Tag: 2016

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new junior doctor contract on the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.

    Ben Gummer

    Medicine is an extremely popular career choice and we expect that to continue.

    The new contract for doctors in training will have a positive impact on the working life of doctors and on the training they receive. It introduces stronger safeguards to ensure doctors are not required to work long, unsafe hours, enforced through contractual obligations on employers and external scrutiny of those hours by the Care Quality Commission and the independent Guardian of safe working hours.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of named day written parliamentary questions have been answered after the specified date by each Minister in his Department since May 2015.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    In an oral evidence session to the House of Commons Procedure Committee on 27th April it was noted by the Minister for Sport that though the department had experienced a dip in its performance for timeliness of answers to written questions since May 2015, there has also been a significant improvement in performance in recent months.

    The Table shows Named Day responses from 27th May 2015 to 29th April 2016:

    Minister

    Named Day Questions answered

    Number of Late Named Day Questions

    The Minister for Culture

    321

    146

    The Minister for Sport

    109

    30

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-06-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the result of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, whether they now intend to bring forward an emergency budget including tax rises and spending cuts, or whether they have plans to increase public investment.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    As the Chancellor has said, decisions on what action the government will take in response to the impact of the referendum on the economy and public finances will wait until the Office of Budget Responsibility has made an economic forecast in the Autumn.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of the Philippines following reports that many hundreds of people have been killed by police and vigilantes on suspicion of involvement in drugs; and what assessment they have made of whether the courts and prisons in that country are capable of dealing with the large numbers of newly arrested suspects.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The British Government’s view on the importance of the rule of law is clear, consistent and well known in the Philippines. Our Ambassador has repeatedly raised the Government’s concerns over drug-related killings with the Philippine Administration, including the Foreign Minister, Interior Secretary and Defence Secretary. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Mr Sharma), spoke of the importance of democratic accountability, human rights and the rule of law at a UK-Philippines trade and business event in London on 7 September.

    Members of the Philippine Administration and Supreme Court have highlighted a lack of capacity within the courts and prisons to handle those newly arrested on suspicion of involvement in illegal drugs. We share this concern. The British Government supports the right to a fair trial and the humane treatment of detainees. The Government of the Philippines is taking some steps to increase the functionality of the justice system, including by increasing the number of specialist drug courts. Our Ambassador has conveyed the Government’s willingness to share its own experience of delivering a proportionate criminal justice response to illegal drug use and trafficking.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 136 of his Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, if he will publish a breakdown of the full cost figure for the application and collection fees from the 2012 Child Maintenance statutory scheme in 2014-15.

    Priti Patel

    The full cost of the 2012 statutory maintenance scheme for the financial year 2014/15 is shown on Page 136 of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts as £49.432m which comprises:

    £46.1m of staff costs on all aspects of the 2012 scheme.

    £3.332m of goods and service expenditure.

  • Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans the Child Support Agency has to work more closely with the police in order to pursue the debt of non-resident parents.

    Priti Patel

    There are no plans to work with the police in order to try and pursue the debt of non-resident parents.

    We have at our disposal a range of strong enforcement powers, intended to ensure all parents fulfil their financial responsibilities towards their children. We are using all of the powers available to us where it is appropriate to do so. These powers include deducting maintenance directly from earnings, sharing information about non-compliance with credit reference agencies, instructing bailiffs to collect arrears or seize goods, forcing the sale of property, commitment to prison and disqualification from driving.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many Instant Rewards of what value were given to his Department’s officials in each of the last five financial years.

    David Mundell

    The following provides information on the number and total value of Instant Rewards given to officials in each of the last five years.

    Year

    Instant Rewards

    Total Value

    2014-15

    0

    0

    2013-14

    0

    0

    2012-13

    0

    0

    2011-12

    4

    £115

    2010-11

    14

    £670

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

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the (a) average and (b) maximum waiting time was for an electric wheelchair through NHS Wheelchair Services after being determined eligible to receive one in 2014-15.

    Alistair Burt

    No data is currently available in relation to waiting times for wheelchairs for 2014-15. A new national data collection has been introduced (from July 2015) to all clinical commissioning groups to allow for transparency and benchmarking their services. Data has so far been published for quarter 2 and quarter 3 2015/16. However, this is a new collection and does not yet provide an opportunity to draw national or regional comparisons.

    The new dataset is part of the work that NHS England is taking forward in partnership with service users, carers and others to lay the foundations for improvement across the country. A tariff for wheelchairs will enable commissioners to move away from simple contracts, and so increase efficiency and better align resources with service users’ needs; support and resources for clinical commissioning groups will help them improve their commissioning of wheelchair services.

  • Conor McGinn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Conor McGinn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Conor McGinn on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in (a) Merseyside and (b) St Helens in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

    Edward Timpson

    The information requested is not available. We do not collect the reason for referrals so cannot identify how many of these were due to abuse or neglect.

    Data on referrals is available by local authority and region in the annual statistical first release ‘Characteristics of children in need’’[1].

    Once a child has been referred and any relevant assessments have been carried out, we collect information on the primary needs of children in need of children’s social care services. In 2014/15, 66% of children in need in St Helens local authority had a primary need of abuse or neglect.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need

    “

  • Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Goudie on 2016-06-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to maintain the normalisation of the Irish border in terms of the common travel area, and whether they plan to take steps to ensure that there will be no ethnic profiling of people crossing that border.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Prime Minister has reiterated the importance of continuing to engage with Ireland on how we can maintain the Common Travel Area (CTA). The CTA arrangement pre-dates the EU and we remain committed to it. The Government continues to work closely with Ireland to improve the security of the CTA. UK law enforcement agencies carry out intelligence-led checks on CTA routes to combat abuse – all of which is done within the law.