Tag: Parliamentary Question

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

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5282), what were the sources and total cost of the non-recurrent deficit support income” used to fund directly the 125 trusts that would otherwise have been in deficit in financial year 2014/15; how many of those deficit trusts continued to require such deficit support during the financial year 2015/16; how many other NHS trusts are likely to receive such support in financial year 2015/16; what is the estimated total cost of such deficit support in financial year 2015/16; and what is the forecast contingency provision for such support in financial year 2016/17.”

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    To clarify my previous answer on 27 January (HL5282), 15 National Health Service providers received non-recurrent deficit support income from the Department in 2014/15, and without this income seven organisations would have reported a year-end deficit. This would have added to the 118 NHS providers that reported a financial deficit, resulting in a total of 125 NHS providers reporting an underlying deficit.

    The total cost of this deficit support income was £176.3 million in 2014/15. Funding for this was provided through releasing resources from areas where there were no clear plans for spending.

    The deficit support income does have the presentational effect of reducing or removing the deficit but the underlying deficit position is transparent in reporting and provider accounts and still remains until the trusts are in recurrent balance and are no longer needing financial support.

    2015/16 information will be published alongside the Department’s accounts and providers are expected to report this income separately in their accounts.

    For 2016/17, the £1.8 billion Sustainability and Transformation Fund will help providers to move to a sustainable financial footing.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) unaccompanied children and (b) partners of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK have a pending application for asylum in the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum claims from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in the Immigration Statistics release. This includes information on applications received, decisions made by sex, age and country of nationality.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of people that apply for asylum who have a partner in the UK who has already been granted. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who is leading the team which will undertake the national security checking of the text of the Iraq Inquiry report.

    Matthew Hancock

    The following Departments will be involved in National Security checking: Cabinet Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and the Intelligence Agencies.

    National Security checking will ensure that the Government meets its obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights so that on publication the lives or safety of individuals are not put at risk. It will also ensure that publication of the report will not compromise national security.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what types of data they envisage bus companies outside London will have to make available under the provisions of the Bus Services Bill.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The provisions of the Bus Services Bill enable the creation of a single repository of information that could contain information about routes, timetables, fares and tickets, as well as live information about bus arrival times. The information would be open to the public and could be used by software developers to create, for example, information applications for mobile devices.

    The detail of what information is to be provided, and in what format, will be developed through close consultation with bus operators, local transport authorities and potential users and will be included in secondary legislation subject to the affirmative procedure.

  • Lord Sharkey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Sharkey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Sharkey on 2016-07-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 12 July (HL883), which Muslim organisations affected by the withdrawal of banking services they continue to work closely with…to better understand their experiences and encourage dialogue with the banking sector”; how that working closely manifests itself; and what is their assessment of the outcomes of that close working.”

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    Ministers and officials have received representations from a wide range of organisations and individuals who have been affected by account closure. Officials have discussed the issue of access to banking with individual Muslim organisations as well as representative groups such as the Muslim Charities Forum and Bond.

    The Government remains concerned about the growth of de-risking and the implications it has for NGOs, economic growth, financial inclusion and financial stability. We recognise that this trend remains a global problem, and have taken concrete steps to address this. We put the issue on the G20 agenda in 2015 and, closer to home, we have encouraged the banking sector to produce new guidance to help those affected by de-risking to open a UK bank account, by setting out what information banks will require in order to comply with relevant regulation and the questions they will need to ask. We have encouraged those affected to consider using their bank’s formal complaint service or, if they believe they have been treated unfairly or unreasonably, to consider referring the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We have also encouraged those affected to use the Business Account Finder provided by MoneyFacts to locate an alternative account provider.

    In order to continue dialogue with the NGO community on these matters, a Government-NGO Working Group will shortly be convened to explore concerns and identify solutions on the impact of regulation and banking practices on NGO operations in fragile states. The group will examine the specific challenges faced in getting aid into hard-to-reach communities.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department is providing for children displaced in the Iraq conflict against Daesh; and what that funding will be used for.

    Rory Stewart

    On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, taking our total commitment to £169.5 million since June 2014. This new support will be targeted specifically to enable a scale up of humanitarian assistance ahead of Mosul operations. An element of this support will aim to help protect civilians displaced as a result of the operations – including children.

    The UK is the largest contributor to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund, through which the UK has helped thousands of displaced girls and boys to receive education, vaccinations and other forms of support. Our assistance also includes cash programming, which provides the most vulnerable Iraqis with the opportunity to purchase items to address their most urgent needs. For instance, it gives parents the opportunity to buy medicines, clothing and other necessities for their children.

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Matthew Pennycook – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on costs to consumers of the contract for difference awarded to Hinkley Point C.

    Andrea Leadsom

    As stated in my answer to PQ 15115, under the CfD consumers won’t pay anything for electricity until the plant is powering their homes and businesses. Payments under the CfD are expected to make up around £10 (real 2012 prices) of the average household energy bill in 2030. This should be seen in the context of Hinkley Point C meeting 7% of the UK’s energy needs, and set against our estimate that a new nuclear programme could reduce average household bills by up to around £30 in 2030 (again in real 2012 prices). This is calculated by comparing the costs for consumers in a modelled scenario for the future electricity mix with Hinkley Point C and a further role out of the new nuclear programme with the cost for consumers in a scenario where there are no new nuclear power stations by 2030. Savings could be higher or lower depending on changes in the cost of alternative generation technologies and what mix of technologies would ultimately be used.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding (a) in total and (b) by region of Road User Satisfaction Report was paid to AECOM from the public purse for those reports published by the Highways Agency on 11 December 2015.

    Andrew Jones

    The total contractual amounts Highways England pays are as follows:

    • £274,129 for the National Road User Satisfaction Survey from April 2015 to March 2016.
    • £376,846 for the Area Road User Satisfaction Survey from April 2015 to March 2016.

    Costs are not split by region.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his policy is on the number of spaces which should be available for disabled people in music venues across the UK; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The huge variation in size, type and location of music venues across the UK makes it impractical to require venue operators to make a specific number of spaces available for disabled people. However, we believe that everyone should have access to arts and culture – having a disability should not be a barrier to enjoying Britain’s awe-inspiring cultural treasures. That is why we are working with venues and organisations representing disabled people to identify barriers to access, while at the same time seeing how we can share examples of best practice and what more cultural venues need to do to be accessible to people with disabilities. We support the work of Attitude is Everything, which works with audiences, artists, and the music industry to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live events. Ialso recently held a roundtable meeting with Justin Tomlinson, Minister for Disabled People to look at access to cultural venues and events for disabled people. Additionally, provisions in the Equality Act 2010 require providers of services to the public (for example music venues), to make a ‘reasonable adjustment’ so that disabled people are not placed at a “substantial disadvantage” to non-disabled people.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government,  further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5039) and 12 February (HL5911), whether they are now able to confirm that the stated aims of the application recently approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to perform genome editing in human embryos by means of CRISPR-Cas9 had never included increasing knowledge about the causes of miscarriages”; and which of the purposes as set out in the previous Written Answer were instead deemed to be fulfilled by the project.”

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s role in granting a research licence is to ensure that any project fulfils one of the purposes set out in the legislation. The Person Responsible applied for the same purposes as those which were granted. These are set out in paragraph 1.18 of the minutes of the Licence Committee meeting held on 14 January 2016; a copy of the minutes is attached.