The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-03-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of personal independence payment claimants have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment to date.
Justin Tomlinson
Information on whether claimants of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment is not centrally recorded and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the (a) salary, (b) bonus and (c) pension arrangements are of the current interim Chief Executive of the Office for Rail and Road.
Claire Perry
The interim Chief Executive of the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) full time equivalent salary is £140,000 (prorated for part-time working), which will be subject to an annual review effective from 1 April 2016. The review will be conducted by ORR’s statutory Board, and subject to the annual guidance issued by the Cabinet Office concerning Senior Civil Service pay.
There are no contractual bonus arrangements. However, the Chief Executive, along with other senior civil servants at ORR, may be considered for a non-consolidated performance related payment in respect of their annual performance. Allocation of these awards at ORR is a matter for the ORR Board, subject to the guidance and constraints set out annually by the Cabinet Office for the whole of the Senior Civil Service.
The Chief Executive is a member of the Civil Service pension arrangements managed by My Civil Service Pension.
As required under statute, the terms and conditions of the Chief Executive’s appointment were approved by the Treasury in December 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the human rights of detained Sudanese pastors Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata and Hassan Abduraheem Kodi Taour are respected.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Freedom of religion or belief in Sudan continues to be an area of deep concern. We have consistently called on the Government of Sudan to ensure all legislation is consistent with the Interim Constitution of 2005; within which religious freedom is enshrined. We regularly attend court cases in Sudan on freedom of religion or belief and through our project work we also seek to support lawyers who take on cases addressing important human rights issues.
Our Ambassador in Khartoum raised the specific cases of Mr Talahon and Reverend Hassan with the Minister of Guidance and Religious Endowments and the Sudanese Director of Church Affairs in February. We also raised this issue with the Sudanese Director of Human Rights during the UK-Sudan bilateral talks in March, and again with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April. Furthermore, we continue to raise concerns about the scope of the National Security Act (2010) and the powers it gives the National Intelligence and Security Service. Most recently, we highlighted this issue in our statement at Sudan’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council on 4 May. We will remain active on these issues.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has received from businesses expressing concern at the result of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.
Anna Soubry
My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has been keeping in close contact with business since the referendum. My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State made a series of calls on Friday immediately following the result including to the major business representative bodies. On Tuesday, 28 June 2016, my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State held a business roundtable with the UK’s largest business organisations, and representatives from our most important industries. Further such roundtables will be held over the coming weeks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans Innovate UK has to develop a business plan across the UK for liaison with universities on the promotion of greater innovation in private sector small and medium-sized enterprises.
Joseph Johnson
Innovate UK published its 2016/17 Delivery Plan in April 2016. This sets out measures to nurture high-growth potential SMEs and to work with universities and the research base across the UK to turn scientific excellence into economic impact. It includes joint programmes to promote collaboration between SMEs and the academic sector.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Wright on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of difficulties in recruiting embryologists in (a) England and (b) the North East.
Ben Gummer
Individual healthcare providers are responsible for ensuring that they have the right level of staffing to provide high quality care to their patients, including embryology services.
Health Education England (HEE) was established in 2012 to ensure the National Health Service has access to the right numbers of staff, at the right time and with the right skills. In doing so, HEE works with key external stakeholders to develop its National Workforce Plan for England which sets out the number of training places it will commission in the year ahead to meet future local need.
HEE will continue to work with its 13 Local Education and Training Boards and others to ensure that there are sufficient healthcare scientists, including embryologists, being trained to meet the future needs of patients.
Currently HEE has 28 reproductive scientists in training (which includes embryology) and are planning a further 11 to start in 2016/17. It takes three years to train a reproductive scientist.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have advised that it is not aware of any issues concerning the availability of embryologists in the United Kingdom.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-02-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an EEA national residing in the UK who wished to bring in a non-EU spouse into the country would, under the draft Decision by the European Council published on 2 February, have to meet the requirements for salary and the spouse the conditions for language as are required of a British citizen and are set out under part 8 of the UK Immigration Rules..
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government considers that it is important that the interests of energy consumers are represented on the SEC Panel. The current arrangements were consulted on in the Government’s Smart Energy Code Consultation in April 2012, and were concluded in the Government Responses in November 2012 and April 2013. The Government concluded that Consumer Futures, as the exclusive statutory consumer body in the energy sector, was best placed to nominate consumer representatives for the Panel. These statutory responsibilities were transferred to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland when Consumer Futures was abolished in 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Crawley on 2016-03-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what have been the full costs to date, including staff time, of HMRC’s pilot of the Codentify system.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes the restrictions in the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) very seriously. These require that the development, implementation and enforcement of tobacco policies as part of public health policies should be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry.
Codentify is a system, developed and introduced by the major tobacco manufacturers on their own initiative through the Digital Coding and Tracking Association (DCTA). HMRC played no part in the development or introduction of the system nor did HMRC require that it be introduced. Codentify codes already feature on packs and are there regardless of any HMRC use of them. The trial HMRC is undertaking is to see whether these existing codes could help officers in the field to authenticate products and help tackle illicit tobacco. No other companies currently provide such codes.
The use of Codentify by HMRC is not part of an exercise to evaluate the wider use of potential tools available on the market. Any such exercise would be undertaken in the context of the implementation of the EU Tobacco Products Directive track and trace security feature requirements, which will be implemented by May 2019 for cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.
The European Commission is still considering, with Member States, proposals for new pan European security features and track and trace systems, and has yet to determine any technical specifications. HMRC are not evaluating Codentify as a track and trace tool or potential security feature; the aspects of the system being used are entirely separate from the requirements of the Directive.
The use of Codentify is not a formal pilot and there will not be reports or results to publish. Instead the trial will identify the strengths, weaknesses and usefulness of using Codentify to HMRC as an authentication tool in the field. HMRC will review this later in 2016. Some resource has been spent providing access to the system and training officers in the use of the tool. However, this has been minimal and has not been separately identified. The Department of Health leads on public health policy and has been consulted on this initiative. HMRC sees no conflict between its current use of the Codentify system and FCTC requirements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Antoinette Sandbach on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many investigations have been undertaken by the Financial Investigation Unit of the Child Maintenance Group in each of the financial years since April 2012 to March 2013.
Priti Patel
Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) was established on 1 April 2014.
For the financial year 2014 – 2015 the FIU conducted 3,749 investigations resulting in both civil and criminal investigations.
For the financial year 2015 – 2016 the FIU conducted 3,186 investigations resulting in both civil and criminal investigations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2016-05-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of which of the 27 other EU member states have not legalised same-sex marriage.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Seven EU Member States have not legalised same sex marriage. These States are: Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.