Tag: Anna Turley

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many cyclists died as a result of road traffic incident in each year since 2010 in (a) Redcar, (b) the North East and (c) the UK.

Andrew Jones

The table below provides the number of cyclists killed in a road traffic accident on public roads in a) Redcar, b) the North East of England, and c) Great Britain.

Year	Redcar constituency	North East England	Great Britain
2010	0	4	111
2011	3	7	107
2012	0	6	118
2013	0	6	109
2014	0	3	113
2015	0	1	100

The Department does not hold data for Northern Ireland, therefore the table includes statistics for Great Britain rather than the United Kingdom.

These statistics come from police reported data on personal injury accidents on the public highway. The Department does not collect information about accidents that were on private roads, car parks or off-road.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Prime Minister, how many meetings she has had with social media companies to discuss harmful online content since May 2015.

Mrs Theresa May

Details of Ministers’ meetings with external organisations, including with newspaper and other media proprietors, editors and senior executives, are published on a quarterly basis and made available on the gov.uk website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps (a) he and (b) his Department made to secure a buyer for Redcar coke ovens and blast furnace before the Official Receiver called for a hard closure.

Anna Soubry

Commercial decisions on the purchase of assets are the prerogative of the companies involved and government has no powers to oblige companies to purchase assets.

On liquidation of a company, it is the responsibility of the liquidator to sell the free assets of the company. In the case of SSI UK, this was the Official Receiver.

I am informed that the Official Receiver did maintain operations at SSI, including the coke ovens, for a period while he tried to find purchasers for the assets of SSI UK but as of the 12 October, no purchaser had been found and the Official Receiver ceased operations of the coke ovens and blast furnace.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to assess the risk of re-offending of offenders with learning disabilities before they are moved from in-patient care to care in the community.

Andrew Selous

When considering whether to discharge offenders detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 from hospital, the Secretary of State or the First-Tier Tribunal (Mental Health) must decide whether the detention criteria in the Act continue to be met. These are whether the person is suffering from a mental disorder of a nature or degree that warrants detention in hospital for treatment; or it is necessary for the health and safety of the patient or for the protection of others that he or she should receive such treatment; or the appropriate medical treatment is available. Decisions are based on advice provided by clinicians. The risk of re-offending by all patients, including those with learning disabilities, may inform their treatment programmes in hospital – for example, tackling drug addiction or reducing violence. The Secretary of State or the Tribunal will also take such risks into account for the purposes of determining the conditions for discharge into the community. Any learning disabilities may also be reflected in the level of care and support that offenders may be offered once they are in the community.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will extend the protective award to employees made redundant at a company which dismisses more than 20 people across the organisation but fewer than 20 people in individual working environments.

Nick Boles

The Government has no plans to bring forward legislation amending collective redundancy provisions and the treatment of ‘establishment’. The European Court of Justice has confirmed that ‘establishment’ means the individual workplace and not necessarily the whole enterprise.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will commission a comprehensive assessment of the levels of acetaldehyde that workers are exposed to in the UK chemical industry.

Justin Tomlinson

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no plans to commission an assessment of the levels of acetaldehyde that workers are exposed to in the UK chemical industry.

Acetaldehyde has been assigned a Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL). WELs are concentrations of hazardous substances in the air, averaged over a specified period of time, referred to as a time-weighted average (TWA). Two time periods are used; long-term (8 hours) and short-term (15 minutes). For acetaldehyde these are concentrations of 37 milligrams per cubic meter (mg.m^-3) and 92mg.m^-3 respectively.

Substances that have been assigned a WEL are subject to the requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH). COSHH requires employers to prevent or control exposure to hazardous substances. Under COSHH, control is defined as adequate only if a) the principles of good control practice are applied; b) any WEL is not exceeded; and c) exposure to asthmagens, carcinogens and mutagens are reduced as low as is reasonably practicable. As part of the assessment required under regulation 6 of COSHH, employers should determine their own working practices and in-house standards for control of exposure.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the living wage on the earnings threshold for carers allowance; and if he will bring forward proposals to raise the existing threshold.

