Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the scale of fraud carried out against the public sector by (a) individuals and (b) serious and organised criminals by means of (i) identity theft and (ii) creation of fake identities.

    Matthew Hancock

    We do not have any estimates on the scale of public fraud carried out by individuals or by serious and organised criminals in relation to identity theft or the creation of fake identities.

    In the financial year 2014/15, £4.13m worth of detected external identity theft was reported to the Cabinet Office through the fraud and error MI collection. Identity theft includes: fraudulently obtained genuine documents; counterfeit documents; and, forged documents. We do not have a breakdown of whether this was committed by individuals or organised criminals.

    The National Crime Agency, not the Cabinet Office, lead on matters related to serious and organised crime.

  • Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the amount of local government procurement that has been spent on small and medium-sized businesses in each of the last five years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government is committed to ensuring there is a simple and consistent approach to procurement across the public sector so that small businesses can gain better and more access to public sector contracts – either directly or as sub-contractors.

    The Government produced guidance as part of the reforms included in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 which aim to make public contracts more accessible to businesses and in particular to small and medium enterprises. The reforms included the abolition of pre-qualification questionnaire for low value tenders; simplification of the pre-qualification questionnaire for high value tenders; advertising all local authority contracts of £25,000 or over (or the authority’s standing order limit if higher) on Contracts Finder; and paying down the supplier chain in 30 days.

    The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires all local authorities to publish details of contracts exceeding £5,000 including information on whether or not the supplier is a small or medium sized enterprise and/or a voluntary or community sector organisation.

    However, the Department has made no assessment of the amount or proportion of local government procurement spend going to small and medium sized businesses.

  • Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the annual budget is for food produced for her Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for her Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not have an annual food budget. Catering services are provided via a DEFRA contract which is operated on a nil subsidy basis.

    Annual spend is determined by the contractor and is informed by private sales to members of staff.

    Forty-eight percent of food and drink provided through this contract is sourced from UK producers (based on figures for Jan-Mar 2016). This proportion reflects that a large volume of food and drink sold to staff includes non-indigenous products such as rice, pasta, tea, coffee and bananas, and that as this period falls in the Winter season there are out of UK seasonal products procured from the wider EU.

    One hundred percent of beef, chicken, lamb, pork, free range eggs, milk and yoghurt is sourced from the UK.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what his policy is on future UK involvement in the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

    Mr David Davis

    The Innovative Medicines Initiative is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA to boost biomedical innovation. The UK remains a member of the EU until our withdrawal is completed. UK researchers can still apply for Horizon 2020 projects. Future involvement will need to be agreed in forthcoming negotiations.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government will (a) carry out its own assessment and (b) support an independent international inquiry into whether the airstrike on a community hall in Sana’a, where a funeral was taking place, on 8 October 2016, breached international humanitarian law.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Coalition has announced it will immediately investigate this case along with Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT). The UK Government does not reach a conclusion as to whether or not an International Humanitarian Law violation has taken place in relation to each and every incident of potential concern that comes to its attention. This would simply not be possible in conflicts to which the UK is not a party, as is the case in Yemen. However, as I said in my statement of 9 October, we will press the coalition to release their report into this incident as a matter of urgency.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2015 to Question 13135, if he will place in the Library a copy of the review described at section A7 of Schedule One of the contract for the provision of tobacco control legislation enforcement undertaken by the contractor.

    Jane Ellison

    Section A7 of Schedule One, entitled ‘Grounds for discretionary rejection’ is available at:

    https://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive/contract/1072169/

    The schedule does not describe a review.

    Two applications were submitted for the current tobacco control legislation enforcement contract.

  • Huw Irranca-Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Huw Irranca-Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she plans to publish her Department’s response to the consultation on a review of the feed-in tariff scheme.

    Andrea Leadsom

    We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the Feed-in Tariff review consultation and intend to publish a Government response as soon as possible.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2016 to Question 20580, if his Department will ask NHS England to allow patient access to technologies assessed through NHS England’s Commissioning through Evaluation programme during the analysis phase on the same basis as during the first stage of the programme.

    George Freeman

    Whilst any patients already treated under a Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) scheme will continue to receive appropriate follow up care, no new patients will be funded by NHS England during the subsequent analysis phase.

    This ensures that, during the analysis phase, NHS England continues its current policy of not funding treatments which have insufficient evidence of clinical and / or cost effectiveness.

    In turn, this means that NHS England can direct public funds to evidence based care. It also allows CtE programme funding to be redirected to support patient recruitment in another area of specialised care where further evaluation data is needed.

  • Baroness Jolly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Baroness Jolly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jolly on 2016-02-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many reserve police officers of the Royal Air Force Police they estimate will be deployed in (1) 2015–16, (2) 2016–17, (3) 2017–18, (4) 2018–19, and (5) 2019–20.

    Earl Howe

    As at December 2015, the strength of the Royal Air Force Police Reserve, trained or in training, was 150. The liability for the Royal Air Force Police Reserve is 200 for the financial years 2015-2016 to 2019-2020 inclusive.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-02-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what issues were discussed at the meeting between Ministers of his Department and representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority on 14 September 2015; and who the attendees were at that meeting.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Treasury Ministers and officials meet regularly with the Financial Conduct Authority to discuss relevant regulatory issues. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.