Tag: Oliver Colvile

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding his Department provides to promote tennis for children under 10 years.

Tracey Crouch

Government are committed to providing the best sporting opportunities for children. DCMS leads the School Games programme which involves the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England working with 38 of the National Governing Bodies of Sports, including the Tennis Foundation, to support schools in delivering competitions for all children. In addition, our Sports Strategy, published in December 2015, has enabled Sport England to fund sport for children from the age of 5 onwards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the condition of local roads.

Andrew Jones

The Government fully understand how important it is to have a reliable quality road network, which is why we are providing a record £6 billion for local highways maintenance. We have also created the pothole action fund with a budget of £250 million dedicated to delivering better journeys.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will encourage Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group to commission a minor eye conditions service in Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Alistair Burt

General practitioners (GPs), working with secondary care consultants, nurses and lay members, are best placed to co-ordinate the commissioning of high quality care for their patients. They ensure that commissioning decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local health care needs.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have the freedom and autonomy to take responsibility for meeting the needs of local patients and the public by working closely with secondary care, other health and care professionals and with community partners to design joined up services. As such, while CCGs are led by primary care professionals, they are also guided by the expertise of other local clinicians.

The current commissioning arrangements encourage innovation by placing commissioning with those who know patients best and are aware of the latest clinical evidence and technological advances in health and care.

NHS England advises that Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG have no imminent plans to commission a specific minor eye conditions service at this time. CCGs are also able to commission services from local optometrists to provide treatment for minor eye conditions if they feel that is necessary to meet local needs.

Those concerned they may have a minor eye condition can visit their GP, optical practice or pharmacy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-10-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Government’s priorities are for the renegotiation of the UK-Malawi tax treaty.

Jane Ellison

As is usual in any negotiation, the text of a tax treaty remains confidential between the two governments during the negotiations. It is not therefore possible to comment on the contents of a treaty before it is signed.

The majority of the UK’s double taxation treaties are based on the OECD Model Double Taxation Convention. However, some developing countries prefer to follow the United Nations Model, whose provisions differ in some respects from the OECD Model, including in the “permanent establishment” article. Many of the UK’s treaties with developing countries contain at least some of these provisions. A treaty will be signed only when both governments are satisfied with its contents.

It has long been the UK’s policy to include robust anti-abuse provisions in its tax treaties to ensure that they operate as intended and in particular that residents of third countries cannot indirectly benefit from their provisions.

The text of the new treaty with Malawi was substantively agreed some time ago. However, in August 2016 Malawi raised some further points for consideration, which we will work together on. When that process is complete, and both countries are satisfied with contents of the new treaty, it will be signed and published. Parliament will scrutinise the revised agreement, as part of the affirmative Statutory Instruments procedures, before the treaty can enter into force.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department is making on research on the production of diverse forage mixtures to optimise animal production.

George Eustice

Innovate UK, Defra and BBSRC are co-funding the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform (SAFIP), worth £90 million over five years with match funding by industry. There are a number of projects funded under SAFIP on the development of alternative and diverse forages to optimise the sustainability of animal production in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what geological assessment his Department has made to ensure the stability of (a) the sea wall at Dawlish, (b) the cliff at Teignmouth and (c) the line between Newton Abbott and Plymouth.

Claire Perry

Network Rail is carrying out a further study to look at options to increase the long term geo-environmental resilience of the existing main line from Exeter to Newton Abbot. The study looks at the coastal and sea wall elements and the cliffs. It is due to be fully complete in April 2016 with an options assessment report available by the end of 2015. There has been no geological assessment of the rail route from Newton Abbot to Plymouth.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to promote tenant management.

Brandon Lewis

We have allocated funding of £1million in 2015/16 (through the Tenant Empowerment Programme) to support social housing tenants’ involvement in their local communities. This includes support to those who wish to manage delivery of services to their homes and estates by taking up their Statutory Right To Manage.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to improve signalling on the railway between (a) Exeter and Plymouth and (b) Reading and Exeter; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of improved signalling on those routes.

Claire Perry

Signal failures are one of the biggest causes of delays on the network. For that reason, Network Rail has an extensive programme underway to improve both the standard and reliability of signalling across the national network.

The Western Route is gradually benefitting from transfer of signalling to a single control centre in Didcot, and this process will eventually encompass the entire route, including those stretches mentioned by my Hon Friend. This will allow a faster and better coordinated response to delays across the route.

My Hon Friend will also be aware of the very large investment which is being made by Network Rail, Cornwall Council and others into the Totnes-Penzance resignalling scheme, which will radically improve the train flow and reliability. It will do this by allowing bidirectional running on the line, meaning that maintenance and disruption can be managed vastly more effectively.

Further details of Network Rail’s plans can be found at the links below. These documents also provide information on the benefits of improved signalling:

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/publications/strategic-business-plan-for cp5/

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/publications/delivery-plans/control-period-5/cp5-delivery-plan/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport constituency have been diagnosed with chest infections in 2014.

Jane Ellison

There is no national system currently for collecting data relating to diagnoses of chest infections specifically. However, we are able to provide the latest data on patients admitted to hospital with two of the infections that are relevant, namely upper respiratory tract infections and lower respiratory tract infections. These are provided in the table below. The data do not include infections treated by general practitioner practices.

In terms of information on chest infections in Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, data collections systems do not exist to provide the requested data at constituency level.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for England. Inpatient Statistics 2012/13 for England.

Summary code	Primary diagnosis and description	Finished consultant episodes
J00-J06	Acute upper respiratory infections	138,673
J20-J22	Other acute lower respiratory infections	192,271

Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre. HES.

Note:

A “finished consultant episode” is an inpatient or day case episode where the patient has completed a period of care under a consultant and is either transferred to another consultant or discharged.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been diagnosed with chest infections in 2014.

Jane Ellison

There is no national system currently for collecting data relating to diagnoses of chest infections specifically. However, we are able to provide the latest data on patients admitted to hospital with two of the infections that are relevant, namely upper respiratory tract infections and lower respiratory tract infections. These are provided in the table below. The data do not include infections treated by general practitioner practices.

In terms of information on chest infections in Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, data collections systems do not exist to provide the requested data at constituency level.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for England. Inpatient Statistics 2012/13 for England.

Summary code	Primary diagnosis and description	Finished consultant episodes
J00-J06	Acute upper respiratory infections	138,673
J20-J22	Other acute lower respiratory infections	192,271

Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre. HES.

Note:

A “finished consultant episode” is an inpatient or day case episode where the patient has completed a period of care under a consultant and is either transferred to another consultant or discharged.