Tag: Alex Chalk

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what programmes are in place to increase the numbers of children cycling to school.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government would like to see an increase in the number of children cycling to school. We believe that cycle safety training can give children the skills and confidence they need to cycle on local roads.

Bikeability is the Government’s long-standing programme of cycle training for school children, with over 1.7 million children trained since 2010. It is available to every local body in England (London has separate funding arrangements for Bikeability). Funding of £12 million a year has been confirmed for the next four years. This will provide a range of cycling activities to schools including on-road cycle training and Bikeability Plus, a new suite of training modules focussed on increasing levels of cycling school and cycle safety.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when funding bands for apprenticeships starting after April 2017 will be published.

Robert Halfon

Details of proposed funding bands for existing apprenticeship frameworks and standards were published on 12 August: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-proposals-for-funding-from-may-2017. The proposals were supported by a short employer survey which closed on 5 September.

We aim to publish final funding bands for apprenticeship frameworks and standards in October for those that start on or after 1 May 2017.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what further steps she plans to take under the National Litter Strategy to reduce the number of bottles on beaches.

Rory Stewart

The National Litter Strategy will promote concerted, coordinated and effective actions to reduce litter and littering on land, which in turn should lead to a reduction in the amount of litter reaching local areas, including our beaches. To develop the National Litter Strategy we are working with a range of interested stakeholders, including representatives of the packaging industry.

The Scottish Government is taking forward further work on the specific issue of a deposit return system for single-use drinks containers such as plastic bottles, and we will review any new evidence arising from this in the course of developing our own National Litter Strategy for England. However, in the meantime, we will continue to focus on improving existing waste collection and recycling systems for these items.

In the UK, packaging producers who put more than 50 tonnes of packaging materials on the market a year, and have an annual turnover of more than £2 million, are required to recover and recycle a proportion of their packaging waste. As a result, most major bottle manufacturers and retailers who sell bottles pick up a financial obligation to recycle their packaging waste. More stringent recycling and recovery targets across the years led to a decrease in the proportion of bottles ending up in landfill and in litter. We will continue to focus on improving this system in future years.

The UK Marine Strategy Part Three, published in December last year, sets out the actions we are taking to improve the marine environment. It covers measures that contribute to reducing sources of litter, including sources of beach litter, and to remove what has already reached our beaches. Actions related specifically to UK beaches include Defra-funded beach cleaning schemes on priority beaches.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 1.330 of Budget 2016, how much of the £14.5 million in grants for extending the coverage of ultrafast broadband in the South West will be spent on tackling broadband blackspots in Cheltenham.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Gloucestershire and Herefordshire County Councils (Fastershire broadband partnership) has been allocated £2 million from the South West ultrafast broadband fund. Fastershire are responsible for setting local coverage priorities and spending funds in line with procurement rules, and are undertaking new procurements with uncommitted funding from the Phase 2 Superfast Broadband Programme to address as many as the remaining non-served areas within the two counties as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent the invasion of fungi and insects into the UK which can threaten British trees; and what assistance is available to landowners to tackle such diseases locally.

George Eustice

Upholding plant biosecurity is a key priority for my department and we have taken a number of measures to reduce the risk of introduction of pests and diseases.

We have invested over £26 million into tree health research. Our long-term national strategy to tackle tree and plant disease is based on science, international best practice and advice of the UK Chief Plant Health Officer. We have also invested more than any other country in research on Ash Dieback and are conducting the world’s largest screening trials to identify a disease-tolerant tree.

We are promoting biosecurity internationally, at UK borders, and inland targeted inspections at the border to intercept high risk trades.

There are regulations on importing plants and products from outside the UK where it is known that certain pests or pathogens are present. These are updated regularly, in response to new evidence. We are working collaboratively with the international community, industry, NGOs, landowners and the public to reduce the risks of pests and diseases entering the country, and mitigate the impact of newly established pests.

Our approach to tackling plant and tree pests and diseases also includes:

• Identifying and assessing new threats using the UK Plant Health Risk Register; and
• Targeted import inspections at ports and airports combined with inland surveillance.

