Tag: Michelle Donelan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of potential sources for exploring fracking sites where sufficient fresh water is not available at that site.

Andrea Leadsom

Companies must obtain water from their local water company or apply for an abstraction licence from the Environment Agency. Whichever option a company chooses; an assessment would be made of the availability of water, existing users and any impact on the environment.

If sufficient water is not available then the water company or the Environment Agency may not be able to grant permission for the company to use the water for all or part of the time it is required. Companies would need to plan their operations accordingly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the level of respect for freedom of religion in Nepal in the period after the adoption of its new constitution.

Mr Hugo Swire

The right to freedom of religion is enshrined as a fundamental right in article 26 (1) of the new constitution. We do however have concerns about the interpretation of the proposed legislation relating to Article 156 of the Penal Code, particularly around changing religion.

Our Embassy in Kathmandu has publicly encouraged Nepali Members of Parliament to ensure that the political settlement meets Nepal’s international human rights obligations, including ensuring the protection of the right to change religion. During the 2015 UK-Nepal bilateral talks my officials also emphasised the importance that the UK places on the freedom to change religion.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what work his Department has completed with the charity Open Doors since 2010.

Mr David Lidington

Ministers and officials from the FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy Department and from a number of geographical departments regularly meet with representatives of Open Doors. FCO Ministers have also attended and spoken at the annual launch of the Open Doors Annual Report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he plans for the provision of charging points for electric cars at multiple locations in the UK.

Anna Soubry

Plug-in vehicles are generally charged at home and overnight, and so the Government provides grants of up to £500 for the installation of domestic chargepoints. More than 60,000 have been installed to date. The UK also has over 11,000 publicly accessible chargepoints; in streets, car parks and motorway service areas. This includes almost 900 rapid chargepoints that can charge a car in 20-30 minutes – the largest network in Europe.

The Department for Transport’s Road Investment Strategy includes funding of £15m to improve the network of chargepoints on the strategic road network, and the Go Ultra Low city scheme is expected to deliver around 750 more publicly accessible chargepoints in UK towns and cities by 2020. We will announce further targeted support for plug-in vehicle chargepoints in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what regulations there are on the ratio of staff to patients in care homes.

Ben Gummer

There are no regulations setting out staff to residents ratio’s in care homes, however all providers of regulated activities have to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall.

One of the fundamental standards relates to staffing and requires that a provider must have sufficient numbers of suitability qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons in order to meet the requirements of residents.

The CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers that it can use if the provider is not does not meet the fundamental standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of humanitarian conditions inside the town of Daraya in Syria.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The United Nations has been unable to deliver assistance to the 4,000 people besieged by the Syrian Regime in Darayya since November 2012, despite repeated requests for permission. The UN report that humanitarian conditions there are dire, with reports of severe shortages of food, clean water, medicines, electricity and basic commodities. The United Nations stands ready to deliver assistance to Darayaa as soon as access is granted by the Syrian regime.

Across Syria, Assad and other parties to the conflict are wilfully impeding humanitarian access on a day-by-day basis. It is unacceptable and illegal to use starvation as a weapon of war. We have given support to the UN and international NGOs since the start of the conflict to deliver aid to these areas and are pushing for humanitarian access to be granted to all besieged and hard to reach places in Syria through the International Syria Support Group Humanitarian taskforce and our position in the UN Security Council.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he next plans to review speed limits in England.

Andrew Jones

There are no plans to review national speed limits in England except for temporary speed limits at road works. Local traffic authorities are responsible for setting speed limits on local roads where local needs and conditions suggest a speed limit which is lower than the national speed limit. Traffic authorities have the flexibility to set local speed limits that are appropriate for the individual road, reflecting local needs and taking account of local considerations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support the electric car industry.

Anna Soubry

The UK offers one of the most comprehensive packages of support for ultra low emission vehicles in the world, and has committed funding of more than £600m by 2020. This includes plug-in car and van grants, support for recharging infrastructure, a joint government-industry communications campaign, as well as substantial investment in R&D. In addition, the Government and industry are investing around £1bn over 10 years in the Advanced Propulsion Centre to develop, commercialise and enable the manufacture of advanced propulsion technologies in the UK. The UK manufacturers around one in five of the pure electric cars sold in the European Union.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the implementation of seven-day-a-week NHS services on the payment-by-results contracts in clinical commissioning groups.

Ben Gummer

The Department and NHS England are working together to establish the costs of introducing seven day services over the spending review period.