Tag: 2016

  • Mrs Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mrs Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Anne Main on 2016-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has allocated to promoting freedom of worship in 2015-16; and how much her Department has spent on assisting religious minorities against persecution in developing countries in each of the last three years.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK’s development and humanitarian aid is not targeted at specific groups but at the poorest, regardless of race, religion, creed, or nationality. The UK attaches great importance to ensuring that people of all faiths can participate fully in society and live without fear of abuse or discrimination.DFID works closely with the FCO to raise concerns on freedom of religion with partner governments.DFID does not collect specific data on allocation of funds for promoting freedom of worship.

  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether the amendments to the Child Poverty Act 2010 in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill require a Legislative Consent Motion to be brought before the Northern Ireland Assembly.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions wrote to the Northern Ireland Executive in July 2015 on introduction of the life chances clauses in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. As well as setting out the Government’s approach to child poverty and improving life chances, and inviting the Northern Ireland Executive to consider amendments they might wish to have introduced, he set out that he did not consider that legislative consent was required for any of the provisions as introduced.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the reasons are for late payments being made under the Basic Payment Scheme by the Rural Payments Agency; and how many farmers have received late payments to date.

    George Eustice

    The payment window for the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme runs from 1 December 2015 to 30 June 2016. While in recent years, the RPA has been able to make a higher proportion of payments earlier in the payment window, the new CAP is very complex and has created new administrative burdens for the RPA.

    As of 2 March 2016 some 71,700 claimants, representing over 82% of all eligible claims, have received their payments, bringing the total paid to date for the 2015 scheme to £1.13 billion.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) trusts that have breached the national price caps for NHS agency staff and (b) times those price caps have been breached since their introduction.

    Alistair Burt

    Information on temporary staff fill rates is not collected centrally.

    NHS Improvement has calculated that since the introduction of the price caps, agency spending by National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts has fallen from £303 million in October 2015 to £287 million in February 2016.

    Monitor has previously released information on the number of trusts reporting using shifts in excess of the price caps from 23 November to 28 December 2015. This can be accessed here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497353/FOI_agency_staff_payments.pdf

    “

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce variation across the UK in access to surgical and transcatheter interventions for heart valve disease.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England is working with professionals across the healthcare system to look at ways in which services and outcomes for patients with heart valve disease can be improved further, for example, by encouraging practitioners to follow clinical guidelines.

    Service specifications and policy for the surgical and interventional treatment of heart valve disease are published by NHS England’s Cardiothoracic Clinical Reference Group. These define what NHS England expects to be in place in order for providers to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. NHS England is working on the next iteration of the specifications, which will include important standards relating to mitral valve surgery.

    In addition, NHS England is holding a clinical summit on 15 June 2016, which will bring together cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to examine the issues relating to heart valve disease, including variation. Outputs from discussions will be used to inform the future commissioning approach within specialised commissioning.

    Information on the number of people with an undiagnosed heart valve condition is not collected centrally.

  • John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of housing association tenants who will take up the option of right-to-buy in each year until 2019-20.

    Brandon Lewis

    Working with the National Housing Federation, the Government has secured an agreement with housing associations to give their tenants the opportunity to buy their home with an equivalent discount to the Right to Buy. This will deliver the manifesto commitment to extend the benefits of Right to Buy to 1.3 million tenants.

    More details will be announced in due course.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether statutory safeguards are in place to ensure that new unitary authorities created as a result of councils seeking to abolish themselves in favour of new unitary structures must set the same band D council tax for all households from their inception; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Where an area has plans for its governance arrangements to be changed and proposes this to the Secretary of State, it must provide evidence as to how its proposals are likely to result in the provision of better local public services, significant cost savings, greater value for money, stronger and more accountable local leadership, and sustainability in the medium to long term. It is of course open to any body or person to make representations to the Secretary of State either in support of or in opposition to such proposals.

    As we have made clear during discussions with areas, whilst size is an important consideration for areas considering governance changes, there are no maximum or minimum permitted sizes.

    The level of council tax of any new authority is a matter for the local councils concerned. The government will however maintain council tax referendum thresholds at a modest level in order to help keep bills down for hardworking people. This is always the case including in cases of governance change.

  • Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-01-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of vehicles operated by central Government, or the wider public sector, are wholly electrically powered.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    We do not have detailed numbers on the information requested.

    According to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) statistics some 133 public transport buses, coaches and minibuses are wholly electrically powered. There are no purpose built electric taxis recorded on the DVLA records, although electric cars are used as minicabs and private hire vehicles, and a number of plug-in hybrid purpose built taxis are in development.

    This Government has a comprehensive £600 million package of measures over the course of this parliament to keep Britain at the forefront of the ultra-low emission vehicle technology. This includes grants encouraging low emission buses and taxis.

    The proportion of wholly electric vehicles operated by central Government is not recorded by the DVLA. However, the total number of central government electric vehicles that have been purchased via the Crown Commercial Service framework is 20. Just over 300 ultra-low emission vehicles are being integrated into public sector fleets under the ULEV readiness project; with over 70% being fully electric.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times a prisoner from each prison has been airlifted to receive medical attention in each of the last five years.

    Ben Gummer

    This information is not collected centrally.

  • Mark Prisk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Prisk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Prisk on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he expects the revised Carr-Hill formula to be applied to GP contracts in 2017-18.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England is working with the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee (GPC), NHS Employers, the Department and academic partners on the review to develop a formula that better reflects the factors that drive workload, such as age or deprivation.

    It is intended that the review of the Carr-Hill formula will inform the 2017-18 GP contract. This would be subject to agreement with the GPC. NHS England does not intend to publish the outcome of the technical review until agreement has been reached to apply the revised formula.