Tag: Caroline Lucas

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2015 to Question 17278, what progress Public Health England has made on investigating the use of Office for National Statistics data on drug-related deaths to assess the impact of increased naloxone availability; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

In October 2015 Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency changed medicines regulations to widen the availability of naloxone. Public Health England provided advice on local implementation.

Drug poisioning deaths – which include drug misuse deaths – are published annually by the Office for National Statistics. These statistics are for deaths registered in each year.

Since there are often delays in registering drug-related deaths, it is likely to be some time before we can meaningfully assess what impact the wider availability of naloxone has made on the numbers of drug related deaths.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department routinely collects on the nationality, gender and pass rate of applicants for the Life in the UK and Knowledge of Language test; and if she will make it her Department’s policy to publish data providing a breakdown of such data by nationality, gender and pass rate.

James Brokenshire

Pass rates for the Life in the UK Test are already published quarterly under transparency arrangements. The most recent are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-and-permanent-migration-data-february-2016

As part of the registration process each applicant’s nationality is recorded. Information is not recorded with regard to gender. There are no plans to include a breakdown by nationality or gender in future publications.

Pass rates for language tests are held in individual approved supplier systems and are not currently published. There are no plans to publish this data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of employment and support allowance (ESA) applicants from Brighton and Hove are being sent to (a) Lewes and (b) Vauxhall for assessment; for what reasons such ESA applicants are being sent to those locations; what impact assessment has been made of sending ESA applicants to centres out of their home city; when and how applicants are remunerated for transport costs; and if he will make a statement.

Priti Patel

All Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) customers within the Brighton and Hove postcode areas are being asked to attend for an assessment at Lewes Assessment Centre as Lewes is the nearest Assessment Centre to Brighton and Hove.

DWP policy ensures that claimants do not have to travel for more than 90 minutes by public transport (single journey) for a consultation. However, this limit is an absolute maximum and for the majority of claimants their journey will be less than this. For example, it would take applicants from Brighton and Hove approximately 20-30 minutes by bus to reach Lewes Assessment centre.

All claimants who are asked to travel to an assessment are reimbursed either by cheque or directly into a bank account via BACS.

If an ESA customer is unable to attend an appointment, they are asked to contact the provider to discuss their individual circumstances. A home visit can be arranged if there is supportive medical evidence about the claimant’s inability to travel due to their medical condition.

ESA claimants are not asked to travel to the Assessment Centre at Vauxhall which is specifically for claimants of Personal Independence Payment and not ESA.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport of 11 May 2016, Official Report, HC Deb, column 692, when officials began working on the proposals to implement the 15-minute threshold for rail journey compensation; from what date he expects that customers will be able claim compensation under that threshold; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

We are committed to improving compensation arrangements for passengers. The Chancellor announced in his Autumn 2015 Spending Review that passengers will soon have access to compensation when trains are over 15 minutes late. We expect to make an announcement on this in the next few months.

We will work with the rail industry to agree the best possible deal for passengers in implementing this improvement and will set out the details of when the new arrangements will be in place shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Rail Minister’s response to the letter of 20 June 2016 from the Chief Executive of the Campaign for Better Transport on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise.

Claire Perry

No response has yet been issued.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Answers of 10 June 2015 and 22 December 2015 to Questions 700 and 19860, when she plans to (a) publish the evaluation report on the pilot Access to Elected Office Fund and (b) make a decision on whether that Fund should continue.

Caroline Dinenage

An evaluation of the pilot fund is currently being undertaken and will be published when an announcement about the future of the fund is made in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-09-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the UK’s sixth periodic report in relation to fiscal policy, corporate tax, inheritance tax and domestic and global tax abuse; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

In paragraph 73 of the UN recommendations, the UN requested that the UK submits its next period report under the Covenant (inclusive of a response to all the recommendations from this year’s examination) by 30 June 2021; it would therefore not be appropriate to pre-empt this report by anticipating what we, or indeed a future UK Government in 2021, might say.

The government is committed to a competitive and fair tax system and to tackling tax evasion and avoidance by multinational companies. The UK has played a leading role in the development and implementation of the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, which is aimed at ensuring that tax is paid on profits in the country in which they are generated. On tax evasion, the UK has also led on the development of the new global standard for the automatic exchange of information between countries on offshore accounts. All of the UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have signed up to this new Common Reporting Standard and will begin exchanging information with the UK this month.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2016 to Question 906370, if he will publish the London and South Coast Rail Corridor Study; whether he plans to fund proposals for a Brighton Mainline 2 in order to remedy the significant capacity and performance constraints identified; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard

The Government will publish the London and South Coast Rail Corridor Study, and its response to the recommendations, in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to safeguard access to the Interreg programme of interregional cooperation projects (a) until and (b) after the UK leaves the EU.

Andrew Percy

The Chancellor’s statement of 3 October 2016 explains that UK participants in European Structural and Investment Fund projects who have funding agreements signed after the Autumn Statement but before the UK leaves the EU will have their funding guaranteed, so long as they provide strong value for money and are in line with domestic strategic priorities. UK participants will not see a funding shortfall.

Leaving the EU means that we will want to decide how we deliver the policy objectives currently delivered by EU-funded programmes. We will consult closely with stakeholders to review all EU funding schemes in the round, to ensure that any on-going funding commitments best serve the UK‘s national interest, while ensuring appropriate investor certainty.

The source of ERDF funding is provided by the overall contributions made by each EU Member State. The United Kingdom currently makes a contribution to the EU, net of what it receives in return.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of primary schools signed up to (a) Centre for Education and Monitoring, Durham University, (b) Early Excellence, (c) GL Assessment, (d) Hodder Education, (e) National Foundation for Educational Research and (f) Speech Link as baseline assessment providers by 30 April 2015; and which schemes were subsequently approved by her Department.

Nick Gibb

A full break down of suppliers which were removed from the approved list has not been provided because of potential commercial sensitivities for the suppliers.