Tag: 2016

  • Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what Ministerial oversight he plans to put in place of the implementation of the key findings and recommendations of the Citizens Advice Scotland Independent governance review, published on 27 July 2016.

    Margot James

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy takes its responsibility for managing public money seriously and was deeply concerned by the issues raised in the independent governance review. Citizens Advice Scotland has since committed to taking concrete steps to instil robust governance and financial controls.

    My Department has agreed to continue funding on the basis that these changes are made and will report to me regularly on progress.

    Citizens Advice Scotland provides a vital service to the people of Scotland, as well high-quality support to vulnerable consumers throughout Britain. My Department will keep working with the Scottish Government and the organisation to improve governance and help make sure this continues.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that private higher education providers that have attained degree powers and university status provide an education of a sufficient quality.

    Joseph Johnson

    Private higher education providers can obtain Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs) and University Title (UT) if they meet the criteria. The criteria are set out in departmental guidance, and are the same for publicly-funded and private providers. For DAPs they include criteria around Governance and Academic Management, and Academic Standards and Quality Assurance. For UT they include good governance criteria such as quality assurance and academic standards, and criteria on student numbers.

    Higher education providers that are publicly funded can obtain DAPs on an indefinite basis. All other organisations, including private providers, can be granted DAPs for a fixed term period of six years. The decision to renew degree-awarding powers after each term rests with the Privy Council and is subject to the organisation meeting the criteria for the renewals set out in our guidance. All holders of DAPs are expected to subscribe to the Quality Assurance Agency and the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.

    A change in control at the provider may trigger a review to check that the provider in question continues to meet the criteria for UT, and remains the same cohesive academic community that was granted DAPs.

    The current departmental guidance is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/higher-education-market-entry-guidance

    “

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria were used to determine who in South Lakeland was entitled to £500 flood compensation payments.

    James Wharton

    South Lakeland District Council are responsible for determining the criteria for distribution and entitlement to the £500 flood compensation payments.

    The funding came from a central government funding scheme (the Communities and Business Recovery Scheme) for Cumbria and Lancashire flood affected households.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the development and implementation of low carbon hydrogen fuel cell infrastructure in the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Through the Energy Innovation Programme, DECC is supporting development of hydrogen fuel cell technologies. These technologies may deliver low cost, low carbon heat and power at high efficiency to homes. Following DECC funded technology development, Ceres Power, a UK based company, has recently announced an agreement with Honda R & D Ltd based in Japan, to jointly develop Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for a range of potential power equipment applications. Most current domestic fuel cell technologies can operate on natural gas but will offer better performance, and result in lower GHG emissions, if natural gas is replaced with hydrogen.

  • Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his Department’s wellness strategy is.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    While the Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not have a specific “wellness” strategy we continue to develop and implement our “Health and Safety” (HS) strategy which embraces many aspects of wellbeing. As well as reducing work related accidents and staff absence our HS program will also improve staff wellbeing.

  • Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that local authorities are properly informed and involved in decisions to distribute asylum seekers.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office maintains active partnerships with the local authorities that have volunteered to become dispersal areas across the UK and funds regional Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMPs) to plan the dispersal of asylum seekers across the region. The partnerships consider the impact on communities and local services so that adjustments can be made where appropriate. This ensures that community cohesion, social welfare and safety issues are properly considered.

    SMPs act as a focal point allowing the sharing of expertise and vital information between the Home Office, its asylum accommodation providers, local government, health, education and the police, ensuring coordinated planning and leadership on asylum dispersion. They also consider other funded objectives such as initiatives in support of visa policy; modern slavery; immigration sanctions and improvement; vulnerable children (including Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children) and adults; No Recourse to Public Funds policies of local government; EU migration and integration.

    The Home Office, our housing contractors and the SMPs work closely with local authorities to ensure we can accommodate asylum seekers in appropriate accommodation.

  • Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with other EU member states about whether, in the event of the UK leaving the EU, British citizens settled in EU member states would have an automatic right to remain in the countries where they have settled.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    No such discussions have been held. As I said in my previous response of 25 April (HL7678), the Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Should the UK choose to stay in the EU, British citizens will be able to work, live and retire abroad as they do now. UK citizens get a range of rights from our membership of the EU. If the UK were to leave the EU, all of these rights would have to be covered in a successor arrangement. If we left the EU without agreeing what would happen to these rights, it would at the least bring them into serious question, creating difficulty for UK citizens who relied on them.

  • Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37876, what (a) number and (b) proportion of penalty charge notices issued between January and December 2015 related only to medical exemption certificates.

    Alistair Burt

    Between January and December 2015, a total of 34,142 penalty charge notices were issued to patients declaring they held a valid medical exemption certificate, which the National Health Service Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) was unable to verify. This equated to 7.92% of all penalty charge notices issued.

    During the same period, a total of 9,170 of these were subsequently retracted when the patient proved their right to exemption. This equated to 26.86% of all penalty charge notices issued for medical exemption certificates.

    Often the reason the penalty charge notice is retracted is because the patient has not informed the NHSBSA of a change of address or surname. This means the record of the medical exemption does not match the patient information on the prescription form. If a patient provides details of a valid medical exemption certificate, the penalty charge notice is retracted and the medical exemption record is updated to ensure further notices are not issued in error.

    Following the introduction of prescription charge exemption checking, it became apparent some people receiving penalty charge notices had a qualifying medical condition, but had not applied for a medical exemption certificate. In response, a new process was introduced in early spring 2015. This means that if someone submits a valid application for a medical or maternity exemption certificate within 60 days from date of the penalty charge notice, the outstanding penalty charge is cancelled but the prescription charge is still recovered.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what assessment his Department has made of the UK’s right to halt the Article 50 process before the end of the two-year period allocated to EU exit negotiations.

    Mr David Davis

    The referendum result delivered a clear mandate for an EU exit and it is the duty of the Government to make sure we do just that. The Prime Minister has been clear that there must be no attempts to remain inside the EU and no attempts to rejoin it through the back door. Brexit means Brexit and we are going to make a success of it.

  • Peter Aldous – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Peter Aldous – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Aldous on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the Government plans to monitor the phased in landing obligation requirements (a) generally and (b) for North Sea cod in 2017 to ensure that no illegal discarding or high grading is occurring; and what the level of (a) observer coverage and (b) electronic monitoring coverage is planned for 2017.

    George Eustice

    Responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Landing Obligation (LO) rests with Defra, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and the UK’s Devolved Administrations. After an advisory period, and for the vessels for which it is responsible, the MMO is ensuring that fishing vessels are fully compliant with LO requirements while working at sea through inspections, including those made by Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels.

    Fishing vessels are selected for inspection at sea using a risk-based and intelligence-led approach. Any illegal discarding or high grading discovered is dealt with in-line with the MMO’s compliance strategy. Coastal inspectors have received guidance and instruction on the LO, covering both pelagic and demersal fisheries. This guidance is updated in-line with regulatory changes every year, and coastal inspectors are monitoring both fish markets and landings.

    We are currently working with industry to continue a scheme that will fully document certain catches using electronic monitoring equipment in 2017, and going forward, as the LO is phased in.