Tag: Greg Mulholland

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will commission an urgent review of flood defences in (a) Leeds city region and (b) Yorkshire.

Rory Stewart

Whenever an exceptional event happens it is important to review what happened and how to prepare for the future, and the Environment Agency will always do this after a flood incident.

The flood response in Yorkshire will be overseen by Transport Minister Robert Goodwill who has been appointed as Flooding Envoy to the county and will track progress on recovery and identify lessons learnt

Work has also already started on the National Resilience Review, which is considering forecasting and modelling, resilience of key infrastructure and the way we make decisions on flood expenditure. The Review is being delivered by a cross-Government team and will be published in the summer.

£40 million funding has been committed to repair flood defences in response to the flooding. Going forward, as part of our new flood defence programme, we have been working with Leeds City Council and we are investing £33 million in a project to better protect Leeds City Centre. Construction of the new defences is already underway.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in what circumstances claimants of personal independence payment may be asked to attend reassessments at an earlier date than initially expected.

Justin Tomlinson

Benefit is always awarded on the basis that the level of need at the start of the award will continue at the same level throughout the period of the award. In most cases the length of award is based on an intervention date decided by the decision maker, and informed by a healthcare professional.

Where a claimant’s circumstances change or doubt arises as to the correctness of the award, the claimant or the department can instigate a review of that award before the planned end date. Where this happens the claimant may be asked to attend a face to face consultation with a Health Professional.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects to respond to the letter of 27 October 2015 from the hon. Member for Leeds North West about the It’s Personal campaign.

Jane Ellison

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State responded to the hon. Member’s letter of 27 October 2015 on 24 November 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what tests a person convicted of death by careless or dangerous driving is required to undertake being allowed to drive again.

Andrew Jones

If a person is convicted by the Courts of death by careless or dangerous driving and disqualified he/she will need to retake a theory test and an extended driving test in order to get their full driving licence back. An extended driving test must last no less than 60 minutes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-01.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many telephone calls HM Revenue and Customs has received from (a) small businesses, (b) medium-sized businesses and (c) large businesses in each of the last five years; and what the average time taken to answer telephone calls from each such category of business was in each of those years.

Mr David Gauke

This information is not held by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

HMRC handles around 50 million telephone calls annually and regularly publishes general performance reports at Gov.uk.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate of spending per capita in each region Arts Council England has made for each year until 2020.

Mr Edward Vaizey

No such estimate can be made as it would require data that is indeterminable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department or its employment agency adviser had with Mr Paul Newby about actual and potential conflicts of interest prior to his appointment as the Pubs Code Adjudicator.

Anna Soubry

As is standard practice, Mr Newby was asked during the appointments process to declare any potential conflicts of interest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to encourage households to donate unused food.

Rory Stewart

Through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the Government continues to work with the grocery sector to reduce household food waste. The Love Food Hate Waste programme helps UK households to reduce food waste and save money through awareness raising and consumer advice. There has been a 15% (1.3 million tonnes) reduction in household food waste between 2007 and 2012.

WRAP launched Courtauld 2025 on 15 March, which builds on the progress we have already made. This new agreement includes a target to reduce food and drink waste arising in the UK by 20% by 2025 (calculated as a relative reduction per head of population).

For the average household, the price of avoidable food and drink waste is £470 per year. For the average household with children, the cost of avoidable food and drink waste is £700 per year.

The total amount of food thrown away by the average household is 260 kg per year. 160 kg of this is avoidable waste. For the average household with children, this figure rises to 390 kg per year, including 240 kg of avoidable food waste.

These are the latest available figures, applying to 2012. WRAP aims to publish updated figures for household food waste later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the terms of reference of his Department’s review of criminal driving offences.

Dominic Raab

Driving offences can have devastating consequences for victims and their loved ones.

The government is aware of concerns about a number of sentencing issues and is committed to making sure sentencing for driving crimes is proportionate within the context of our wider sentencing framework. It is our intention to commence a consultation in due course which will look at driving offences and penalties.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34222, on the humanitarian situation in Madaya, for what reasons the UN had to seek written approval from the Syrian regime.

Mr Desmond Swayne

Attempting to deliver humanitarian assistance without the consent of the parties to the conflict is extremely challenging. There is a risk that shipments of humanitarian assistance would be physically stopped and confiscated, humanitarian staff placed in danger and that convoys could come under attack. Likewise, delivering assistance without consent may risk undermining ongoing negotiations on humanitarian access to the 4.6 million people in hard to reach areas across Syria.