Tag: Andrew Bingham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons public bodies are permitted to import meat and meat products which due to poor welfare standards would be illegal to produce in the UK.

George Eustice

Government Buying Standards for food and catering services are mandatory for central government and encouraged in the wider public sector. The standards require that all food served must have been produced in compliance with UK legal standards for animal welfare.

To protect the supply of food to central government and other public bodies, including prisons and the military, the only exception is for the procurement of pig and poultry meat. This means that in the event that UK market conditions impose a significant increase in costs that cannot be compensated for by savings elsewhere, pig and poultry meat must as a minimum meet EU standards and the reasons for not applying UK welfare standards must be recorded and signed off by a senior official in the organisation concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on implementation of the recommendations of the Bonfield report on public procurement of food; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

The Government is committed to providing food produced to British standards or their equivalent in all its canteens, restaurants and cafeterias by the end of this Parliament. Defra is working closely with other Departments and businesses to implement Dr Peter Bonfield’s Plan for Public Procurement of Food, including a balanced scorecard. The Ministry of Justice recently launched a tender for supplying food to prisons, worth £500m, which requires bids to use the balanced scorecard. Their current supplier has agreed that the 30 million portions of UHT milk served in prisons each year will be sourced from UK producers. All new Central Government food and catering contracts will use the balanced scorecard approach.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) assistant, (b) athletics, (c) level one, (d) level two, (e) level three and (f) level four coaches have been licensed to coach athletics in each of the last five years.

David Evennett

The Government and its Arm’s Length Bodies have helped deliver a strong sporting legacy from London 2012, including 1.65 million more people playing sport regularly than when London won the bid for the Games back in 2005. We have recently published our new sport strategy, ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation‘ setting out government’s ambitions for a more active nation.

The number of licensed assistant coaches was 963 in 2011; 1809 in 2012; 2298 in 2013; 2513 in 2014; and 3010 in 2015.

The number of licensed athletics coaches was 137 in 2011; 271 in 2012; 381 in 2013; 489 in 2014; and 789 in 2015.

The number of level 1 licensed coaches was 3200 in 2011; 2596 in 2012; 1761 in 2013; 1336 in 2014; and 1125 in 2015.

The number of level 2 licensed coaches was 2928 in 2011; 3002 in 2012; 2775 in 2013; 2347 in 2014; and 2249 in 2015.

The number of level 3 licensed coaches was 1124 in 2011; 1173 in 2012; 1134 in 2013; 1033 in 2014; and 1026 in 2015.

The number of level 4 licensed coaches was 351 in 2011; 360 in 2012; 342 in 2013; 320 in 2014; and 312 in 2015.

Licensed coaches are those who have passed an England Athletics’ qualification and currently have a valid Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in order to be able to teach under 18s. Unlicensed, or qualified, coaches can still coach adults at athletics clubs, and the number of these coaches has risen in the past five years:

The number of qualified assistant coaches was 478 in 2011; 791 in 2012; 1458 in 2013; 2473 in 2014; and 2908 in 2015.

The number of qualified athletics coaches was 8 in 2011; 13 in 2012; 59 in 2013; 110 in 2014; and 121 in 2015.

The number of level 1 qualified coaches was 14977 in 2011; 16571 in 2012; 17301 in 2013; 17668 in 2014; and 17869 in 2015.

The number of level 2 qualified coaches was 3727 in 2011; 3938 in 2012; 4172 in 2013; 4612 in 2014; and 4779 in 2015.

The number of level 3 qualified coaches was 909 in 2011; 901 in 2012; 941 in 2013; 1029 in 2014; and 1038 in 2015.

The number of level 4 qualified coaches was 195 in 2011; 205 in 2012; 215 in 2013; 231 in 2014; and 229 in 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that smart meters are installed in areas with poor mobile signal.

Andrea Leadsom

The Data and Communications Company (DCC) is putting in place a communications network across GB to send and receive information from smart meters to energy suppliers, energy network operators and energy service companies in a Wide Area Network (WAN).

The DCC is contracted to provide network coverage of at least 99.25% of GB premises by the end of 2020 and to achieving at least 80% coverage of GB premises when it begins live services later this year.

Our ambition is for all domestic and small business premises to have smart meters.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2015-11-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the loss of tax revenues from road fund licences arising from incorrect emissions figures for Volkswagen vehicles.

Damian Hinds

The Government takes the unacceptable actions of Volkswagen extremely seriously and is taking robust action to get to the bottom of the emissions scandal.

The Government has announced that UK taxpayers will not incur higher Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) if their existing vehicles are found to be affected by the emissions scandal.

The Government continues to monitor the actions of Volkswagen closely and will consider all options once the facts are fully clarified.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the Lead Ammunition Group’s final report; and if she will make a statement.

Rory Stewart

The Government is considering the Lead Ammunition Group’s report on the effects of lead ammunition to human health and wildlife and will respond as soon as possible.

I am shortly due to meet the chairman of the Group to discuss their report on the 22nd March.

The Lead Ammunition Group’s report is independent of Government. It will be for the Group to decide when to publish their report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability of NHS dentist places in (a) High Peak constituency, (b) Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group and (c) Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary and secondary care dental services to meet local need. NHS England advises that oral health needs assessments for general dentistry are being conducted for areas that include Tameside and Glossop and Derbyshire.

Overall, access continues to increase with the latest access data showing 30 million patients were seen by a dentist in the 24 month period ending 30 June 2015. This is 1.7 million more patients than May 2010.

There is further to go, and this is why the Government is committed to increasing access still further through reform of the dental contract to incentivise dentists to focus on prevention as well as treatment and, by seeing patients at intervals appropriate to their clinical need, freeing up spaces for additional patients to be seen.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the financial advantages enjoyed by larger companies in preventing their marketing and promotional emails from being blocked by servers.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Department has not made an assessment regarding this issue.

If there is evidence that treating emails in this manner is driving anti-competitive behaviour by companies, this should be referred to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s independent competition authority, for consideration.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2014-07-15.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce the bureaucracy required to apply for a new mortgage.

Andrea Leadsom

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently put in place new regulations for mortgages in the UK, known as the ‘Mortgage Market Review’ (MMR). The MMR is a matter for the FCA, whose day-to-day operations are independent from government control and influence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Chinese counterpart on the health and whereabouts of human rights’ lawyer Mr Gao Zhisheng following his further detention by Chinese authorities.

Mr Hugo Swire

We remain concerned about human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has been imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2011. We raised his case directly with Chinese officials during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue on 19-20 May, and urged the Chinese authorities to respect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all detainees, including access to family, lawyers and adequate medical care.

We understand that Gao’s prison term is due to end soon, and we urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that his rights to freedom of movement and communication are duly protected on his release.