Tag: Catherine West

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

Mike Penning

Cleaning services within the Ministry of Justice are typically undertaken by outsourced providers. Cleaners working within Ministry of Justice sites are therefore employed directly by these outsourced providers or their subcontractors and/or agencies.

Rates of pay for cleaners are determined by their respective employers and not held by the Ministry of Justice. All employers are obligated to pay at least the National Minimum Wage and the new National Living Wage from April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much funding the Government allocated to incentivising installation of (a) solar panels and (b) home insulation in each year since 2010.

Andrea Leadsom

Solar panels have primarily been incentivised to date through two schemes: the Renewables Obligation, which typically supports larger installations, and the Feed-in Tariff, which supports smaller projects.

The value of the Renewables Obligation for solar PV in each year since 2010 is show in the following table:

Financial Year	Renewables Obligation PV scheme value, £m (nominal)
2010-11	£0.2
2011-12	£0.1
2012-13	£0.9
2013-14	£34.9
2014-15	£133.9

A proxy for the total spend each year on all eligible technologies is given by the size of the Levelisation fund. The size of this fund and solar PV’s share of total FiTs capacity is shown in the following table:

Financial Year	Levelisation fund (nominal)	% solar PV share of total FIT capacity
2010-11	£14,435,325	69.7
2011-12	£150,756,064	90.0
2012-13	£506,328,139	86.4
2013-14	£690,991,283	84.3
2014-15	£865,553,975	81.6

It should be noted that the percentage share of capacity does not necessarily equate to the percentage share of total spend under the scheme.

No payments have yet been made to solar PV generating stations under Contracts for Difference (CfDs), although three solar PV projects signed CfDs following the first allocation round.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what responsibility NHS England has to fund HIV prevention programmes.

Jane Ellison

From 2013, local authorities became responsible for the commissioning of most sexual health services, including the testing and treatment for sexually-transmitted infections and HIV testing and prevention. NHS England is responsible for commissioning of treatment for HIV.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions the Government has had with the Indonesian government on the situation of the Gafatar community.

Mr Hugo Swire

Our Ambassador in Jakarta has raised these issues with the Minister of Religious Affairs, Indonesian civil society, and religious leaders. He urged them to ensure the rights of all individuals to practise their religion or belief freely were fully respected and protected. Our Deputy Head of Mission in Jakarta has also raised the situation of the Gafatar community with the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many vacancies the London Ambulance Service has for paramedics.

Jane Ellison

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Serious Fraud Office is taking to address fraud by employees in large companies.

Robert Buckland

The role of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate and prosecute serious or complex frauds.

The SFO is committed to investigating and, where appropriate, prosecuting such serious frauds, as seen in the conviction of Tom Hayes for offences related to manipulating LIBOR.

The Government is consulting and will introduce a new criminal offence to apply to corporations who failed to prevent their agents from criminal facilitating tax evasion.

The Government will also consult on extending the criminal offence of “failure to prevent” from bribery to other economic crimes such as fraud and money laundering so that firms are properly held to account for criminal activity that takes place within them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to speed up the application process for refugee family reunion.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Customer service is a key priority for UK Visas and Immigration, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the visa application process is kept under regular review, including by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. Customers now apply and pay online in addition to being able to make appointments to submit their documents and biometrics at visa application centres in over 200 locations around the world.

The published service standard for resolving refugee family reunion applications is within 12 weeks, or 60 working days. Where an application is complex and likely to take longer than the advertised processing times, UKVI will contact the applicant to inform them of this. The average processing time for 2015 was 40 days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many overseas visits he has made for the purpose of negotiating trade deals since his appointment as Secretary of State.

Greg Hands

As we leave the EU, Britain will seek to become the global leader in free trade. Ministers and officials in the Department for International Trade are making overseas visits to a wide range of markets, in order to promote the UK as a great place to do business and with which to trade. Through these discussions, we are working to ensure we take advantage of all the opportunities available to us, including through our future trading relationships.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to continue to participate in the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work after the UK leaves the EU.

Penny Mordaunt

The United Kingdom will continue to participate in the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work while we remain a member of the European Union (EU). Decisions on any future participation after we leave the EU will be dependent on the outcome of the exit negotiations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects the drug used in HIV PrEP, Truvada to come off patent.

Nicola Blackwood

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published a new medicines evidence summary for Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in October 2016. According to this summary, Truvada, compound patents for tenofovir disoproxil and salts expires in July 2017, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate expires in July 2018. A supplementary protection certificate has also been granted in relation to Truvada which expires in February 2020.