Tag: Nigel Adams

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the names of all insurers which have Flood Re-compatible products available to consumers on the day of launch of the Flood Re-scheme before that day.

Rory Stewart

Flood Re is on target to start operating on 4 April. Flood Re will publish a list of participating insurers shortly before its launch.

For the first time it offers the prospect of available and affordable flood insurance to households at high flood risk.

The insurance market will continue to adapt after Flood Re is launched – it will be important for people to continue to shop around for the best deal.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what representations he has received on the potential merits of requiring search engines to change their algorithms to reduce the visibility of illegal streaming websites.

Joseph Johnson

My noble Friend the Minister of State for Energy and Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, chairs regular roundtable meetings between the UK’s leading search engine providers, representatives of the music and film industries, and government officials.

Since the instigation of these roundtables, Google, Yahoo! and Bing have all taken steps to reduce the prominence of copyright infringing websites in their search results. These steps have included algorithm changes as well as changes to the autocomplete suggestions offered to users.

The discussions are supported by research undertaken by OFCOM which has shown a decrease in the prominence of the most infringing websites (as measured by the number of notifications Google have received about infringing content for those sites).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) demographic factors, (b) deprivation level factors and (c) factors of difference in distance from target market forces he took into account when determining the funding allocated for (i) Vale of York CCG, (ii) NHS West Cheshire, (iii) NHS North East Essex, (iv) NHS South Warwickshire, (v) NHS Canterbury and Coastal, (vi) NHS Lincolnshire West and (vii) NHE East Riding of Yorkshire.

Alistair Burt

Responsibility for clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations rests with NHS England and the funding allocated to all CCGs is based on the CCG allocations formula. This is based on advice provided by the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA). ACRA is an independent committee and reports jointly to the Secretary of State for Health (in regard to public health allocations) and NHS England in regard to CCG and primary care allocations. The formula was initially approved by NHS England in 2013 and they have now reviewed and updated the formula for 2016-17 onwards.

The formula is based on the size of the population of each CCG and adjustments, or weights, per head for relative need for health care services and unavoidable costs between CCGs. The weights per head are based on the following:

― need due to age (typically, the more elderly the population, the higher the need per head, all else being equal);

― additional need over and above that due to age (this includes measures of health status and a number of proxies for health status such as deprivation);

― an adjustment for unmet need and health inequalities;

― unavoidable higher costs of delivering health care due to location alone, known as the Market Forces Factor (this reflects that staff, land and building costs are higher in for example London than other parts of the country); and

― an adjustment for the higher costs of providing emergency ambulance services in sparsely populated areas, and an adjustment for the higher costs of unavoidably small hospitals with 24 hour accident and emergency services in remote areas.

The final step of the allocations process is to determine how quickly to move CCGs from their current allocation to the target allocation determined by the formula. The objective is to reduce the ‘distance from target’ so that areas furthest below their target allocation receive the biggest increases. This needs to balance against the need to ensure service stability for those areas above target, and that increases are not so large that resources are not used efficiently. The approach also takes account of the distance from target in each area for primary care and specialised services so that the overall funding position for the area is taken into account.

NHS England recently published a technical guide to allocations which sets out all the individual factors used in determining the allocation levels. The guide is available here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/04/allocations-tech-guide-16-17/#

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make representations to her EU counterparts and the European Commission on amending provisions related to take-down notices in the Electronic Commerce Directive 2002.

Matt Hancock

Until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. During this period the Government will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, by what technical mechanisms her Department plans to take coal-fired power plants offline.

Andrea Leadsom

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has announced that the Department will be launching a consultation on proposals to end unabated coal generation by 2025. Options will be set out in that consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendations of the Creative Industries Council in its report entitled Create Together, published in July 2016, on clarifying the role of safe harbours and rights holders’ remuneration.

Joseph Johnson

The Create Together strategy produced by the industry members of the Creative Industries Council is a strategy for building on the economic success of the UK’s creative sector. It is one which the Government supports. Government is currently reviewing specific recommendations within the strategy, including on safe harbour. We are strongly committed to working constructively with industry on these issues.

The Government agrees that it should not be possible to benefit from encouraging the posting of copyright infringing content through safe harbours, and that the rules governing who is responsible for such content should be clear. In developing the UK’s copyright framework going forward, we will consider whether the current situation is providing the right mix of incentives and protections.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what consideration her Department has given to the implications of whole-system costs of different forms of renewable energy generation (a) generally and (b) in future Contract for Difference auctions.

Andrea Leadsom

DECC recognises the importance of considering the whole system impacts (both costs and benefits) of different electricity technologies when formulating future government policy, since it is a crucial element in delivering secure, clean and affordable energy to consumers.

In order to continue to improve its evidence base in this area and inform future policy developments, DECC commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake a project on the Whole System Impacts of Electricity Generation Technologies.

The core aim of the project was to set out a comprehensive framework to define whole system impacts and their components and drivers, which can be applied to conventional, low-carbon and renewable large- and small-scale technologies. Following peer review by experts in the field of whole system impacts, DECC will publish the resulting methodology report in due course, taking into account timing restrictions relating to purdah(s).

Subsequently, the theoretical framework will be used to further systematise DECC’s modelling capability. Given the complex modelling involved and the need for a rigorous quality assurance process to ensure the analysis is robust, this is currently ongoing.

Once the project is completed, DECC will be able to draw on the improved evidence base developed through this project to contribute to informing future electricity market policy development, including for CFDs. Given that the electricity system continues to evolve, it is important that DECC reaches well-evidenced and robust long-term solutions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on artistic remuneration for online content.

Matt Hancock

Ministers and Officials from both Departments meet regularly to discuss a range of issues.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans her Department has for ensuring an orderly shutdown of coal-fired power plants as the Government moves towards taking all coal-fired power plants offline by 2025; and what consideration her Department has given to the numerous technical mechanisms that necessarily entail removing all coal-fired stations simultaneously.

Andrea Leadsom

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has announced that the Department will be launching a consultation on proposals to end unabated coal generation by 2025. Options will be set out in that consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 2 August 2016 to Question 42624, what the evidential basis is for the conclusion that there has been a decrease in autocomplete suggestions from search engines providing access to stream ripping and online converter websites.

Joseph Johnson

Work to reduce the prevalence of autocomplete suggestions which are likely to lead search engine users to infringing websites is still ongoing, and so it is not yet possible to analyse the resultant effectiveness of these measures.

This work is discussed by representatives of the creative industries and search engines at the round table meetings chaired by my noble Friend Baroness Neville-Rolfe as Minister for Intellectual Property. OFCOM provide research for these meetings utilising results which they take from publicly accessible search interfaces.