Tag: 2016

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what evidence his Department has received in support of allegations that the Bahrain Ombudsman’s investigation into Mohammad Ramadan’s has not met international minimum standards for a torture investigation; and what assessment he has made of that evidence.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The United Nations Convention Against Torture requires all states to conduct prompt and impartial investigations into allegations of torture within their jurisdiction. We therefore welcome the Ombudsman’s decision to conduct an investigation into the complaints regarding Mohammad Ramadan, and await the outcome of the investigation. Since the announcement of the Ombudsman’s investigation, we have received non-governmental organisation representations regarding these allegations, and are aware of similar representations made to the Ombudsman. We take all such allegations seriously. It is therefore important that investigations into allegations of torture are prompt and impartial, and we are encouraging the Ombudsman to carry out a swift investigation.

    The Bahraini Ombudsman is an independent oversight institution, and we will continue to follow and support its work. I raised the case of Mohammad Ramadan with the Bahraini Ambassador on 8 March, and our Embassy Manama officials have raised the progress of the investigation several times directly with the Ombudsman’s office, the most recent being 4 August.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the change in the number of civil servants who have had their employment terminated due to absence related to their sickness record has been in each of the last five years.

    Matthew Hancock

    This information is not held centrally. Each employing department operates their own attendance management process and keep their own records.

    The Civil Service strives to improve health and wellbeing at work for our staff and this remains a priority. We have reduced our level of sickness absence over the past five years and continue to actively manage our progress against benchmarking information. However if an employee does not meet the attendance level expected of them then we will take appropriate action, which in some cases might lead to dismissal.

  • Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to measure (a) national and (b) local performance on tackling high levels of cholesterol.

    Jane Ellison

    Cholesterol testing in primary care is included in the Quality Outcomes Framework for people diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes and this is published every year by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Public Health England’s (PHE) healthier lives website provides local comparisons of how well cholesterol is being controlled in people with diabetes. The link is below:

    http://healthierlives.phe.org.uk/topic/diabetes

    The Health Survey for England, an annual survey of the general population, has included measurements of total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol every year since 2008. The data is publically available from the UK Data Service.

    In addition, the National Cardiovascular Health Intelligence Network within PHE is working closely with organisations concerned with cardiovascular disease to take forward the recommendations in the recent Heart UK report ‘Helping Us to Beat Cholesterol’. This report focusses on the importance of data in the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to assist local authorities renegotiating public-private partnerships.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Department offers advice and support directly to individual local authorities and collectively through sector briefings on renegotiation matters. The Department has also worked with Local Partnerships to help them provide advice and assistance to local authorities across a range of Private Finance Initiative Public Private Partnership sector projects.

  • Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department has provided to tackle dengue fever.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The most effective way for DFID to have a sustainable impact on dengue fever and other vector-borne diseases is through our support to vector control, which is very important to protect populations from dengue and other vector borne diseases. Our partners include the Innovative Vector Control Consortium based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, which is a product development partnership that brings together partners from the public and private sectors to develop new insecticides that can be used to control insects that spread this disease.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2016 to Question 35371, if he will provide a breakdown of statutory blight regime and HS2 discretionary scheme payments by parliamentary constituency.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The information requested is provided in the attached table.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Prime Minister, whether he opposed the provisional implementation of the proposed EU-Canada trade agreement at the EU Council on 28 and 29 June 2016.

    Mr David Cameron

    No. The UK supports this EU-Canada agreement. The President of the European Commission updated the European Council on ongoing trade negotiations. A comprehensive discussion by the Council on trade will take place at the forthcoming October meeting as set out in the European Council Conclusions, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the outcome of the ProtecT randomised trials into prostate cancer among men.

    David Mowat

    The National Institute for Health Research funded ProtecT trial (Prostate testing for cancer and Treatment) published two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine on 14 September 2016: Mortality and Clinical Outcomes at 10 years’ Follow-up in the ProtecT Trial and Patient Reported Outcomes Over Six Years in the ProtecT Prostate Cancer Trial. The papers showed that active surveillance is as effective as surgery and radiotherapy in terms of survival at 10 years for men whose prostate cancer was diagnosed by a prostate specific antigen test. The results of this study will provide men and their doctors with key information needed to manage localised prostate cancer, and will now be examined by appropriate bodies in England. For example, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) periodically reviews the need to update its guidance to reflect new clinical evidence and developments in technologies.

    The NICE quality standard on prostate cancer already contains the statement ‘Men with low risk localised prostate cancer for whom radical prostatectomy or radical radiotherapy is suitable are also offered the option of active surveillance’. The quality standard can be found at this link:

    https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs91

    “

  • Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of people under the age of (a) 16 and (b) 18 sleeping rough in Greater Manchester in the last 12 months.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Information on the ages of rough sleepers is not collected centrally.

    We will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We have also protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

  • Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the results from the latest Blueprint for Water Scorecard as launched on 6 November 2012.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Blueprint for Water is an ongoing campaign of Non-Government Organisations that make an assessment against the scorecard they have produced.

    Government has already taken substantive action to protect and improve the water environment. For example, through reducing phosphate pollution in rivers from sewage works by a fifth and ammonia by a sixth compared to 2010 through investment at almost 500 sewage treatment works. Also, £87 million invested in local actions to restore our rivers and this has supported projects to improve over nearly 10,000 miles of rivers

    Looking ahead, £900 million has been made available under Countryside Stewardship for environmental action by farmers and there are plans by water companies to invest £3.5 billion.

    These investments, together with other actions, are drawn together in River Basin Management Plans which contain a comprehensive programme for the water environment up to 2021 and which will be published soon.

    Since the Water Scorecard of 2012, Blueprint for Water published a further report ‘Water Matters’ in September 2015. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs accepted an invitation from the group to speak at the launch of this report in the Palace of Westminster, hosted by the hon. Member for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith.

    In her speech the Secretary of State made it clear that Government shares many of the long-term outcomes put forward by the Blueprint for Water and went on to explain how Government intends to pursue them through the 25 Year Plan for the Environment. Blueprint and its constituent organisations will have an opportunity to contribute to this plan as it is refined further over summer and autumn 2016.