewable generation in the UK. Interconnection provides tools for system balancing and reduces the need for curtailment by enabling exports at times of excess generation. In this way it can maximise the contribution of domestic low-carbon generation to meeting targets and allow the most efficient use of renewable resource between the two countries.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what facilities are provided by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on its premises for the use of cyclists.

    George Freeman

    This is a matter for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

    We have written to Stuart Heys, Chair of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust informing him of the hon. Member’s enquiry. He will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-02.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much total government funding the UK contributed towards the budget of the EU in each year since 1992.

    Mr David Gauke

    Details of UK contributions to the EU Budget are published annually in a document entitled European Union Finances.

    The latest edition (European Union Finances 2014) was published in December 2014 (Cm 8974) and is available in the House library. Table 3A on page 14 provides details of UK contributions, rebate and public sector receipts for the period 2008 to 2014.

    Figures for years prior to 2008 can be found in previous editions of this publication, which are also be available in the House library.

  • Andrew Tyrie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Tyrie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Tyrie on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Airports Commission estimated the probability that the net present value of the three shortlisted schemes would be zero or negative; and what that probability was for each shortlisted scheme under the carbon capped and carbon traded policy frameworks.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government is currently considering the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report before taking any decisions on next steps.

    The Government will carefully consider all the evidence set out, including that on costs, when making a decision on additional runway capacity.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Indian counterpart on the illegal use of bull-hooks on Asian elephants in the tourism and logging industries.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 29 October 2015 (PQs 12817, 13418, 13419) which can be located at:

    www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will support the World Bank programme for the registration of Palestinian land titles in the West Bank.

    Earl of Courtown

    Land registration is a key enabler for investments in the Occupied Palestinian Territories especially for construction and housing sector development. Only 30% of land in the West Bank is currently registered compared to 98% of land in Gaza.

    DFID is part of the collective donor effort led by the World Bank and Finland to support the Palestinian Authority on land registration. The UK continues to urge the Palestinian Authority to speed up the land registration processes.

  • Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of the doctors entering core and further specialty training were in each (a) specialty and (b) training region or deanery in each year since 2005.

    Ben Gummer

    Neither the Department nor Health Education England hold the information requested in the format specified. To collate the data would incur disproportionate costs.

  • The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many oak trees have been killed by Acute Oak Decline in the past five years.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Over the past five years Forest Research, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, has conducted a systematic survey to model the distribution of acute oak decline (AOD) in England and Wales. The results show that the condition currently affects several thousand oak trees, mostly across East Anglia, the Midlands and southern England.

    The complex nature of the condition means it is often associated with other pathogens, as well as insect defoliators and the research has not yet concluded whether AOD kills trees or not. A large proportion of the infected trees monitored have entered remission suggesting some level of host resistance. We do not have information at the landscape level on the number of oak with AOD symptoms that die every year.

    Since 2013, Defra has invested £1.1 million in research to understand the causes, distribution and scale of AOD in the UK. This includes work to investigate the bacterial species associated with the condition and to understand whether the Agrilus biguttatus beetle plays a role in the dispersal of these bacterial species. Early findings from this research are still inconclusive. There is currently no firm evidence of transmission by the beetle.

    Earlier this year, Defra in collaboration with the Research Councils, Scottish Government and the Forestry Commission launched a further £2 million call for research proposals on ‘oak health’ and Phytophthora. The successful bids from this call are due to be announced shortly.