Tag: 2016

  • Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the amount of local government procurement that has been spent on small and medium-sized businesses in each of the last five years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government is committed to ensuring there is a simple and consistent approach to procurement across the public sector so that small businesses can gain better and more access to public sector contracts – either directly or as sub-contractors.

    The Government produced guidance as part of the reforms included in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 which aim to make public contracts more accessible to businesses and in particular to small and medium enterprises. The reforms included the abolition of pre-qualification questionnaire for low value tenders; simplification of the pre-qualification questionnaire for high value tenders; advertising all local authority contracts of £25,000 or over (or the authority’s standing order limit if higher) on Contracts Finder; and paying down the supplier chain in 30 days.

    The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires all local authorities to publish details of contracts exceeding £5,000 including information on whether or not the supplier is a small or medium sized enterprise and/or a voluntary or community sector organisation.

    However, the Department has made no assessment of the amount or proportion of local government procurement spend going to small and medium sized businesses.

  • Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the annual budget is for food produced for her Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for her Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not have an annual food budget. Catering services are provided via a DEFRA contract which is operated on a nil subsidy basis.

    Annual spend is determined by the contractor and is informed by private sales to members of staff.

    Forty-eight percent of food and drink provided through this contract is sourced from UK producers (based on figures for Jan-Mar 2016). This proportion reflects that a large volume of food and drink sold to staff includes non-indigenous products such as rice, pasta, tea, coffee and bananas, and that as this period falls in the Winter season there are out of UK seasonal products procured from the wider EU.

    One hundred percent of beef, chicken, lamb, pork, free range eggs, milk and yoghurt is sourced from the UK.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what his policy is on future UK involvement in the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

    Mr David Davis

    The Innovative Medicines Initiative is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA to boost biomedical innovation. The UK remains a member of the EU until our withdrawal is completed. UK researchers can still apply for Horizon 2020 projects. Future involvement will need to be agreed in forthcoming negotiations.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government will (a) carry out its own assessment and (b) support an independent international inquiry into whether the airstrike on a community hall in Sana’a, where a funeral was taking place, on 8 October 2016, breached international humanitarian law.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Coalition has announced it will immediately investigate this case along with Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT). The UK Government does not reach a conclusion as to whether or not an International Humanitarian Law violation has taken place in relation to each and every incident of potential concern that comes to its attention. This would simply not be possible in conflicts to which the UK is not a party, as is the case in Yemen. However, as I said in my statement of 9 October, we will press the coalition to release their report into this incident as a matter of urgency.

  • Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2015-12-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been the amount of government loans to the Republic of Ireland during the past decade; of those loans, what capital has been re-paid; and how much interest has been received.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    I refer the noble Lord to the most recent statutory report which the Treasury provided to Parliament as required by Section 2 of the Loans to Ireland Act 2010. It was published on 15 October 2015 and is available online along with all previous reports submitted.[1]

    This report shows the outstanding principal is £3,226,960,000, with repayments due in tranches from 15 April 2019 until 26 March 2021. An interest payment was made by the Republic of Ireland on 15 December 2015 and therefore the interest payments received now total £273,825,613.71.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bilateral-loan-to-ireland

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  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received a payment from the diffuse mesothelioma payments scheme in (a) July 2012 to March 2014 and (b) 2014-15.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme (DMPS) started to take applications from 6 April 2014 (although it accepted applications from individuals diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma on or after 25 July 2012); therefore no people received payments from the Scheme between July 2012 and March 2014. 255 people received a payment from the Scheme in the financial year 2014/15.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS 111 staff are clinically trained.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not held centrally.

    NHS 111 staff comprise clinical and non-clinical staff. Clinical staff includes registered nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, dental nurses and mental health practitioners.

    The Licensing Requirements of NHS Pathways (the algorithm used by 111 services) stipulate that there must be sufficient clinician resource per shift to provide supervision to the number of call handlers on a shift. As an absolute minimum, there must be at least one accredited clinician physically present in the room on each shift.

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced that it will inspect all NHS 111 providers by September 2016. This will provide assurance that minimum levels of quality are met. The CQC will look at staffing levels and skill mix and assess whether staff have the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.

  • Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2016 to Question 28059, whether representatives of ex-intraveneous drug users and former sex-workers will be invited to sit on the working group being formed by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs as part of its review of blood donor selection criteria.

    Jane Ellison

    Stakeholder representation on the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissue and Organs’ Donor Selection Criteria Working Group consists of the Terence Higgins Trust, National Aids Trust, Patients Association, Sickle Cell Society, Thalassemia Society and the LGBT Consortium. A Stakeholder meeting is planned alongside the first meeting of the Working Group and a wider range of stakeholders is to be invited. Relevant stakeholder representatives such as former sex workers and ex-intravenous drug users will be invited to attend the Working Group when it is considering particular aspects of donor selection criteria.

  • Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Naz Shah on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of children attending a breakfast club in primary schools in (a) England, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) Bradford in the last 12 months for which records are available.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The most recent results of the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey suggest that in England in 2013, around 591,200 school-aged children under eight attended before school care in a typical term-time week. However, it is not possible to identify within this total the number of children who attended provision in primary and secondary schools separately. In addition, the survey sample sizes do not allow for an estimate for Yorkshire and the Humber, or LA level estimates, nor does it collect information about secondary age children.

    The findings of the Survey can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2013

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  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her plans are for assessing the effect of badger culling on the spread of bovine TB among cattle; and who she plans to undertake that assessment.

    George Eustice

    The Animal and Plant Health Agency continues to assess the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle in areas where badger control is licensed.