Tag: 2016

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what duties are placed on regional school commissioners to consult with local authorities on school place planning.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places in their local area.

    The RSCs are responsible for approving the sponsors of new free schools and intervening in underperforming academies and free schools in their area. The RSCs consider basic need when making decisions on proposed changes to academies, and must consider any representations from local authorities.

  • Ian Paisley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Ian Paisley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Paisley on 2016-03-10.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of when the tax optimisation for cigarettes will be reached.

    Damian Hinds

    The government believes that cigarette duty achieves a balance between its two fiscal goals on tobacco; to raise revenue and to protect public health.

    In considering fiscal impacts of duties, the illicit trade is an important consideration. The government is committed to tackling illicit tobacco, which undermines health and tax policy objectives and harms legitimate business. HMRC and Border Force have an established and effective strategy for tackling tobacco fraud which has seen the illicit market reduce significantly since the strategy was first launched in 2000. This has meant that, since the introduction of the tobacco duty escalator, the size of the illicit market has continued to fall.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the extent of errors in payments of universal credit arising from errors in PAYE real time information.

    Priti Patel

    DWP and HMRC are continually monitoring the quality of Real Time Information (RTI). This includes information regarding erroneous data.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent human rights abuses against the Oromo people in Ethiopia; and what recent representations he has made to his Ethiopian counterpart on that issue.

    James Duddridge

    We remain deeply concerned about the handling of demonstrations in Oromia, including the reported deaths of a number of protestors, and about those detained under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. We have repeatedly made representations to the Ethiopian Government over the situation in that region. Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, raised our concerns with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on 21 January and Her Majesty’s Ambassador last raised the issue with Prime Minister Hailemariam on 26 April.

    I met with Dr Tedros at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on 27 January. I raised the UK’s concerns with regards to the human rights situation. We will continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Ethiopia both through our bilateral engagement, most notably through our ongoing Human Rights Dialogue, as well as jointly with our international partners.

    The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been appointed to look into the handling of the protests in Oromia. We will not pre-judge the outcome of their investigation and we await the publication of their report. We will continue to urge the EHRC and the Government of Ethiopia to ensure that their report is credible, transparent and leads to concrete action. We will take a view on what further lobbying, if any, might be appropriate following the publication of the EHRC report.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Stern on 2016-07-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the government of Germany about its recognition of the killings of Herero and Nama people in 1904–08 as genocide, and whether in the light of those discussions they have any plans formally to recognise those events as genocide.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Government have not discussed the killings of the Herero and Nama peoples with the Government of Germany.

    It is the policy of the Government that any judgment on whether genocide has occurred is a matter for judicial decision, rather than for governments or non-judicial bodies.

  • Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to incentivise the provision of higher quality mental health services.

    Nicola Blackwood

    Mental health is one of the six core clinical areas to be covered by NHS England’s new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework. NHS England is working to ensure that this will provide as broad a view as possible of how well commissioners are supporting and driving improvement in mental health.

    A dashboard for mental health will be published this autumn, containing a set of standard indicators to articulate progress in mental health services at a national level and allow benchmarking of services across the country.

    NHS England will continue to ensure that mental health is represented within the full suite of levers and incentives at its disposal including Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payment framework (CQUINs), Quality Premium, the NHS Standard Contract and within the design of new models of care. The Technical Guidance for NHS planning covering 2017/18 and 2018/19 that accompanied the publication of the main NHS Planning Guidance earlier this autumn included a number of draft proposals for specific mental health CQUINs:

    – Improving services for people with Mental Health needs who present to A&E;

    – Improving physical health care for people with Severe Mental Illnesses; and

    – Improving transitions for children and young people.

    The Quality Premium is based on measures that cover a combination of national and local priorities, and on delivery of the fundamentals of commissioning. The Premium is paid to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in 2018/19 and 2019/20 reflects the quality of the health services commissioned by them in 2017/18 and 2018/19. There will be six mandated indicators including a mental health indicator.

    Mental health service providers are responsible for the consistency and quality in the services that they provide. Services in England are regulated by the Care Quality Commission which introduced a new regulation and inspection regime in 2014. CCGs are expected to increase their spending on mental health in line with overall growth in their baseline allocations.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 66 of his Department’s Road Investment Strategy Investment Plan, how much of the five ring-fenced investment funds totalling £675 million has been allocated to cycling and walking infrastructure projects.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Highways England has committed to provide a safer, integrated and more accessible strategic road network for cyclists and other vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. Through the first Road Investment Strategy for Highways England, £175 million has been made available between 2015 and 2020 to improve the safety of the Strategic Road Network and improve conditions for cyclists and other road users.

    The Highways England delivery plan states that £78 million will be used to improve conditions for those cycling alongside and crossing the Strategic Road Network.

    The remaining £97 million will be used to enhance the safety of our network, with £20 million of this specifically targeted at improving facilities to provide a more accessible and integrated network, which will also benefit pedestrians.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to ensure the resilience of agriculture businesses in (a) Copeland and (b) Allerdale to respond to the effects of (i) Storm Desmond and (ii) future severe weather events.

    George Eustice

    We have been working closely with the NFU and other industry bodies to identify major problems, not only in Copeland and Allerdale, but across Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham where exceptional rainfall added to ground which was already saturated. In response, we have provided grants and other support to help farmers restore their land through the Farming Recovery Fund. Farmers affected by flooding will be able to claim grants of between £500 and £20,000 to cover the cost of restoring their farmland.

    In restoring damaged features such as bridges, fences or cross drains, we are encouraging farmers to protect against the future by considering building in protection against future flood damage. They can do this by locating these in a position where they are less likely to be damaged in the future or can be (for example, in the case of bridges) raised to reduce the risk of water damage. If farmers consider relocating features within their field, they could save replacement costs in the future.

    We have also put in place in Cumbria a new partnership, which includes representatives of agriculture businesses, to develop an action plan to be published this summer. The action plan will cover a range of issues, such as what improvements may be needed to flood defences in the region; upstream options for slowing key rivers to reduce peak water flows, and ways of building stronger links between local residents, businesses, community groups and flood defence planning.

  • Tom Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Tom Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Elliott on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to make available to the Northern Ireland Executive funds received from the Government’s application to the EU Solidarity Fund to help flood affected areas.

    James Wharton

    The Government submitted an initial UK application to the EU Solidarity Fund on Friday 26 February and we continue to refine our cost estimations.

    At the date the application was made, the Government had not been approached on this matter by the Northern Ireland Executive.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-04-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which consultants other than McKinsey bid for the tender to consider his Department’s BIS 2020 programme.

    Joseph Johnson

    Proposals to consider the Department’s BIS 2020 programme were received from McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group.