Tag: Jim Cunningham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate his Department has made of the forecast return on investment from the High Speed 2 project; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Analysis presented in the HS2 Economic Case published in October 2013 calculated that the benefit cost ratio (BCR) of HS2 is valued at 2.3 for the full Y-network, including wider economic impacts. Therefore, over £2 worth of benefits are expected for every £1 spent which represents high value for money.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the total operational cost of UK overseas military bases in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Penny Mordaunt

The operating costs of overseas bases are not held centrally and some cost elements are not immediately available. I have provided statistics for financial years 2011-12 and 2014-15, and will write to the hon. Member shortly to provide the rest of the information.

Base	Expenditure 2011-12 (£ million)	2014-15 (£ million)
Belize		2
Brunei (1)		66
Canada		68
Cyprus	257	250
Diego Garcia		3
Germany	907	235
Gibraltar	71	70
Kenya		41
Nepal (2)		11
South Atlantic Islands	99	85

Notes:

(1) The majority of the expenditure is funded by the Sultanate of Brunei.

(2) The costs shown are partially offset by income received from UK-delivered training.

These figures represent the cost of operating our permanent bases overseas (including stock consumption, infrastructure, welfare and medical, leases, equipment support) and the cost of employment of the personnel based there.

Decisions on the UK’s permanent military presence overseas will be taken in the Strategic Defence and Security Review. This Government is clear that there will be no reduction in Britain’s influence overseas, and Defence will continue to play a strong global role.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of (a) the number of people in receipt of the carer’s credit and (b) the total cost of the carer’s credit scheme in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson

The information requested for Carers Credit is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his (a) Iranian and (b) Russian counterparts to discuss the threat posed by ISIS; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK does not always agree with the views expressed by Russia and Iran, but we are open to discussion on how best to deal with ISIL and bring peace and security to the region.

At the G20, the Prime Minister and President Putin agreed that the international community needed to find a way to work together to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria and focus on the shared aim of destroying ISIL.

Iran’s role in fostering instability in the Middle East continues to be a source of concern. The newly opened Embassy in Tehran is an opportunity to discuss a range of regional issues with Iranian counterparts, including shared threats such as ISIL. The UK has discussed ISIL with Iranian President Rouhani, as well as Ministers and officials.

Both Russia and Iran have attended the talks in Vienna aimed at finding a political solution to the situation in Syria. The UK will continue to play a leading role in the International Syria Support Group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department holds on the number of British military personnel embedded with foreign armed forces; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon

Given the routine nature of embedding, this information has not been coordinated centrally. The Ministry of Defence is in the process of compiling data on UK personnel embedded with other nations’ armed forces and deployed on operations, as well as those who work on operations in deployed coalition or single nation headquarters roles. I intend to update the House after this process is complete.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2015 to Question 17275, what estimate his Department has made of the number of qualified fast jet pilots that will be employed by the RAF in each of the next five years.

Penny Mordaunt

The number of qualified fast jet pilots forecast to be in the Royal Air Force in each of the next five years is shown below, and includes both Regular and Reserve personnel.

2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
640	620	600	570	560

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of finance options available to student nurses; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

From 1 August 2017, new nursing, midwifery and allied health students will no longer receive NHS bursaries. Instead, they will have access to the same student loans system as other students.

We intend that students studying nursing, midwifery and the allied health subjects as a second degree will also be able to get student loans.

The change will only affect new students commencing their courses from 1 August 2017.

We plan to run a consultation in early 2016 to ask how we can successfully deliver the reforms.

Under the loans system, students on nursing, midwifery and allied health courses will receive around a 25% increase in the financial support available to them for living costs. The precise change for individuals will be dependent on their circumstances – for example, where they study, the length of the course, income and residency.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of the total (a) number and (b) payments made from feed-in tariff schemes in each year since 2010; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom

The table below shows (a) the number of commissioned installations under the feed – in tariff scheme, and (b) generation payments made under the scheme:

	Generation payments (£)*	Cumulative installations (at end March)**
2010-11	12,487,029	47,746
2011-12	135,937,392	319,057
2012-13	504,272,611	430,445
2013-14	685,973,264	545,245
2014-15	850,823,544	683,462

*Source; feed-in tariff annual report 2014-15

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/feed-in_tariff_annual_report_year_five_2014-15.pdf

** Source; DECC feed-in tariff statistics

Monthly feed-in tariff commissioned installations by month – Publications – GOV.UK

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to increase the amount of housing stock owned by councils; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis

Local housing authorities have a wide range of discretion in building and running their housing stock. The Housing Revenue Account self-financing settlement was a good deal for local authorities; it put them in charge of their own finances and allowed them to decide how they wanted to invest in both their existing stock and in new council homes.

Local housing authorities have accumulated general housing revenue account reserves of almost £2.5 billion (in addition to over £1billion in the Major Repairs Reserve) and have borrowing headroom approaching £3.4 billion. In addition, almost £222 million of extra borrowing headroom has been allocated to 36 councils in England to specifically support around 3,000 new affordable homes in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

More council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years. 2014 saw the highest number of council housing starts for 23 years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 21330, what estimate his Department has made of its spend on mental health specialists in each of the next five years.

Mark Lancaster

As previously reported, the Defence Medical Services’ average annual staff costs for military, reserves and civilian mental health personnel across the last three years was £20.39 million. Our current intention is to maintain the numbers of mental health specialists at broadly the same level over the next five years.

A recent study (the Defence Mental Health Services Review) recommended the civilianisation of 40 military posts. Overall, there will be a net increase of two posts and minor changes to the mix of specialisms. It is anticipated that this will result in a minor decrease in overall annual staff costs. This cannot yet be quantified as the detailed timing of implementation is yet to be determined.