Tag: Keith Vaz

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many diabetes specialist nurses there are in (a) Leicester General Hospital, (b) Leicester Royal Infirmary, (c) Glenfield Hospital and (d) Leicestershire.

Ben Gummer

The Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the National Health Service in England but it does not separately identify diabetes specialist nurses.

It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the HM Passport Office’s target is for identifying fraudulently obtained genuine passports.

James Brokenshire

Her Majesty’s Passport Office does not have a numerical target for identifying fraudulently obtained genuine (FOG) passports. The work on detecting FOGs is part of a wider programme which also has a significant focus on preventing passport fraud.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Rory Stewart

Yemen is one of the most serious and complex humanitarian crises in the world. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 21.2 million people in Yemen require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs for food, water, sanitation, and healthcare, or protect their fundamental rights. Yemen is also experiencing an economic crisis, which has driven up food and other prices, and reduced people’s purchasing power.

Ultimately, only an end to the conflict will address the humanitarian crisis. The UK is working closely with other countries to de-escalate the conflict and is providing significant support to UN-led peace talks. The UK is also working with the UN and other countries to improve commercial and humanitarian access to and within Yemen. We are providing desperately needed humanitarian aid to Yemen and have so far committed to spending £72 million in Yemen this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the report entitled Ethnic Penalties in Motor Insurance Premiums by Webber Phillips, published in July 2016, what assessment her Department has made of concerns raised in that report that some car owners may be being charged higher premiums due to their ethnicity.

Caroline Dinenage

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society and sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone. There are specific exceptions for providers of financial services such as insurance companies, which allow them to use a person’s age as a factor in assessing risk and charging for their products. However, insurers are not able to use a person’s race as a factor in assessing risk and charging for their products.

The pricing of risk is a commercial decision for individual insurers, and differences in premiums reflect different insurers’ experience of claims and other industry-wide statistics. While insurers are not required by the Financial Conduct Authority to be transparent about pricing decisions, it expects firms to comply with relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, and can undertake its own enquiries to better understand what the firm is doing and whether any of its regulatory requirements have been breached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the intensity of conflict in urban areas in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

A political solution is the best way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and end the conflict. We welcomed and fully supported the UN facilitated talks held in Switzerland in December 2015 and the commitment to engage in a new round of talks in the near future. We are working closely with the UN to encourage parties to engage in good faith, without preconditions in future talks. We are encouraging all parties to reinstate a ceasefire at the next round of talks and are working closely with the UN to achieve this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding the Government has allocated specifically to child protection in Yemen.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. This includes funding for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Save the Children to raise awareness of child rights, to monitor and support displaced children and to provide children with food, nutritional support, water and sanitation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the parameters or cost of the Home Office contract with Airwave have been altered as a result of the acquisition of Airwave by Motorola Solutions.

Mike Penning

The Home Office holds three contracts with Motorola Solutions. These are:

(a) The Public Safety Radio Communications Service (PSRCS) Framework Arrangement for the provision of the Airwave service to the police services of Eng-land, Scotland and Wales.

(b) Contract ST03 10/641/9 for the provision of telecommunications services to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

(c) Emergency Services Network (ESN) — Lot 2 User Services; one of the contracts that will replace the current Airwave contract.

The cost to the public purse of the Home Office contract with Airwave in Financial Year 2015-16 is forecast to be £283 million comprising £230 million paid centrally by the Home Office and £53 million paid locally by police forces to Airwave. By way of comparison, under the newly procured Emergency Services Network, the policing share of costs is expected to be less than half of the current Airwave costs.

Airwave Solutions Ltd provides mobile telecommunications services for emer-gency services. The Home Office Airwave contracts only relate to police forces, and immigration and nationality functions within the Home Office. The Home Office is not party to the contracts which many other organisations in the public sector have entered into with Airwave.

The acquisition of Airwave by Motorola Solutions means all three Emergency Services contracts now end on 31st December 2019. This provides continuity of service for the transition to the Emergency Services Network.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what scientific testing Spirit Healthcare’s Empower type 2 diabetes education programme underwent for the outcomes it produces.

Jane Ellison

The information requested is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures are in place to regulate the prices of everyday drugs sold to the NHS by pharmaceutical companies.

George Freeman

There are arrangements in place to ensure that the prices paid by the National Health Service for medicines provide value for money for the NHS. The prices and the profits made on the sales of branded medicines to the NHS are controlled by the voluntary Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme. If a company chooses not to join the voluntary scheme, it falls under a statutory scheme which controls the prices of branded medicines.

The Department does not control the price of generic medicines; instead it relies on competition to drive down prices. A report in 2010 by the National Audit Office showed that the reimbursement arrangements had delivered savings for the NHS of £1.8 billion between 2005/6 and 2008/09.

Concerns about possible anti-competitive behaviour by pharmaceutical companies are investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The Department and the CMA work closely together on such matters. The CMA is committed to investigating suspected infringements of competition law, including suspected excessive pricing in the pharmaceutical sector. The CMA has strong powers of investigation and, where it finds that a firm has breached competition law, it may impose penalties of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide turnover.

The CMA has been asked by the Secretary of State to undertake further work to look into specific instances of excessive pricing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will estimate her Department’s spending related to the crisis in Yemen.

Rory Stewart

Since March 2015, the UK has provided £90 million to the Yemen crisis, helping over a million Yemenis with food, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter. We have so far committed £72 million to Yemen for this year.