Tag: 2016

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what Network Rail maintenance, renewal or enhancement works that were planned to be carried out under blockade during the 2015-16 Christmas and New Year period were cancelled or deferred.

    Claire Perry

    Network Rail has advised that of the schemes at the 80 highest priority worksites over the 2015/16 Christmas/New Year period, only one was cancelled – planned bridge works at Old Lodge Lane at Purley, which were cancelled due to high winds.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012 assumed a post-incident release of nuclear materials from the transportation packages.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

    I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on the use of teargas against refugees and migrants at the Macedonian border.

    James Brokenshire

    We continue to work closely with our European partners to address all aspects of the current migration situation as it continues to develop, including regular bilateral and multilateral discussions. There have been no specific discussions on the use of tear gas.

    Public order is a matter for national governments and we expect all our international partners to ensure that migrants’ human rights are fully respected.

    We are clear that protection in the region of origin is often the best solution, including for refugees, and that those reaching the EU should claim asylum in the first Member State they enter (as per EU rules) rather than seeking to travel further across Europe to their destination of choice.

  • Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will carry out an assessment of the potential (a) health, (b) economic and (c) social effects of its proposals to reduce community pharmacy funding.

    Alistair Burt

    Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review, the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

    The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public health services to the benefit of patients and the public.

    We are consulting the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and others, including patient and public representatives, on our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. We announced on 16 March 2016 that the consultation period was to be extended to allow more time to develop the proposed changes with the PSNC and others. It will now close on 24 May 2016.

    An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to review the rating system for fibre networks in order to remove disadvantages for new operators.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    All properties including new and existing fibre telecom networks are valued for business rates to the same standard of annual rental value. Rateable values are assessed independently by the Valuation Office Agency and may be challenged in the courts. The Upper Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the European Commission have all supported the Valuation Office Agency’s valuation method for telecom networks.

  • 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 2016-06-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to improve the provision of mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department accepted the independent Mental Health Taskforce’s recommendations to transform mental health services and will set out later this year how it is implementing them.

    The Department announced additional investment of £1 billion for mental health on top of the £1.4 billion for children and young people’s mental health.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to require manufacturers of household appliances to make publicly available the risk assessments they carry out on their appliances.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    We have no plans to do so.

  • Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the BBC Charter Renewal process.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Good progress is being made on the BBC Charter Review programme.

    The consultation launched in July received an incredible 192,000 responses. We are committed to reading and analysing all of the responses and reached 150,000 earlier this month.

    In addition, I have commissioned further reviews and research, including an independent review of governance and regulation led by Sir David Clementi.

    In the coming months my department will work towards publishing proposals for the future of the BBC.

  • 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 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the prevalence of slavery in Mauritania.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We remain concerned about continued reports of slavery in Mauritania, and about the modest sentences handed down in the few successful prosecutions for slavery offences. We welcome the establishment of three courts with specific responsibility for slavery cases. We continue to monitor this topic closely. We regularly raise our concerns with the Mauritanian authorities in the UK and in Nouakchott, and meet human rights and anti-slavery campaigners to discuss the subject.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the most recent cost estimate is for each of the road projects listed in the Government’s announcement, Major roads investment in the North West, published on 1 December 2014, that have not yet been completed; and what the final costs were of any of those projects that have been completed.

    Andrew Jones

    For schemes that are Open for Traffic, the actual out-turn costs have been provided. Schemes that are in development or construction show the latest approved estimate.

    Scheme Name

    Announced

    Estimated Cost (£m)

    Source of Estimate

    M60 J8 to M62J20:Smart Motorway

    2010

    228

    Under construction

    A556 Knutsford to Bowdon

    2010

    191.9

    Under construction

    M6 J16 to J19

    2013

    223.3

    Under construction

    For the remaining schemes outlined in the 1 December 2014 announcement, the current costs are the cost category as quoted in the RIS Investment Plan, which can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/381496/roads-investment-strategy-summary-of-schemes.pdf

    There is currently no cost information for the Strategic Studies as they are in the very early stages of investigating options.

    “