Tag: 2016

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to increase awareness of (a) arthritis and (b) other musculoskeletal conditions; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England (PHE) work in partnership with NHS England, professional bodies, the Chief Fire Officers Association, Arthritis Research UK (ARUK), Work Foundation and other private sector system leaders to increase awareness of the prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.

    PHE’s Chief Knowledge Directorate have worked collaboratively with ARUK to develop a set of local authority briefings on osteoarthritis based on data from ARUK’s MSK Calculator[1]. A musculoskeletal domain has also been created within PHE’s National General Practice Profiles[2]. The Burden of Disease for England was published by PHE in September 2015, which provides analytics on MSK.

    PHE has commissioned and developed a series of resources and tools to raise awareness amongst professionals and the public of Arthritis and MSK conditions such as; a British Medical Journal e-learning module on the benefits of physical activity for osteoarthritis and lower back pain, which has been highly valued by clinicians; a public facing falls prevention booklet.

    [1]http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/policy-and-public-affairs/policy-priorities-and-projects/musculosketal-health-services/the-musculoskeletal-calculator.aspx

    [2]http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/general-practice/data#mod,1,pyr,2014,pat,19,par,E38000001,are,-,sid1,2000009,ind1,-,sid2,-,ind2,-

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times Daring Class Type 45 Destroyers underwent total electrical failure in the (a) Persian Gulf, (b) Strait of Hormuz, (c) Mediterranean Sea, (d) Indian Ocean and (e) North Atlantic Ocean.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    In the interests of National Security I am not prepared to release information concerning the type or nature of any failure or defect concerning our operational Units as to do so would allow deductions to be made as to their operational capability and effectiveness.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to (a) China, (b) Laos, (c) Vietnam and (d) Myanmar on the repatriation of North Korean defectors from those countries to North Korea.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We regularly raise the treatment of North Korean refugees in multilateral fora such as the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council. We raise our concerns around refoulement regularly at the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue and through our Embassy in Beijing. In addition, we work directly with the Chinese authorities on a number of projects to counter human trafficking, which seek to protect the most vulnerable from exploitation, abuse, neglect and violence. We made bilateral representations to Laos in 2013 (see written answer HL950) regarding the refoulement of DPRK refuges. We have not made any specific representations to Vietnam or Burma on DPRK refugees, but we continue to maintain a dialogue on human rights issues with these countries.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 29835, and with reference to the Answer of 10 June 2013 to Question 158962, for what reasons information on the number of national minimum wage inquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights and Acas helplines relating to the domiciliary care and residential care sectors is not being collected at the previously available level of disaggregation.

    Nick Boles

    Information on the number of National Minimum Wage enquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) and Acas Helpline for the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sectors has never been systematically collected.

    However, additional information about a complaint is collected after it is referred to HMRC and investigated further. This can include more detailed information on the sector in which the employer in question operates.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many taxi journeys were made by (a) ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials of his Department for official purposes during the negotiation processes for local authority devolution deals in each of the last three years.

    Mr Mark Francois

    Ministers, special advisers and civil servants in this department undertake a variety of visits to support the delivery of Government’s devolution and local growth objectives and other departmental business. We do not hold figures for the number of taxi journeys undertaken specifically to support the negotiation of devolution deals.

  • Chris Law – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Chris Law – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Law on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many times he has visited Scotland in an official capacity since the 2015 General Election; and what meetings were held on each such visit.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) visited Edinburgh on 20 January 2016. Meetings were held with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson MSP, and as part of the UK-Poland Quadriga, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz. There was a wreath-laying at the Scottish National War Memorial and a commemoration at the Wojtek the Bear memorial.

    I visited Scotland on 11 November 2015, where I met Fiona Hyslop MSP and Humza Yousaf MSP to discuss EU reform and held roundtable meetings with Scottish Financial Enterprise and NFU Scotland.

  • Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-09-02.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of country-by-country reporting regulations on the competitiveness of the UK economy.

    Jane Ellison

    The Government has consistently pushed for broad international agreement on public country-by-country reporting. This will ensure that public country-by-country reporting achieves its transparency objectives of requiring multinationals to disclose information on their activities, profits and taxes paid across the full range of countries in which they operate.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Commonwealth of the recent announcement by the government of the Maldives that the Maldives plans to exit the Commonwealth.

    Alok Sharma

    As the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) said on 13 October, the UK is disappointed that the Maldives Government has decided to withdraw from the Commonwealth. We believe in the Commonwealth and its commitment to improving the lives of people across all its member states. It is an organisation dedicated to developing free and democratic societies, and to promoting peace and prosperity.

    There are no immediate implications for the Commonwealth. The Secretary-General will continue to champion the values enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and will maintain support to all member states, especially small and developing states, in upholding and advancing these values practically for the enduring benefit of their citizens.

    However, we remain extremely concerned about governance and human rights in the Maldives, not least freedom of expression and association, judicial independence, and the arbitrary detention of political figures. I made clear our concerns when I met the Maldives Foreign Minister, Dr Asim, in London in September.

    We will continue to work with the Maldives Government to support them to make progress on these and other areas.

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

    Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis will be made available on the NHS to men who have sex with men.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England is working with local authorities, clinicians, patient representatives and Public Health England to consider the clinical and cost effectiveness of providing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to at-risk groups to prevent them acquiring HIV. The PrEP clinical policy proposition is one of many going through NHS England’s 2016/17 prioritisation round.

    In July 2015 NHS England approved a significant new investment in a ‘Treatment as Prevention’ programme to help reduce transmissions from persons known to be HIV positive.

    We have made no estimates of the number of people accessing PrEP through private provision.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what risk assessment his Department has made of the effect of issues with the power system of the Type 45 Destroyer on its crew (a) when in combat and (b) otherwise; and what steps he has taken to minimise any risk before work remediating those issues takes place.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    As part of the extensive training programmes undertaken by the Royal Navy, risk assessments and mitigating actions are developed against a wide range of scenarios. Such training ranges from those required under the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea through to combat effectiveness.

    In the interests of National Security I am not prepared to release information related to specific risk assessments of our operational Units as to do so would allow deductions to be made as to their operational capability and effectiveness.