Tag: 2016

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to ensure that its buildings are open for wider community use.

    Mrs Caroline Spelman

    The Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings Division developed the open and sustainable churches initiative five years ago, and now 80% of churches provide a function beyond purely worship, with 54% of Anglican parishes running at least one organised activity to address social or community need. Churches are being used as citizen’s advice bureau, post offices, shops, night shelters and food banks. Two recent examples of local projects where the Church has opening its buildings for the wider community in the Lincoln Diocese include:

    St Peter & Paul Church, Algarkirk has been successful in getting through the first stage of HLF funding for a project to host a local heritage center, explaining the history of the area including an oral history project and fascinating details about this Grade I medieval church. The Parish Church has a collection of Victorian stained glass of national quality and furnishings by J.G. Grace who also furnished the Houses of Parliament.

    All Saints Church, Winterton is a Grade 1 Medieval church which has been restored with new community facilities installed to make it more accessible with the help of HLF and other grants.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the value of railway stations owned by Network Rail.

    Claire Perry

    Network Rail is exploring new models for the management and ownership of its 18 managed stations with the goal of bringing improvements for both passengers and the communities they serve. They have engaged Citigroup as advisors to consider a range of potential options. No decisions have yet been taken and no estimate of the potential value of these stations has been made as part of this work. Citigroup were appointed following a competitive tender process, and the details of their fee are commercially confidential.

    Network Rail expect that this work will be presented to their Board by the end of 2016.

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

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on establishing an investigative capability for the Food Crime Unit.

    Jane Ellison

    The National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) is initially focusing on establishing the scale and nature of food crime in the United Kingdom at a strategic level through developing intelligence sharing relationships across the law enforcement community and with the food industry. This will also enable the Unit to instigate investigative interventions by law enforcement partners and local authorities to identify and disrupt specific instances of food crime.

    At the end of this year, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will review progress on food crime, in line with Professor Elliott’s recommendations following the horsemeat incident. This review will inform decision-making about the Unit’s future form and function including the need or otherwise for the unit to establish an in-house investigative capability.

    Intelligence analysts within the Unit have just completed the first ever Food Crime Annual Strategic Assessment (FCASA). The FCASA sets out the Unit’s developing understanding of food crime and will drive its work to ensure resources are focused where the threat to consumers and other interests is the greatest.

    The NFCU receives reports of suspicions of food fraud from a number of sources via many different routes. The FSA website directs users to a dedicated email address and telephone number for reporting these suspicions. Information is also received through local authority and law enforcement partners. Information received is analysed and, where appropriate, entered onto the Unit’s intelligence database. Between 1 January 2015 and 18 March 2016, 793 such records were created.

    Establishment costs for the NFCU were minimal as the Unit initially evolved from a small but similar capability within the FSA. Total running costs to date are in the region of £579,000. Estimated costs for the forthcoming year are £1.2 million, subject to final allocations being agreed.

  • Baroness Burt of Solihull – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Baroness Burt of Solihull – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of (1) the number of jobs, and (2) the total value of sales, within the retail sector attributable to (a) online retail, and (b) high-street retail premises.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    In 2015 the retail sector accounted for nearly 3.2m jobs. It is not possible to allocate these jobs to online or offline retail nor to “high-street” or “non-high street” premises.

    Excluding sales of automotive fuel the total value of retail sales was £340bn in 2015, with around 12.4% of these sales (£42bn) attributable to online retail.

    It is not possible to determine what proportion of sales were made by “high-street” premises. There is not an operational statistical definition of this term, so data is not collected on this basis.

  • Lord Pearson of Rannoch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Pearson of Rannoch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many EU proposals and initiatives, of which they are aware, are being delayed for publication until after 23 June, and what are those initiatives.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Decisions on the timing of proposals for EU Laws and Directives are solely the responsibility of the European Commission. The European Parliament publishes details of current legislation under negotiation on its website.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what criteria he will use to determine eligibility for discounted travel as part of the local discount scheme when tolls on the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges are introduced.

    Andrew Jones

    Following the previous Chancellor’s further statement in July 2015 that the Government is looking at extending Mersey Gateway bridge toll discounts to residents of Chester West & Chester and Warrington, officials are currently working through what the proposed further extension means for the scheme both by way of the cost to the Department but also and importantly what this would do to the commercial structure of the contracts already signed for the scheme. Once this is clear we will be able to provide more information.

  • 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 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many pregnant women received treatment from alcohol services in each region of England in each year since 2010.

    Nicola Blackwood

    The data is not published in the requested format.

  • Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to ensure that all NHS trusts are (a) identifying patient safety incidents, (b) conducting full investigations to identify the causes of such incidents and (c) implementing measures to prevent recurring such incidents.

    Ben Gummer

    Currently, NHS England has a leadership role for patient safety in the National Health Service and supports providers to identify, understand and manage risks that might affect the safety of patients. The primary source for identifying risks is the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS). The NRLS operates as a database and holds over 1.4 million locally reported patient safety incidents. These are reviewed to help address the identified issues or risks in the NHS. NHS England alerts NHS trusts of emerging patient safety risks via the National Patient Safety Alerting System – a three-stage alerting process which ensures the timely sharing of relevant safety information. The system also encourages information sharing between organisations so that examples of best practice can be widely adopted.

    NHS trusts are expected to review their own patient safety incidents. The revised Serious Incident Framework published in March 2015 has sought to simplify the incident management process and ensure that serious incidents are identified correctly, investigated thoroughly and, most importantly, learned from to prevent the likelihood of similar incidents happening again.

    The NHS standard contract also stipulates that providers must consider and respond to the recommendations arising from any audit, Serious Incident report or Patient Safety Incident report.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 20 January (HL5274), whether it is still a legal requirement to have a daily act of collective worship in academies, free schools and maintained schools.

    Lord Nash

    All state schools, including academies and free schools, must provide a daily act of collective worship for all registered pupils up to the age of 18. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from all or any part of collective worship, and sixth-form pupils have the right to withdraw themselves from collective worship.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the effect is on the public purse of not annually uprating the UK state pensions of British pensioners living overseas.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have bilateral agreements. There are no plans to change this.

    Not uprating where there is no legal requirement to do so frees up about £0.5 billion a year which can be used to fund Government priorities in this country.