Tag: 2016

Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department is giving to the government of Pakistan to help ensure that polio vaccination programmes in that country can take place without disruption by violence.

Mr Nick Hurd

The United Kingdom is fully committed to global polio eradication and is providing £300 million to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative for 2013 to 2019. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative works closely with the Government of Pakistan, including with law enforcement and the military, to ensure that vaccination campaigns take place in the safest possible conditions.

Security planning is integrated into vaccination campaigns by including members of law enforcement and military in Polio Emergency Operations Centres and ensuring there are sufficient numbers of security personnel accompanying vaccinators in security compromised areas. Security officials create safe zones for vaccinators to operate in and also provide relevant threat information that is taken into consideration before launching any vaccination activity. Community initiatives are extensively supported to build local community trust and acceptance of polio vaccination campaigns.

January 1, 2023
Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the effect of a result in favour of leaving the EU at the EU referendum would be on the UK’s membership of the (a) European Economic Area and (b) European Free Trade Area.

Anna Soubry

At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

As required by the EU Referendum Act 2015, the Government is committed to producing clear information, ahead of the Referendum, on: the outcome of the renegotiation, rights and obligations in European Union law, the process for leaving and alternatives to membership.

The UK is not a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). EFTA is an intergovernmental organisation to which Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are parties. If the UK sought to retain membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) along the lines of the Norway model, all EEA members, including Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, would also need to agree.

January 1, 2023
Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of civil service apprentices in his Department are (a) over the age of 25 and (b) paid at the rate of the national living wage.

Joseph Johnson

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills HQ has (a) 45% of its apprentices who are over the age of 25 and (b) all of its apprentices are paid at a rate which exceeds the National Living Wage.

January 1, 2023
Baroness Berridge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Berridge on 2016-04-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to respond to anti-Ahmadiyya hate literature in the UK in the light of recent reports that leaflets endorsing the execution of Ahmadi Muslims were found in Stockwell Green mosque on 10 April.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Religiously motivated hate crime and hate speech has absolutely no place in British society. This Government is clear that everybody should be free to live their lives free from fear of attack simply because of what their beliefs are, and that tragic events such as the recent murder of Asad Shah in Glasgow will not be tolerated. We have a strong legal framework in place against discrimination on the basis of religion, and criminal penalties for offences such as racially or religiously aggravated assault and criminal damage. Those who perpetrate hate crimes of any kind will be punished with the full force of the law. This Government has done more than any other to tackle anti-Muslim hatred. As of 1 April 2016, police forces in England and Wales are disaggregating religious hate crime data to reveal the true scale and nature of the problem. The Government also plans to publish its new Hate Crime Action Plan in the summer, which will set out our approach to tacking all forms of hate crime, including Islamophobia. This will build on the success of ‘Challenge It, Report It, Stop It’, which was published in 2012 and updated subsequently in 2014.

January 1, 2023
Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional coastal patrol vessels she plans to commission.

James Brokenshire

Border Force recently announced that it will purchase additional patrol vessels to complement the work done by its cutters and enable a greater level of flexible response.

January 1, 2023
Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many members of staff his Department has recruited since it was established.

Mr David Jones

The department now has over 180 staff in London. The Department has recruited the brightest and the best from across the civil service and brings together policy expertise from across the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Foreign Office and the wider Civil Service.

January 1, 2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce food waste in government departments and publicly funded bodies; and if she will make a statement.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

Defra is one of the signatories to the Courtauld Commitment 2025. This is a commitment by stakeholders across the UK food and drink system – from producer to consumer – to work together to respond to pressures on increasingly scarce resources. All the food waste from Defra’s London canteen is recycled.

Reducing waste from Government departments is a key focus of the Greening Government Commitments. In 2014-15, Government departments collectively recorded a 22% reduction in overall waste compared to a 2009-10 baseline. The Greening Government target for waste has focused on the top of the waste hierarchy – that is, reducing overall waste, allowing individual departments to take action on different waste streams as appropriate to their specific operations and material impacts.

A new framework of Greening Government targets covering the period to 2020 will be announced soon.

January 1, 2023
Poulter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2016-01-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department defines the pay envelope in its work on considering the junior doctor contract.

Ben Gummer

The pay envelope for junior doctor contract reform is as agreed by the hon. Member in his previous capacity as a Minister for Health in 2013 when he approved the “Heads of Terms” for the junior doctor contract. The basis of the agreement is that the cost of the new junior doctor contract will not exceed the cost of the current contract, (expressed on a per full time equivalent basis). Subsequently, the current Government has made it clear that savings are not being sought and that junior doctors’ average earnings would not reduce as a result of the changes proposed.

January 1, 2023
Pauline Latham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pauline Latham on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many public relations and communications staff have been hired directly by the NHS in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

The Department does not hold the requested information.

January 1, 2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many grants of what value were made by his Department for meningitis research programmes in each of the last five years.

George Freeman

Since 2011, the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has made the following awards through its research programmes and fellowship schemes for research relating to meningitis:

– Impact of conjugate vaccination on population immunity to pneumococcal and meningococcal disease in England: immunosero-epidemiological analysis (£605,843; 2013-15); and

– Improving the diagnosis of meningitis in adults in the United Kingdom (£415,242; 2013-16).

In addition, the NIHR funds research relating to meningitis through:

– the NIHR Clinical Research Network;

– NIHR Biomedical Research Centres;

– NIHR Clinical Research Facilities for Experimental Medicine; and

– Health Protection Research Units.

Since 2011, the Department’s Policy Research Programme has made the following award for research relating to meningitis:

– Characterisation of meningococcal carriage isolates from UK MenCar4 study (£199,990; 2016-17).

January 1, 2023