Tag: 2016

  • Lord Mawson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Mawson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they decided to cancel the transfer of police custody healthcare services to the NHS after several years of preparation; whether that change in policy was announced to Parliament; and what assessment they have made of how that decision will ensure equivalent standards and quality of healthcare and safety of patients in all police services across England and Wales.

    Lord Bates

    The decision not to pursue the transfer of custody healthcare commissioning from Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to NHS England was taken in the context of wider decisions about the Provisional Police Funding Settlement for 2016/17, details of which were announced to Parliament in a written statement by the Minister of State for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice and Victims on 17 December.

    The Government is clear that Police and Crime Commissioners should retain full flexibility to be able to prioritise resources towards police custody healthcare functions based on their local needs.

    A number of sources of information and guidance are available to PCCs to inform their commissioning of custody healthcare services.

    The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1983 (PACE) sets out the statutory framework for custodial care and the rights and entitlements of a detainee in police custody. The College of Policing, as the professional body for policing, has published Approved Professional Practice (APP) on custody and detention. Police officers and staff are expected to have regard to the APP in discharging their responsibilities.The APP references wider guidance published by professional medical bodies including the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. In addition there is a NHS England national service specification setting out clinical standards for the commissioning and provision of police custody healthcare functions. This is currently being reviewed and updated.

    In many police force areas the close ties which PCCs have established to local NHS England commissioners over recent years have already helped to drive up the standards and quality of provision. On 11 February my Rt Hon Friend the Home Secretary and my Right Honourable Friend the Secretary of State for Health wrote to Police and Crime Commissioners and NHS England Commissioners encouraging them to continue to build upon this work to further improve healthcare service delivery.

    Any recommendations made by the forthcoming independent review of deaths and serious incidents in police custody will be carefully considered in due course.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on the UK tourism sector of the French ban on parity clauses for online travel agents.

    Nick Boles

    My Department has no plans to make such an assessment.

    Any assessment of the impact of parity clauses on competition and consumers falls within the remit of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority.

    One of the CMA’s predecessors, the Office of Fair Trading, launched an investigation into alleged resale price maintenance in arrangements between a hotel group and two online travel agents, though this ultimately led to no action being taken. The CMA keeps these issues under review and is working closely with other national competition authorities and the European Commission to do this.

  • Teresa Pearce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Teresa Pearce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Teresa Pearce on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when her Department will publish its most recent assessment of the effect of energy and climate change policies on energy prices and bills.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government is committed to making energy more affordable, supporting a more competitive, innovative, and smarter energy system that drives down bills. At the last Autumn Statement, the government also set out action to reduce the projected impact of policies on average household energy bills by around £30 a year from 2017.

    The Department intends to publish, in due course, an update on the projected costs of policies funded through supplier levies and obligations that impact consumer energy bills. In addition, the department continues to assess the impact of individual policy proposals on the energy bills of various consumers (including households and businesses), which it sets out in relevant policy impact assessments, available online at www.gov.uk.

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  • Lord Chidgey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Chidgey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Chidgey on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has commissioned any research into migration to the EU from Horn of Africa nations, in the UK’s role as the Chair of the Khartoum Process.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    In response to the migration crisis, the Government is building its evidence base on the drivers and trends in migration flows. We are working with partners, including through the Khartoum Process, to obtain a more systematic quantitative and qualitative data on flows and drivers of migration in source, transit and destination countries.

    The UK is funding data analysis and evidence review work by the International Organization for Migration and the Open Data Institute on migration into the EU through the central Mediterranean route. The UK has also funded work for research into criminal networks facilitating human trafficking and smuggling in the Horn of Africa.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what work his Department is undertaking on identifying EU regulations that have a cost to British businesses that could be repealed or replaced.

    Margot James

    In the short term, the Government will continue to seek the amendment or repeal of EU rules within the framework of the European Commission’s Regulatory Fitness (REFIT) programme, in order to minimise the regulatory burdens imposed on UK businesses. The REFIT programme was established in 2012 to review the stock of existing EU legislation in order to identify burdens, inconsistencies, gaps or ineffective measures and address them.

    Building on the work of the Red Tape Challenge and the current Cutting Red Tape programme, we will continue our engagement with business to gather their views on their priorities for reducing EU regulatory burdens wherever possible once the UK has left the EU. My Rt Hon Friend the former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) chaired a roundtable with business leaders, to discuss the challenges faced by businesses and ensure that the negotiation of the UK’s future relationship with the EU is carried out in the interest of UK companies, investors, potential investors and workers.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions on the demolition of Palestinian homes.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    ​We have not had any discussions with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what projection his Department has made of the annual spend on the contracted-out element of back to work support for the forthcoming Work and Health Programme; and how that spend compares with the annual spend on the current Work Programme and Work Choice.

    Priti Patel

    We are currently working on the design of the new Work and Health programme and we will publish the design and funding in due course.

  • 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 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take following their consultation on the EBacc.

    Lord Nash

    The consultation closed on 29 January. We are currently considering the responses and plan to publish the government response in due course.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate she has made of the (a) annual contribution to the economy of food production and (b) number of people employed in the food production industry.

    George Eustice

    The latest provisional data shows that in 2014 the whole food chain from farming to retail and catering was worth £108 billion to National Gross Value Added, and employed 3.8 million people. Within this, farming contributed £10.7 billion Gross Value Added and employed 440 thousand people, and food and drink manufacturing contributed £26.9 billion Gross Value Added and employed 410 thousand people. These statistics are derived from the Aggregate Agricultural Accounts by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Annual Business Survey and the Labour Force Survey by the Office for National Statistics.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much compensation was paid from the public purse to Chagossians; on what dates such compensation payments were made; and how many families were so compensated.

    James Duddridge

    The UK Government has paid out around £21m at current prices. This comprises two sums. An initial figure of £650,000 which the UK Government paid in 1973 to the Government of Mauritius towards the resettlement of those removed from the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965. This was disbursed with accrued interest in 1977 and 1978 to 595 families. Furthermore, in 1982 the UK Government paid over a further £4m pursuant to an agreement with the Government of Mauritius which had established the Ilois Trust Fund Board to distribute the money for the benefit of the Chagossians. The government of Mauritius had also contributed some land to the Trust Fund and the government of India contributed £1m to it. At least 1,344 Chagossians received compensation through the Trust Fund, which was largely paid out between 1982 and 1984, with a final disbursement in 1987. The Government does not hold information about those it has not compensated.