Tag: David Mackintosh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that Ofcom implements the recommendations from its Strategic Review of Digital Communications, published in February 2016, on automatic compensation for mobile and broadband customers for loss of internet connection.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government fully supports Ofcom’s plans to implement a system of automatic compensation for telecommunications customers who suffer a loss or reduction of their broadband services. This is in line with Ofcom’s remit to, amongst other things, protect the interests of end users. The Department anticipates that Ofcom will, in due course, define the specific parameters of the automatic compensation requirements that it will impose, and DCMS will liaise with it during this process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) that all Government services are available through the gov.uk website and (b) that that website remains operational at all times.

Matthew Hancock

Since its launch in October 2012, GOV.UK has handled over 2.6 billion visits. The site needs to continue operating during major events such as the annual Self Assessment peak and a national emergency. The GOV.UK website has been designed to handle issues and failures in a way which would not impact the public. We have robust incident management processes in place and regularly run disaster recovery simulations to test our response to any outages.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase awareness of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Jane Ellison

One of the main symptoms of pulmonary aterial hypertension (PAH) is shortness of breath. An awareness campaign focusing on the symptoms of breathlessness to support earlier diagnosis of related conditions was piloted by Public Health England in early 2015. The results of the regional phase of the campaign are currently being evaluated.

Furthermore, the NHS England PAH centres provide a continuing education programme at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels to educate doctors about this rare condition and the national Clinical Reference Group works closely with the PAH Patients Association to increase public awareness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of rough sleepers has mental health issues; and what plans he has to address that issue.

Mr Marcus Jones

No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have increased our central investment for homelessness to £139 million over the next four years, and protected homelessness prevention funding to local authorities, totalling £315 million.

We know sleeping rough is rarely the result of a personal housing crisis alone and that the most entrenched rough sleepers often have complex needs, including mental health difficulties or addiction. That is why we are investing £10 million in an innovative new national Social impact Bonds Fund to help address these complex needs in order to help entrenched rough sleepers move off the streets. Through my Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness, I am working with ministerial colleagues across government including the Department of Health, to develop actions to address these underlying causes of homelessness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department has taken to encourage large businesses to switch to carbon neutral energy sources.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department has taken significant steps to encourage large businesses to switch to carbon neutral energy sources. With regard to heat, the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) supports households, businesses, public bodies and charities in transitioning from conventional forms of heating to renewable sources of heat. In November, the Government renewed its commitment to the transition to a low carbon economy by confirming a continued budget for the RHI. The overall budget for the RHI is to rise from £430m in 2015/16 to £1.15bn in 2020/21.

With regard to electricity, our policies secured an estimated £42 billion of investment in low carbon generation between 2010 and 2014 alone, with more in the pipeline for the future.

Large and energy intensive businesses are incentivised to reduce their emissions – including through use of low-carbon energy sources – through the EU Emissions Trading System. The Government is also working with the eight most energy intensive sectors to produce decarbonisation action plans, drawing on a set of roadmaps published last year.

Of course, the lowest carbon energy is the energy that isn’t used and the Department also has a number of initiatives to encourage energy efficiency in business, including the announcements concerning a new carbon and energy reporting regime made by my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Budget.

With regard to large businesses switching to carbon neutral energy sources for transport, that is ably supported by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of introducing a centralised, national electoral register.

John Penrose

Electoral registers are compiled and maintained locally by Electoral Registration Officers primarily for the purposes of running Parliamentary and local elections in their area. A centralised, national electoral register would not necessarily help them do this, and would potentially create concerns about how government handles citizens personal data, so we have made no assessment of this kind.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Office of Rail and Road super-complaint response report, published in March 2016, paragraph 207, which three train operating companies scored 0 per cent for their sampled mystery shops.

Claire Perry

The Department does not have this information. We understand the Office of Rail and Road intends to publish the results of this work, alongside its first annual report on consumers titled ‘Measuring Up’, shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will investigate reports that BT is installing and charging for telephone lines for customers who have not requested one and who are only customers of fibre optic services.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Department’s understanding is that BT Openreach installs fibre and other services, ordered by communications providers for their customers. This includes fibre broadband services, most of which require a copper line to be installed in order to provide a telephone service. Assurance has been provided by BT that they would not provide a telephone service, or any other chargeable service, without the customer’s knowledge and authorisation. However, should this for any reason be the case, then consumers are advised to seek redress through the usual protections that are in place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to (a) invest in research on rehabilitation, health and social care models to improve the quality of life for ill Gulf War veterans and (b) communicate the results of US research on those issues to Gulf War veterans living in the UK.

Mark Lancaster

The Government greatly values the service of all 1990-91 Gulf War veterans, particularly as we reach the 25^th anniversary of the start of combat operations. We have long accepted that the ill health of some veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War is associated with their service in the Gulf. In such cases compensation may be claimed under the War Pensions Scheme with appropriate medical care provided by the National Health Service across the UK .

The Department has funded extensive research into Gulf War illness including some research into rehabilitative therapies for those veterans with persistent symptoms.

Our strategy on research topics and studies has been informed and overseen by independent scientific experts nominated by the Medical Research Council taking account of published peer-reviewed international literature and international studies. We have no plans to undertake further research on Gulf War issues. We continue to monitor any Gulf War research that is published round the world including from the United States.

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) recent steps he has taken and (b) mechanisms he has introduced to increase the efficiency of work between government departments.

Matthew Hancock

Improving efficiency, both across Government and between government departments, is central to the work of the Cabinet Office. By 2014/15 the Government had saved £18.6 billion through efficiency and reform, and tackling fraud, error and uncollected debt (against a 2009/10 baseline). This includes saving:

• £6.1bn by improving how government buys goods, and services.

• Generating £1.8bn net capital receipts and saving £750 million from reducing the annual running cost of the estate.

• £4.6bn by addressing waste and inefficiency in construction and reducing costs in major projects.

• £700m through reducing losses from fraud and error.

In autumn 2015 the Spending Review announced a range of additional measures to further improve effect and joint working between departments. These include co-locating Civil Servants though the Government Hubs programme, and introducing shared ICT though Common Technology Services and the Common Platforms Programme.