Tag: David Anderson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government is ensuring that programmes involving the regeneration of public land require a proportion of the new homes delivered to be accessible for disabled people.

Gavin Barwell

The Government is committed to addressing the supply of new land for housing. The Public Land for Housing programme has set an ambition to dispose of surplus government-owned land in England with capacity for at least 160,000 homes by 2020. And at Budget 2016 the Chancellor announced a local government land ambition to release land with the capacity for a further 160,000 homes.

Individual local planning authorities will decide the type and number of homes developed on the land released – including those for disabled people – in order to meet local need.

We have put in place new, flexible Building Regulations which allow local authorities to apply appropriate access standards for new homes to meet the needs of their communities while ensuring that development can happen. Building regulations require minimum standards of accessibility for all new dwellings. Local authorities are able to set policies for a proportion of new development to be built to higher standards of accessibility in order to meet local needs in accordance with national planning policy and guidance.

The Government is committed to helping older and disabled people to live independently and safely in their own homes for as a long as possible. The Disabled Facilities Grant funds the provision of home adaptations (including stair lifts, level access showers and in some instances home extensions) to help older and disabled people to live as comfortably, safely and independently as possible in their own homes for longer. Since 2010 we have invested over a billion pounds into the grant providing around 250,000 adaptations to older and disabled people’s homes in England.

Government is also boosting the supply of specialised housing through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, with 79 schemes receiving more than £84.2 million to develop up to 2,000 affordable homes over the next few years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether she has made an estimate of what the change in electricity bills will be as a result of the withdrawal of market support mechanisms for onshore wind; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government will reintroduce measures for the early closure of the Renewables Obligation (RO) for new onshore wind in Great Britain, when the Energy Bill is in the Commons. The measures will close the RO from 1 April 2016 – a year earlier than originally planned.

As set out in the impact assessment, it is estimated that the proposed early closure of the RO to onshore wind will reduce household electricity bills.

The impact assessment is available here:

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-007F.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of courts and tribunal buildings in England and Wales have wifi access.

Mr Shailesh Vara

One of the main projects within the Criminal Justice Efficiency Programme was to introduce Wi-Fi throughout the criminal courts, allowing professional court users access to their home systems and the internet, improving their productivity and efficiency of flow of cases in court. With 158 courthouses already connected, the Programme is on track to deliver to all criminal courts well before summer 2016. Further courts may come into scope depending on the outcome of the consultation on the court estate which is currently underway. In addition to the wifi provided for professional court users many courts have commercially provided BT wifi solutions to allow court users to access the internet. These have been installed locally and no central record is held on the exact number of courts where this is available.

We have secured over £700m of funding to invest in our courts and tribunals. We have worked closely with the senior judiciary to develop a plan for investing this in reforming the courts and tribunals so they can deliver swifter, fairer justice at a lower cost. This will include digitisation and modernisation of our IT infrastructure. This will mean court users can attend hearings remotely, and not be inconvenienced by having to take a day off work to come to court. It will also mean victims of crime can give evidence from somewhere they feel safe.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he expects to publish the results of his consultation on the BBC Charter Review.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government’s BBC Charter Review Public Consultation closed in October. Over 190,000 people responded to the consultation – the second largest response to any Government consultation. We are in the process of reading and analysing all the responses, and will publish the results once this exercise is completed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to ensure that Carbon Capture and Storage is rolled out in the UK energy generation market.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government continues to view Carbon Capture and Storage as having a potential role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK’s power and industrial sectors.

The Government has invested over £130 million in CCS Research & Development between 2011 and 2016. We announced in October 2015 £1.7 million support for three innovative CCS technologies through our Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, and our £2.5 million project through the Energy Technologies Institute to begin appraisal of five potential CO₂ stores which is due to conclude by March 2016. We are also supporting, jointly with the Scottish Government, the CCS developer Summit Power with £4.2 million funding to undertake industrial research and development at their proposed CCS Caledonia Clean Energy Project in Grangemouth.

The Government continues to engage closely with the CCS industry on the future of Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK. I co-chaired a special session of the joint Government-industry CCS Development Forum in December 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department gives on the number and type of wheelchair spaces which should be available for disabled people in music venues across the UK.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The huge variation in size, type and location of music venues across the UK makes it impractical to require venue operators to make a specific number of spaces available for disabled people. However, we believe that everyone should have equal access to arts and culture. We are working with venues and organisations representing disabled people to identify barriers to access along with examples of best practice and how these can be shared and; to consider what more cultural venues need to do to be accessible to people with disabilities.

We are supportive of the work of Attitude is Everything, which aims to improve disabled people’s access to live events, working in partnership with audiences, artists, and the music industry. My ministerial colleague Ed Vaizey also recently held a roundtable meeting with Justin Tomlinson, Minister for Disabled People to look at access to cultural venues and events for disabled people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what sanctions can be taken against the Office of the Independent Adjudicator if it misses the 90-day target in issuing complaint outcomes set by the European Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Joseph Johnson

Should an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution provider, such
as the Office for the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA),be found
to be continually failing to comply with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations
2015, the Government has set out a process that enables an appointed body (the
Chartered Trading Standards Institute) to monitor compliance, recommend
improvements and, ultimately, remove a body from the approved list.

The OIA is independent of Government and funded by compulsory subscriptions
from higher education providers. All higher education providers in receipt of
student support funding are required, through legislation, to join the OIA and pay
subscription fees. The OIA makes an assessment each year of the level of
funding it requires to ensure that its costs can be met.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of supporting the deployment of ultra-super critical coal fired power stations similar to those planned by China and Germany; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom

I have made no such assessment. Any new coal plant must demonstrate carbon capture and storage on at least 300 MW of its proposed generating capacity and comply with the Emissions Performance Standard.

Coal fired power stations without abatement are not consistent with meeting our decarbonisation objectives. This is why the Government has committed to consulting on phasing out unabated coal by 2025 and to restricting the amount of coal generation in 2023.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his Jordanian counterpart on the launch, recovery or other control of Reaper drones from that country or any other element of Reaper control.

Penny Mordaunt

We routinely discuss counter-Daesh air operations with Coalition partners but it would not be appropriate to give details about these discussions as to do so could affect the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the Prime Minister’s policy is on moving to an insurance or user-funded NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

The pressures faced by the National Health Service are common to most developed health systems, regardless of how the system is funded. The Government believes that the answer to these challenges lies in changing the way services are delivered and keeping people well and independent for longer, not in altering the fundamental principles that underpin the NHS.