Tag: 2016

  • Nigel Mills – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Mills – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Mills on 2016-05-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the relationship between hand hygiene compliance levels across the NHS and rates of E.coli bacteraemia in 2015.

    Ben Gummer

    Tackling healthcare associated infections is complex and requires a strong patient safety system that integrates cleanliness, infection prevention and control and antibiotic use. Hand hygiene is an important component and we continuously review and enhance national measures, systems and guidance. For example hand hygiene references in The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice for prevention and control of infections and related guidance, were strengthened when it was revised in 2015. It will also form part of forthcoming guidance on reducing Gram negative infections such as E. coli.

    Auditing of hand hygiene is a local responsibility and information on hand hygiene compliance is not collected centrally. Therefore, no national assessment has been made of the potential links between hand hygiene compliance levels and the above infections.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy that payments delivered through the Common Agricultural Policy will in future be delivered at the same level by the Government in the event of the UK leaving the EU.

    George Eustice

    Defra is currently working on a range of proposals to inform discussions about the shape of a future agricultural policy to replace the CAP and we will be involving stakeholders in those discussions.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Pakistani government on overturning the death sentence of Imdad Ali.

    Alok Sharma

    I am concerned about Mr Ali’s case and continue to follow developments closely. The UK remains firmly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. Abolitionist work is high on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) agenda and is part of the day-to-day work of all diplomatic missions to countries that retain the death penalty. The FCO human rights and democracy report 2015 makes clear our views on the death penalty and the resumption of executions in Pakistan.

    The former Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Philip Hammond), raised the issue of the death penalty with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2015, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Tobias Ellwood), wrote subsequently to the Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK expressing deep concern about ongoing executions. Together with our EU partners, we continue to raise our concerns about the death penalty with the Government of Pakistan and urge compliance with its international obligations.

  • Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much has been spent on the education of illiterate offenders in a prison setting in each of the last 10 years.

    Nick Boles

    Information on the amount spent on the education of illiterate offenders is not centrally collected.

    The total funding available in the 2015-16 financial year to the Offender Learning and Skills Service is £128.9m as outlined in the Skills funding Letter:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/406881/Vince_Cable_and_Nick_Boles_to_Peter_Lauener_-__Skills_Funding_Agency.pdf

    It is the responsibility of the prison Governor in conjunction with the Skills Funding Agency to commission a curriculum based on the money they have been allocated each year.

    The Department does not hold information on the cost of individual types of provision but information on the number of learners participating in English courses by level is published online at the FE Data Library (link below). There is no formal definition for illiteracy but English at Level 2 is defined as the level required for day-to-day life. Reliable data for offender learning is available from 2010/11 onwards.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/416721/feandskills-OLASS-participation-and-achievement.xls

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  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the distributional analysis of the introduction of the two per cent social care precept.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government announced on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 2238-2241, that local authorities with social care responsibilities will be able to increase their council tax by up to 2% above the core referendum principle of 2%. This could raise up to £2 billion by 2019/20. We set out a breakdown by local authority as part of the announcement which can be viewed at the following link or in the attached document:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

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  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the cost to the public purse has been of his Department reimbursing local authorities for payments to households in flood compensation payments.

    James Wharton

    To date over £48 million has been paid out to local authorities through the Community and Business Recovery Fund and Council Tax and Business Rates discounts to assist households and businesses affected by the floods caused by Storms Desmond and Eva.

    Local authorities have not notified the Department of any allowable costs not covered by the sums transferred. It is expected that further payments will be made shortly as flooded property numbers are confirmed and further funds requested.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-03-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy that three per cent of GDP annually be invested in infrastructure; and if he will make a statement.

    Greg Hands

    The government prioritises long-term investment over day-to-day expenditure, and is on course to exceed its commitment to invest £100 billion in infrastructure by 2020-21. This includes the largest programme of rail investment since Victorian times, the biggest investment in roads since the 1970s, and doubling the affordable housing budget. The Spending Review 2015 set out the government’s decision to invest £12 billion more through departmental capital budgets than was planned at Summer Budget 2015.

  • Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many people have taken shared parental leave to date; how many people have made a claim for shared parental pay since April 2015; and what proportion of such claimants were fathers and partners.

    Nick Boles

    The Government does not yet have any reliable information on the take up of Statutory Shared Parental Pay. We expect information for the 2015-16 tax year to be available from May 2016, although it will also include Additional Statutory Paternity Pay information up to December 2015. This will give an estimate for the total number of claims for Statutory Shared Parental Pay.

    The Government does not collect information on the number of employees who have taken Shared Parental Leave. We will evaluate the policy by 2018 and this will enable us to better estimate the actual take up for leave.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-05-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children under the age of 18 in England have cystic fibrosis.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department has made no such assessment. The families of children with cystic fibrosis may be eligible for social care support, continuing care in the home, and Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payments, based on the level of the child or young person’s needs.

    The number of children under the age of 18 with cystic fibrosis is not collected centrally. It is estimated that one in every 2,500 babies born in England has cystic fibrosis.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches children and families in besieged towns in Syria.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK is at the forefront of the humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. We have pledged over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a humanitarian crisis.

    The UN estimates that, of 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria, 4.6 million are living in areas where humanitarian access is extremely restricted, including 592,700 people living under siege. It is unacceptable and illegal to use starvation as a weapon of war.

    We are doing all we can to open up humanitarian access. We have supported the UN and international NGOs since the start of the conflict to deliver aid to UN-designated hard-to-reach and besieged areas. UK co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolutions have enabled over 300 convoys of aid to reach vulnerable people in hard-to-reach areas without the consent of the Syrian regime. We will continue to use our position in the UN Security Council and International Syria Support Group to push for unrestricted and unfettered humanitarian access, whilst maintaining the pressure for a political settlement to bring the suffering of the Syrian people to an end.