Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department is doing to help reduce the price of food for people on low incomes.

George Eustice

It is not the Government’s role to set retail food prices. The main drivers of food prices are commodity prices, exchange rates and oil prices. Anything that affects these will have an impact on food prices.

Defra does monitor retail food prices through The Consumer Prices Index. Year on year food prices have continued to fall with an annual rate of inflation of minus 2.8 per cent in the year to May 2016. Following a period of higher food price inflation retail food prices have fallen by 7.0% since their peak in February 2014.

We also monitor trends in household expenditure on food through the Family Food Survey. This includes monitoring the percentage of household expenditure which is spent on food, including for households with the lowest 20% income, which was 15.4% for 2014 compared with an average of 16.1% over the last 10 years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with pharmaceutical companies on steps to reduce the cost of cancer drugs for the NHS.

Nicola Blackwood

The Department has frequent discussions with representatives of the United Kingdom pharmaceutical industry as well as with individual pharmaceutical companies on a range of topics. We want to see the latest and most advanced drugs made available to National Health Service patients in a way that ensures value for money.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to encourage tree planting; and what grants are available for that purpose.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The Government is committed to planting 11 million trees in England during this Parliament, and is also supporting the planting of a million trees by schoolchildren, in partnership with the Woodland Trust. Individual administrations within the UK determine their own ambitions for tree planting.

In England, we encourage tree planting by championing sector-led initiatives, such as Grown in Britain and the Roots to Prosperity strategy, in their work to grow demand for wood from ground level up, developing the woodland economy. We also support the Woodland Carbon Code to help to attract private investment in woodland creation.

Grants are available from the Forestry Commission under the EU funded Woodland Creation Grant in the Rural Development Programme for England. Until negotiations conclude and the UK leaves the EU, all existing arrangements remain in place, including the rural development programme. We are working with the Treasury to ensure continuity, particularly for agri-environment schemes, but without prejudice to future decisions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to make dietary supplements to address osteoporosis available through the NHS.

David Mowat

General practitioners can prescribe any product, which they consider to be a medicine necessary for the treatment of their patients providing that the product is not included in Schedules 1 or 2 to the NHS (General Medical Services contracts) (Prescription of Drugs etc.) Regulations 2004 and the doctor is prepared to justify any challenges to their prescribing by their local primary care organisation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hate crimes were committed against disabled people in each of the last five years.

Sarah Newton

The Home Office has collected disability hate crime data from the police since 2011/12.

In 2011/12, the police recorded 1,748 disability hate crime offences, 1,911 in 2012/13, 2,006 in 2013/14 and 2,508 in 2014/15.

Further information on hate crime can be found in Hate Crimes, England and Wales, 2014/15, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2014-to-2015

Data for 2015/16 are due to be published in October 2016.

As stated by the Office for National Statistics, action taken by police forces to improve their compliance with the National Crime Recording Standard has led to improved recording of crime over the last year, especially for violence against the person offences. Together with a greater awareness of disability hate crime, and improved willingness of victims to come forward, this is likely to be a factor in the increase in disability hate crimes recorded by the police.

This Government is committed to tackling hate crime. The UK has one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world to tackle hate crime. We are working across Government with police, (including National Community Tensions Team), the Crown Prosecution Service and community partners to send out a clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated and we will vigorously pursue and prosecute those who commit these crimes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government will hold discussions with Greek Orthodox leaders in (a) Iraq and (b) Kurdistan on (i) support for internally displaced people from and (ii) returning internally displaced people to (A) Mosul and (b) Nineveh.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are working with partners to ensure stabilisation efforts in liberated areas allow internally displaced persons to return to their homes safely. On 21 July, the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), announced £10.5 million in additional UK funding for stabilisation in Iraq, this includes £1.75 million to support planning associated with the Mosul campaign. This announcement brings the UK’s Iraq contributions on immediate stabilisation to £9.25 million, and on explosive hazards to £7.75 million.

