Tag: David Anderson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to introduce in the rest of the UK the General Licence Restriction Order for the protection of birds in use in Scotland; and if she will make a statement.

Rory Stewart

The introduction of a new regulatory measure requires evidence that it will be effective.

We will monitor the situation in Scotland to consider whether this measure is necessary and proportionate to assist in tackling wildlife crime in England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what account the prison estates review took of the existence of restrictive covenants prior to the Government’s announcement of the programme of prison closures and new prison construction.

Andrew Selous

We will consider what impact the existence of any restrictive covenant would have on any future closures and new prison sites. Providing a list of restrictive covenants on the use and disposal of each prison in England and Wales could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Prime Minister, if he will disclose a summary of the government advice on the legality of the drone strike that killed Reyaad Khan in the manner set out in Part 6 of the Cabinet Manual.

Mr David Cameron

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms West) on 21 January 2016, UIN 22720.

By long-standing convention under successive Governments the Law Officers’ advice is not published. The legal basis for the airstrike against Reyaad Khan is set out in the Government’s Memorandum to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

The Government’s legal position in relation to UK airstrikes against Daesh in Syria is reflected in my response to the Foreign Affairs Committee Report on the extension of offensive British military operations to Syria.

The current Memorandum of Understanding together with the Justice and Security Act 2013 provides the necessary scope for the ISC to conduct robust oversight of those matters that are within its statutory remit.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of electricity in the UK was generated by UK coal-fired power stations in 2015.

Andrea Leadsom

DECC will publish finalised energy market statistics including figures for electricity generation in 2015 later this year. However, provisional figures [1] show that coal accounted for 22% of UK electricity supplied over Q1 – Q3 in 2015 compared to 28% in the same period in 2014.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487838/Electricity.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 24570, if she will make it her policy that creative subjects must be included in the new EBacc.

Nick Gibb

I refer the Honourable Member to my response to PQ 24570, submitted to Parliament on Thursday 4 February 2016, in which I explained that EBacc subjects are part of a broad and balanced curriculum and that there is space in the wider school curriculum to teach other subjects alongside the EBacc subjects.

On 3 November 2015 the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate. The consultation closed on 29 January 2016 and the government response will be published in the spring.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether she has made an estimate of the difference in value between coal produced in the UK and coal imported from overseas for each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Andrea Leadsom

The table below gives the values of UK coal production and imports for 2010 to 2014. Data for 2015 will be available on 28 July 2016.

	Coal production (£million)	Coal imports (£million)	Difference (£million)
2010	1,065	2,080	-1,015
2011	1,175	3,050	-1,875
2012	990	3,315	-2,325
2013	535	3,235	-2,700
2014	450	2,235	-1,785

Source: Tables DUKES 1.4-1.6, Digest of UK Energy Statistics, July 2015, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-chapter-1-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukesv

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February 2016 to Question 27211, whether the remit of permission granted to use the Sigonella air station extends to UK (a) Reaper launch and recovery operations and (b) combat missions.

Penny Mordaunt

We have had a long-standing presence at Naval Air Station Sigonella, and have made frequent use of it. However, it is not normal practice to comment on the details of arrangements with host nations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to increase the availability and uptake of innovative technology available to patients on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The Government is actively supporting a number of initiatives to accelerate access to innovative treatments. These include the Early Access to Medicines Schemes which supports access in the United Kingdom to unlicensed or off-label medicines and represents a significant advance in treatment in areas of unmet medical need and the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovative drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital products for National Health Service patients, and to make the UK the best place to develop these innovations.

NHS England supports the invention and adoption of transformative healthcare technologies. This includes existing technologies, where the benefits are already proven but wider adoption is critical to benefit all patients, and new technologies, which require larger scale trials to test out their impact individually and in combination. Current initiatives include the sponsorship of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (£48 million core funding in 2015-16), the Small Business Research Initiative (£20 million in 2015-16), and the Test Bed programme which is providing funding for frontline health and care workers to evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and new ways of working.

NHS England has been tasked under section 7.1 of the NHS Mandate to “Implement the agreed recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review including developing ambition and trajectory on NHS uptake of affordable and cost-effective new innovations”.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has made a detailed assessment of the effect of the Government’s energy policy carbon dioxide emissions in the UK in each year since 2010; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom

Provisional statistics for 2015 indicate that greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 38% since 1990 and 17% since 2010.

Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990

Units: MtCO2e	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015(p)
Emissions reduction since 1990	-24%	-31%	-28%	-30%	-35%	-38%

Source: DECC (2016) Provisional UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics 2015

A significant proportion of this reduction is being driven by policies. For those policies where we have been able to estimate the emissions impacts, annual estimates are detailed in Annex D of our Energy and Emissions Projections, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updated-energy-and-emissions-projections-2015.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government took in response to the report of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, chaired by Sir William Stewart, published in 2000; what steps the Government has taken in response to that report’s recommendations on limiting children’s use of mobile phones; what research the Government has commissioned or undertaken since that report on that issue; and whether any such research supported or contradicted the findings of that report.

Jane Ellison

The Government published a detailed response to the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) report’s recommendations and set in place a range of measures to address concerns about mobile phones and health. International guidelines for limiting exposures to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields were adopted, and precautionary advice to mobile phone users was published. The Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme ran for 11 years after the IEGMP report and government continues to support research on this topic.

IEGMP concluded the balance of evidence at the time of its report did not suggest mobile phone technologies put the health of the population at risk; that remains the case after a considerable volume of more recent national and international research.

Precautionary advice to mobile phone users has been maintained and is available here:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Mobile-phone-safety/Pages/Introduction.aspx

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