Tag: 2016

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies on shop workers’ rights to opt out of Sunday working of the findings of a recent USDAW survey on the number of shop workers who (a) feel under pressure to work longer hours on a Sunday and (b) want to work fewer hours on a Sunday.

    Anna Soubry

    In formulating its final proposals, the Government has carefully considered all the evidence submitted during the consultation process.

    A number of respondents expressed concern that extended opening hours could increase pressure on shop workers to work longer hours on Sundays. We therefore propose to enable shop workers to opt out of working additional hours on Sundays, to shorten the notice period for shop workers at large shops who wish to opt out of Sunday working altogether, and to strengthen and clarify the duty on employers to notify shop workers of their opt-out rights.

  • Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

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

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on advertisements using Facebook in each of the last three years.

    Matthew Hancock

    Cabinet Office did not spend anything in 2013/14 on Facebook advertising. In 2014/15 there was a total of £17,511.16 spent by Cabinet Office on Facebook advertising. Fully auditable figures are not available for the 2015/16. All figures include VAT.

  • Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that UK aid spent in Africa supports small-scale organic farmers.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    DFID’s Agricultural Policy Framework, published last year, sets out the approach and steps DFID will take to support agriculture. Depending on context and need, this is expected to include support to small scale organic, or smallholder, farmers in Africa. Our priorities include helping smallholder farmers to increase their productivity, and to better link them to markets to sell their produce so as to increase their incomes, improve their livelihoods and contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.

    For example we are providing support to the International Fund Agriculture Development’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme. This will help smallholder farmers in Africa cope with the impacts of climate change by providing extension services to farmers, improving irrigation and infrastructure, and helping farmers to increase their harvests through improved seeds and better soil and land management practices.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make plans to use the statutory powers granted to him by section 128 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to reform the Parole Board release test.

    Dominic Raab

    IPP prisoners are released where the Parole Board is satisfied that they can be safely managed in the community.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects the Competition and Markets Authority to report on its investigation on suspected anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical sector.

    George Freeman

    The Department is already referring cases to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). To strengthen our work in this area we are considering putting measures in place to routinely and systematically monitor significant price increases of generic medicines and take action where appropriate, including the possible referral of suspected excessive pricing to the CMA, while taking into account the potential impact of any such action on the availability of medicines.

    The CMA is currently conducting a number of investigations into anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry. It imposed fines totalling £45 million in one case (currently subject to appeal at the Competition Appeal Tribunal), and expects to reach a final decision by late summer in another. It opened two more cases in March and April 2016 in which it expects to decide in late summer whether there are grounds to take each investigation further.

    The CMA is also considering evidence of other potential cases of anti-competitive practices in the sector, and may well open further investigations in the coming months.

    The CMA is independent of Ministers and we cannot interfere in either the substance or the procedures of its decision-making.

  • Hugo Swire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hugo Swire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugo Swire on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Commonwealth Secretary General about the Maldives.

    Alok Sharma

    The Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) has not discussed the Maldives with the Commonwealth Secretary General. Senior officials in London and Colombo have discussed the Maldives with the Secretary General, her staff and her Special Envoy for Maldives, Dr Willy Mutunga.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many defibrillators are provided in each building his Department manages.

    Harriett Baldwin

    HM Treasury manages 1 Horse Guard’s Road in which 6 defibrillators are located. On 29th September 2015, 1 Horse Guard’s Road received Automated External Defibrillator Accreditation by the London Ambulance Service.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the experience that Bain and Company has to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication in terms of health services in the NHS context.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) commissioned Bain and Company to support vanguards as an extension to work previously commissioned from the company as part of a programme called Future Focused Finance, an initiative sponsored by the Department of Health and arm’s length bodies. This earlier work for the HFMA had focused on the design of a value-based decision effectiveness tool, piloted in Mid-Cheshire and Liverpool. The HFMA, in partnership with NHS England, commissioned the extension to this work so that the tool could be used to support value-based decision-making in the 2016-17 New Care Models programme.

    Alternatives were not sought from competitors because the vanguard support built on the original Bain and Company work for the HFMA.

    The value of the vanguard support contract is £650,000. Value for money was obtained by negotiation, having been benchmarked with other commissions made by the National Health Service to external health consultancies.

    As part of the contract, Bain and Company will be handing over its approach to NHS England, so that NHS England can support other areas in implementing new care models.

    Bain and Company has not been commissioned to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication of new care models in other areas. The company is commissioned to develop and implement a framework that appropriately experienced NHS staff can use to assess such evidence. Intellectual property rights in respect of the framework in the future are assigned to HFMA under the terms of the contract. The NHS is entitled to use the framework free of charge in perpetuity.

    Bain and Company is involved in the development of the tool used to make the assessment, and in the implementation of the process to use that tool. The company is specifically commissioned to help vanguard sites to use the tool and to summarise the resulting value propositions to facilitate decision-making by NHS England.

    No conflict of interest arises as decisions concerning funding allocations for individual vanguards are made by NHS England’s Executive Team and Investment Committee and not Bain and Company.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, what progress has been made since that announcement on the estates regeneration programme.

    Brandon Lewis

    Work has progressed well since the announcement. The Advisory Panel, which the noble Lord, the rt. hon. Lord Heseltine and I jointly chair, has been set up and is already engaging with the key issues and will be undertaking a planned programme of site visits across the country. The Government has issued a Statement inviting expressions of interest from prospective estates; proposals are being received and considered by the Government’s advisory team.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) received from the Government in the last three years; for what reasons that funding is provided; against what criteria the decision to fund that organisation was made; and what obligations the ETI places on its member companies with respect to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    In the last three years the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) has received £1.2m in funding from DFID, through a Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA). PPA funding supports ETI to improve working conditions for poor and vulnerable people, this includes workers in top tier farms and factories, as well as those in the lower tiers of supply chains (such as women homeworkers, smallholders and migrant workers) who are harder to reach and more vulnerable to exploitation. PPA funding is not tied to specific initiatives or interventions but ETI are expected to meet objectives set out in a robust performance framework, agreed between DFID and ETI.

    PPA funding was based on competitive selection and open to organisations who were regarded as leaders in their field and who could deliver on DFID’s objectives. Organisations were selected following a rigorous assessment and quality assurance process.

    Freedom of Association and collective bargaining is a component of the ETI Base Code and therefore every ETI member commits to taking action to support this right.