Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with BT on the time taken to repair faulty telephone lines.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Ministers have raised the issue of the time taken for service requests and repairs with senior management at BT and Openreach.

Government supports the measures Ofcom announced in its Digital Communications Review to address the problem across all communication service providers, including: raising minimum standards for the time taken to install new lines and make repairs; and encouraging proactive behaviour in the maintenance of the network. Government expects Openreach’s performance to be consistently above the minimum standard.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps he has taken to reduce bed-blocking in hospitals.

Alistair Burt

To reduce bed-blocking we are working closely with NHS England, NHS Improvement, Local Government Association, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Department for Communities and Local Government, to provide a wide ranging package of support to help local areas improve transfers out of hospital and reduce delays.

The Government is giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion of new support for social care by 2019/20. In 2016-17, there is also a new Better Care Fund requirement on local areas to develop a clear, focused action plan for managing delays, including locally agreed targets. The requirement is designed to reduce delays across the health and care system.

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

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on encouraging regular trips to engineering firms, factories and laboratories by all-girls’ schools to encourage girls to consider STEM careers.

Caroline Dinenage

We are committed to increasing the number of girls studying STEM subjects and considering STEM careers. That is why earlier this year we announced an ambition to increase the proportion of girls studying STEM subjects by 20% by 2020. We fully encourage engagement between schools and employers to inform and inspire all young people about STEM careers.

This government wants to see improvements to the quality of careers advice and guidance available to young people, with many more schools and employers working together to provide excellent support. Helping all young people, regardless of background, get the inspiration and guidance they need for success in working life is a key part of this government’s commitment to delivering real social justice. Later this year, we will publish our careers strategy which will set out a clear vision and roadmap for our £90 million investment this parliament to improve careers education and guidance for young people.

As part of this investment, we are funding the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) to take a lead role in transforming the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement experiences for young people to inspire them and prepare them for the world of work. The CEC announced, in March, the successful bidders to the £5 million careers and enterprise investment fund, some of which have a specific focus on STEM. The fund will boost provision for nearly 250,000 young people across England in 75% of the areas the company has identified as ‘cold spots’.

The government supports the STEM Ambassadors Programme with a network of over 32,000 volunteers from STEM companies and academia who inspire schoolchildren about STEM careers. We also support the industry led Your Life campaign which aims to transform perceptions of STEM subjects by showing young people the range of careers they can pursue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what (a) exercises and (b) deployments the 77th Brigade has conducted in each of the last three years.

Penny Mordaunt

Since 77th Brigade was formed in April 2015, 116 personnel have deployed on 30 exercises, the vast majority of which have been UK based; 20 personnel have deployed on four separate operations; and a further 23 personnel have deployed non-operationally as part of Short Term Training Teams to five countries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with clinical bodies on the potential merits of weight-loss surgery in preventing diabetes.

Jane Ellison

There have been no such discussions.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has conducted on the links between cancer survival rates, diet and exercise.

George Freeman

The Department has not conducted or commissioned specific research on this topic.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is investing £4.5 million over five years in the NIHR Bristol Nutrition Biomedical Research Unit (BRU). This BRU aims to translate knowledge developed from work on causal associations in nutrition, drawn from population and clinical studies, to develop interventions that improve the health of people with conditions related to poor nutrition. One of the BRU’s research areas is prostate cancer. The overall aim of work in this area is to investigate the feasibility of undertaking randomised controlled trials of nutritional and physical activity interventions in men with prostate cancer and the impact of these interventions on cancer pathology to identify promising interventions to develop into phase III tertiary prevention trials.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will assess the potential merits of making the drug AK-219 available on the NHS to treat persistent coughs.

Nicola Blackwood

AF-219 is still undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of chronic coughs and it would be premature to comment on its future availability on the National Health Service.

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths have been caused by air pollution in each of the last 10 years.

Chris Skidmore

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has undertaken or assessed on links between depression and diabetes.

Nicola Blackwood

NHS England is undertaking work aimed at supporting people with diabetes who need psychological support: for example, psychological support for children with diabetes is being incentivised through the paediatric diabetes best practice tariff.

More generally, work has recently been undertaken on treating common mental health disorders for people with long term physical conditions, including diabetes. Based on the findings from this and other published evidence, Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health outlines NHS England’s ambition that two thirds of the expansion of psychological therapies services for common mental health problems, such as depression, will be integrated within physical health pathways, including diabetes.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with the Chinese government on disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Alok Sharma

We raise our concerns about maritime tensions in the South China Sea regularly in bilateral meetings with China, including at Ministerial level. The former Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), discussed the South China Sea directly with his Chinese counterpart a number of times this year, for instance during his visits to Beijing in January and April, emphasising the importance of compliance with international law and the need to settle disputes by peaceful means. We have also made our views known to China and other claimants through supporting public statements on the issue by the G7 and the European Union.