Tag: Michael Dugher

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will provide a list of diplomats at Minister-Counsellor rank serving in the Qatar embassy to the United Kingdom (a) currently and (b) for each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

James Duddridge

Until 2014, the London Diplomatic List was published annually, listing diplomats of foreign and Commonwealth countries in London. The information in the the London Diplomatic List is supplied by diplomatic missions and is now available on-line at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-embassies-in-the-uk. FCO records show that two diplomats hold the rank of Minister-Counsellor at the Qatari Embassy in London and have done so since late 2013. According to our records and the LDL there were no Minister-Counsellors at the Qatari Embassy in London from 2010 to November 2013.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many heavy rail vehicles built before 1999 have not been refurbished to comply with (a) RVAR 10 and (b) PRM TSI regulations; and what proportion of the national heavy rail fleet meets those requirements.

Claire Perry

The total heavy rail fleet comprises 12,610 vehicles. Of these vehicles, 7,903 are either built or refurbished to be compliant with the applicable accessibility standards. This is 62.7% of the fleet. The equivalent proportion as at March 2010 was 45 per cent.

Within those figures there are 6336 vehicles built pre-1999 in service. Of that figure, to date 1,628 vehicles have been refurbished to meet accessibility standards. We expect all the remaining vehicles to be made compliant, or replaced, by 2020. Some of the pre-1999 fleet will be replaced shortly under new rolling stock programmes such as IEP, and others, such as Pacers will no longer be in service by the 2020 accessibility compliance deadline.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he took the decision to undertake an impact assessment for the purposes of the Public Sector Equality Duty of the changes to the budget for community pharmacy in 2016-17; and when work on that assessment commenced.

Alistair Burt

The proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond that were published on 17 December 2015 were considered against my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health’s duties, which include the Public Sector Equality Duty. An impact assessment has been developed during the consultation period and the Department is committed to publishing the impact assessment alongside any Drug Tariff determination.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many official Royal British Legion Remembrance events have received logistical police support other than wreath laying in a ceremonial capacity in each year since 2010.

Mike Penning

The Home Office does not hold the information requested. The police have never had a policy of routinely attending remembrance parades. Decisions on the operational deployment of resources are matters for Chief Constables, in association with Police and Crime Commissioners. There are no plans for the Home Office to issue guidance to the police on this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many businesses have signed agreements with the Business Growth Service in each local authority area in the UK.

Anna Soubry

The attached table shows the number of businesses that have signed agreements with the Business Growth Service in each local authority area in the UK since the service launched in December 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the recent change in the value of the pound on the purchasing power of British steel companies.

Mr Nick Hurd

My Department regularly reviews the impact of changing economic conditions on business including in specific sectors such as steel. We also talk regularly to companies to understand their view on market conditions including in formal meetings such as sector councils.

Steel companies are impacted differently by exchange rates depending on the balance of raw materials they import from outside the UK and the location of their export markets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy that police officers be assigned to support all Royal British Legion Remembrance parades.

Mike Penning

The Home Office does not hold the information requested. The police have never had a policy of routinely attending remembrance parades. Decisions on the operational deployment of resources are matters for Chief Constables, in association with Police and Crime Commissioners. There are no plans for the Home Office to issue guidance to the police on this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-02-23.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many publicly-funded jobs relating directly to the Northern Powerhouse there are in (a) Barnsley East constituency, (b) Barnsley, (c) Yorkshire and the Humber, (d) London and (e) other regions of England.

Greg Hands

The latest regional public sector employment survey figures are available online at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pse/public-sector-employment/q3-2015/index.html, the figures for Barnsley and Barnsley East can be found in the Annual Population Survey (Oct 2014-Sep 2015): https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the definition of statutory homelessness in preventing rough sleeping.

Mr Marcus Jones

The homelessness legislation (part 7 Housing Act 1996) provides a strong safety net for all those who are vulnerable and homeless through no fault of their own. Homelessness is defined at section 175 of the Act. Broadly speaking somebody is statutorily homeless if they do not have accommodation that they have a legal right to occupy, which is accessible and physically available to them (and their household) and which it would be reasonable for them to continue to live in. It would not be reasonable for someone to continue to live in their home, for example, if that was likely to lead to violence against them (or a member of their family).

We have protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, totalling £315 million by 2020. In doing so, we expect local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide advice and assistance to all those that approach them for help. Since 2010, this funding has allowed local authorities to prevent more than a million households from becoming homeless. We are determined to ensure that we prevent more people from becoming homeless in the first place so we are working with local authorities, homelessness charities and across departments to consider options to prevent more people from becoming homeless.

We have also increased central funding to tackle homelessness to £139 million over the next four years, which will include targeted funding for rough sleeping. This includes a new £10 million fund to support and scale-up initiatives to prevent and reduce rough sleeping, and a £10 million Social Impact Bond to support the most entrenched rough sleepers off the streets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) sight loss and (b) hearing loss in (i) Barnsley East, (ii) Barnsley, (iii) South Yorkshire and (iv) Yorkshire and the Humber.

Justin Tomlinson

The information requested is not available at parliamentary constituency level.

For Yorkshire and Humber it is estimated that there were 140,000 (+/- 40,000) people with a sight impairment and 190,000 (+/- 40,000) people with a hearing impairment in 2013/14.

Source: Family Resources Survey, 2013/14

Notes:

1. Disabled people are identified in the Family Resources Survey as those who report any physical or mental health condition(s) or illness(es) that last or are expected to last 12 months or more and which limit their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
2. The Family Resources Survey is a nationally representative sample of UK households.
3. The figures from the Family Resources Survey are based on a sample of households which have been adjusted for non-response using multi-purpose grossing factors which align the Family Resources Survey to former Government Office Region population by age and sex. Estimates based on survey data are subject to uncertainty due to sampling error and remaining non-response error.
4. The figures quoted in this response represent point estimates with 95 per cent confidence intervals i.e. given the size and structure of the sample, we are 95 per cent confident that the number of people in Yorkshire and Humber with a sight impairment is 140,000 (+/- 40,000) and the number with a hearing impairment is 190,000 (+/- 40,000).
5. The Family Resources Survey covers private households only so does not record information on individuals in, for example, nursing or retirement homes. This means that figures relating to older people or others who have moved into homes where they can receive more frequent help may not be representative of the United Kingdom population. Therefore it is likely that disability prevalence for those who do not reside in a private household is higher than estimated from the FRS.
6. Figures have been rounded to the nearest ten thousand.