Tag: 2016

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2016 to Question 47281, if her Department will allocate funds to long-term projects in Haiti to address the lack of health infrastructure in that country caused by Hurricane Matthew.

    Rory Stewart

    In addition to the £5m of support to help thousands of people affected by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, DFID announced a further £3m on 16 October to strengthen the response to cholera and wider health concerns. The UK has provided a total of more than £46m to Haiti since 2010, which has included support to Haiti’s health sector. The priority now is to reach those affected by Hurricane Matthew and provide them with water, sanitation, healthcare and shelter. DFID is leading, with other key donors, on lobbying for an improved response to the hurricane, and is working to meet the needs of the most affected. DFID continues to provide support, including to the country’s health infrastructure, through multilateral contributions to UN agencies, the World Bank, the EU and other international institutions.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department plans to take in 2016 to ensure that young people under 16 understand road safety issues from the perspectives of pedestrians, cyclists and car users.

    Andrew Jones

    THINK! supports pedestrian road safety education though engaging intermediaries – e.g. teachers, road safety professionals & parents – who are able to deliver road safety messages using free resources, to children and teenagers in a credible and impactful way. THINK! is reviewing their education offer in order to ensure materials and road safety messages are up-to-date and relevant for the current generation.

    THINK! is also working closely with partners at the RAC and the Scouts Association to develop road safety resources for out-of-school groups, to ensure road safety is continued to be taught in and outside the classroom.

    The Department is providing £50 million over the next four years to support Bikeability cycle training in schools in England (outside London). This funding will help to increase children’s road awareness, encourage active travel and improve future motorists’ empathy for more vulnerable road users.

  • Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2016-02-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure cost transparency from pooled retail pension funds.

    Justin Tomlinson

    It is important that savers know what costs and charges they are paying. As a first step towards achieving this, most occupational pension schemes offering money purchase benefits are now required to report the charges levied on members and, as far as they are able, transaction costs, via an annual Chair’s Statement. The Chair’s Statement, which must be given to beneficiaries and recognised trade unions on request, must also report the trustees’ view on the extent to which these costs present value for members.

    Similarly, the Financial Conduct Authority have made rules requiring Independent Governance Committees to report annually on the value for money offered by workplace personal pension schemes, taking into account scheme charges and transaction costs.

    The government is committed to ensuring that members of pension schemes are also able to obtain information about all the costs and charges which they bear. Last year, the Government and the FCA jointly carried out a call for evidence on disclosure of transaction costs in pension schemes, and we are currently planning our next steps.

    Many pension schemes which invest in pooled funds do so via institutional versions of retail funds, for which costs other than the disclosed investment management fee will be similar. Retail funds will be covered by the Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance Products (PRIIPs) Regulation, which will apply from the end of 2016 and provides for enhanced minimum standards of disclosure.

  • Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Twigg on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many agency nurses were employed by each hospital trust in Merseyside and Cheshire in each year since 2010.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department does not collect this data centrally.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent guidance she has issued to schools about sexting; and if she will make a statement.

    Edward Timpson

    Keeping children safe is a top priority for the government. In July 2015, the Department published updated statutory guidance[1] on keeping children safe in education. Schools and colleges must have regard to this guidance when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

    All school and college staff have a responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn, and they should be aware of the various forms of abuse so they are able to identify cases of children in need of help and support.

    The ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance provides a link to further advice on sexting on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website. The Centre are working on new guidance for schools and colleges on handling sexting.

    As part of our commitment to working with schools and other experts to ensure that young people are receiving age appropriate information that allows them to make informed choices and stay safe, the PSHE Association have produced guidance[2] for teachers on teaching about consent, which was published in March 2015.

    The Department has also produced advice for schools on searching, screening and confiscation which makes clear that school staff can examine the contents of a pupil’s mobile phone and, where necessary, delete inappropriate content where there is good reason to do so.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447595/KCSIE_July_2015.pdf

    [2] https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/curriculum-and-resources/resources/guidance-teaching-about-consent-pshe-education-key

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  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-05-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel concerning the destruction by Israeli forces of the Bedouin village of Khirbet Taha in the northern West Bank district of Nablus.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    While we have not raised this specific issue with the Israeli authorities, we continue to raise our concerns with the Israeli authorities over demolitions and the treatment of the Bedouin community. We have supported Bedouin communities in Area C facing demolition or eviction through our support to Rabbis for Human Rights and the Norwegian Refugee Council legal aid programme.

  • Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many undergraduate courses leading to a formal qualification are provided in (1) soil biology, (2) soil chemistry, and (3) combined soil biology and chemistry, and how many students were enrolled in each course at the beginning of the 2015–16 academic year.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    Information on enrolments at UK Higher Education Institutions is collected and published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and the latest academic year for which data are available is 2014/15.

    The Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) is the classification of subjects used by HESA. Soil biology and Soil chemistry are not separate subject classifications in the JACS system; the closest classification is Soil science.

    The latest data for 2014/15, suggest there were fewer than 10 full-person equivalent undergraduate students studying Soil science at a single UK Higher Education Institution – the University of Aberdeen.

    Soil science has a Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) code of F770. This is a detailed level code and some universities may occasionally allocate students to more general codes.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding the data collected by the Coalition Against Construction Accidents, about the rates at which Palestinians, Israeli Arabs or foreign nationals have died on Israeli construction sites in the past five years.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have not raised this issue with the Israeli authorities.

  • Neil Gray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Neil Gray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Gray on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the evidence his Department has received which illustrates that a change in the level of employment and support allowance work-related activity group funding will support claimants into work.

    Penny Mordaunt

    A number of international studies, and a 2005 report[1] by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development argued that “financial incentives to work can be improved by either cutting welfare benefit levels, or introducing in-work benefits while leaving benefit levels unchanged”.

    There will be new funding worth £60 million in 2017/18, rising to £100 million in 2020/21, which will support those with limited capability for work to move towards and into suitable employment. We will also soon publish a Green Paper that will explore a range of options for long-term reform across different sectors, targeting the factors which contribute to the Disability Employment Gap.

    [1] http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/36780865.pdf

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  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit claimants who are considered by his Department to have a limited capability to work are in receipt of universal credit in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the UK.

    Priti Patel

    The information you have requested is not currently available.

    During 2016 we will be increasing the range of statistics on Universal Credit which will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.