Tag: Lord Naseby

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 8 December (HL3846), how much grant the Department of Health will provide to Action on Smoking and Health in the current financial year, and whether they will place a copy of any grant application and award letter in the Library of the House.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department will provide a grant of £150,000 to Action on Smoking and Health in the 2015/16 financial year. This grant is awarded under Section 64 of the Health and Social Care Act 1968.

A copy of the signed award letter, including the detailed deliverables of the grant, has been attached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for any grant awarded to Action on Smoking and Health in each of the last five years, how much was awarded in one financial year and spent in a subsequent one.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department has received an application for grant funding from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) for the 2016-17 financial year. The application process is iterative to ensure the final objectives are in line with Departmental aims and the application that the Department currently holds is a draft application. Draft applications for grant funding are not published.

There was no underspend of the grant awarded to ASH in 2015-16 and, in each of the last five years, the funding has been spent in the relevant financial year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of Action on Smoking and Health in providing the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, and in particular whether such activities are designed to influence (1) Parliament, Government or political parties, or (2) legislative or regulatory action.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department has made no assessment of the role of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in providing the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.

The conditions applicable to grants awarded to ASH for work to support tobacco control are set out in the grant award letters. The Department has made clear that none of this funding is to be used for activities designed to influence Parliament, Government or political parties or to influence legislative or regulatory action. ASH’s compliance with the conditions of the grant is assessed at grant monitoring meetings as well as in the final full year grant monitoring and governance reports.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-05-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will provide emergency funding from the international aid budget to help Sri Lankan citizens affected by the recent floods and landslides.

Baroness Verma

The UK provides substantial funding to international NGOs and UN agencies, enabling them to respond to disasters around the world, including Sri Lanka. This includes the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which was established by the UN and other leading donors to enable rapid emergency response. The CERF is doing an assessment of the situation following the rainfall and landslips in Sri Lanka. The UK, along with other leading donors, will provide support as required through this coordinated response mechanism.

The UK is the biggest contributor to the CERF, having provided in excess of $855m in the last 10 years. The UK also provides funding to the European Union humanitarian agency (ECHO) which is also undertaking an assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions between 2013 and 2015 the Department of Health received representations from Action on Smoking and Health regarding the standardised packaging of tobacco products.

Lord Prior of Brampton

To identify what representations the Department has received about standardised packaging between 2013 and 2015 would require extensive searching of Departmental records to identify which representations were relevant and would result in disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many items of correspondence the Department of Health has received from (1) the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, and (2) the Chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, in each of the last five years that originated from a postal or email address belonging to the group Action on Smoking and Health.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department of Health’s central correspondence database recorded 90 items of correspondence from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health received in the last five years that originated from a postal or email address belonging to the group Action on Smoking and Health.

There was no record of any such correspondence having being received from the Chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee in this period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Leader of the House whether she will set up a working party to consider the combining of the contents of the Companion to the Standing Orders with those parts of Erskine May that refer to the House of Lords in order to produce a single reference volume reflecting the law, privilege, proceedings and usage of Parliament as applicable to the House.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston

The Companion to the Standing Orders is the single authoritative statement of practice and procedure of the House, issued with the authority of the Procedure Committee.

Erskine May is edited by the Clerk of the House of Commons. It contains some additional information about the history and privileges of Parliament, including the House of Lords, and Lords Clerks contribute to its production, but for the House of Lords the resulting text does not have the authoritative status that it does in the House of Commons. For this reason, and in order to keep the Companion a manageable length, I do not propose to pursue amalgamation of the texts into a single volume.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-01-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 21 December 2015 (HL4603 and HL4606), whether they plan to investigate the activities of the group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in providing the secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smoking and Health and the use of public grants for lobbying activities in the light of the fact that the Department of Health has received 90 items of correspondence from the APPG originating from a postal or email address belonging to ASH in the last five years.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The conditions applicable to grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) are set out in the grant award letters. The Department has made clear that none of this funding is to be used for lobbying purposes.

The Section 64 grant must be spent in delivering the the agreed project outputs set out in the grant award letter and it does not fund secretariat support for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.

ASH’s compliance with the conditions of the grant is assessed at the grant monitoring meetings held between the Deputy Director of tobacco control and representatives from ASH as well as in the final full year grant monitoring and governance reports.

The Department is required to retain information relating to Section 64 grants for six years. The full amount of the grant was spent for each year that a grant was provided to ASH in the past six years.