The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Bacon on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has paid Cerner in the last 10 years.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Department has not, over the last 10 years, made payments to Cerner for National Health Service systems. The Department does not hold information centrally about contracts that are held by NHS Trusts locally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to impose fines on Volkswagen as a result of its manipulation of emissions tests in 2015.
Mr John Hayes
The Government continues to take the unacceptable actions of the Volkswagen Group extremely seriously.
We want to ensure that the Volkswagen Group faces appropriate legal consequences for its manipulation of emissions tests and are continuing to consider how best to do this. We continue to consider opening our own investigation and it would therefore be inappropriate and potentially damaging to any prosecution to discuss our plans publicly at this stage.
Prosecuting authorities from across Europe have met to discuss and coordinate their investigations. Department for Transport officials have been part of those coordinating efforts and continue to monitor the progress of those investigations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-01-06.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what advice the Financial Conduct Authority provides to UK banks and building societies offering mortgages on properties in the Occupied Palestinian. Territories.
Harriett Baldwin
Under the definition of a regulated mortgage contract in article 61(3)(a) of the Financial Services and Markets Act (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, passed by Parliament, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not regulate mortgage activities where the mortgaged property is not in the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-02-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the legalisation of same-sex marriage, they intend to legislate to allow heterosexual couples who wish to form civil partnerships to do so, and if not, why not.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
In 2014, after the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 was passed, the government carried out a review of the operation and future of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, including a thorough public consultation on potential changes to civil partnership. Views were invited on three options: abolishing, or phasing out civil partnerships; or extending them to opposite sex couples.
The review found that there was no clear consensus on the future of civil partnerships. A majority of respondents to the consultation were against extending civil partnerships to opposite sex couples and several important organisations thought it was too soon to consider making changes to civil partnerships until the impact of extending marriage to same sex couples is known. Given the lack of any consensus the Government has no current plans to make changes to the Civil Partnership Act 2004.
On 29 January 2016, the High Court dismissed a legal challenge to the lack of availability of civil partnerships to opposite sex couples. The Court ruled unequivocally that the current regime of marriage and civil partnership does not disadvantage anyone nor does it infringe anyone’s right to family or private life. We also welcome the Court’s view that it is entirely reasonable for the Government to wait to see the impact of extending marriage to same sex couples before deciding on the way forward.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patricia Gibson on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his plans are for the £3.5 million funding announced for tackling nuisance calls in paragraph 2.289 of the March 2015 Budget, HC 1093 of Session 2014-15; how much of this funding has been allocated to which local authorities; what information his Department holds on the number of call blockers that this funding has paid for the installation of in domestic properties; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of that funding in the volumes of nuisance calls received and reports of such calls made.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Government is taking forward a range of measures to tackle the problem of nuisance calls, including strengthening the regulators’ ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law and increasing consumer choice by consulting on making it a requirement for direct marketing callers to display their calling line identification. As part of the £3.5m package announced in budget, Government launched a competition for innovative solutions to tackle the scourge of nuisance calls – and contracts have been awarded to successful applicants, to help develop their products to launch on the open market and benefit customers right across the country. In addition, £0.5 million funding is going to the National Trading Standards Scams Team – via East Sussex County Council – to provide call blocking devices to vulnerable people nationwide and report its effects.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to limit the effect that engineering works on rail lines have on travel over long bank holidays.
Claire Perry
An independent review of how the rail industry plans and schedules major improvement work was carried out last year. The review concluded that Christmas, Easter and bank holidays were the best times to carry out upgrades requiring major line closures, particularly in and around London where the network is busiest and access for engineers is most difficult.
Network Rail always looks to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers. As such, Network Rail and train operators are conscious that many people want to use the railway over holiday periods to reunite with their friends and families, so where possible they try to ensure the vast majority of services are kept running, as well as delivering passenger improvements on time. Network Rail will ensure around 96% of the network will be available during the next May bank holiday.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made in rolling out Project Griffin to security managers in the private sector and what budget has been provided to the National Counter Terrorism Security Office to promote Project Griffin.
Mr John Hayes
Project Griffin is the national counter-terrorism awareness initiative for business produced by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) to protect our cities and communities from the threat of terrorism. Since 2004, Project Griffin has held briefing events to increase public and staff awareness of how best to reduce and respond to the most likely types of terrorist activities.
In 2015-16 these events were delivered to around 100,000 individuals. On 20 April, NaCTSO launched a new Griffin initiative to offer organisations the opportunity to self-deliver this training, and further increase awareness.
The National Counter Terrorism Security Office is funded from the Counter Terrorism Policing Grant. We do not provide breakdowns of this funding for security reasons. As well as the work of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Project Griffin is promoted through a variety of other mechanisms including by police Counter Terrorism Security Advisers and Counter Terrorism Awareness Advisers, who are employed in every region to raise awareness with businesses of the terrorist threat, appropriate responses to take, and mitigation measures
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on bringing forward proposals for a modern public services ombudsman in the last three months.
John Penrose
The Government is making good progress and will publish draft legislation in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her plans are to tackle trends in stress-related illnesses among police officers in Lancashire.
Brandon Lewis
The Government recognises that policing can be a challenging job and it is the responsibility of chief officers – supported by the College of Policing – to ensure the welfare of all officers and staff. We welcome the work in forces, led nationally by Lancashire’s Deputy Chief Constable – to promote officer health and wellbeing. It is encouraging to see that all forces have signed up to the Workplace Wellbeing Charter.
As part of a commitment to police welfare in October 2014 the Government allocated £10m to help support emergency services personnel and volunteers, focused on mental health, physical recuperation and bereavement support for those who need it.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking in regard to those Clinical Commissioning Groups which plan to cut the proportion of their budget spent on mental health services for 2016–17.
Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has set a clear requirement of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that spending on mental health should increase year-on-year by an amount at least as great as the growth in their baseline allocations. CCGs are required through the NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-2019 to increase their baseline spend on mental health. A copy of this guidance is attached. From this year, NHS England’s budget and financial reporting will be aligned to specific mental health priorities, increasing transparency and allowing additional resources to be tracked at CCG level.