Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Tyler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Tyler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tyler on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Home Office will publish records of external meetings held by special advisers to its ministers.

    Lord Bates

    The Government publishes an unprecedented amount of data; departments publish details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries’ meetings with external organisations, and Special Advisers’ meetings with senior media figures.

    The information requested is not held centrally and there are no plans to extend current arrangements.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2016 to Question 26467, what his policy is on the process by which local authorities should calculate the maximum local housing allowance for properties in their area.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Local Housing Allowance rates for each Broad Rental Market Area are calculated by the Rent Officer Services for England, Scotland and Wales.

    Rent Officers collect evidence of achieved rents in each area and use this to calculate the 30th percentile from a ‘list of rents’ for each property size.

    This is then used for setting the rates annually in accordance with current Government policy for uprating Local Housing Allowance.

    From April 2016, Local Housing Allowance rates will be frozen for 4 years. This means that rates will either remain at the April 2015 level or be set at the 30th percentile from the ‘list of rents’, whichever is the lower.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP appointments were missed in (a) Calderdale and (b) England in each year since 2010; and what the estimated cost of those missed appointments was to the NHS.

    Alistair Burt

    The number of general practitioner (GP) appointments that are available in Calderdale and England is not held.

    The number of GP appointments that are missed is not collected centrally, however, figures from NHS England suggest that more than 12 million GP appointments are missed each year in the United Kingdom (there is no individual breakdown for Calderdale or England separately), which costs in excess of £162 million per year.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on whether there is a link between the number of years of e-cigarette use and those people smoking tobacco in the future.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department does not hold data on this.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-06-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to encourage financial institutions to maintain their London operations and employment levels.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Chancellor has met with financial institutions this week to discuss the impact of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union.

    Britain’s economy and financial system are fundamentally strong. Action by the government and the Bank of England over the last six years has substantially strengthened the resilience of the financial system, and the authorities have all the necessary tools in place to protect financial stability.

    The UK is a leading global financial centre serving not just Britain or Europe, but the entire world. It has natural strengths such as a central time zone and the English language, together with an unrivalled pool of firms and investors, supported by world leading legal and professional services. Major banks from across the globe have bases in the UK, and the UK has the fourth highest share of cross-border banking. It is also fast establishing itself as a global hub for renminbi, rupee, Islamic finance, green finance and FinTech business.

    Formal negotiations with the EU will not begin until the UK triggers Article 50. In the meantime, and during the negotiations that will follow, there will be no change to people’s rights to travel and work, and to the way our goods and services are traded, or to the way our economy and financial system is regulated.

    The government is committed to deepening relationships with new and established trade partners. Earlier this week the Chancellor laid out plans to build a highly competitive economy by targeting a corporation tax rate of less than 15%, focusing on a new push for investment from China, ensuring support for bank lending, redoubling efforts to invest in the Northern Powerhouse and maintaining the UK’s fiscal credibility.

    The government will also maintain an open and constructive dialogue with the UK financial services industry, including through the Financial Services Trade and Investment Board, which is tasked with boosting and promoting the UK’s financial services competitiveness position and supporting jobs. Government and industry collaboration will continue to play a central role in delivering a global, sustainable, innovative and competitive UK financial services industry that continues to go from strength to strength.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies and those of local authorities of the findings of the Unison report, A Future at Risk, published in August 2016, on the number of places in youth services that have been lost since 2010; and whether she plans to increase the number of such places.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    It is the responsibility of local authorities to decide how to allocate funding for youth services, according to local need. There is an existing statutory duty on local authorities through Education Act 2006 (Section 507B) to secure, as far as is practicable, sufficient services and activities to improve the wellbeing of young people. Individual local authorities would be best placed to advise on whether there are plans to increase the number of places in youth services in their local area.

    Government is committed to ensuring all young people have the best possible start in life. To demonstrate this, it has recently announced an £80million investment in the youth sector that is being delivered through the Youth Investment Fund and the #iwill Fund.

  • Conor McGinn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Conor McGinn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Conor McGinn on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the report by the National Audit Office, The economic regulation of the water sector, HC487; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that customers benefit from water companies’ unexpected financial gains.

    Rory Stewart

    We accept the recommendation that we should develop further our assessments of the affordability and cost-effectiveness of environmental improvements. The Environment Agency has recently published the most comprehensive cost-benefit appraisal ever conducted for improving the water environment in England.

    The remaining recommendations of the report are for Ofwat, the independent economic regulator of the water sector. Its independence is crucial to ensure stable economic regulation to keep investment costs down and customer bills low. The Government does not intervene in any regulatory decisions made by the regulator.

  • Martyn Day – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Martyn Day – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans the Government has to hold a consultation with the Scottish Government on the future of the NATS centre at Prestwick.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government is currently exploring the sale of its 49 per cent shareholding in NATS, and will ensure that the Scottish Government is consulted about any implications for Prestwick.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the men who have sex with men population is aware of the availability of the HPV vaccination at sexual health clinics.

    Jane Ellison

    In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted human papilloma virus vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price.

    The Department is considering the JCVI’s advice and will confirm its plans in due course.

  • Lord Knight of Weymouth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Knight of Weymouth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Knight of Weymouth on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 1 February (HL5090 and HL5091), whether they will now provide the direct link to that information, and why they did not provide that link in those answers.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England is currently finalising the service specification for a forthcoming procurement for genomic laboratory services. The issues around sharing outcome data are under broader consideration as part of the wider genomics programme.