Tag: 2016

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence Review 2015, when he expects to announce further details of the Government’s proposed armed forces families strategy.

    Mark Lancaster

    The UK Armed Forces Families’ Strategy 2016-2020 was published on 14 January 2016 and is available at the following website:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-armed-forces-families-strategy

    The Strategy will be supported by an action plan which we plan to publish in spring 2016.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the money allocated to northern road infrastructure in Budget 2016, is in addition to £800 million allocated to the North West Road Infrastructure Programme.

    Andrew Jones

    At the budget £161m was announced for the acceleration of smart motorway upgrades to the M62 between junctions 10-12 and 20-25. A further £75m from the Transport Development Fund was committed to developing the recommendations of the government’s strategic studies on Northern Trans-Pennine routes, Manchester’s North West Quadrant and the Trans-Pennine Tunnel. Both of these commitments are in addition to the £1.5bn being spent in the North West between 2015 and 2021 to deliver schemes committed under the first Road Investment Strategy.

  • Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 21220, what progress has been made on deciding whether to add Dupuytren’s contracture condition to the list for industrial injuries disablement benefit.

    Justin Tomlinson

    It is expected that a decision on whether or not to add Dupuytren’s contracture to the list of prescribed diseases will be made shortly.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she has taken to implement the Government’s policy on increasing the involvement of women’s civil society in the development of government policy.

    Caroline Dinenage

    I greatly value the expertise of women’s civil society and the Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities and I have met with many representatives since taking on our current roles. My officials also frequently consult the women’s sector on policy issues, including policy development, to ensure we benefit from the knowledge and understanding of relevant experts – for example on issues such as the gender pay gap, flexible working and gender diversity of company boards.

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to ensure that a server issue with the universal credit portal does not reoccur.

    Damian Hinds

    Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.

    The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.

    We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many complaints to the Crown Prosecution Service were upheld at formal Stage 2 in each of the last three years.

    Robert Buckland

    1) The following table shows the number of complaints upheld at Stage 2 in the past three years:

    Year

    Stage 2 Complaints -Upheld

    2013/14

    34

    2014/15

    50

    2015/16

    50

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the number of men who die as a result of suicide.

    Caroline Dinenage

    Every death by suicide is a tragedy. That is why we asked local areas to support an ambition to work towards ‘zero suicides’.

    We will continue to drive the implementation of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to address the rise in suicides, focusing on high risk groups such as men.

    The Department of Health is working with partner organisations to look at ways of strengthening the National Strategy.

  • Baroness Burt of Solihull – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Burt of Solihull – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull on 2016-01-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that regional schools commissioners are accountable for poor school sixth-form provision in their areas.

    Lord Nash

    Regional Schools Commissioners are accountable for monitoring the performance of school sixth-forms in their areas when they are part of an existing academy.

    Decisions regarding intervention action are informed by the academy’s performance against minimum standards, including the 16-19 minimum standards, and Ofsted judgements, as well as local intelligence.

    In the past few months, we have begun to review the post-16 education and training landscape through a programme of area reviews. Through these reviews, colleges, local authorities, local enterprise partnerships, and commissioners (RSCs, as well as FE and Sixth Form College Commissioners) scrutinise all local post-16 provision and are developing recommendations to secure high quality provision for students and employers which is delivered through a financially viable and resilient college sector.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she plans to open her Department’s consultation on changes to the Warm Home Discount scheme.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government announced in the Spending Review on 25 November 2015 that the Warm Home Discount scheme would be extended to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per year, rising with inflation, to help households who are at risk of fuel poverty with their energy bills. Government will publically consult on changes to the scheme later this year.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to point three on page six of Public mental health leadership and workforce development framework: executive summary, published in March 2015, what specific action Public Health England has taken to inform the review of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England has used its Public Mental Health Leadership and Workforce Development Framework to inform its review of the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework. This has involved consideration of public mental health competencies, combined with further feedback from stakeholders through a consultation process with input from local authorities and partner organisations.