Tag: 2016

Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to (a) notify recently bereaved spouses of the existence of bereavement benefits and (b) encourage those people to check their entitlement.

Priti Patel

Information about Bereavement Benefits is widely available through GOV.UK. We also work closely with third party organisations who the bereaved traditionally contact such as registrars, hospitals, funeral directors and voluntary groups ensuring that they have the correct information available to signpost the bereaved to the DWP Bereavement Service.

Upon contacting the DWP Bereavement Service our staff will ensure that any benefits and pensions arrears are claimed and will also initiate a claim for Social Fund Funeral Payments and Bereavement Benefits if appropriate.

.

We continue to look for opportunities to improve the availability of advice about these particular benefits and as a result we have improved the information available on GOV.UK, and are currently exploring ways in which to to join up the Tell Us Once and Bereavement Service offers.

Tell Us Once is a cross-government service delivered through Local Authorities whereby notification of the death is cascaded out to other agencies, thus reducing the number of contacts an individual has to make.

The time limit for claiming Bereavement Allowance is three months from the date of death, which is consistent with the time limit for other welfare entitlements. We are currently developing the new Bereavement Support Payment due to be implemented for new claims from April 2017, and we will assess the merits of further flexibilities on backdating as part of this work.

Information available on the number of people in receipt of Bereavement Allowance by duration of current claim can be found at:

http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/tabtool.html

Guidance for users can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance

“

01/01/2023
David Lammy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the criteria is for which hospitals are listed as being supported by the Emergency Care Intensive Support Team.

Ben Gummer

In 2015/16, increased resources were provided to the Emergency Care Intensive Support Team (ECIST). This was to enable it to provide a programme of deeper support to 27 health communities in England selected on the basis of poor performance against the national 4-hour accident and emergency standard during 2014/15 and quarter one of 2015/16. ECIST is also resourced to provide expert input to the eight urgent and emergency care vanguards.

Since April 2016, the team has offered limited improvement support to a small group of trusts at the request of NHS Improvement regional teams.

01/01/2023
Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 28 June 2016 to Question 41415, what assistance the Government provides for UK coal and gas producers seeking to export their fuels overseas to the (a) EU and (b) rest of the world.

Amber Rudd

In the case of gas, UK Trade and Investment is active in helping the UK oil and gas sector do more business internationally. In addition the remit of the new Oil & Gas Authority, established in 2015, is to work with government and industry to make sure that maximum economic benefit is derived from the UK’s oil and gas reserves.

UK companies are freely able to export and import coal as part of normal market operators.

UK demand for both coal and gas outweighs domestic supply, therefore the UK imports the vast majority of its coal needs and around half of its gas supply.

01/01/2023
John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.

Greg Hands

I refer the hon. Member for Southport to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak on 13 October, UIN 47419, 47396.

01/01/2023
Rehman Chishti – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rehman Chishti on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of pilots operating in the UK who have sought medical assistance after a laser pen attack which occurred in the course of their work.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Department does not hold any information on the number of pilots who have sought medical assistance following a laser pen attack. The Civil Aviation Authority has published a Safety Notice which provides guidance on laser attacks, including the action that aircraft crew and controllers should take during and immediately after an attack. It also includes a self-assessment tool to help those exposed to lasers make an immediate assessment of their vision and determine whether or not they need to consult an eye specialist.

01/01/2023
David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many flights were attended by the Border Force beyond the primary control points in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire

Border Force does not have the requested data prior to 2012/13. Since then we have made improvements to our command and control of general aviation, including our national statistical reporting, and are able to provide full details from 2013 onwards.

During 2013/14 Border Force a) attended 27,299 flights and remotely cleared 18,885 flights

During 2014/15 Border Force a) attended 27,033 flights and remotely cleared 32,042

The figures quoted are management information, subject to internal quality checks and may be subject to change.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 35 of Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd’s Regulatory Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2015, what cash funding his Department has committed to the (a) Reading Station redevelopment and (b) Great Western Electrification Programme in order to reduce the amount being added to Network Rail’s Regulatory Asset Base; and for what reasons that policy has been adopted.

Claire Perry

This transaction relates to funding commitments announced by the Government in Autumn 2014. These decisions were taken in order to make the most effective use of the department’s resources in financial year 2014/15 and progress delivery for passengers.

In accordance with Clause 2.4 of the Facility Agreement, the department provided Network Rail with a £155 million grant in exchange for a £125 million reduction in the Available Commitment of the Facility and £30.5 million worth of work to be brought forward into Control Period 5 – the time period covered by the Facility Agreement.

01/01/2023
Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the event of the UK leaving the EU, the UK would have to leave the EU electronic banking system, the Single Euro Payments Area, by which funds can be transferred across the EU.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The paper ‘The process for withdrawing from the European Union’ set out that a vote to leave the EU would be the start, not the end, of a process. It could lead to up to a decade or more of uncertainty. One consideration for the UK Government would be how to avoid regulatory gaps in the UK’s domestic legislative framework once the EU Treaties ceased to apply. This would involve questions over how existing EU law could or should be adopted into domestic law.

At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU.

In April 2016, HM Treasury published analysis that shows that if the UK leaves the EU, the UK would be permanently poorer. The analysis estimates an annual loss of 6.2% of GDP after 15 years, which is equivalent to £4,300 per UK household. The negative impact to GDP would result in weaker tax receipts, which would be £36 billion a year lower. This is more than a third of the NHS England budget and the equivalent of 8p on the basic rate of income tax.

These estimates are based on a central scenario: leaving the EU to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with Europe, along the lines of that which took Canada seven years to negotiate.

Through a range of realistic assumptions, many of them cautious, the HM Treasury analysis produces objective and robust estimates, which are within the range of external studies.

A full assessment of the short-term implications of leaving the EU will be published in a further government document.

01/01/2023

Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much NHS hospital trusts in England spent on cleaning services in each financial year since 2009-10.

Alistair Burt

The total amount spent on cleaning services by National Health Service hospital trusts is as shown in Table 1, below:

Table 1: Cleaning Services Costs by Year
Year	Cleaning Services Costs (£ millions)
2009/10	897.2
2010/11	938.6
2011/12	936.5
2012/13	933.9
2013/14	904.1
2014/15	929.2

Table 2 (attached separately) gives information on cleaning spend for each NHS hospital trust for 2014-15.

“

01/01/2023

Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has conducted on the links between cancer survival rates, diet and exercise.

George Freeman

The Department has not conducted or commissioned specific research on this topic.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is investing £4.5 million over five years in the NIHR Bristol Nutrition Biomedical Research Unit (BRU). This BRU aims to translate knowledge developed from work on causal associations in nutrition, drawn from population and clinical studies, to develop interventions that improve the health of people with conditions related to poor nutrition. One of the BRU’s research areas is prostate cancer. The overall aim of work in this area is to investigate the feasibility of undertaking randomised controlled trials of nutritional and physical activity interventions in men with prostate cancer and the impact of these interventions on cancer pathology to identify promising interventions to develop into phase III tertiary prevention trials.

01/01/2023