Tag: 2016

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what contingency plans the Government has in place for winter 2016-17 to support pensioners and other vulnerable people in the event of a prolonged spell of below average temperatures.

    Jesse Norman

    The Government has various policies in place that will support pensioners and other vulnerable people with their energy bills throughout winter 2016/17,irrespective of temperature.

    The Warm Home Discount scheme provides eligible households with a £140 energy bill rebate. This winter, over 2 million low income and vulnerable households, of which over 1.2 million are pensioner households, will be helped under the scheme.

    Over 12 million pensioners receive the Winter Fuel Payment of up to £300 each winter while people on certain benefits, including Pension Credit, receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment for each seven day period of freezing temperatures.

    The Government is also reforming the Energy Company Obligation to have a greater focus on vulnerable and low income households. It will have a value of £640m a year, will run from 2017 until 2022, and and homes helped under the new obligation could see their energy bills fall by up to £300 per year.

    In addition, we are providing £1.3m to fund the Big Energy Saving Network and running the Big Energy Saving Week again. This is a grant scheme that supports vulnerable consumers to take action to reduce their energy costs by switching supplier and taking up energy efficiency, through outreach by trusted and trained community and third sector organisations.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what training his Department provides for women to enable them to serve in combat on the front line.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Women already serve in a variety of roles with front line units including pilots, submariners, medics, fire support team commanders, military intelligence operators, counter improvised explosive device operators and dog handlers. They have made and continue to make a valuable contribution to recent and current operations including Afghanistan.

    Women are currently excluded from serving in Ground Close Combat roles; the Infantry and Royal Armoured Corps, the Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force Regiment. The Prime Minister stated on 20 December 2015 that he wants to see all roles in the Armed Forces opened up to women in 2016 and further physiological research currently under way will inform a final decision in mid-2016.

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average hourly earnings of (a) female, (b) male, (c) full-time and (d) part-time employees of his Department were in each of the last five years.

    Matthew Hancock

    The information is not available.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on how the BBC defines talent for the purposes of non-disclosure of salaries and contractual payments.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Remuneration of talent is an issue for the BBC, which publishes information around its talent spend and definitions as part of its Annual Report and Accounts, which can be found here (http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/pdf/2014-15/bbc-annualreport-201415.pdf) .

  • Lord Campbell of Pittenweem – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Campbell of Pittenweem – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Campbell of Pittenweem on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions since Typhoon aircraft were deployed to RAF Lossiemouth such aircraft were required to use Leuchars as a diversionary airfield; how many such aircraft were involved on each occasion; and what the reasons were for those diversions.

    Earl Howe

    I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Mr Francois) on 5 January 2015 to Question number 219126. There have been no further occasions of Typhoon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth being required to divert to Leuchars.

  • Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when her Department plans to lay the Committee on Climate Change report on Compatibility of Onshore Petroleum with meeting UK carbon budgets and its response before Parliament.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Department has received the Committee on Climate Change report. We are considering the report and will lay it before Parliament with our response in due course.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he and his officials have had with Public Health England about the collection of data on secondary breast cancer in (a) the West Midlands and (b) England.

    David Mowat

    Ministers, officials, Public Health England (PHE) and breast cancer charities are in ongoing discussions about secondary breast cancer data.

    The National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), which is part of PHE, is supporting the direct reporting of recurrence data by all hospital trusts, as part of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset (COSD). Since 2013 there has been the ability to report breast cancer recurrences in COSD, and in 2015 this was expanded to include all cancer recurrences, but these data are not yet being fully collected and submitted by all trusts.

    NCRAS is helping trusts improve their reporting by visiting, providing reporting guidance, and by giving rapid feedback on the number of recurrences they have submitted to NCRAS. To further support this work NCRAS is currently preparing to share new provider-level data for the whole of England on the data completeness of recurrence reporting within trusts.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many staff, at what grades, his Department has recruited in the (a) Market Access Budget, (b) Justice, Security and Migration, (c) Cross-Government Policy and Coordination, (d) Strategy and Planning, (e) Trade and Partnership and (f) Analysis Directorate.

    Mr David Jones

    The Department for Exiting the EU now has over 200 staff in London, plus the expertise of over 120 officials in Brussels, and we are still growing rapidly. We are not in a position to give a final total nor a breakdown by directorate as recruitment is ongoing.

  • 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 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many higher education institutions have had their funding allocated by the National College of Teaching and Leadership reduced as a consequence of training more teachers than places allocated in each academic year since 2010-11.

    Nick Gibb

    We have not reduced the funding for any higher education institutions (HEIs) as a consequence of training more teachers than places allocated since 2010-11.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 22981, if he will ask Ofcom to publish an assessment of whether the 26 per cent of BT’s ducts identified as being empty in the report, Telecoms infrastructure access – sample survey of duct access, published in March 2009, reflected the proportion of BT’s ducts that were able to have fibre blown through them without further civil works in the superfast broadband rollout.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    I understand from Ofcom that the sample surveyed in the Ofcom report ‘Telecoms infrastructure access – sample survey of duct access’, published in March 2009, provided an indicative rather than representative assessment of the potential spare capacity in BT’s ducts.