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Tag: 2016

  • Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans that the Post Office Card Account will be available until 2021.

    Priti Patel

    Post Office Card Accounts provide a useful service to many people and there are no plans to change provision.

    The Department recognises, however, that working age claimants may also be receiving wages. As the account does not receive wages or allow for direct debit or standing order facilities, Post Office Card Accounts are not suitable for all of their needs. Those claimants are therefore being encouraged to open main stream bank accounts including credit union accounts.

    The Post Office Card Account contract was awarded from 01 December 2014 and expires on 30 November 2021 and there are no plans to amend that term.

  • Lord Chadlington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Chadlington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Chadlington on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to provide non-religious support to people with alcohol misuse problems.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Local authorities and their health and wellbeing board partners have responsibility for planning the full range of alcohol services, from early intervention and prevention, through to commissioning alcohol treatment services to meet need in their area and ensure services are accessible to everyone. Furthermore in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) public health guidance (PH 24) Alcohol-use disorders: preventing harmful drinking, Public Health England (PHE) encourages health and social care professionals to carry out Identification and Brief Advice through general practitioners and programmes such as NHS Health Checks and Making Every Contact Count. A copy of the NICE guidance is attached.

    The majority of services offer interventions that are non-religious and are based on cognitive behavioural principles with motivational enhancement techniques.

    There are a number of online resources to help with alcohol issues, including the One You and NHS Choices websites. One You is an integrated social marketing campaign run by PHE which aims to engage adults in making changes to improve their own health. This includes offering users advice and information about alcohol as well as tools which help monitor their drinking. NHS Choices offers a range of information about alcohol dependence and includes an on online directory of local alcohol services that those worried about their alcohol use can approach for assistance.

  • 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 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many deaths by suicide in each age group have been recorded within one month of being released from prison in England in each year since 2010.

    Nicola Blackwood

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Julian Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Julian Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the advantages of (a) expertise, (b) experience and (c) continuity in the use of specialist MOD civilian police in guarding sensitive military establishments.

    Michael Fallon

    In 2013 the Ministry of Defence (MOD) completed a review of its civil policing and guarding policy and requirements to ensure that these reflect the main security and crime risks faced by the Department, and were being met as cost effectively as possible by the MOD Police, the Military Provost Guard Service and the MOD Guard Service.

    The review recognised the very important role that the MOD Police played in support of security of the defence estate, but concluded that there was scope to make reductions to the number of guarding and civil policing posts at some sites, whilst maintaining effective and proportionate security at all of our sites. Overall the changes represented an improvement in security risk management; however, the safety of our personnel, assets and information continues to be our priority and our security arrangements are kept under review to meet these requirements.

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Department for Education has taken to ensure that schools whose admission arrangements were objected to by the Fair Admissions Campaign in 2014 and 2015 have changed their arrangements in line with any determinations of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

    Lord Nash

    A decision made by the School’s Adjudicator is binding and enforceable. Where the Adjudicator upholds an objection about a school’s admission arrangements, the statutory School Admissions Code requires the school’s admission authority to revise their admission arrangements to give effect to the Adjudicator’s decision within two months of that decision, or by 28 February following the decision, whichever is the sooner. Should an admission authority fail to comply with this requirement, the Secretary of State is able to take action to require them to comply.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment the Government has made of the feasibility of air drops of food supplies and aid into besieged areas during the current ceasefire in Syria.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The International Syria Support Group meeting in Munich in February set out a clear way ahead for the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid in Syria and for a cessation of hostilities. The UK continues to keep the humanitarian situation in Syria under review and has been playing a full role, as part of the Humanitarian Aid Task Force, supporting the UN and its partners in successfully stepping-up deliveries of food, water and medicine. Road delivery is the preferred method of delivering aid wherever possible since air drops require clear drop zones, safe access for the intended recipients, and need to be co-ordinated with authorities on the ground. While the UK has been seeking to support World Food Programme efforts to air-drop supplies to Deir ez-Zour, our assessment is that these conditions are not being met in Syria.

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

    Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Caulfield on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times Southern Trains has cancelled a scheduled stop at Plumpton Station in East Sussex in the last 12 months for which information is available.

    Claire Perry

    We do not hold information to this level of detail. Govia Thameslink Railways, that operates Southern Trains, might hold this data.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much was raised by the diverted profits tax in 2015-16.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Diverted Profits Tax is designed to counteract contrived arrangements used to avoid tax in the UK, and incentivise businesses to change their behaviour and pay tax on profits from economic activities in the UK. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) recent assessment at Budget 2016 is that overall yield (including Corporation Tax from behavioural change) is expected to be close to that originally scored.

    The OBR noted on page 122 of its “Economic and fiscal outlook” March 2016: “Our forecast assumes that overall yield from the measure will be close to that originally scored, but we now expect that around two-thirds of the yield will come through higher Corporation Tax payments (as firms restructure their tax affairs) rather than via the diverted profits tax itself.” This is available at: http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.org.uk/March2016EFO.pdf.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they intend to make to the government of Israel asking them to take financial responsibility for the territories they occupy.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have no plans to make any representations to the Israeli authorities on this issue.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to her article in the Daily Mail, entitled Too much of your money is simply stolen or squandered, published on 13 September 2016, in what areas of her Department’s spending funding is being stolen or wasted.

    Rory Stewart

    DFID has a zero tolerance approach to fraud and has a wide range of robust measures and controls in place to protect UK aid and ensure we maximise value for money. My department works in challenging areas and operates a comprehensive risk management framework which assesses and responds to the risk of fraud at every stage of the project cycle. The Counter Fraud Section responds firmly to any allegation of fraud recovering funds wherever possible. We expect our partners to account for losses from their own funds to minimise the impact on UK taxpayers and the recipients of aid.