Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the Report of the Transparency Taskforce, published in May 2016, on the costs and hidden fees associated with investments and pensions.

    Richard Harrington

    The Government remains committed to increasing transparency and ensuring that members of pension schemes are able to obtain information about the costs and charges which they bear.

    Governance bodies of defined contribution workplace pension schemes are obliged, under existing requirements, to assess costs and charges. We and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are actively considering how to achieve greater transparency and standardisation of transaction costs, and the FCA plans to publish a consultation later this year.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-10-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the effect leaving the EU will have on the level of Welsh farming subsidies.

    Mr David Gauke

    The UK Government will guarantee EU funding for structural and investment fund projects in Wales, including agri-environment schemes, signed before we leave the EU. It will be for the Welsh Government to make an assessment of which projects should be pursued in areas of its competence, and this guarantee will apply to any such projects. The agricultural sector in Wales will receive the same level of funding that it would have received under Pillar 1 of CAP until the end of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework in 2020.

    As a result of these steps taken by the UK Government, individuals and organisations in receipt of EU funds now have a greater degree of certainty about funding over the coming years. The UK Government will work with the Welsh Government to consider future funding arrangements for once the UK has left the EU.

  • Mark Durkan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mark Durkan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to improve nutrition for women and children in lower middle income countries.

    Grant Shapps

    The UK Government has made a commitment to improve the nutrition of 50 million people by 2020, including in lower middle income countries. Those being helped includes children under five, breast feeding women, women of childbearing age and adolescent girls. This commitment builds on our previous 2010 commitment to reach 20 million children under five and pregnant and breast feeding women with nutrition programmes by 2015. By mid 2015 we had reached 28.6 million people.

    Further details can be found on Development Tracker: http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/

    “

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many press and public relations staff are employed by (a) his Department, (b) Ofcom, (c) Royal Parks, (d) Arts Council England, (e) Sport England, (f) UK sport, (g) Visit Britain, (h) Visit England and (i) the Equality and Human Rights Commission; and how many of those employees are paid more than (i) £50,000 and (ii) £100,000; and what the total expenditure was on press and public relations by each of those orqanisations in the most recent for which figures are available.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The DCMS communications team is responsible for all public facing, digital and internal communications; this includes both managing day-to-day media enquiries and implementing proactive communications campaigns. Across Government communications teams, we saved £330 million for taxpayers last year compared with 2009 to 2010, by making our campaigns more cost effective, and reduced our communications spending by a total of £1 billion since 2010.

    The total expenditure on press and public relations for the financial year 2014/15 was £10,917,270.42. This figure includes staff costs and the costs for high profile publicity campaigns on Broadband Voucher and GO Superfast (broadband).

    DCMS currently employs 18.8 full time equivalents in communications – one of the smallest teams in Whitehall covering a departmental policy brief that has expanded in this Parliament. Of these, 7 are paid over £50,000 – but none more than £100,000.

    Other Bodies

    The sponsorship for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission transferred to the Department for Education from 30 September 2015.

    Press and PR functions are a matter for the Chief Executives of each of the bodies in question. They will write to the Honourable Member with this information, and copies of their letters will be placed in the libraries of both Houses

  • Lord Mawhinney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Mawhinney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawhinney on 2016-01-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of which medical institutions in the UK are in the forefront of research into, and treatment of, Lyme disease.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    It is not practical to eradicate Lyme disease in the United Kingdom through treatment of human cases, therefore no cost estimate has been made. The disease is endemic in much of the small mammal and bird population in the UK, and is spread to humans by the bite of infected ticks which have fed on these animals. The number of human cases can be reduced by raising public awareness of how to avoid tick bites, and by environmental measures in public places to reduce the long grass and scrub which harbour ticks.

    The number of laboratory confirmed cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales varies annually, in 2013 there were 878 and in 2014 there were 730, but the majority of diagnoses are made clinically by general practitioners and those figures are not recorded. Patients with late or complicated Lyme disease may be diagnosed in a variety of specialist clinics, and the numbers are not recorded. Based on the clinical information supplied with the laboratory request, only a small proportion of the annual number of cases fall into this category.

