The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pauline Latham on 2016-10-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the number of employees of mining companies that are registered in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2015-11-04.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is proposed for welfare payments made by the Scottish Government, provided for under any Act arising from the Scotland Bill, to count as income for the purposes of calculating tax credits.
Damian Hinds
The Smith Commission agreement, agreed by all the main parties in Scotland, set out those benefits where power should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Tax credits were not amongst those benefits.
However, under the current Scotland Bill clauses, the Scottish Government will have the power to top-up tax credits, as long as it does so through using its own resources. The Smith Commission agreement said that any new benefits or discretionary payments introduced by the Scottish Parliament must provide additional income for a recipient and not result in an automatic offsetting reduction in their entitlement to other benefits. Once the Scottish Government have been clear about how they want to use their new powers, we will work with them to understand the interactions between the reserved and devolved benefit systems.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2015-12-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons he has decided to recover the planning appeals by Caudrilla Resources to build shale gas wells at Roseacre and Preston New Road.
James Wharton
The reasons for the Secretary of State’s decision are set out in his letter to parties. This makes clear that the drilling appeals involve proposals for exploring and developing shale gas which amount to proposals for development of major importance having more than local significance and proposals which raise important or novel issues of development control, and/ or legal difficulties.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what airstrikes have been conducted by the Royal Air Force against Daesh in the last three weeks.
Penny Mordaunt
The Royal Air Force has conducted 74 airstrikes against Daesh targets in Iraq and Syria between 16 December 2015 and 6 January 2016. Further details of the RAF’s airstrikes against Daesh can be found on the gov.uk website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-air-strikes-in-iraq
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that best practice on diagnosing atrial fibrillation and preventing atrial fibrillation-related stroke is shared between Strategic Clinical Networks.
Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team, which has taken over the work of NHS Improving Quality, is taking action to promote the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within general practitioner (GP) practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. The Sustainable Improvement Team is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.
To support this work, an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF was recently published. A copy of this analysis is attached.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also published a Quality Standard on AF in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality AF service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy of this Quality Standard is attached.
There is also a wealth of information available on the detection and management of people who have AF. The NHS Atlas of Variation includes such data and similarly Public Health England (working with stakeholders) has produced information for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable them to identify and encourage poorly performing areas to improve their detection and management of people with AF. The Atlas is an online tool and therefore it is not possible to attach a copy.
These resources are available to Strategic Clinical Networks to help them with their work to improve the prevention and diagnosis of AF locally.
AF related stroke prevention has been a significant area of focus for the East Midlands Cardiovascular Strategic Clinical Network in recent years. Actions include:
– providing individual advice to CCGs in the area, supporting CCGs to implement AF training for GPs;
– supporting CCGs to implement GRASP-AF;
– developing a non-valvular AF anticoagulation algorithm which has informed updates to local AF guidelines;
– developing an electronic clinical template for the diagnosis and management of AF; and
– promoting the use of the warfarin patient safety audit tool.
AF is also covered as in the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network’s masterclass programme aimed at all NHS health professionals within CCGs, local authorities and clinical services with an interest in cardiovascular disease data tools and information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-25.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed public sector exit payments cap on the flexibility of academy chains to restructure their workforce.
Greg Hands
Voluntary redundancy and workforce restructuring is not contingent upon access to six-figure exit payments. As such, we do not expect the cap to have a widespread impact on the take-up of voluntary redundancy, and believe the cap will enable public sector employers to retain the tools to effectively make organisational changes to their workforce whilst offering those made redundant generous provisions for loss of employment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contracts (a) have been agreed and (b) are still to be awarded by Highways England for (i) routine highway services and (ii) specialist goods and services.
Andrew Jones
For routine highways services and specialist goods and services, Highways England has awarded several contracts that cover the whole of England. One recently awarded contract was in the Area 7, for the East Midlands and Lincolnshire:
Contracts still to be awarded include:
The Asset Led Delivery Model that is being adopted in Area 7 will also be rolled out in Areas 1 and 2 covering the South West of England and in Areas 13 covering Cumbria and Lancashire. These contracts will not be awarded until 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential risk of civil war in Nigeria as a result of the policy of the government of Nigeria on Biafra.
James Duddridge
The UK fully supports the territorial integrity of Nigeria and President Buhari’s commitment to work for a secure and prosperous Nigeria for all Nigerians. We are committed to working with Nigeria to help tackle threats to Nigeria’s security and to address the underlying causes of instability which exist within Nigeria. We do not assess that there is institutionalised persecution of the Igbo or any other peoples by the Nigerian authorities.
We are not aware of any patterns of land confiscation in Nigeria by the Nigerian Government. Nigeria does face the challenge of inter-communal violence between farmers and herdsmen over land, farming rights, grazing routes and access to water. We are aware that the Nigerian legislature is currently debating a bill on grazing routes and reserves for Nigerian herdsmen. Part of that debate focuses on balancing the rights of land owners with the requirements of herder communities.
Through our development assistance the UK supports initiatives to reduce these conflicts and build bridges between communities. We will continue to work with the Nigerian Government, non-governmental organisations and civil society to improve the security situation and human rights for all the people of Nigeria.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing on the NHS laser-guided shoes to people with Parkinson’s disease.
Jane Ellison
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing laser-guided shoes to people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) on the National Health Service. We understand this new innovation, whilst promising, remains at a relatively early stage in terms of development and testing. Good quality evidence from clinical trials would be needed before clinicians and commissioners could make appropriate assessments about the clinical and cost effectiveness of the shoes and consider their suitability for patients with PD.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on changes in the number of licensed private hire vehicles in England in the last 12 months; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of that change on (a) congestion and (b) consumer safety.
Andrew Jones
The Department for Transport’s taxi statistics provide information on the number of licensed taxis and private hire vehicles in England and Wales. Data are derived from the department’s survey of licensing authorities in England and Wales, which takes place every 2 years. The last survey was published in August 2015. It showed a total 166,100 private hire vehicles in England in March 2015, an increase of 11.8% since March 2013. The Department has not made a further assessment of any impacts of that change.