Tag: Greg Mulholland

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average hourly earnings were of her Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.

George Eustice

Defra employees are paid within salary bands according to their grades, they are not paid by the hour. The tables below set out a calculation of average hourly pay for all employees within the central department, by grade, and by BME, Non-BME, and Undeclared ethnic status (employees that have not declared their ethnicity).

2015	BME	Non BME	Undeclared
AA	*	*	£8.96
AO	£12.15	£12.17	£11.43
EO	£14.96	£13.92	£13.80
HEO	£17.29	£16.79	£15.98
SEO	£20.54	£19.96	£20.05
G7	£27.43	£27.33	£26.30
G6	*	£32.62	£33.10
SCS	*	£39.77	£46.42
2016	BME	Non BME	Undeclared
AA	*	*	£9.84
AO	£12.06	£12.17	£12.16
EO	£14.89	£14.41	£13.99
HEO	£17.23	£16.66	£16.05
SEO	£20.47	£20.51	£20.42
G7	£27.40	£27.35	£26.65
G6	*	£33.04	£32.84
SCS	*	£42.62	£48.85

*Number of staff in this group are below publishable level

Good progress is being made on actions in the Government’s Talent Action Plan and Defra’s Diversity Strategy to ensure that Defra is able to recruit and retain employees from a diverse range of backgrounds, and to enable them to develop and progress on merit.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to lay the revised statutory instruments for the Pubs Code etc. Regulations 2016 and Pubs Code (Fees, Costs and Financial Penalties) Regulations 2016 before the House.

Anna Soubry

The Government is working hard to bring the Pubs Code etc Regulations 2016 into force as soon as possible. We have drafted the necessary technical corrections, and will lay a revised draft as soon as possible. The Code will come in to force following Parliamentary scrutiny. The Pubs Code (Fees, Costs and Financial Penalties) Regulations 2016 will be laid at the same time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered to displaced people along the Thai-Burmese border.

Rory Stewart

DFID has a £33.6m four year programme providing humanitarian, health and peacebuilding assistance to Eastern border areas of Burma. This includes humanitarian assistance to the nine Burmese refugee camps in Thailand, as well as assistance to displaced and conflict-affected people in Eastern Burma. DFID is the second largest donor to The Border Consortium, who provide food and shelter to the Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. DFID also funds health and legal assistance to refugees in the camps.

DFID officials visit the refugee camps regularly and work with implementing partners to monitor that our assistance is reaching the most vulnerable displaced people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects Network Rail to publish an update to its industry electrification strategy.

Paul Maynard

Network Rail is now evaluating electrification of routes on a case by case basis as one of the ways of delivering enhanced train services to meet the forecast growth in rail usage.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support dairy farmers as a result of reduced milk prices.

George Eustice

Although government cannot control market volatility, our aim is to give farmers improved tools to manage it. We have extended the period over which they can average their tax from two to five years. We are exploring opportunities for a dairy futures market as well as for better branding and labelling in supermarkets in order to improve profitability. We are also exploring opportunities to help farming businesses become more resilient and ready to take advantage of the growing demand for British dairy products both at home and abroad.

According to the latest forecast of Farm Business Incomes for 2015-16, average incomes on dairy farms are expected to fall to £46,500. This reflects the impact of lower milk prices which started to fall in March 2014, and the reduced prices for cull cows and heifers. While the number of dairy farms in England and Wales has also fallen from around 13,500 in 2006 to 9,500 today, the number of dairy cows has remained almost unchanged, which suggests consolidation within the industry.

We have seen an increase in the UK farmgate milk price for the second month in a row to 21.34p per litre in August 2016. The long-term picture for our dairy industry remains positive.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of drugs available on the NHS for the treatment of people diagnosed with (a) MS and (b) Alzheimer’s disease.

George Freeman

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body which makes decisions on the clinical and cost effectiveness of drugs based on a thorough assessment of the best available evidence. National Health Service commissioners are required to fund drugs and treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisals.

NICE has recommended a number of drugs as treatment options for multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease and further information is available at:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/conditions-and-diseases/neurological-conditions

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

On 4 November the The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Philip Hammond) and I met President Khoja and other representatives of the Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (National Coalition) in London. We discussed the urgent need for political transition in Syria as the only way to solve the conflict and defeat ISIL. We were clear that Assad has no place in Syria’s future and that the new political process in Vienna offers the opportunity to make progress towards Syrian-led negotiations. The National Coalition expressed their readiness to reach out to other moderate political and armed groups in Syria and agreed that the opposition negotiating team must be able to speak for the Syrian people. The UK’s special representative for Syria maintains regular contact with the National Coalition. The UK will continue to work with the National Coalition and our international partners in pursuit of a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps NHS England is taking to develop an in-year draft commissioning policy for the use of everolimus to treat tuberous sclerosis complex.

George Freeman

NHS England is currently developing a clinical commissioning policy statement to cover the use of Everolimus in adults with angiomyolipoma in association with tuberous sclerosis complex, as part of its in-year policy work programme.

In common with its standard process, NHS England has formed a policy working group and commissioned a clinical evidence review. This is now complete and is informing the development of a draft policy statement. The draft policy statement, along with the evidence review, will be shared and tested with stakeholders prior to formal consideration by NHS England in early 2016. The policy statement will be published in due course.

In the meantime, NHS England will continue to consider funding this treatment for individual patients in clinically exceptional and/or critically urgent clinical circumstances.

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, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of flood defences in the Leeds city region.

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 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding his Department has given to the Hospitality Guild for creating centres of excellence in Asian cookery.

Nick Boles

The ‘Centres of Excellence in Asian Cookery’ pilots were organised by People 1^st, which was operating on behalf of the Hospitality Guild, which received funding from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) through their grant with BIS. People 1^st reported that during the period of the pilot (October 2011 to September 2013), 79 people started training at the Centres of Excellence for Asian and Oriental cuisine, out of which 46 completed the pre-employment course, 22 completed work experience and 7 moved onto an apprenticeship.

£205,961 was provided to fund the Asian Cookery campaign. In total, UKCES allocated £1,745,785 to create the Hospitality Guild and to promote skills training, apprenticeships and innovation in the hospitality industry through a range of measures. These included apprenticeships as chefs, baristas, bar staff and hotel management, training provider accreditation, work placements and launching the Hospitality Guild Portal where careers tools, an employer guide and a vacancy matching service can be accessed.