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Tag: Chi Onwurah

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-02-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what guidance his Department provides to its managers on how many days training should be made available to staff.

    Alun Cairns

    In line with the Civil Service Reform Plan, the Wales Office has recommended since 2013 that each member of staff should be spending at least five days a year on their own learning and development. The days should be used to target those skills that staff most need for their current and future roles and include a range of learning opportunities not just formal training.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects of the National Renewable Energy Centre on its local economy.

    Michael Fallon

    BIS has not made an assessment of the impact of the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) on its local economy. Narec has created a world leading suite of testing facilities for the offshore renewable energy sector. The recently announced merger with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult will accelerate the design, deployment and commercialisation of offshore renewable energy technology and help the UK capture the economic opportunity presented by this sector.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Department for Communities and Local Government on how building regulations can contribute to his Department’s Building Information Modelling Smart City project.

    Mr Francis Maude

    As was the case under previous administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to promote the commercialisation of scientific and technological research by his Department and its agencies.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The National Security through Technology White Paper(Cm 8278) lays out our commitment to open procurement, and that the Department and its agencies will conduct research and development only where it is essential for our national security.

    The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), a Ministry of Defence (MOD) Trading Fund, delivers the majority of the MOD’s Science and Technology Programme. Any ideas generated within Dstl can be commercialised through Ploughshare Innovations Ltd, a technology transfer company owned by Dstl.

    Where external suppliers are contracted, the MOD leaves the intellectual property rights of any discovery or technology with those suppliers to commercialise. The MOD retains rights to disclose and use the intellectual property for UK Government purposes.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote the commercialisation of scientific and technical research undertaken by GCHQ.

    Hugh Robertson

    GCHQ works closely with business to release Intellectual Properties (IP) which are suitable for more general use in the outside world. For example through its information assurance arm, Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG), it operates a number of schemes which enable individuals and companies to gain CESG endorsement of products and services via technical assessment.

    GCHQ is additionally running a number of pilot cases looking at ways of improving its coordination with SMEs and larger industry partners including on Open Source publishing and licencing to SMEs and larger industry partners. GCHQ is also sponsoring research institutes in Cyber Security and running innovation calls aimed at SMEs. The latter initiative in partnership with organisations such as the Centre for Defence Enterprise and the technology Strategy Board.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to publish the report of the independent project review of the Counter Fraud Checking Service once it is completed.

    Francis Maude

    Prior to the last General Election, there was no-cross Government work to tackle the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money lost to fraud.

    We are currently reviewing the business case for a Counter Fraud Checking Service.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-05-06.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many away days his Department held in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14; and (i) what cost was incurred and (ii) who was in attendance at each such day.

    Mr Francis Maude

    The information requested is not held centrally.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-04-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what evidence his Department has collected on public perception of health and safety regulation.

    Mike Penning

    I have been asked to respond as Minister with responsibilty for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

    Reviews of health and safety regulation carried out for the Government by Lord Young and by Professor Ragnar Löfstedt, and endorsed in HSE’s recent triennial review, found a near universal agreement that the UK legal framework is fit for purpose. However, there does exist some misunderstanding about what H&S legislation actually requires.

    Partly in response to this, the Health and Safety Executive’s Myth Busters Challenge Panel allows the public to challenge decisions and policies ascribed to health and safety if they believe them to be incorrect.

    To date the Panel has considered over 270 cases. Details can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment she has made of the gender balance amongst chairs and presidents of (a) learned societies and (b) research councils.

    Mr David Willetts

    The National Academies, the UK’s leading learned societies, are independent, self-governing bodies. Ministers have no role in Academy appointments but we encourage them to embed equality and diversity in everything they do. Professor Dame Ann Dowling is expected to be confirmed as the first female President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in September. The current Presidents of the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Biology are all female.

    Ministers in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) appoint Chairs to the Research Councils and these appointments are regulated by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. BIS Ministers are committed to the principle of public appointments on merit through an open and transparent process and to providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of race, age, disability, gender, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, transgender and working patterns. There are seven Research Councils, the Chairs of which are currently male. The Research Councils are committed to improving diversity in their public appointments and held a workshop in March 2014 to agree an action plan to increase the diversity of each Council. The action plan will be published on the RCUK website and disseminated to all Council members.

    The BIS Board, which provides collective strategic leadership of the Department, has endorsed a plan of activity and a number of actions to help the Department not only to improve its position on gender-diversity during 2014/15 but to reinforce its continued commitment to attracting a strong and diverse field of candidates to public appointments.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many adult cystic fibrosis patients were being cared for by specialist centres in each of the last 10 years.

    Norman Lamb

    Information concerning the number of adult cystic fibrosis (CF) patients cared for by specialist centres in each of the last 10 years is not available. This data has only been collected since the introduction of the tariff for CF services in 2011, and in the following table we have provided the number of adult patients cared for in each year since that time:

    Year

    Adult Patients

    2011

    3,885

    2012

    4,107

    2013

    4,244

    More generally, we expect all CF patients to have a CF specialist in charge of their care and as part of the ongoing support they receive, to be assessed at specialist centres.