Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 6 June 2016 to Question 38191 on fertility: medical treatments, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the issues highlighted in the report in that Answer; and if he will write to clinical commissioning groups in England to highlight the findings of that report and the importance of delivering IVF services consistent with the NICE guidelines.

    Jane Ellison

    It is for clinical commission groups (CCGs) to decide locally the extent to which fertility treatment is offered. CCGs’ decisions should be underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services may vary in response to local needs. NHS England has general intervention powers in relation to CCGs, should it be satisfied that a CCG is failing or has failed to discharge any of its functions, or there is a significant risk that it will fail to do so. It is also NHS England’s role to provide support and guidance to CCGs.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has plans to improve the quality of Lyme disease tests.

    Nicola Blackwood

    The National Health Service and Public Health England (PHE) use well established validated diagnostic tests for Lyme disease that are highly reproducible between laboratories. International External Quality Assurance schemes are in place to ensure consistency between different tests centres.

    However, Lyme disease is a complex infection; we recognise that there are real challenges in diagnosis and we are further strengthening the evidence base. Commercial manufacturers and international academic groups have research programmes into improved tests. PHE continuously reviews new Lyme serology tests and will validate and implement new tests if appropriate.

  • Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the total cost to the public purse to date is of defending legal action against HM Government in all courts on the expulsion and right of resettlement for the population of the Chagos Islands.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The costs paid by the Government for defending these legal actions to date are approximately £2,660,000.

  • Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-11-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the change in tax revenue as a result of the introduction of new pension freedoms.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The expected impact over the forecast period of the changes made to private pensions taxation as announced at Budget 2014 can be found in Table 2.1 (p.56) of the Budget 2014 document here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293759/37630_Budget_2014_Web_Accessible.pdf

    Following a consultation period the Chancellor made subsequent announcements relating to this measure. The Exchequer impact of these can be found in Table 2.1 (p.65) of the Autumn Statement 2014 document here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/382327/44695_Accessible.pdf

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  • Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-12-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.271 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, how much funding has been allocated to cultural facilities at the Olympic Park.

    Greg Hands

    The government announced at Autumn Statement 2014 that it would provide £141m of funding for the cultural and university quarter in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 confirmed that the government will provide funding for this.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what information her Department holds on (a) how much methane gas an average shale gas drilling site releases into the atmosphere and (b) what technology reduces the amount of methane gas so released.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Research has shown that the carbon footprint of shale gas extraction and use is likely to be comparable to conventional sources of gas and lower than the carbon footprint of imported Liquefied Natural Gas. [1]

    In order to make sure emissions are minimised, the Environment Agency has made ‘Green Completions’ to capture emissions from operations a requirement for Environmental Permits for shale gas production.

    Additionally, operators must develop a Waste Management Plan setting out how waste gases including fugitive methane emissions will be minimised, managed and monitored, which is submitted to the Environment Agency with permit applications. The Environment Agency will also consider an enclosed flare to provide the best environmental performance for treatment of waste gases from onshore oil and gas operations during exploration.

    We have one of the most robust regulatory regimes in the world for shale gas and we insist on high standards of health safety and environmental protection.

    [1] Mackay-Stone report (requested by DECC), Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with Shale Gas Extraction and Use, Sept 2013 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/237330/MacKay_Stone_shale_study_report_09092013.pdf

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  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of walk-in centres on patient waiting times in local A&E departments.

    Jane Ellison

    Decisions about the provision of urgent care centres, including walk-in centres and minor injuries units, are a matter for local commissioners.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to carry out practical tests on the effect of a drone flying into a jet engine.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Commercial aircraft are already rigorously tested to withstand collisions with small objects, such as birds, but my Department and the Civil Aviation Authority are working with the aviation sector, including manufacturers, airports and airlines, to ensure our understanding of the potential hazards to aircraft remains up-to-date. This activity is also helping to provide real life evidence of drone risks and the options for preventing collisions.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph A.23 of the Economic and fiscal outlook of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Cm 9212, published in March 2016, what steps he has taken to increase HM Revenue and Custom’s yields from tax repatriation from British overseas territories.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government is absolutely committed to exposing and acting on financial wrongdoing and we relentlessly pursue tax evaders.

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has brought in more than £2 billion from offshore tax evaders since 2010 and the government has repeatedly strengthened our powers so we can take even tougher action against those who try to cheat the honest majority by hiding their money in offshore tax havens.

    The Government has led a transformation in global tax transparency which, from this year, will see HMRC start to automatically receive offshore account and trust data from more than 90 countries, including British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. This will further increase HMRC’s ability to crack down on those still hiding their money offshore.

    The Government is further pushing for full and effective transparency for UK law enforcement to have access to beneficial ownership information of companies from all its Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.

    The Government has also introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HMRC an additional £800 million to invest in compliance and tax evasion work.

    This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years and includes tripling the number of criminal investigations that HMRC can undertake into serious and complex tax crime, focusing particularly on wealthy individuals and corporates, with the aim of achieving 100 prosecutions a year by the end of the Parliament.

    The new powers and measures include:

    • Higher financial penalties for those hiding money and other assets offshore, such as, for the first time, linking the penalty to the value of the asset kept offshore. These are in addition to existing measures which already allow for fines of up to 300% of any tax found to have been evaded offshore.

    • New civil penalties for those who deliberately enable offshore evasion so they will face the same penalty as the tax evader.

    • Public naming of both evaders and those who enable evasion.

    • A new criminal offence for corporations that fail to prevent their representatives from facilitating tax evasion. The new offence, which will be legislated for this year, will ensure that corporations exercise due diligence over the services they provide, and ensure that those who don’t can be held to account.

    • A new strict liability criminal offence for offshore evasion, which we are currently legislating for – so in the worst cases it’s no longer possible to plead ignorance in an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average rota gap is for junior doctors in NHS foundation trusts in the most recent period for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of the effect on services of the size of that gap.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department does not collect this information. Rota arrangements for junior doctors are a matter for individual National Health Service foundation trusts.

    Contact details for NHS foundation trusts and all other NHS authorities can be found on the NHS Choices website:

    http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/thenhs/about/pages/authoritiesandtrusts.aspx

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