Tag: Cheryl Gillan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many officials in her Department are working on matters related to High Speed 2; and what the grades of those officials are.

George Eustice

Technical and policy specialists contribute to the Department’s work on HS2. Within the core Department a policy team (1 Grade 7 and 1 SEO) co-ordinates input from specialists from across the Department as required. This forms one part of the team’s role.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England (NE) provide input through the roles of the following officials:

3 Grade 7s (2 EA, 1 NE)

1 Grade 6 (EA)

7 SEOs (5 EA, 2 NE)

3 HEOs (1 EA, 2 NE)

In addition, one Grade 7 and two SEOs from the Forestry Commission and members of local EA and NE teams provide specialist advice as required.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a further review of the tunnel boring machine advance rates for the High Speed 2 Chiltern tunnel has yet taken place.

Mr Robert Goodwill

HS2 Ltd have carried out an extensive reviews of tunnel boring rates for comparable forms of tunnel (looking at the size of tunnel and type of tunnel boring machine used) as part of the work for the hybrid Bill development, including tunnels both in this country and overseas. Particular attention has been made to ascertaining the ‘hard average rate’ achieved on these tunnels, which is much more appropriate in calculating the overall time to complete a particular tunnel drive for its entire length from "machine in to machine out". HS2 Ltd have provided evidence from these applicable tunnel projects in front of the Select Committee and explained on several occasions how the tunnel drive rates from these other projects support the current assumed drive rate for the HS2 Chiltern Tunnel. No further review is considered to be required as there is no further appropriate evidence available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the five times increase in the annual upfront fee charges for private hire operator licences by local authorities on small and self-employed operators.

Andrew Jones

Local licensing authorities can charge fees for private hire vehicle operator licences that recover the cost of administering the licensing system.

Renewing a licence every five years, rather than more frequently as may have been the case in the past, reduces a financial and administrative burden on many of the small and medium size enterprises that make up the private hire vehicle industry.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what evidence he has received to demonstrate that the construction of Phase One of High Speed 2 will not breach the requirements of Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Environmental Statement and Supplementary Environmental Statements for the Phase One hybrid Bill fully assessed the impact on air quality from HS2 construction. The method of assessment is specifically directed at the limit values set out in Annex II of Directive 2008/50/EC, and identifies whether the limit values are currently breached, anticipated to be breached in the future, and to what extent any breaches are affected by the construction of Phase One of HS2.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to encourage food manufacturers and processors to avoid the use of (a) allergenic materials and (b) non-allergenic materials in ways that may cause allergenic reactions.

George Eustice

In December 2014, the law on how food allergen information is given was changed to make it easier for consumers with an allergy or intolerance to manage their condition safely when buying food or eating out. Defra continues to promote accurate and informative food labelling to inform consumers about the food they buy, including the presence of allergens in food so that consumers can make informed choices. The Food Standards Agency’s Guidance on Allergen Management and Consumer Information provides guidance on allergen management in food manufacturing and processing to assess and avoid cross contamination.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were admitted to hospital with a stroke in the latest year for which figures are available; and what proportion of those patients were treated with mechanical thrombectomy.

David Mowat

Information on mechanical thrombectomy is not centrally held, however we can provide information on thrombectomy (mechanical or otherwise), which is set out in the attached tables.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to implement the Guidelines for Selection of Biological SSSIs, revised in 2014, on extending the protection for the rarest and most vulnerable lowland grasslands to all sites that meet the criteria.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

Selection and notification of sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) is a matter for Natural England. Natural England has published its current designations programme on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-designations-programme-for-areas-sites-and-trails) and this includes several areas that host lowland grassland habitats. Natural England will continue to implement the Guidelines for the selection of biological SSSIs, as appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people work on High Speed 2 in (a) his Department and (b) HS2 Ltd; and what the (i) grade, (ii) salary and (iii) location is of each such person.

Mr Robert Goodwill

With regards to part (a), (i) and (ii) of the question, the High Speed Rail headcount for permanent full time equivalents (FTEs) currently in post in the Department is shown in the attached table 1. The salaries shown are average DfT Central salaries. All staff are located in Great Minister House in London.

With regards to part (b), (i), (ii) and (iii) of the question, the HS2 Ltd headcount for permanent full time equivalents (FTEs) currently in post is shown in the attached table 2. Table 2 also shows the split between staff based in London and in Birmingham, with salaries at each grade shown as averages.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications for the High Speed 2 (a) need to sell scheme and (b) exceptional hardship scheme have been received from constituents in Chesham and Amersham constituency; how many of those applications have been completed with the property now in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd; how many of those properties in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd have been (i) sold, (ii) rented and (iii) remain vacant; for how many of those applications that have been accepted the price has not been agreed; how many of those applications are awaiting a decision on whether they will be accepted; how many of those applications have been rejected; and of those rejected how many times each such application has been rejected and for what reasons.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The information requested is in the table below:

Chesham and Amersham constituency
	(a) Need to Sell (NTS) scheme	(b) Exceptional Hardship Scheme (EHS)
Applications received	34	49
Applications accepted	17	12
Applications rejected	8	31
Applications withdrawn	1	6
Applications pending a final decision	8	0
offers made	12	12
offers accepted	10	9
offers declined/no longer active	0	3
Properties acquired	6	9
How many of those properties in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd have been:
(i) sold	0
(ii) rented	10 (with 2 under offer)
(iii) remain vacant	3
(a) Need to Sell (NTS) scheme	(b) Exceptional Hardship Scheme (EHS)
Total number of unsuccessful applications (of which were reapplications)	8 (1)	31 (5)*
Unsuccessful for reasons including criterion 1 (Property Type)	1	1
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 2 (Location of property)	2	18
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 3 (Effort to Sell and impact of blight)	3	23
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 4 (No prior knowledge)	0	0
Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 5 (NTS-Compelling reason to sell/EHS- Exceptional Hardship)	6	25

*of the five rejected reapplications none are from the same applicant.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the local licensing authorities on the introduction of five-year private hire operator licences by local authorities.

Andrew Jones

Five-year private hire vehicle operator licences were introduced in October 2015. Since that time, local licensing authorities have not made any representations to me on the subject.