The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to prohibit the use of nominee directors for companies registered in British Overseas Territories.
James Duddridge
The Overseas Territories are separate jurisdictions with their own democratically elected governments under which they are responsible for company law.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matt Warman on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many bursaries have been offered (a) in total and (b) in each of the seven most hard to recruit areas as part of NHS England’s Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Ben Gummer
The Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme has been set up by Health Education England (HEE) and NHS England as a one year pilot scheme to support recruitment of general practitioner trainees in the 109 training places in England that have been hard to recruit to for the past three years.
Recruitment is currently ongoing and 2016 fill rates will be published on the HEE website once recruitment has closed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2016 to Question 40024, on NHS: drugs, what the most recent price paid per pack by the NHS was for each of the drugs listed in that Answer.
George Freeman
It is not possible to provide this information as the disclosure of such information would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the manufacturers concerned as well as the interests of the Department itself, as disclosure may affect the Department’s or the National Health Service’s ability to successfully conclude pricing negotiations for these products with their respective suppliers in the future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many prisoners in (a) Merseyside and (b) London spent more than six weeks in prison in-patient units for (i) mental and (ii) physical health conditions in each year since 2010.
Nicola Blackwood
This information is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has assessed the merits of updating the NHS data dictionary to include the 2011 census ethnic group classification, which includes gypsy or Irish traveller.
Nicola Blackwood
The NHS Equality and Diversity Council has an agenda to look at Data supporting equalities monitoring on the Equality Act 2010 ‘protected characteristics’, of which Ethnicity is one. A decision is pending on whether to adopt the Ethnicity values from the 2011 census within the National Health Service; currently the NHS standard is to use the 2001 values, which do not include gypsy or Irish traveller. Until this decision is made, and a change to existing data standards is brought through the Standardisation Committee for Care Information process, the NHS Data Dictionary values cannot be updated.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-01-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the government of Israel concerning the whereabouts and medical condition of the two Birzeit students who were arrested on 7 October and are being detained in an undisclosed location.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We have not had any discussions with the Israeli authorities on this issue. Officials in our Embassy in Tel Aviv have, however, raised our concerns over the treatment of Palestinian detainees on many occasions, including with the Israeli Ministry of Justice, Attorney General’s Office and National Security Council.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress the Government has made on the establishment of a memorial to UK citizens killed in terrorist attacks overseas; and what consultation the Government is undertaking with families of victims about that proposal.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
On 22 January I launched an online consultation seeking views on what form the national memorial to British victims of overseas terrorism should take (Official Report, 22 January 2016, col 47WS). The consultation is open until 4 March 2016. I have written to families of victims for whom the Government hold contact details. I have also issued an open letter available on gov.uk to invite all those with an interest to respond to the consultation should they wish to. Decisions on the memorial will be taken after we have fully considered responses to the consultation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-03-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether local authorities that engage in foreign boycotts risk acting in breach of the common law as well as the UK’s regime of procurement rules.
Lord Bridges of Headley
On 17 February, the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) published procurement guidance for public authorities that makes clear that boycotts in public procurement are inappropriate outside where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been put in place by the UK Government.
This new guidance gives no consideration to matters of common law, which is a matter for the courts. However, the guidance makes it clear that local level boycotts can be unlawful and lead to severe penalties against the contracting authority and the Government.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that workers are not financially worse off as a result of the recent increase in the minimum wage.
Nick Boles
On current Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts a full-time National Minimum Wage (NMW) worker will earn over £4,200 more by 2020 from the National Living Wage (NLW) in cash terms. 2.9m low wage workers are expected to benefit directly, and up to 6m in total could see their pay rise as a result of a ripple effect up the earnings distribution.
What is allowed to be deducted from a salary is tightly controlled. The Government enforces this robustly, and is bolstering its resources to bear down on non-compliance through further increasing HMRC’s NMW/NLW enforcement budget for 2016/17.
Employers can choose to set and change the overall, wider remuneration level as long as they are paying at or above the NMW / NLW minima, but they will also need to consider whether that package, overall, remains competitive to retain and develop the people and talent they need for their businesses.
The Government has also taken measures to support businesses. First, from April 2016, the Government has increased the employment allowance from £2,000 to £3,000 from April 2016. We are also cutting corporation tax from 20% to 17% by the end of the Parliament, which will benefit over a million firms of all sizes and give the UK the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G20. The cuts since 2010 will be worth almost £15bn a year to businesses by the end of Parliament. Furthermore, the Government is cutting the burden of business rates by £6.7 billion over the next 5 years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the most recent National Diet and Nutrition Survey data is being used in the development of the Childhood Obesity Strategy.
Jane Ellison
The Childhood Obesity Strategy will draw from a range of the latest data and evidence, including from Public Health England and other partners.