Tag: 2016

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

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of progress in implementing the provisions regarding footpaths and bridleways contained in the Deregulation Act 2015.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

We are continuing to work with the Stakeholder Working Group on both the secondary legislation and guidance necessary for implementation of the rights of way provisions in the Deregulation Act 2015. We expect the package of legislation and guidance to be commenced, all on the same date, later in the year. One of the sets of regulations we are introducing is subject to affirmative resolution and therefore first needs to be debated in both Houses. This has added to the timetable.

January 1, 2023
Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many times the Foreign Secretary’s Advisory Group on Human Rights has met in each year since its formation; and how many of those meetings in each such year (a) he or his predecessor and (b) Minister of his Department attended.

Mr Philip Hammond

My Advisory Group on Human Rights has met 11 times since its formation in November 2010 – twice a year, with the exception of 2010, when it met only in December and 2014 when it met only in May. My predecessors or I have chaired every one of these meetings, with the exception of the most recent meeting in April 2016, when the meeting was chaired by the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Baroness of Anelay of St Johns.

January 1, 2023
Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress has been made on the electrification of the Leeds-Harrogate-York railway line.

Paul Maynard

Later this year the rail industry will present its initial advice to Government on investment needs for the national network in the next Control Period (2019-2024), drawing on the outputs of Network Rail’s long term planning process, including its review of the national electrification strategy. Taking account of this advice and other inputs – including from Transport for the North – the Government intends to articulate its emerging priorities for improvement to the national network during 2017.

January 1, 2023
Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of removing the 50 per cent cap on religious selection in free schools on the ability of parents to get their children into a local school.

Caroline Dinenage

We want a diverse range of schools to give parents greater choice and drive up standards. The proposals set out in our consultation, ‘Schools that Work for Everyone’, aim to increase local capacity by enabling a wider group of providers to establish new schools. The proposal to remove the 50 per cent cap on religious selection in new free schools has, for some faith groups, been a barrier to setting up new schools. The removal of the cap and the establishment of new faith schools will add to the overall stock of places and should increase choice for parents.

January 1, 2023

John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the costs and benefits of ending the paper vehicle tax disc.

Andrew Jones

The changes to the administration of vehicle excise duty are expected to save the public purse £13.8m per year. These savings are made up of the elements shown in the table below:

No longer having to print or store tax discs.	£1.3m pa
No longer having to post tax discs to customers.	£7.9m pa
No longer having to process applications for vehicle excise duty refunds (which are now paid automatically without the need for an application) or handle enquiries about lost or missing tax discs.	£1.2m pa
Reduction in Post Office Ltd costs as they no longer issue paper tax discs, but offer an assisted digital service instead.	£3.4m pa

Business will also save an estimated £8.6m per year from the changes. The savings arise from leasing companies no longer having to post tax discs to customers or businesses having to apply for refunds of vehicle excise duty and paying to replace lost or stolen tax discs.

There are also one-off costs of £5.7m made up of the elements shown in the table below:

DVLA IT and systems changes/updates,	£4m
Familiarisation costs to the General Public and Business in understanding the changes	£1.7m

January 1, 2023

Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page nine of her Department’s response to the Education Committee’s Fifth Report of Session 2014-15, Life Lessons: PSHE and SRE in schools, published in July 2015, CM 9121, when her Department plans to report back to the Committee on its full consideration of the arguments made by the Committee on introducing PSHE and SRE as statutory subjects in primary and secondary schools.

Edward Timpson

The Government wants all young people to leave school prepared for life in modern Britain. High quality personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) teaching has an important role to play in providing young people with a ‘curriculum for life’, which equips them with the skills and understanding they need to manage their lives, to succeed and to stay safe.

We have committed to improving the quality of PSHE and intend to make significant progress on this issue during this Parliament. The Department for Education is currently working with headteachers and other experts to identify how we can improve the quality of PSHE for every pupil.

January 1, 2023

Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK (a) military and (b) civilian personnel are deployed on UN peacekeeping operations in each operational theatre.

Penny Mordaunt

The tables below show the numbers of military and civilian personnel the UK has deployed to UN mandated peacekeeping and special political missions in the last six years, as at 26 February 2016:

Military Personnel

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
UNFICYP (Cyprus)	271	273	270	274	274	274
MINUSMA (Mali)			1	2	2	2
UNMISS (South Sudan)		3	2	4	3	3
MONUSCO (Democratic Republic of Congo)	5	4	5	5	5	5
UNSOM (Somalia)					2	2
UNSMIL (Libya/Tunisia)					1	1
TOTAL	276	280	278	285	287	287

Civilian Personnel

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
MONUSCO	1	1	1	1	1
UNMISS		4	4	2
UNSMIL					1	1
MINUSTAH (Haiti)				3	3	3
UNMIL (Liberia)					1	1
TOTAL	1	1	1	8	10	7

The civilian figures represent deployments from the Stabilisation Unit; other Government Departments also deploy civilians on UN Peacekeeping missions.

The figures do not include deployments to UN Agencies.

January 1, 2023

Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact on economic and financial stability of increasing private sector debt as a percentage of GDP and aggregate personal income, and (2) the level at which those ratios would be judged to be too high.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government does not have an explicit target for the level of private sector debt. However, we established the independent Financial Policy Committee (FPC), within the Bank of England, which is empowered to identify, assess, monitor and take action in relation to risks across the UK financial system. This includes risks from private sector debt. The FPC actively monitors developments in the aggregate level of credit extended to UK households and private non-financial corporations, and has the macroprudential policy tools required to address any risk it identifies.

January 1, 2023
Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free schools were delayed in opening in each year since 2010.

Edward Timpson

Since the free schools programme began, 81 free school projects have had their opening date deferred. In each case there was a need to balance the risk of opening on the planned date against all the elements that must be in place to ensure that a free school is successful when it opens. Our guidance makes clear that allowing a free school project to enter the “pre-opening” phase does not guarantee that the school will open on the date originally planned by the proposer group, or open at all.

Free schools offer excellent value for money. The National Audit Office found in 2013 that free schools were built 45% more cheaply than other school building programmes. The free schools that are already open will provide over 150,000 new places.

January 1, 2023
Antoinette Sandbach – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Antoinette Sandbach on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will review the (a) commissioning framework and (b) tariff payment for bereavement care for families who have suffered a stillbirth or neonatal death.

Ben Gummer

A report in 2015 on Term, singleton, normally-formed, antepartum stillbirth from Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK found that 60% of parents currently receive a good standard of bereavement care but this is not the case for everyone and we are continuing to consider the actions that should be taken to improve bereavement care across England.

NHS England has established a Maternity Transformation Programme Board, this will bring key partners together to oversee the implementation of a broad range of policies to deliver significant improvements to maternity care in England, including implementation of the recommendations of Better Births, Improving outcomes of maternity services in England (2016). The Transformation Programme includes work on supporting local transformation of maternity services, promoting best practice for safer care, increasing choice and reforming the payment system.

In Delivering the Forward View: NHS planning guidance 2016/17-2020/21 localities have been asked to produce “Sustainability and Transformation Plans” to show how local services should transform and ensure they are sustainable over the next five years. As part of this, local health economies have been asked to plan how they will transform their maternity services in line with the vision outlined in Better Births, Improving outcomes of maternity services in England. NHS England will be reviewing how well commissioners are planning for delivery of this vision in signing-off plans; and how well those plans are being put into action and on an ongoing basis through its Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Assessment Framework, and annual Ofsted-style rating of each CCG on its commissioning of maternity services.

January 1, 2023