    The Health Protection Research Unit of the University of Liverpool in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) has funding from the National Institute of Health Research for research into Lyme disease, covering diagnostics and biomarkers and public awareness. PHE is working on clinically linked studies for diagnostics with the Czech Republic, as no single centre in the UK has sufficient patients for a suitable study; funding for this work is not yet in place. PHE undertakes limited studies on ticks and Lyme disease in the UK. The Research Councils fund some additional work on ticks and the environment.

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Government is taking to increase public understanding of the law.

    Robert Buckland

    Public Legal Education is a statutory feature of the justice system and part of the Rule of Law. I have been actively involved with the Citizenship Foundation who are the UK’s largest provider of public legal education for young people, I was also happy to support the recent establishment of the APPG to promote the importance of public legal education. It is my role as Solicitor General and as the Government’s pro bono champion, to help individuals become confident, effective members of society, helping them to develop an understanding of, how our society works as a democracy, our legal system, and their rights and responsibilities within it.

  • Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2016-03-16.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proposed freeze on duty for Scotch whisky and cider will also apply to Bushmills Whiskey and Armagh Cider in Northern Ireland.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    Alcohol duty rates are applied in the same way across the UK. Budget 2016 froze the duty rates on spirits and on still and lower strength sparkling cider.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency retaining core responsibility for the (a) commercial promotion and (b) auditing and assurance of the Red Ensign Group of Shipping Registers.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Secretary of State for Transport has ultimate responsibility for the safety of all British shipping and has delegated authority to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to ensure that the standards maintained by Red Ensign Group (REG) shipping registries operated by UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are in accordance with their International obligations.

    Commercial promotion and marketing is the responsibility of the individual shipping registries. The registers operate on the basis of mutual support rather than in direct commercial completion.

    The MCA’s promotion of the REG shipping registries is limited to ensuring that they all maintain the same core high standards and international obligations as the REG ship registers are represented as a single member state within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) by the UK.

    Overseeing, monitoring, enforcing of standards, the audit and assurance of the REG shipping registries, is undertaken by the MCA’s Business Improvement and Assurance (BI&A) team which is independent from the UK Ship Register (UKSR). As part of this process, the BI&A team will monitor REG members to ensure that they have in place the necessary resources and infrastructure appropriate to the types and size of ships they wish to register.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the budget is for the National Schools Commissioner Roadshow during June and July 2016.

    Nick Gibb

    The cost of the nine National Schools Commissioner Roadshows during June and July 2016 will be met from within Schools Commissioner’s Group (SCG) allocated programme budget. The programme budget is to cover the costs related to events and other communications activities. For the 2016/17 financial year, this budget is £425k.

    It is expected that approximately 1,500 system leaders will attend the nine National Schools Commissioner Roadshows taking place in June and July 2016.

    There was no specific allocation made for travel and subsistence costs for officials related to the National Schools Commissioner Roadshows during June and July 2016. These costs will be met from within SCG allocated administrative budget.

    An official in each of the RSC offices has been involved in organising the nine National Schools Commissioners roadshows, supported by a lead in SCG. We expect approximately five officials to attend each roadshow, plus the National Schools Commissioner and the relevant Regional School Commissioner (RSC).

    There has been no budget allocated to advertising the National Schools Commissioner Roadshows.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on funding for the UK’s life sciences sector.

    Mr Robin Walker

    The Government recognises the importance of our research base, which is why we have protected the science budget in real terms from its current level of £4.7 bn for the rest of the parliament.

    The referendum result has no immediate effect on the right of researchers to apply to or participate in EU research programmes. We remain a part of the EU until negotiations are concluded. While the UK remains a member of the EU, current EU arrangements continue unchanged. UK participants, including those researching mental health issues, can continue to apply to programmes in the usual way. The future of UK access to these programmes is one of many issues to be addressed in our EU negotiations.