Tag: 2016

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many times she has attended public meetings of the Women and Equalities Committee since her appointment.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities has attended two public meetings of the Women and Equalities Select Committee since its establishment in June 2015, giving evidence to the Committee’s enquiries on Transgender Equality and the Gender Pay Gap. In my role as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women, Equalities and Family Justice, I also attended and gave evidence at the first of these sessions. I remain informed of other public meetings via Parliament TV and meeting transcripts.

    Attendance at Committee meetings is a matter of public record. Transcripts and videos of these appearances can be found on the Committee’s web pages, via the links below. There is also a transcript in Hansard.

    http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/transgender-equality/oral/24014.html

    http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/gender-pay-gap/oral/28868.html

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  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what Ofsted inspections of Birmingham City Council’s children’s social care services have been made since April 2014; whether Ofsted have indicated since then any major concerns about those services; and what information is available to the Department for Education Ministers to suggest that the City Council is not adhering to the three-year improvement plan approved by the City Council and the Department’s previous Commissioner in April 2015.

    Lord Nash

    The most recent Ofsted inspection of Birmingham City Council’s children’s services took place in March 2014. This inspection found services to be inadequate. Since then, Birmingham City Council has made some progress against its improvement plan, which ends in 2017. However, the current Commissioner for children’s services in Birmingham, Andrew Christie, and the council itself recognise that much more needs to be done. The Council is coming to the end of its current improvement plan and is exploring models for further improvement in future.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what standard his Department has set for the number of dental practices required per head of population.

    David Mowat

    NHS Dentistry is commissioned by NHS England following a local oral health needs assessment undertaken in partnership with Local authorities and other partner organisations. Local services are then commissioned to meet local needs, NHS England determines how best to use its resources to meet this need.

    NHS dental services are commissioned by NHS England through contracts with independent providers. These contracts are set on the basis of the oral health needs assessment, which identifies the level of dental need for a particular community and pays particular attention to access to local dental services and the dental health of the local population. There is considerable variation in oral health across England and so there are no national standards for the number of dental practices per head of population.

  • Kevin Foster – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kevin Foster – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Foster on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Legion d’Honneur applications are outstanding in his Department.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Ministry of Defence has received approximately 5,300 applications from veterans for the French award of the Legion d’Honneur. We have passed the majority of these to the French in accordance with the maximum permitted rate of 100 per week. We now only have 85 remaining applications to pass to the French, which will be submitted next week, and 130 applications with missing information which, therefore, cannot be processed – the Department is working to resolve these.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2015-12-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of allegations of electoral fraud in the recent legislative and presidential elections in Haiti.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Our (non-resident) Ambassador to Haiti and (resident) Chargé d’affaires regularly meet the European Observer Mission (EOM) to the recent Haitian elections, as well as observer teams from the Organization of American States (OAS) and ParlAmerica. While irregularities did take place, and are being investigated, none of the official observer groups has substantiated specific claims of fraud, or called the results of the election into question. The UK shares this assessment.

  • Jonathan Edwards – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jonathan Edwards – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases have come before the Court of Appeal challenging the lawfulness of the under-occupancy penalty on the grounds of the effect of that policy on (a) victims of domestic violence and (b) seriously disabled children who need overnight care.

    Justin Tomlinson

    (a) One victim of domestic violence has challenged the removal of the spare room subsidy in the Court of Appeal.

    (b) One challenge in the Court of Appeal from a case with a disabled child who requires overnight care from a non-resident carer.

  • Iain Wright – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Iain Wright – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Wright on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department intends to cease any existing or planned business support mechanisms in order to implement the apprenticeship levy.

    Nick Boles

    We are not cutting business support mechanisms to implement the levy. We are improving our business services by developing the Digital Apprenticeship Service.

    Through this online mechanism employers will have access to a number of services to help them choose and pay for apprenticeship training in a simple way.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the proposed Buses Bill, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on competition in the bus services market of bus operators retaining vehicle fleets, depots and other strategic assets when bus services are franchised.

    Andrew Jones

    The actual competition impacts will depend on how franchising is implemented at the local level. The Department’s high level assessment of the potential competition impacts of the Buses Bill proposals will be set out in the Impact Assessment which will accompany the introduction of the Bill. Individual local authorities will be better placed to conduct a detailed competition assessment of any changes they propose to make to their local bus market in light of the Bill.

  • Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why water customers are being required to pay for the financing and legal fees of the shareholders of the consortium, Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd., which was awarded the licence for the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    A water and sewerage company’s management and investors are responsible for determining the company’s capital and financing structure. This is an important feature of the water industry as it encourages investment by enabling a company to put in place a structure that works for it. However, accountability for a water or sewerage company’s capital and financing structure rests with investors and not customers.

    Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd (trading as Tideway) is an infrastructure provider, appointed and licenced under the Water Industry (Specified Infrastructure Projects) (English Undertakers) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/ 1582). Any costs incurred by Tidewayand its shareholders for its financing and other corporate arrangements are prevented under their project licence from being met by customers and are instead borne by the shareholders. This includes costs incurred both before and after licence award in August 2015.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what additional resources have been or will be made available to the Student Loans Company to enable that Company to administer amendments to the fees and student support system in England covering the (a) replacement of maintenance grants by maintenance loans, (b) introduction of the postgraduate loan scheme, (c) extension of maintenance loans to part-time students, (d) extension of advanced learner loans to those aged 19 years and above and (e) Teaching Excellence Framework.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) fully funds the cost to the Student Loans Company (SLC) of administering Higher and Further Education student finance policy in England. Funding is allocated on a demand-led basis whereby BIS requests services, SLC estimates the cost of delivery and then BIS pays the costs in full.

    As set out in SLC’s public Annual Performance and Resource Agreement (APRA) for financial year 2015-16, BIS made approximately £8.8m available to SLC to meet the costs of implementing all new policies related to student support for Higher and Further Education in England, including (but not exclusively) the implementation of policies a, b and d above. The amount of funding to be made available to SLC for the financial year 2016-17, including for delivery of policies a-e above, will be confirmed in this year’s APRA and published on SLC’s website shortly.