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Tag: 2016

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations to the Indonesian government on the Gerakan Fajar Nusantara Gafatar religious community in Indonesia.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Our Ambassador in Jakarta has raised these issues with the Minister of Religious Affairs, Indonesian civil society, and religious leaders. He urged them to ensure the rights of all individuals to practise their religion or belief freely were fully respected and protected. Our Deputy Head of Mission in Jakarta has also raised the situation of the Gafatar community with the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection.

  • Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which authorities she has directed since May 2015 to prepare a report assessing and managing their level of climate risk under Section 62 of the Climate Change Act 2008.

    Rory Stewart

    No direction has been issued since May 2015 under Section 62 of the Climate Change Act 2008. As required by Section 65 of the Act, the second strategy for exercising the power under Section 62 of the Act (the adaptation reporting power) was published alongside the first National Adaptation Programme report in July 2013. The strategy and the list of organisations invited to provide reports between 2013 and 2016 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adapting-to-climate-change-2013-strategy-for-exercising-the-adaptation-reporting-power.

    “

  • Nick Clegg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Nick Clegg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Clegg on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department has spent on legal advice related to the UK voting to leave the EU from (a) the Government Legal Service and (b) external legal firms; and how much he plans to spend on such advice over the next 12 months.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not spent anything on external legal advice related to the UK voting to leave the EU.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what level of funding has been (a) requested by and (b) allocated to NHS England for (i) 2017-18, (ii) 2018-19 and (iii) 2019-20.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Spending Review settled the level of funding that the National Health Service in England will receive over the course of this Parliament, with the NHS England Chief Executive a full party to the discussions with HM Treasury. As the Chief Executive said at the time the Spending Review was announced, “our case for the NHS has been heard and actively supported’’. Regular discussions around the finances of the NHS continue to take place between my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State and the Chief Executive of NHS England.

    The NHS will be receiving £10 billion more per year in real terms by 2020-21 compared to 2014-15. The following table sets out the financial settlement allocated to the NHS.

    NHS budget for Spending Review period

    Revenue and capital combined

    2015-16

    2016-17

    2017-18

    2018-19

    2019-20

    2020-21

    Total (£ million)

    100,500

    105,975

    109,337

    111,824

    114,929

    119,035

    Real terms increase on previous year (%)

    3.7%

    1.3%

    0.3%

    0.7%

    1.3%

    Real terms increase on 2015-16 baseline (£ billion)

    3.8

    5.3

    5.8

    6.7

    8.4

    Real terms increase on 2014-15 baseline (£ billion)

    2.0

    6.0

    7.0

    8.0

    9.0

    10.0

    Note:

    These figures differ from the NHS Total Departmental Expenditure Limit (TDEL) figures announced at the Spending Review due to a number of technical adjustments, including transfers of functions. The main transfer of function is the move of 0-5 public health services from NHS England to local government. There are a small number of other transfers including the move of the Leadership Academy to Health Education England. To ensure comparability of numbers, in this table £500 million has been removed from the 2015-16 baseline, representing 6 months of funding for 0-5 public health services between 1 April and 30 September 2015 and these other planned transfers.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff are employed (a) full-time and (b) part-time in the Extremism Analysis Unit; and at which grade each such member of staff is employed.

    Karen Bradley

    The Extremism Analysis Unit (EAU) has been established with a remit to analyse extremism in this country, and abroad where it has a direct impact on the UK and/or UK interests. The EAU is a cross-government resource, with government departments able to commission research and analysis.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme outcomes for the BAME population.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England (NHSE) monitors clinical commissioning groups’ (CCGs) performance against the recovery target for people who have received psychological therapies through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme. In October 2015, 77 CCGs met the 50% Recovery Standard.

    The Department is working closely with NHSE to reduce the variation in recovery rates across CCG areas.

    NHSE is also supporting lowest performing IAPT providers to improve their recovery rates and is offering workshops to spread good practice to all commissioners and providers.

    The Government is aware of evidence that shows that people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities are less likely to use psychological therapies. There is ongoing activity by NHSE in collaboration with the Department to encourage access to IAPT services by the under-represented groups.

    A BAME benchmarking tool has been developed and is currently being piloted by a number of IAPT services. This will assist services to improve access to people from BAME communities by helping those services understand the ethnicity of the population and whether this is reflected within the population they see. It asks services to assess whether outcomes for BAME communities are equivalent to non-BAME patients whilst also checking whether improvements for access to people from BAME communities have been made and specific training for therapists have been utilised. Once pilots are complete NHS England will publish the benchmarking tool for all services to access.

    Equality of access is an issue for wider mental health services and that is why the Mental Health Partnership Board is considering the issues around equality of access in mental health services, which includes the IAPT programme.

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre publish referrals and outcomes data by ethnic groups. NHSE intends to compare those numbers with BAME prevalence population data to highlight referrals and access rates for ethnic groups at CCG level. CCGs are responsible for taking the necessary actions to address any disparity.

  • Tom Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Tom Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Elliott on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on energy security of the UK leaving the EU.

    Amber Rudd

    When it comes to ensuring our families and businesses have secure, affordable and clean energy supplies they can rely on, the UK is better off being in Europe. The UK is leading the way in shaping EU energy and climate policies that strengthen our energy security, benefit consumers and help us tackle global climate change.

    Being a leading member of the EU helps improve UK energy security by attracting foreign investment, promoting competition and facilitating efficient and reliable cross-border energy trade.

    Unless the UK is prepared to be an EU rule-taker, keeping in lock-step with evolving EU energy and low carbon rules without any say on them, being outside the EU would create real and growing risks to energy security, consumer bills, and competitiveness.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of disabled people living in social housing who will be affected by the cap to local housing allowance.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information requested is not available. As such it is not possible to accurately estimate the number of disabled people living in social housing that will be affected by this policy in 2018.

  • Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) oral and (b) written communication, guidance and information there has been between his Department and Health Education England on implementation of changes to junior doctors’ contracts and terms and conditions.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department communicates on a regular basis with Health Education England (HEE) on a wide range of issues including the implementation of the new contract for doctors and dentists in training.

    Departmental officials and I meet on a weekly basis to discuss the implementation of the new contract; the group includes representatives from NHS Employers, HEE and NHS Improvement.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of Turkish members of parliament being verbally abused, physically assaulted and threatened with murder within the parliament of that country; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Government is aware of disturbances in the Turkish parliament which took place in the context of its decision to lift parliamentary immunities for MPs. We continue to stress that, as a modern democracy, we would expect Turkey, following the lifting of immunity, to undertake any subsequent legal processes transparently and fully respect the rule of law.