Tag: Justin Tomlinson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that produce labelling does not suggest that produce not from British farms is from such farms.

George Eustice

The Food Information to Consumers Regulation (No 1169/2011) requires labelling to adhere to the principle that the consumer should not be misled. Article 26(2) of the Regulation imposes an obligation on food business operators to include an indication of the country of origin or place of provenance of a food if the failure to give that information might mislead an average consumer taking into account the label as a whole.

The food business operator is responsible for ensuring that a brand name it uses does not mislead the consumer. It is for the relevant enforcement authorities to assess whether they consider that the use of a brand name is ambiguous or confusing for the consumer on an individual case basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve data-sharing (a) across government departments and (b) between government departments and local authorities.

Ben Gummer

The Cabinet Office has consulted public authorities, academics, civil society organisations and privacy groups to explore how data-sharing can be used to improve public services to better support citizens in need, tackle fraud and debt and inform better policy making through world class research and statistics.

The government has included a number of provisions within the Digital Economy Bill to enable government to share data more effectively, whilst also including a set of principles to strengthen the safeguards around the use of data.

The government has also worked to establish a Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing, supporting public sector organisations and government departments in identifying and overcoming the organisational and cultural issues that limit effective sharing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many airside incursions by protestors there have been since 2015; at which airports those incursions occurred; and what the average delay to flights in minutes was in each such instances.

Mr John Hayes

There have been two airside incursions by protesters since 2015. One at Heathrow and one at London City. The Department does not hold any information on the delay to flights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to standardise nutritional information in food and drink labelling.

Nicola Blackwood

The legislation on food labelling sets out the content, format and expression of nutrition information on food labels. It is implemented in England by the Food Information Regulations 2014. Nutrition labelling for most pre-packed food and drink will be mandatory from 13 December 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to ban the use of microbeads and microplastics in all personal care products, washing powders, household cleaners and industrial blast media.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

On 3 September the Government announced plans to ban the sale and manufacture of cosmetics and personal care products containing microbeads where these are capable of harming the marine environment. Our plans will be informed by a formal consultation later this year. At the same time, evidence will be gathered on the extent of the environmental impacts of microbeads found in other products before considering what more can be done in future to tackle other plastics, for example microfibres, which enter the marine environment.

Given the trans-boundary nature of marine litter, we will also continue to work with other countries in the Oslo and Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic (OSPAR) to address marine litter, including microplastics.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of support for post-traumatic stress disorder provided to (a) serving regular armed forces personnel, (b) serving reserve personnel and (c) veterans.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence is committed to looking after the mental health of our Armed Forces, and our medical services are configured to provide community-based healthcare in line with national best practice. In the UK, we have 14 military Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs), which are located to be convenient for major centres of military population, and which support the provision of healthcare that is available through Service primary care facilities. The DCMH mental health teams comprise psychiatrists and mental health nurses, with access to clinical psychologists and mental health social workers. A wide range of psychiatric and psychological treatments are available, including medication, psychological therapies, and environmental adjustment where appropriate. In-patient care, when necessary, is provided in dedicated psychiatric units through a central contract with an in-patient psychiatric care provider.

Mobilised Reservists are entitled to the same mental healthcare from the Defence Medical Services as their Regular colleagues. Both current and former Reservists can access the Veterans and Reserves Mental Health Programme (VRMHP) for a full mental health assessment, followed by a course of treatment at a military Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) if their condition is assessed as attributable to operational experience. We have been actively engaged with the Department of Health to ensure that NHS GPs are aware of this service, and of the referral process.

Veterans in England, Scotland and Wales are entitled to priority treatment at NHS hospitals for Service-related conditions (subject to the clinical need of all patients) and a Veterans’ Transition Protocol ensures any Service person discharged with a diagnosed mental health disorder is handed over appropriately to the NHS in England and the Devolved Administrations. A number of enhancements have been made to the care available for them, including more NHS veterans mental health nurses, follow-up of Service leavers twelve months after discharge, and a 24-hour mental health helpline sponsored by Combat Stress.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to allow local authorities to set multi-annual budgets.

Mr Marcus Jones

The annual balanced budget requirement is a key element of the local authority financial control framework. It means that the council is content that underlying income will cover ongoing costs and future commitments in a sustainable and manageable way.

In addition to preparing annual balanced budgets local authorities should prepare multi-year Medium Term Financial Plans. In order to support effective multi-year financial planning the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government published an historic four year local government finance settlement on 8 February 2016. Councils across England applied for the four year offer on the 14 October and the government will respond as soon as practicable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the existing regulatory regime relating to the will writing industry.

Sir Oliver Heald

In 2013 the Legal Services Board (LSB) recommended that will writing be made a reserved legal activity, so that only authorised persons under the Legal Services Act 2007 could provide this service. The Government at that time considered that the evidence provided in the LSB report did not adequately demonstrate that reservation was the best solution to the identified problems in the will writing market, or that other measures had been sufficiently exhausted in seeking to address these problems.

We will consider any recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) when they publish their Legal Services Market Study. The CMA’s interim report published on 8 July made reference to a need to consider possible changes to the current regulatory framework.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the benefits of localised general practice federations.

David Mowat

The majority of general practitioner (GP) practices are now working in practice groups or federations. This provides opportunities to expand services, stabilise practice income and work at scale which has benefits for patients, practices and the wider system. These include: economies of scale; quality improvement; workforce development; enhanced care and new services; resilience; and system partnerships.

The GP Access Fund specifically has enabled groups of GP practices, often collaborating with others such as community pharmacies or ambulance services, to provide new and expanded services together. Operating under a single contract in a local area and sharing work and resources has enabled the 2,500 practices in the programme to significantly develop their networks.

Most of the GP Access Fund schemes have, through the programme, strengthened their arrangements for collaboration, developed a more prominent identity with patients, and grown their leadership and management capabilities. This has been facilitated by the support programme put in place by NHS England, helping the networks to make faster progress on issues such as IT, governance and care redesign. It has also built a legacy of more cohesive and capable teams for the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that best practice in planning is shared between local authorities.

Gavin Barwell

My department continues to fund the work of the Planning Advisory Service, which exists to help local planning authorities share best practice, improve procedures and understand changes in national legislation and policy. Its current work concentrates in particular on places that need to prepare up-to-date plans and improve their development management services.