Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are aware of any assessment of the impact on operational resilience by an experienced and professional railway operator of the decision by the Office of Road and Rail to allow further open access operators onto the East Coast Main Line.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Department for Transport is not aware of any assessment of operational resilience in connection with the decision to extend open access operations on the East Coast Main Line. We expect Network Rail as network operator to ensure that their routes are able to operate effectively, whichever train operators are running on them.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how much his Department has spent to date on legal advice; and how much he estimates will be so spent during 2016-17.

    Mr David Jones

    The Department has been billed for £12,711 in relation to legal fees since it was established. Detailed work is underway to establish the Department’s future budget requirements, including for legal advice.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to provide support for (a) junior doctors and (b) other medical staff employed in hospitals who are experiencing stress.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Employers across the National Health Service are responsible for the health and wellbeing of all their staff. They will provide access to a range of services and support to staff including doctors who feel they are experiencing stress.

    The Department continues to commission NHS Employers to provide advice, guidance and good practice to the NHS on improving staff physical and mental health and wellbeing. This includes an emotional wellbeing toolkit enabling staff to check their own emotional wellbeing and encourage discussion with colleagues. NHS Employers is also working with NHS England who are investing £5 million in a new NHS staff physical and mental health and wellbeing initiative, with the support of Public Health England.

    There are particular additional issues for junior doctors relating to the need for them to move between different hospitals in the course of their training. Health Education England, which is responsible for doctor training arrangements has a programme of work to address these issues. This includes looking at reducing the number of training rotations to help balance doctors’ work and other responsibilities such as family and caring commitments, giving doctors ten weeks’ notice of new placements and reviewing the process for the annual review of competence progression to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release, Prison building revolution announced by Chancellor and Justice Secretary, published on 9 November 2015, which prisons the Government plans to sell to property developers; and what estimate he has made of the value of land on each of those sites.

    Andrew Selous

    On 9 November the Chancellor and Secretary of State announced their intention to build a prison estate which allows prisoners to be rehabilitated, thereby enabling them to turn away from a life of crime. This will involve building nine new prisons and closing old and inefficient prisons which do not support the aims of a redesigned estate. No decisions have yet been made on where new prisons will be built.

    We are currently considering which of our old and inefficient prisons will close. We will engage with stakeholders during the process of sale including valuation experts and potential developers in order to maximise the value achieved.

    Any relocation of prisoners will be done with careful planning. Where staff are affected they will be managed through the process of change using processes deployed during previous closures.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-12-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the role of carbon and storage in delivering the industrial 2050 decarbonation and energy efficiency roadmaps.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The provision of ring-fenced capital support for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) was judged against other Government funding priorities as part of the Spending Review. Government has not taken the Spending Review decision lightly. The Government continues to view CCS as having a potential role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK’s power and industrial sectors. Neither CCS Competition project proposed to capture CO2 from energy intensive industries.

    The detailed design and implementation of CCS policy changes have yet to be determined. The Industrial 2050 Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency Roadmaps reports published in March 2015 identified a potential role for industrial CCS technologies in decarbonising the steel, oil refining, chemicals and cement sectors. DECC and BIS continue to engage with the energy intensive industries and academics to develop decarbonisation Action Plans by the end of 2016 as the second phase of this process.

    The Government remains committed to working with energy intensive industries including those in the Northern Powerhouse area. DECC provided £1million funding to Tees Valley Unlimited as part of the 2013 City Deal agreement to undertake an Industrial CCS feasibility study based on the chemicals and steel industry in the Teesside cluster and we continue to support that work. The devolution deal for Tees Valley, published in October this year, also included a commitment to explore how it can continue to develop its industrial CCS proposals.

  • John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the thresholds for council homes to be taken into account when calculating the levy on councils contained in part 4 of the Housing and Planning Bill.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Housing and Planning Bill requires the Secretary of State to define ‘high value’ in regulations.

    We are currently in the process of updating data that will be used to help inform the high value threshold. Further details will be available shortly.

  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 25312, whether he has been consulted about proposals for a US drone operation centre at RAF Lakenheath; and whether he has received a Host Nation Notification from the US in respect of RAF Lakenheath in the last year.

    Penny Mordaunt

    No. The Ministry of Defence received a Host Nation Notification from the US in respect of RAF Lakenheath on 7 January 2015, relating to US F-35 basing.

  • Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2016 to Question 26660, on housing: construction, if he will place in the Library any value for money review and impact assessment carried out on the decision made by the previous Government.

    Brandon Lewis

    An overview of all published evaluations of Housing Market Renewal, both pre- and post-cessation, are included in a briefing note that is already in the Library of the House, and which can be accessed online at:

    http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05953/SN05953.pdf

    “

  • Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Executive Remuneration Working Group’s conclusions that executive pay is not fit for purpose” and that extensive reform is needed to allay “widespread scepticism and [the] loss of public confidence”.”

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Government has noted the views set out in the interim report of the Executive Remuneration Working Group.

    Government reforms introduced in 2013 provide a significantly more transparent and robust governance framework for executive pay. The reforms give shareholders a binding vote at least every three years on company pay policies and an annual vote on the remuneration report which sets out exactly what directors have been paid. The annual vote is advisory but if the shareholders vote down the report, the company has to bring a revised pay policy to the next Annual General Meeting.

    These reforms give shareholders effective powers to challenge excessive executive pay and to hold boards to account on pay policies and it is now for investors and companies to engage constructively to ensure that pay policies are fit for purpose and that they align the interests of executives, shareholders and companies.

    Evidence from the current round of Annual General Meetings is that the reforms are having an impact and that shareholders are increasingly willing to use these powers where they are dissatisfied. BP and Smith and Nephew’s shareholders, for example, voted against their companies’ remuneration reports and the shareholders of Weir Group voted against that company’s remuneration policy in a binding vote. There have been significant shareholder votes against the remuneration reports at a number of other companies.

    The Government has no current plans for further legislation or regulation, but expects to see companies liaising effectively with shareholders and adjusting pay policies where there is shareholder dissatisfaction.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will seek assurances from the government of Iran that Nazanin Ratcliffe will be granted access to a lawyer and due process rights.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We regularly lobby the Iranian government on all of our consular cases; requesting consular access for our officials, and to ensure that they have access to lawyers and are receiving appropriate medical care. Most recently the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on 17 May, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), raised the subject with the Iranian Charge d’Affaires in London on 18 May. The Iranian government do not recognise dual nationals of any country, therefore we cannot gain direct access to dual nationals held in custody.