Since summer 2014, the UK has pledged £129.5 million of humanitarian support. This includes £50 million of additional assistance announced on 20 July 2016. To date, we have provided cash assistance, access to clean water, food, medicines and other life-saving assistance for the most vulnerable – irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure that people who lose their driving licence on the grounds of poor vision and subsequently receive a letter from their optometrist confirming that their vision meets the required standards can have their driving licence reinstated quickly.

Andrew Jones

Drivers in Great Britain whose licence has been revoked for failure to meet the required eyesight standards may submit further evidence to support their case. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency will consider that evidence within three working days. Further medical enquiries may be required.

Driver licensing is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and is a matter for the Department for Infrastructure in the Northern Ireland Executive.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve early diagnosis of childhood cancers; and if he will make available additional funding to improve such early diagnosis.

David Mowat

Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for this Government, and was clearly highlighted in the report Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes published last year by the Independent Cancer Taskforce. Earlier diagnosis makes it more likely that patients, including children with cancer, will receive effective treatments. We have committed to implementing all the recommendations of the Taskforce including that, by 2020, everyone referred with a suspicion of cancer will receive either a definitive diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks (28 days).

NHS England has the funds necessary to improve cancer services over the next five years, including up to £300 million by 2020 to support earlier diagnosis of cancer and the £10 billion of real terms increase in National Health Service funding by 2020-21. The recommendations in the Taskforce report give direction as to where these funds should be targeted.

In order to continue to support general practitioners (GPs) to identify patients whose symptoms may indicate cancer and urgently refer them as appropriate, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an updated suspected cancer referral guideline in June 2015. The guideline ‘Suspected cancer: recognition and referral’ includes new recommendations for childhood cancers.

NICE also addressed generally, non-site specific symptoms of concern in children and young people, recommending that GPs should take into account the insight and knowledge of parents and carers when considering making a referral for suspected cancer. NICE noted that more lives could be saved each year in England if GPs followed the new guideline, which encourages GPs to think of cancer sooner and lower the referral threshold.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the incidence of cyber-fraud and to advise the public of the level of care they should take in transferring money online.

Mr Ben Wallace

The Government launched the Joint Fraud Taskforce earlier this year. This partnership between government, law enforcement and the financial sector is working in new innovative ways to deliver a more effective response to fraud. The Taskforce is looking at new ways to ensure individuals have the tools and knowledge to protect themselves from fraudsters, including when transferring money online.

A Joint Fraud Taskforce partner, Financial Fraud Action UK, recently launched a nation-wide fraud prevention campaign ‘Take 5’ which advises that individuals take five minutes to consider what they are being asked to do, especially if being pressured to take an unusual course of action such as transferring funds to an unknown individual. The Taskforce is also working closely with the financial sector to look at how fraud can be designed out of systems such as internet banking, to stop individuals transferring money to a potential fraudster.

The Government’s Cyber Aware campaign aims to help small business and individuals protect themselves from cyber criminals by adopting simple secure online behaviours such as having a strong password and always downloading the latest software updates. Cyber Aware works with a range of public and private sector partners to embed cyber security advice into a range of every day touch points, including Get Safe Online, whose remit is to help individuals and small businesses safeguard themselves against fraud and other online data threats.

The Government is also encouraging all businesses which rely on the Internet to adopt the Cyber Essentials scheme to protect themselves against the most common Internet threats. We know the vast majority of cyber attacks exploit basic weaknesses in IT software and systems. Cyber Essentials shows organisations how to address those basics and get a good level of online security in place which all organisations operating online should aim for as a minimum.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions his Department has had with officials in the Northern Ireland Executive on the introduction of universal credit in Northern Ireland.

Damian Hinds

We are in regular discussions with Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities teams. This includes sharing lessons learnt to support the introduction of Universal Credit. Officials from Northern Ireland also attend programme governance meetings, including the Programme Board.