The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-04-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people her Department employs as statisticians.
Nick Gibb
As of 31st March 2016, the Department employs 129 people as statisticians.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department’s policy is on the use of the NHS logo by organisations and people outside the NHS.
George Freeman
The National Health Service logo should only be used by NHS organisations, or on services and information that the NHS is involved with. This is to protect the NHS from being seen as the source of materials that have not originated from the NHS, nor had any involvement from the NHS.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-07-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in which month he plans to make an announcement on airport expansion.
Mr John Hayes
The Government remains fully committed to delivering the important infrastructure projects it has set out, including delivering runway capacity on the timetable set out by Sir Howard Davies.
The Government will carefully consider all the evidence before reaching a view on its preferred scheme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the future role of open source software in industrial strategy (a) for the digital economy and (b) as an enabling platform; and what steps he is taking to support that software in relation to public sector procurement.
Mr Nick Hurd
The Government’s Open Standards Principles are helping to level the playing field for open source and proprietary software, and disaggregating government IT into smaller, more manageable components.
The Government IT Strategy states ‘Where appropriate, government will procure open source solutions. When used in conjunction with compulsory open standards, open source presents significant opportunities for the design and delivery of interoperable solutions.’
To support interoperability in the public sector, we have a preference for royalty-free software generated in an open and transparent manner, which is often open source.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the average change in entitlement for existing universal credit claimants who are in work as a result of changes to benefits taking effect in April 2016.
Priti Patel
The vast majority of existing Universal Credit claimants will see no change in entitlement. Those who are in work and who are affected will receive additional support from their work coach and, where appropriate, from the locally administered flexible support fund.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to prevent the spread of the Zika virus to the UK.
Jane Ellison
Public Health England (PHE) and the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) have been carefully monitoring the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas since it was first reported in Brazil during May 2015. PHE has reviewed evidence on the transmission of Zika virus and PHE mosquito experts have provided advice to Government and the public that neither the main vector of Zika virus Aedes aegypti, nor other species of Aedes mosquitoes, including Aedes albopictus, that may have the potential to transmit this virus, are established in the United Kingdom.
The risk to the UK population is related to travel to countries where Zika virus outbreaks are currently ongoing, and NaTHNaC and PHE have published updated advice for travellers to South and Central America and the Caribbean, including specific advice for pregnant women. The risk of onward spread within the UK is very low and PHE has again provided this advice to government, and the public.
PHE has also been working with appropriate professional groups to develop information and guidance on Zika for clinicians. This advice can be accessed through the PHE website and has been cascaded by organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Together with the Royal College of General Practitioners PHE has developed guidance specifically targeted at primary care which will be available shortly. PHE has also produced regular briefing notes for local health protection teams who have been asked to share this with the local National Health Service.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24278, how much has been set aside in his Department’s budget for potential costs associated with the decommissioning and disposal of HMS Ocean.
Mr Philip Dunne
Much of the work to decommission Royal Navy ships is undertaken using contracts that provide support services for all ships conducting Fleet activities at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth. Costs are not attributed to individual vessels.
Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) will be responsible for the removal of classified equipment and known hazardous materials from HMS OCEAN after the ship has been decommissioned. The DE&S financial plan will include a provision for this work but a figure has yet to be approved.
The Disposal Services Authority (DSA), part of DE&S, disposes of defence equipment that is surplus to requirement. DSA costs are not attributed to individual platforms and information is not held in the format requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Horam on 2016-03-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many homes were completed in each London Borough in the latest year for which figures are available; and how many homes were sold under the Right to Buy in each of those London Boroughs in the same year.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The figures requested are provided in the table below:
|
London Borough |
Dwellings completed in 20151 |
Right to Buy sales in 20152 |
||
|
Barking and Dagenham |
649 |
216 |
||
|
Barnet |
1,500 |
89 |
||
|
Bexley |
603 |
.. |
||
|
Brent |
708 |
60 |
||
|
Bromley |
676 |
.. |
||
|
Camden |
711 |
140 |
||
|
City of London |
10 |
5 |
||
|
Croydon |
1,687 |
160 |
||
|
Ealing |
756 |
105 |
||
|
Enfield |
610 |
144 |
||
|
Greenwich |
1,874 |
240 |
||
|
Hackney |
623 |
241 |
||
|
Hammersmith and Fulham |
290 |
82 |
||
|
Haringey |
651 |
177 |
||
|
Harrow |
561 |
28 |
||
|
Havering |
1,084 |
86 |
||
|
Hillingdon |
537 |
136 |
||
|
Hounslow |
1,043 |
183 |
||
|
Islington |
189 |
176 |
||
|
Kensington and Chelsea |
1,119 |
36 |
||
|
Kingston upon Thames |
46 |
37 |
||
|
Lambeth |
1,302 |
228 |
||
|
Lewisham |
1,118 |
111 |
||
|
Merton |
158 |
.. |
||
|
Newham |
691 |
330 |
||
|
Redbridge |
492 |
46 |
||
|
Richmond upon Thames |
121 |
.. |
||
|
Southwark |
1,466 |
278 |
||
|
Sutton |
194 |
52 |
||
|
Tower Hamlets |
1,138 |
264 |
||
|
Waltham Forest |
1,081 |
100 |
||
|
Wandsworth |
761 |
47 |
||
|
Westminster |
166 |
51 |
||
|
1 source: Live Table 253a https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building |
||||
|
2 source: Live Table 691 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales |
||||
|
Figures exclude Preserved Right to Buy |
||||
|
.. Local Authority owns no dwelling stock. |
||||
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the cost of establishing the Green Deal Finance Company in (a) payments to consultants and (b) other costs.
Andrea Leadsom
DECC has made no payments to consultants in establishing the Green Deal Finance Company, but in other costs payments of £10,294.26 in legal support were made in 2014/15.
The Green Deal Finance Company has not been closed. It is not currently issuing new loans, but continues to collect repayments from its existing loan book. In July 2015, DECC took the decision that the case for further investment was not strong enough in terms of value for money. This decision has no impact on existing Green Deal Finance Plans or existing Green Deal Home Improvement Fund applications and vouchers.
The Green Deal Finance Company is a private company and has its own internal costs which are not included in this estimate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-05-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when NHS England plans to publish its response to its consultation on developing a method to assist investment decisions in specialised services.
George Freeman
The proposed prioritisation methodology which went out to consultation was signed off by the Specialised Commissioning Committee at its meeting on 31 May 2016 – for use in 2016/17.
The consultation outcome document will now be published on the website imminently.
There will be further work undertaken on the methodology in due course to refine and improve it for use in future years.