The Forestry Commission provides advice to woodland managers about how best to manage and adapt to tree pests and diseases. The Animal and Plant Health Agency provide similar advice for the nursery sector, including how to build resilience to pests and diseases.

Support is available for some landowners on specific tree diseases through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, subject to grant conditions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will take steps to support National Stalking Awareness Week.

Karen Bradley

The Government has committed £80 million to support victims of violence against women and girls, including, stalking, between 2016 and 2020. This includes funding for the National Stalking Helpline run by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

We have strengthened the law by introducing new offences of stalking in 2012. In 2014-15, there were 1,103 prosecutions commenced under the new stalking offences, an increase of 50% over the previous year (2013-14).

To mark National Stalking Awareness Week, we are raising awareness of the increases in prosecutions and convictions for these crimes to help improve victim confidence in the criminal justice system.

Additionally, we have consulted on the introduction of a new civil Stalking Protection Order to tackle perpetrators at an early stage to help prevent victims becoming targets of a prolonged campaign of abuse. Our response to this consultation will be published in due course. Through the Police Innovation Fund, we are supporting the police to identify ways to manage the significant volume of online material in abuse, harassment and stalking cases, so that evidence can be collected more easily and a strong case built to bring a prosecution.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the decision-making process followed by local enterprise partnerships is transparent.

Anna Soubry

We’ve set out clear standards on transparent decision making, which Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) must comply with through their local assurance frameworks. These are verified by their accountable section 151 officers. We commissioned the Government Internal Audit Agency to review the quality of these frameworks, and keep the system under review through annual performance conversations with each LEP.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that women suffering from metastatic HER2 breast cancer receive (a) the Kadcyla form of Trastuzumab emtansine and (b) other required medication.

Mr Philip Dunne

Improving the availability and use of effective medicines for all cancers, including breast cancer, is a key priority.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations on whether selected drugs and treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of National Health Service resources. Commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments for the treatment of metastatic HER2 breast cancer recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of its final guidance being issued.

NICE technology appraisal guidance, published in December 2015, does not recommend trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) for the treatment of HER2-positive, unresectable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after treatment with trastuzumab and a taxane. In the absence of guidance from NICE, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund new medicines based on an assessment of the available evidence.

Trastuzumab emtansine continues to be available to patients in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund, subject to certain clinical criteria.

The new arrangements for the Fund, which came into effect on 29 July 2016, will ensure that the most promising and innovative medicines get to patients as quickly as possible. In particular, NICE will issue draft guidance on new cancer drugs or significant new licence indications before they have received marketing approval in the United Kingdom. Any drug that receives a positive draft recommendation would then be funded from the point of licence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to raise awareness of the seriousness of stalking (a) through social media and (b) otherwise.

Karen Bradley

Stalking is a deeply disturbing crime which can leave its victims living in fear for years. That is why we introduced new legislation in 2012 which made stalking an offence in its own right.

To mark National Stalking Awareness Week, we are using Twitter to raise awareness of the increases in prosecutions and convictions for these crimes to help improve victim confidence in the criminal justice system.

The Government has committed £80 million to support victims of violence against women and girls, including, stalking, between 2016 and 2020. This includes funding for the National Stalking Helpline run by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Additionally, we have consulted on the introduction of a new civil Stalking Protection Order to tackle perpetrators at an early stage to help prevent victims becoming targets of a prolonged campaign of abuse. Our response to this consultation will be published in due course. Through the Police Innovation Fund, we are supporting the police to identify ways to manage the significant volume of online material in abuse, harassment and stalking cases, so that evidence can be collected more easily and a strong case built to bring a prosecution.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support tree planting in towns.

Rory Stewart

The Government recognises the social and environmental benefits of urban trees. We will champion the Vision for a Resilient Urban Forest, developed by the Urban Forestry and Woodlands Advisory Committee Network. This Vision sets the direction and challenges local decision makers and communities to consider how they can better value, manage and expand the urban forest in their areas.

Millions of schoolchildren across England, mostly in urban areas, will have the chance to plant trees in their communities as part of a Government-backed scheme to give free trees to schools in partnership with the Woodland Trust.