Tag: Chi Onwurah

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy of 3 December 2015, Official Report, column 512, how business parks can be part of the superfast broadband rollout.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Through the broadband connection voucher scheme, we have connected around 55,000 additional businesses countrywide with superfast broadband, that we know boosts productivity, jobs and security. Analysis from our the scheme rollout alone reported increased profits by £1,300 on average; a new job created for every four new connections; as well as improved security and customer services. Local authorities responsible for the delivery of broadband projects in their area are able to prioritise business parks in their roll-out plans.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the remaining time period is of Northstar Ventures’ funding through the European Regional Development Funds; and what changes are planned in the terms and control of that funding.

James Wharton

Northstar Ventures manages five funds that have received funding from the European Regional Development Fund 2000-06 and 2007-13 Programme periods.

Three of these funds are closed to new investments and Northstar Ventures is exiting from remaining deals. This is likely to conclude by February 2017.

Two remaining funds – Proof of Concept and Accelerator Fund – will remain open to new investments until June 2016.

No changes to management arrangements are planned. Northstar Ventures will remain responsible for concluding the funds up to 2020. The Department of Communities and Local Government will remain responsible for directing the use of any legacy funding generated by the funds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the role of international sales agents on diversity in film and television production.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Government is committed to diversity in our film and television industries and encourages broadcasters and production companies to continue to deepen their commitment to diversity. At the same time, the UK is a world leader in international sales of film and television programmes. Revenue from international sales of UK TV and Film was over £2bn in 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, how many representations of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic people there are in the paintings in the Palace of Westminster.

Tom Brake

There are four formal painted portraits of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people on display in the Palace of Westminster. The portraits are of Dr Dadabhoy Naoroji, the first Asian MP, Diane Abbott, the first black woman MP, Paul Boateng as the first black Cabinet Minister and Baroness Amos as the first black Leader of the House of Lords.

The Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art is committed to reflecting the diversity of the House today, and to recognising those who have influenced Parliament and contributed to its development in a notable way through the Parliamentary Art Collection. The Committee has agreed to give further consideration to the matter of BAME representation in the current Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help small businesses benefit from cloud computing technology.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government supports many initiatives that promote small business adoption and use of ICT, including cloud computing.

For example, we are providing £12 million over the current spending period to Tech City UK, Tech North and other clusters where small tech businesses benefit from a number of initiatives including the Future Fifty programme offering targeted support to start-up companies. Business can also access support to do more online through Local Enterprise Partnerships and growth hubs. These services work in tandem with an extensive range of private sector-led initiatives to help small businesses improve their digital capability.

In addition, the Government’s Digital Marketplace has made it easier for SMEs to offer cloud products and services to the public sector by simplifying and speeding up the application process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to support Newcastle upon Tyne’s Freedom City 2017 festival.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Freedom City 2017 is an important and exciting prospect for Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Arts Council England’s (ACE) North Director in Newcastle sits on the steering group for the festival and, in April 2015, ACE provided a Grants for the arts award of £15,000 to the Northern Roots, a partner in the development of the Freedom City 2017 event. ACE are continuing discussions with the Festival organisers on how they can further support the event.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s distributed ledger technology benefits payments trial, whether the services being delivered by that trial have passed the Government Digital Service assessment process; and when he expects the outcome of that trial to be published.

Damian Hinds

The DWP works continuously with industry partners to identify and test new innovations that could save taxpayer money, safeguard information and better protect payments to customers.

The DWP is undertaking some small scale research involving blockchain technology which is expected to last 3-6 months with the results available in the last quarter of 2016. It uses a private permissioned distributed ledger to allow participants to store their transactions, including payments from DWP. Those transactions can then be viewed securely on a mobile application so that they can, if they wish, monitor and allocate their spending into categories, check their available balance and plan future spending. There are currently about 12 people in the trial which we expect to increase to around 24 people by the close.

The participants in the trial have complete control over their data and how it is used; the government does not receive or see any of that data. The DWP takes privacy and security extremely seriously and this will form part of the learning from the trial.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of locating the Security Industry Authority outside London; and what alternative locations have been considered for that authority.

Brandon Lewis

The Security Industry Authority is already considering options for a move from Holborn as part of its planning around estates.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that GP surgeries have the (a) resources and (b) training to provide a patient-friendly service, including appointments with a preferred GP in advance and at a time convenient to patients; and what rights patients have if GP surgeries do not meet such standards.

David Mowat

The Government is committed to improving access to general practitioner (GP) services as part of our plan for a seven day National Health Service, and has invested £175 million in the GP Access Fund to test improved and innovative access to GP services. Across the two waves of the Access Fund there are 57 schemes covering over 2,500 practices and 18 million patients, testing a wide variety of approaches that will ensure a patient-friendly services. These include opening 8am-8pm on weekdays and weekends; better use of telecare and health apps; more innovative ways to access services by video call, email or telephone; and developing more integrated services with a single point of contact to co-ordinate patient services.

GPs are contractually required to provide essential services to meet the reasonable needs of their patients within core hours. Under the NHS constitution, patients have the right to express a preference for using a particular doctor within their GP practice, and for the practice to try to comply. The 2015-16 (July 2016) GP Patient Survey found that 91% of patients who had a GP they preferred to see them at least some of the time, and 92.1% of patients who got an appointment found it was convenient. If a patient believes they are not receiving this standard of care they have the right to complain; any complaint made must be acknowledged within three working days and be properly investigated.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what safeguards the Government plans to put in place to protect customers from fraud and cyber security risks if they use new products and services in an open banking environment.

Simon Kirby

Improving the resilience of the finance sector to risks such as cyber security is a priority for the Government. HM Treasury works closely with the financial regulators to drive this improvement; it is their responsibility to supervise banks’ operations. The Financial Conduct Authority has a specific objective on consumer protection.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published the final report of its market investigation into retail banking on 9 August 2016. As part of this the CMA requires the nine largest UK banks to develop and adopt an open banking standard for application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow access to customer account information, as set out in the revised Payment Services Directive (PSDII) which will come into force in January 2018. These nine banks are required to deliver open data APIs by Q1 2017, and deliver the full open API banking standard by early 2018. Data protection and cyber security are key considerations in PSDII, and the Government will be consulting on the transposition of this directive shortly.