Tag: Greg Knight

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the Government has contributed to the World Health Organisation in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

Jane Ellison

The Department contributes financially, on a calendar year basis, to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the form of the United Kingdom’s assessed contribution, and voluntary contributions to support areas of work such as dementia, tobacco control and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including a contribution in 2015 to support the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR. The Department’s contributions for the last three years are set out in the table below.

year	Assessed contribution (£)	Voluntary contribution (£)
2013	19,482,012.20	153,957.75
2014	15,343,925.23	719,233.11
2015	15,129,522.23	3,778,937.56

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his latest assessment is of the effectiveness of the foreign lorry user charge; whether he has been in discussion with any representatives of the EU concerning the compliance of that charge with EU law; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

Since the levy started in April 2014, 4 million levies had been purchased for foreign-registered vehicles, raising £96.22 million in receipts, by the end of March 2016. Compliance rates continue to run at about 95 per cent in Great Britain. My Department has been engaged in discussions with the European Commission since the early stages of development of the levy. British drivers regularly pay when they use the roads in other countries, and the Government policy is that it is fair that foreign HGV drivers should do the same here.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the criteria are for authorising an average speed monitored stretch of non-motorway highway; what measures are in place to prevent an artificially low speed limit being implemented and then being made subject to an average speed limit camera check; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

It is up to the Highways Authority and the Police to decide whether to use cameras and how they wish to operate them. Guidance was issued in 2007 entitled “Use of speed and red-light camera for traffic enforcement: guidance on deployment, visibility and signing”.This can be viewed on GOV.UK. This guidance is not mandatory but on 20 October 2015 we wrote to local authorities drawing it to their attention.

The Department issued revised guidance entitled “Setting local speed limits” in January 2013 aimed mainly at local traffic authorities who are responsible for setting speed limits on local roads. It has been designed to help explain to everyone why and how local speed limits are determined. This guidance was revised following full public consultation in Summer 2012 and is available online on GOV.UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the whiplash reform programme.

Dominic Raab

Further reforms were announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in November. Those reforms will remove the right to compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity from minor whiplash injuries, and reduce legal costs by raising the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000. The government will consult on the detail of these reforms in due course, with a view to implementing them as soon as the necessary legislation is in place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to allow postal voting ballot papers to be counted separately in order to more easily detect fraud.

John Penrose

The law provides for the checking of the integrity of completed postal ballots prior to them being included in the count. Returning Officers are required to check 100% of postal vote identifiers (signatures and dates of birth) returned with completed postal votes against those supplied by the elector when they applied for a postal vote. Any that do not match will not be counted in order to prevent any attempt at electoral fraud. The law requires that postal ballot papers are mixed with ballot papers from a ballot box before they can be counted as a necessary step in order to help protect the secrecy of the ballot.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that the public are made fully aware beforehand of planned road works to be carried out by contractors on trunk roads and motorways which involve either lane or whole carriageway closures.

Andrew Jones

A range of communications activities are used to inform members of the public about road works taking place on major A roads and motorways, including information issued to the media and updates to pages on the Highways England and Traffic England web pages.

In addition to this, letters are issued to organisations, businesses and communities affected directly by the works. Highways England will also undertake specific community and business-to-business meetings for larger scale closures within the local area of each project if required.

As a standard, information and updates are issued a minimum of seven days in advance wherever possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what further steps he plans to take to improve road safety.

Andrew Jones

Britain has some of the world’s lowest road casualty rates. But, in line with our Manifesto commitment, we are determined to do more to make our roads even safer. The British Road Safety Statement, published on 21 December 2015, sets out the government’s priorities for action, including practical measures to help vulnerable groups stay safe on our roads, extra money to crackdown on drug drivers and tougher penalties for people using mobile phones while driving.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to provide (a) refuges and (b) other support to family members in rural areas experiencing domestic abuse and other relationship problems; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Marcus Jones

Domestic Abuse is a devastating crime and we are determined to ensure that no one is turned away from the support they need irrespective of where they live. Government has committed £80 million of extra funding up to 2020 to tackle violence against women and girls. In the strategy to end violence against women and girls published on 8 March, we set out our ambition to improve services for women suffering from domestic abuse committing to a new Statement of Expectations to set out for the first time what we expect from local areas. To support this, we are launching a new two year fund, which will be open to local authorities across the country including those from rural areas, to bid for funding for refuges and other forms of accommodation based support and to help local areas take the steps they need to meet the National Statement.

This builds on the £3.5 million funding in 2015/16 and is on top of the £10 million funding to strengthen the provision of safe accommodation in the last spending review period. The Government does recognise the distinct challenges faced by victims of domestic abuse in rural areas and has supported bids for funding from rural areas for example Suffolk, Shropshire and Somerset.

Our Troubled Families Programme is about transforming the way local services support families with multiple problems. It incentivises services to come together, working with and understanding the needs of the whole family instead of constantly reacting to their individual problems. 29% of families in entry to the programme between 2012 and 2015 were experiencing domestic violence or abuse.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS has spent on the treatment of non-UK nationals in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Alistair Burt

The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s hospital episode statistics do not contain information about the patient’s residency, nationality or migration status; therefore it is not possible to provide the cost to the National Health Service of providing treatment to non-United Kingdom nationals as requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of police forces which do not follow Government guidance on the operation of fixed and mobile speed cameras.

Mike Penning

The Home Office does not hold any information on police compliance with Department for Transport issued guidance on the operation of fixed and mobile speed cameras. The deployment of speed cameras is an operational matter for the police.