Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance the Government has given to former Gurkhas who are homeless as a result of recent earthquakes in Nepal.

Mr Desmond Swayne

A Joint DFID and Ministry of Defence (MOD) response was launched immediately in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquakes in April and May 2015. The MOD through the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT) supported both immediate and longer term initiatives. The GWT carried out a detailed assessment of the damage to Gurkha communities and provided £1.2 million in emergency aid that included distribution of shelter kits, tarpaulins and corrugated iron sheets in remote areas immediately in the aftermath of the earthquake. In addition, a unit of the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers was deployed to repair and rebuild the homes and communities of approximately 2,200 Gurkha servicemen that were severely damaged by the earthquake. To date, 150 new houses, built to an earthquake resistant design, are under construction and a further 600 houses will be started this year. DFID has been supplying humanitarian assistance to the Gurkha communities hit by the earthquake since April 2015 and continues to do so.

The GWT’s commitments for the earthquake response now stand at £19 million over 5 years. The MOD has provided an additional grant of £512,000 to assist the GWT in its on-going response operations. Between 2012-20 DFID has committed £14.19 million to support the GWT’s Gurkha Welfare Scheme, a programme predominantly supporting the Nepali servicemen and their communities, on water and sanitation programmes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make the test for levels of fetal fibronectin to assist in detecting likely premature births available through the NHS.

Ben Gummer

In November 2014, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommended that screening for pre-term birth should not be offered as the available screening test is not reliable. Further research is also needed to better understand the use of fetal fibronectin as a screen indicator in an antenatal screening programme.

The UK NSC concluded that based on the published peer reviewed evidence preterm birth should not be offered for the following reasons:

― The available tests for identifying which asymptomatic women were at risk of preterm labour, including the measurement of cervical length, are not reliable enough to meet the UK NSC’s criteria for use as a screening tool. Screening would identify many women as at risk when they are not, leading to unnecessary preventive treatment;

― The measurement of cervical length has no agreed measurement for establishing which pregnancies are at risk and which are not; and

― There is not enough evidence to suggest that the most effective treatment from preventing preterm labour, vaginal progesterone provides any overall benefit or reduced the likelihood of a baby dying.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of a bilateral ceasefire in Colombia as a result of a final peace agreement being signed; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Hugo Swire

President Juan Manuel Santos announced in October 2015, that the Government was prepared to declare a bilateral ceasefire on completion of point 5 of the agenda ‘end of conflict’, which is still being negotiated in Havana. However, he said repeatedly that the FARC must first agree to lay down their weapons and give up their armed struggle before a ceasefire is declared.

On 25 January, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2261, drafted by the United Kingdom. The resolution establishes a Special Political Mission, to monitor and verify the ceasefire between the Government of Colombia and the FARC.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in the UK have been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

We do not have information on the numbers of people diagnosed with age related macular degeneration in each of the last five years.

What we do have is the number of finished admission episodes, for England, for the last five years, where the primary diagnosis was ‘degeneration of the macular and posterior pole’.

Age group	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
0-4	2	2	3	2	3
5-9	1	2	7	3	6
10-14	6	9	8	8	3
15-19	9	18	10	11	9
20-24	43	32	21	36	20
25-29	51	29	33	47	45
30-34	61	42	57	56	58
35-39	95	73	101	100	73
40-44	162	156	162	229	148
45-49	256	254	319	377	386
50-54	417	439	477	636	603
55-59	980	812	973	1,216	1,283
60-64	2,617	2,589	2,647	2,833	2,767
65-69	4,740	5,153	5,982	6,427	6,729
70-74	8,685	8,937	9,770	9,847	10,671
75-79	12,998	14,051	15,347	14,506	16,069
80-84	16,568	17,083	18,765	17,747	18,847
85-89	13,114	13,960	15,550	14,262	15,497
90+	5,382	6,179	7,320	7,318	8,580
Unknown	8	6	7	11	18
TOTAL	66,195	69,826	77,559	75,672	81,815

This would include age related macular degeneration, as well as other conditions. It also only relates to people admitted to hospital not those seen in outpatients or primary care.

Notes:

A finished admission episode is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider.

Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the same period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support the Government gives to large pharmaceutical companies to partner with universities.

Joseph Johnson

In the last five years, Innovate UK has committed around £32M to support partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and universities in order to drive the translation of university-based research and commercial applications which tackle disease and life-threatening illnesses.

In addition, the Government is investing in three Catapult Centres supporting the life sciences sector – the Cell Therapy, Precision Medicine and Medicines Technologies Catapults. These centres have a particular focus on supporting collaborative research and innovation among small and medium sized firms.

Large companies are able to claim R&D Tax Relief through a 130% enhanced allowance or, alternatively, an 11% taxable credit via the R&D Expenditure Credit. In 2013/14, these schemes provided support of £950M to 3,950 businesses. Additionally, the UK’s Patent Box was introduced in 2013 and gives additional incentive to develop, retain and commercialise new, innovative patented products in the UK. The Patent Box offers an effective 10% corporation tax rate on trading profits earned in the UK from specified patents.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department’s rationale was for allocating £30,000 to provide training or recruitment of teachers with protected characteristics.

Nick Gibb

School workforce census data continues to show under-representation of particular groups of individuals within leadership positions (in particular for Black and Minority Ethnic and female leaders).

The Leadership Equality and Diversity Fund supports teachers from under-represented groups (as measured by the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010) to prepare for leadership positions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make it his policy to introduce a scheme to provide financial assistance for the start up of grassroots sports clubs.

David Evennett

Within England, there are already a number of schemes in place to support the establishment of grassroots sports clubs. Sport England’s Small Grants programme makes awards of between £300 and £10,000 to support sports clubs, local projects, and other not-for-profit organisations who want to get more people playing sport. Sport England will support the establishment of grassroots sports clubs through Small Grants, providing the organisation is a formally constituted, not-for-profit organisation or statutory body in England. Sport England also provides advice and guidance to support the setup of new sports clubs through its funding helpline and its Club Matters resource.

More information on devolved sport issues can be requested from the Devolved Administrations and their respective sports councils. For grassroots sport the respective sports councils for DAs are Sport Wales, sportscotland and Sport NI.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions his Department has had with counterparts in the French government on providing (a) training and (b) logistics for the Lebanese armed forces.

Penny Mordaunt

The UK and France participate in a multilateral group that meets twice a year to coordinate capacity building support to the Lebanese armed forces.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government has provided to the Lebanese government for vetting and security checking refugees entering that country.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK has contributed £34 million to support the Lebanese Armed Forces’ ability to defend the border and contain spillover from the Syria conflict. The UK funded Land Border Regiments are successfully protecting the integrity of the Lebanese border for the first time in the country’s history. We are also considering what further support we can offer either bilaterally or through the EU to better support Lebanese security forces with border management.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects the Cross Government Working Group on Drones to finish its work; and when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Cross Government Working Group on Drones is an ongoing policy group that meets quarterly to discuss a range of cross-cutting departmental issues relating to drones.

My department is working with the European Aviation Safety Agency on the development of new European rules for drones. The Civil Aviation Authority are planning to consult on these proposals in the summer, with a view to making amendments to the Air Navigation Order in 2017.