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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Pearson of Rannoch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Pearson of Rannoch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the operations of the European Gendarmerie Force.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The European Gendarmerie Force is not a European Union force. It has its own separate treaty between the countries that participate, which does not include the UK, and is not part of the European Union framework. The Government notes the work of the European Gendarmerie Force, but has no plans to pursue membership.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has received any complaints about the organisation Action on Smoking and Health in the last five years.

    Nicola Blackwood

    A grant of £160,000 has been awarded to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) for financial year 2016/17 and a copy of the signed award letter, including the detailed deliverables of the grant, is attached.

    Grants made under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 can be made in a number of ways. The grant awarded to ASH has been assessed as most appropriate for the non-competed route.

    The Department received a complaint about the deliverables of the 2015/16 grant awarded to ASH in June this year. The Department responded to the complainant, confirming it was satisfied that none of the deliverables were in breach of the provisions of Section 64.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by his Department are non-UK nationals.

    Mark Lancaster

    All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

    Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

    More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent the level of recorded crime in a police force’s area affects the amount of funding allocated under the proposed new formula for funding of police forces.

    Lord Bates

    The proposed police funding model is based on a set of objective indicators that correlate strongly with long term patterns of crime.

    As we set out in our consultation on a proposed new funding model, we believe it is not appropriate to directly base force level allocations on crime statistics as these are directly influenced by police activity.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what formal role NHS England has in the development of the Accelerated Access Review.

    George Freeman

    The Accelerated Access Review (AAR), chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government on reforms to accelerate access for National Health Service patients to innovative medicines and medical technologies making our country the best place in the world to design, develop and deploy these products. The terms of the reference for the review focus on faster access to innovations, which may include certain off-patent repurposed drugs, as opposed to the routine availability of medicines or medical technologies.

    Prior to establishing the terms of reference for the AAR, the Department reviewed evaluation reports and met with officials from previous initiatives on the uptake of innovation in the NHS including the Innovation, Health and Wealth report. As a result, building upon the lessons of previous reviews is explicit with the terms of reference of the AAR.

    The AAR has regular meetings with senior officials from NHS England via a steering group as recommendations are being developed. In addition, some staff from NHS England have been assigned to support the review team.

    Sir Hugh is still in the process of developing final recommendations which will be published in spring 2016. In his Interim Report published in October, Sir Hugh sets out a proposition on “galvanising the NHS”. This involves supporting the NHS to adopt innovation, more rapidly through better practical support, stronger incentives and the potential streamlining of local structures.

    The Department reviewed evaluation reports and met with officials from previous initiatives on the uptake of innovation in the NHS prior to establishing the terms of reference for the AAR. It was clear that whilst progress has been made on the uptake of innovation in the NHS there is still much to do. Sir Hugh and the head of the External Advisory Group, Professor Sir John Bell, set out the case for uptake of innovation in the recently published AAR Interim Report.

    The AAR has senior level contact with officials working on Lord Carter’s review of NHS efficiency to ensure that information is shared between the two teams.

  • Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2016-01-05.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what provision his Department has made for public sector employers to pay the (a) national living wage, (b) 3.4 per cent increase in Secondary National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from 2016-17 following the abolition of Contracted Out NICs and (c) Apprenticeship Levy.

    Greg Hands

    It is the responsibility of each Department to ensure they have sufficient funding available to cover any additional costs associated with either the National Living Wage, the 3.4 per cent increase in Secondary National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from 2016-17, or the apprenticeship levy. HM Treasury has only made provision for the costs that it will incur in respect of its own staff as a result of these changes.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2015 to Question 9202, what steps he has taken to reduce the number of peers.

    Mr David Cameron

    The Leader of the House of Lords has convened cross-party talks to consider the best way forward in addressing the size of the House. Those talks are ongoing.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many full-time equivalent officials are (a) budgeted for and (b) actually employed in each African country in which the UK has an Embassy or High Commission.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The attached spreadsheet (PQ 28132 – FTE Africa v0.3) details the number of UK based FCO staff budgeted for and employed in each African country which the UK has an Embassy or High Commission.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-03-18.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many press officers are employed by his Department.

    Harriett Baldwin

    As stated in the most recent HM Treasury annual report and accounts (2014-15), the department’s communications during 2014-15 focused on ensuring the public and stakeholders understood changes to government economic and fiscal policy. The department continues to pursue a low cost communications approach, making full use of media relationships and social media.

  • Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to assist teachers in managing their workload.

    Nick Gibb

    We are continuing our extensive work with the profession to remove unnecessary workload so that teachers can concentrate on teaching and not bureaucracy and paperwork.

    This includes establishing three review groups to tackle the top issues raised by teachers in the Government’s Workload Challenge in 2014: marking, lesson planning, and data management.

    The reports from these review groups were published on 26 March 2016. We have accepted all their recommendations for Government.

    As the reports make clear, it is for everybody involved in education to act on the principles and recommendations in these reports so teachers can focus on what really matters – inspiring their pupils to achieve their full potential.

    We will continue to work with the teaching profession to make sure they have the ongoing support they need. We have recently conducted the first biennial Teacher Workload Survey, a commitment which will allow us to track teacher workload over the coming years. The results of the first survey will be published later this year.