Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to dual the A17 between Newark and Sleaford.

    Andrew Jones

    The A17 forms part of the local road network and is the responsibility of Lincolnshire County Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. Responsibility for maintenance of the road rests with the relevant Local Highway Authority. Plans for future improvement and requests for funding are matters for the relevant Local Highway Authorities to put forward to their relevant Local Enterprise Partnerships.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on how many babies were born by the side of the road in England in each of the last six years.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    NHS Digital advises that the information requested is not collected.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to improve parliamentary oversight of the Security Service.

    Mr John Hayes

    The Justice and Security Act 2013 has already significantly strengthened the Parliamentary oversight of the Security Service and the other intelligence agencies. The Act expanded the powers of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) by enabling it to oversee operational activities of significant national interest retrospectively, and denying Agency heads the ability to withhold information from the Committee on the grounds of sensitivity. Significant additional resources have also been provided to the ISC.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gareth Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve services for people with coeliac disease; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    The treatment of coeliac disease is a lifelong gluten-free diet. It is therefore important clinicians understand the symptomatic picture of the condition and the investigations required to support an appropriate diagnosis. It is also important that patients who are diagnosed with coeliac disease are given suitable advice and support about how to manage their diet accordingly and can be referred to specialist services if clinically appropriate.

    To support NHS services in the diagnosis, treatment care and support of children and adults with coeliac disease, in September 2015 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated its best practice guideline Coeliac disease: recognition, assessment and management. The new guideline sets out seven recommendations to improve services for coeliac patients and includes implementation advice for the local NHS on the provision of the laboratory testing and interpretation of results and access to healthcare professionals trained to give specialist dietetic advice in relation to coeliac disease. The guidance can be found at the following link

    www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng20

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what powers local authorities have to intervene regarding safeguarding concerns at an academy school.

    Lord Nash

    Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people within their area by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs. This is regardless of the type of educational provision.

    Section 47 of the same act requires the local authority to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

    The statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015) and Keeping children safe in education (2014) clarifies the core legal requirements for individuals and organisations to keep children safe. The guidance applies in its entirety to all schools. Schools have responsibilities to notify the local authority if there are safeguarding concerns about individual children or recruitment issues linked to individual staff. Statutory guidance also sets out how all schools are expected to cooperate with the local safeguarding children board to ensure that safeguarding practice across the area is joined up and robust.

    If a local authority has concerns about the general adequacy of statutory safeguarding arrangements in place in a particular academy, they may notify the academies regulator, i.e. the Education Funding Agency (EFA), which can seek compliance, or Ofsted, which has powers to inspect safeguarding arrangements. In such circumstances, the EFA will take appropriate action to check that the academy’s arrangements are compliant with its statutory responsibilities. The EFA may also notify Ofsted of any concerns or evidence it has about an academy’s apparent failure to operate adequate safeguarding arrangements.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) number of additional jobs and (b) amount of additional housing resulting from a Meadowhall High Speed 2 station location.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Analysis of the Sheffield City Region station options was published in the ‘Engineering options report; West Midlands to Leeds’ dated March 2012. This included analysis of several station sites around the city centre.

    The current estimated difference in cost between locating a High Speed station at Victoria and Meadowhall is £680m. Previous work on the cost of options at Victoria and other city centre sites are not comparable to the current estimate given above. With regards to the Meadowhall station, following the 2013 public consultation, no significant changes have been made to the original station design therefore there have not been any changes in cost.

    When recommending a station location HS2 Ltd. uses a number of criteria, including;

    1. engineering and construction feasibility;
    2. sustainability;
    3. demand considerations, including journey times;
    4. cost; and
    5. wider impacts

    Potential options were sifted by HS2 Ltd. according to these criteria. To support and challenge this approach, external stakeholders and advisors from the Department’s Project Representative Team were involved in reviewing the process and outcomes where appropriate. Further information about the appraisal process can be found in the 2012 ‘Options for phase two of the high speed rail network’ report and 2013 ‘Appraisal of Sustainability’ report. Both of these documents are available on the government website.

    Analysis undertaken by HS2 shows that the introduction of the Sheffield Meadowhall HS2 station could support up to 5,400 jobs and up to 300 residential units, while a HS2 station at Victoria could support an estimated 9,000 jobs and 900 housing units.

    Finally, I can confirm that Department for Transport officials have received a copy of Sheffield City Region’s study into connectivity for a city centre High Speed 2 station at Victoria which Network Rail was involved in.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of increasing the state pension age on productivity.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The projected increase in the number of people working as a result of the rise in State Pension age provided for by the Pensions Act 2011 was estimated to generate a significant increase in gross employment earnings. Under this new timetable the peak increase compared to the previous timetable would be £5.0 billion in 2022/23 (in 2011/12 prices).

    At an individual level, working longer and saving into a private pension will, on average, increase lifetime pension income. Taking into consideration the additional employment income, individuals’ lifetime income will be improved if they work longer. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that the rise in women’s State Pension age from 60 to 62 has been accompanied by increases in employment rates for the women affected.

    Research by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in 2011 showed that an increase of one year in the average effective working life is estimated to result in additional annual national output worth up to one per cent of GDP. In the same research, it was estimated that real GDP would be six per cent lower than it otherwise would have been by 2030, if plans for raising the state pension age (according to the Pensions Act 2007) were not implemented.

    The increase in labour supply as a result of the Pensions Act 2011 was also estimated to boost GDP above the projected baseline of the previous timetable. GDP could be between £7 billion and £9 billion higher in 2022/23 (in 2011/12 prices); in the period 2016 to 2026, the increase in labour supply due to the increase in State Pension age could boost national output by £70 billion (in 2011/12 prices).

    More information on both impacts can be found in Annex A of the Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment at::

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-act-2011-impact-assessment

    “

  • Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many people were employed in the Skills Funding Agency Bristol office in each year since 2010.

    Nick Boles

    The figures for the number of people employed in the Skills Funding Agency Bristol office in each year since 2010 are:

    Year

    Headcount

    2011

    60

    2012

    37

    2013

    38

    2014

    38

    2015

    18

    2016

    18
  • Gavin Shuker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gavin Shuker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Shuker on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to improve access to further and higher education for young Muslims.

    Joseph Johnson

    We have recently introduced the Higher Education and Research Bill which, subject to the will of Parliament, will permit the introduction of a non-interest bearing alternative to student loans. This would be available to students of all faiths and none and will result in no financial advantage or disadvantage relative to the equivalent loan.

    The Government is committed to increasing the number of BME students in higher education by 20% by 2020 and the proportion of apprenticeship starts by people from BME backgrounds by 20% by 2020.

    We have also recently announced our intention to introduce a Transparency Duty on higher education institutions to publish more statistical information on the number of students who apply for places, receive offers and drop out from higher education institutions by ethnicity, gender and social background.

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many small applications for house-building have been made in Torridge and West Devon constituency since 2010.

    Brandon Lewis

    Separate figures for the numbers of planning applications received for house-building are not collected by the department. Figures are, however, available on the number of decisions made: these show that 1,224 decisions were made on applications for minor housing developments within the Torridge and West Devon constituency between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2016. Minor housing developments are defined as those including fewer than ten dwellings and where the site has an area of less than one hectare.