Penny Mordaunt

The primary purpose of Carer’s Allowance is to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person. It is not, and was never intended to be, a carer’s wage or a payment for the services of caring, nor is it intended to replace lost or forgone earnings in their entirety.

The earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance is a net figure which is the figure left once income tax, National Insurance contributions and half of any contributions to an occupational or personal pension are deducted from earnings. There are also a number of other deductions which can be made that mean that people can earn significantly more than £110 per week and still be eligible for Carer’s Allowance.

Whilst the Government does not link the earnings limit to any other particular factor (including the National Living Wage), we do keep it under regular review and increase it when it is warranted and affordable, and this will continue to be our approach. Most recently in April 2015 the earnings limit was increased by 8% to £110, far outstripping the general increase in earnings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what checks his Department and its agencies undertake to ensure public funding for new innovation facilities does not result in a duplication of existing commercial assets.

Joseph Johnson

All potential major capital projects are assessed against the additional value they add, including an evaluation of whether the research or innovation activity is already being undertaken elsewhere. The majority of decisions about which research investments to undertake are taken directly by Research Councils, based on rigorous criteria including peer review.

In respect of the establishment of Innovate UK’s 11 Catapult Centres, all candidate areas have undergone a robust evaluation by Innovate UK’s Senior Innovation Leads who have relevant domain expertise. In addition, facilitated workshops, with leading figures in the relevant industries – including business, academic and representatives from the public sector, are held to ascertain whether Innovate UK’s analysis of the market opportunities in this area is correct. Each candidate area is evaluated according to an agreed process to assess the size of the global market opportunity and the demand for a Catapult to help business build on their capabilities to commercialise innovation and realise this potential in the UK.

In setting up new Catapult centres Innovate UK take into account the option of working within or alongside existing physical centres in the UK either to avoid duplication or to achieve quicker delivery.

At a local level, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are responsible for identifying, assessing and approving Local Growth Funded projects. They do this in accordance with their strategic economic objectives and Local Assurance Frameworks which have to comply with the LEP National Assurance Framework. The National Assurance Framework covers value for money and states that methodology should be proportionate to the funding allocated and in line with established Government guidance including the HM Treasury Green Book.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of Redcar coke ovens and blast furnace on the local economy.

Anna Soubry

The closure of SSI in Redcar will undoubtedly have a significant impact on individuals, the supply chain and local economy more broadly. That is why we have announced a support package, worth up to £80 million, to support the future of the Tees Valley economy and we are working closely with a local Task Force, chaired by Amanda Skelton, to deliver this support.

In total we have agreed over £40 million of support aimed at skills and jobs creation:

• £3m has been made available to four Further Education colleges in the region to support re-training activity, as well as a further £2.65m skills funding to plug any gaps in skills provision not available via the Further Education Offer;
• £1.7m to ensure that the fifty apprentices who were with SSI can continue their apprenticeships with alternative employers;

• A £16.5m Jobs and Skills Fund to help local firms employ former SSI workers or their spouses in full-time or part-time jobs for a minimum of three years;
• £16m support for firms in the SSI supply chain and wider Tees Valley impacted by the Redcar steelworks closure, to safeguard jobs, provide the stimulus to create new posts and provide expert assistance to help them expand their business
• £750,000 to fund advice and grants to start up a new business.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure the improved performance of the North East Ambulance NHS Trust in meeting its response time targets.

Jane Ellison

We expect all National Health Service ambulance trusts, including the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, to take action to ensure they meet the response time targets, and that commissioners oversee and support this process.

Ambulance services are facing unprecedented demand, delivering over 2,800 more emergency journeys every day compared to 2010 and still continue to respond to the majority of life-threatening cases in under eight minutes.

The Department continues to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to monitor and support performance across all ambulance trusts in 2016-17. In the longer term, NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Review will aim to tackle the root causes of the increasing demand on urgent and emergency care services.