The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, to which destinations (a) Ministers and (b) officials of her Department have taken flights as part of their official duties since her appointment.
Rory Stewart
DFID publishes information about flights and other expenses incurred on Ministerial and senior official overseas trips on a quarterly basis on www.gov.uk.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeffrey M. Donaldson on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve the attendance of reservists at weekly drills, training exercises and medical assessments.
Mr Julian Brazier
The majority of Reserve personnel train on a regular basis, effectively balancing their commitment to their Service with the competing demands of a busy modern life. The Ministry of Defence recognises and rewards reservists’ commitment to our nation in various ways.
We have provided better equipment, and more opportunities for interesting and challenging experiences, including exercises, adventurous training and overseas training.
Volunteer reservists are paid for attendance at training and also receive a tax-exempt training bounty provided they fulfil their Service’s annual training requirement including a two week camp or course. They have also received an annual paid leave entitlement since 1 April 2013.
In addition, since April 2015, reservists have been eligible for the new Armed Forces Pension Scheme for non-mobilised service, based on paid attendance.
These are just some examples of the actions the Department has taken to demonstrate that reservists are valued and valuable.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 28 January (HL5309), when Louise Casey’s review into boosting opportunity and integration amongst isolated groups started work; what are its terms of reference; who is directing its work; what is the estimated cost of the review; when it is expected to report and to whom; and whether its findings will be made public.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The Prime Minister commissioned Louise Casey CB to carry out a review of how to boost opportunity and integration in isolated and vulnerable communities in July 2015. She is considering issues including: how we can ensure people learn English; how we can improve academic and employment outcomes, especially for women; and how state agencies can work more effectively with these communities to promote integration and community cohesion. Louise will provide an interim report to the Prime Minister and it will be published shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that the adoption of new medical device technology by the NHS is not frustrated by the five-year length of NHS Supply Chain Framework Agreements, given the life cycle of some inventions.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The framework agreements awarded by NHS Supply Chain primarily cover existing products and services. National frameworks reduce the duplication of effort faced by suppliers trying to ‘sell their’ products into the National Health Service on a trust by trust basis by providing a single route, compliant with European Union public procurement regulations.
The scope and duration of each framework agreement takes into account the nature of the product category, including an assessment of whether the product market is emerging or fast moving.
In addition, NHS Supply Chain hosts an Innovation Scorecard enabling suppliers to introduce truly innovative products into the NHS following a submission through the online tool on the organisation’s website. If a product is deemed to be innovative, the product can be fast-tracked and made available to the NHS through NHS Supply Chain’s online and national catalogues usually within a six month period.
The Accelerated Access Review, announced by the Minister for Life Sciences in November 2014 will make recommendations to Government on speeding up access to transformative new medicines and technologies for NHS patients, using data from initiatives such as the CDF and EAMS, as well as greater use of procurement purchasing power to accelerate cost effective uptake of innovations.
Its key aims are to improve care and outcomes by giving patients quicker access to new treatment and improve the longer-term affordability of the product pipeline. The Review published an interim report in October 2015 and will make further recommendations to Government by April 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of patients who will have to use other hospitals if Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is closed.
Ben Gummer
No estimate has been made. These are matters for the National Health Service.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Hollinrake on 2016-04-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the most vulnerable people in developing countries have access to adequate hygiene and sanitation.
Mr Nick Hurd
DFID is committed to reaching 60 million people with water and sanitation by 2020. We reached 62.9 million people between 2011 and 2015. Improving hygiene is central to our programming. We are the largest bilateral donor for basic water and sanitation in low-income countries.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-06-13.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what guidance the Electoral Commission has given to its staff on political impartiality.
Mr Gary Streeter
A copy of the Electoral Commission’s code of conduct for staff has been placed in the House Library.
This document, which is available on the Commission’s intranet and circulated at regular intervals through internal bulletins to remind staff of its content, sets out clearly the conduct expected of staff in their capacity as a Commission employee, including that, “Throughout your employment/engagement … with the Commission you are required to conduct yourself so as not to raise any questions as to the political impartiality of the Commission”.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what vessels of all types are available to the Royal Naval Reserve for training.
Mark Lancaster
The Royal Naval Reserve has access to all types of Royal Navy vessels to deliver effective and quality training opportunities for all Royal Naval Reservists, depending on their specialisation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been spent from the public purse on bus services per capita in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, formerly Centro and (c) each region of England from 2009-10 to the most recent financial year for which information is available.
Andrew Jones
The attached table shows the estimated revenue spend on bus services and estimated revenue spend per capita on bus services for the English regions, West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority and Birmingham for 2009/10 to 2014/15, the years for which data are available.
The table also shows figures used to derive the total revenue spend from:
The estimates do not include spend from DCLG estimates on ‘public and other transport planning, policy and strategy’ and ‘public transport management’ that could relate to bus services. It is not possible to determine the extent of spend on bus services in these categories from the DCLG figures. Also, any local authority or DfT capital spend on bus infrastructure has been excluded.
Local authority revenue spend is not available for Birmingham. They receive a proportion of the funding from West Midlands ITA to run bus services in their area that is not disaggregated in the DCLG local authority spend estimates.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pauline Latham on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2015 to Question 18808, what assessment he made of the conclusion by the Independent Cancer Taskforce in its 2015 report entitled Achieving world class outcomes for cancer: A strategy for England 2015-2020 that faecal immunochemical testing has extremely poor rates of detection for precancerous polyps.
Jane Ellison
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recently consulted on the use of Faecal Immunochemical testing (FIT) as an alternative screen test for bowel cancer. Both the UK NSC and the Independent Cancer Taskforce are supportive of the initial results of the FIT pilot, which indicates that this test is more acceptable to the screened population with a significant increase in participation (10%). The UK NSC has published its minutes from the November meeting and recommends a change to use FIT as the primary test to be used in the National Health Service Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.
We are considering the UK NSC’s recommendation.