Tag: Parliamentary Question

John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.

Mr John Hayes

The Department does not directly employ any cleaning staff on its Westminster estate. All cleaning staff are employed and managed under outsourced estates and facilities contracts. Information on nationality in such situations is not held by the Department.

01/01/2023
Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NICE on conducting health technology appraisals for off-patent drugs that have been proven to be effective in new indications.

George Freeman

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the subject of technology appraisals for off-patent drugs in new indications. NICE does not routinely appraise drugs outside their licensed indications.

NICE does, however, issue evidence summaries which summarise the published evidence for selected unlicensed or off-label medicines that are considered to be of significance to the NHS, where there are no clinically appropriate licensed alternatives. They support decision-making on the use of an unlicensed or off-label medicine for an individual patient, where there are good clinical reasons for its use, usually when there is no licensed medicine for the condition requiring treatment, or the licensed medicine is not appropriate for that individual. Examples of evidence summaries can be found at:

http://www.nice.org.uk/advice?type=esuom

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01/01/2023
John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the effect on the public purse of replacing maintenance loans with maintenance grants.

Joseph Johnson

Replacing maintenance grants with loans will reduce grant expenditure by around £2.5bn per year by 2020-21 and therefore make a substantial contribution to reducing the deficit. From that new baseline position, entirely replacing the new, larger maintenance loans with grants would increase grant expenditure – and the deficit – by around £8bn per year.

01/01/2023
Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-01-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to which body the ownership of the former railway line between Colne and the former Lancashire/West Riding of Yorkshire county boundary at County Brook transferred when BRB (Residuary) Ltd was abolished in 2013, and who now owns that line.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

This section of the former railway line is now owned by the Secretary of State for Transport following the abolition of the former British Railways Board (Residuary) limited in September 2013. The former Closed Branch Line to the north of this section was transferred to Lancashire County Council in March 1974.

01/01/2023
Louise Ellman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Ellman on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 21380, what recent information he has received from the Danish authorities in relation to the death of Stephen O’Malley; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington

The State Attorney in Denmark has reached a decision to reopen Mr O’Malley’s case. The local authorities will now begin their investigation and consular officials will remain in contact with them for further updates.

01/01/2023
Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the role of personal independence payment assessment providers in the increase in processing time between the case referral to assessment provider to return from the assessment provider to the government office since July 2015.

Justin Tomlinson

Following a controlled start from July 2015, full Personal Independence Payment (PIP) roll-out commenced in October 2015, with an increase in the numbers of existing Disability Living Allowance claimants being asked to claim PIP.

In addition and in order to improve the customer journey, the Department has made some changes to the way in which it monitors Assessment Provider performance. These changes mean that Providers now have more time in which to complete assessments and return reports to the Department and also gives them greater flexibility to obtain further evidence to support claims: this therefore allows more time for scheduling appointments that better suit claimants and Assessment Providers, increases accuracy in assessments and reports and ensures opportunities for paper based reviews are maximised thereby reducing the demand for face-to-face appointments. Although these changes may see slightly longer average clearance times, they remain within expected levels.

01/01/2023

Kate Hoey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time was for a Disclosure and Barring Service check to be completed in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

The Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body which provides access to appropriate criminal record information for employers through its disclosure service for England and Wales. It also makes independent barring decisions about people who have harmed, or where there is considered to be a risk of harm to, a child or vulnerable person within the workplace. Given the sensitive nature of this work and the reliance on police forces to provide locally held intelligence, it would not be appropriate to introduce competition.

Whilst no assessment has been made of the affect of timeliness on the number of job opportunities which may have been lost, the impact which delays may have on applicants is recognised. The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.

The average end to end time taken to complete a DBS check, including the time taken by police forces, is listed in following table.

Financial Year	Average calendar days for a disclosure to be processed
13/14	11.5
14/15	14.4
15/16	14.5

The proportion of checks which took longer than (a) eight weeks (b) 12 weeks and (c) six months is listed in the following table.

Financial Year	Disclosures which took longer than 8 weeks	Disclosures which took longer than 12 weeks	Disclosures which took longer than 6 Months
% of Disclosures	% of Disclosures	% of Disclosures
13/14	2.6%	0.8%	0.0%
14/15	4.9%	2.1%	0.1%
15/16	5.2%	3.5%	0.3%

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01/01/2023

Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) households and (b) businesses unable to access broadband speeds of (i) 10 Mbit/s and (ii) two Mbit/s in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Edward Vaizey

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2015 report – based on the state of the market in May 2015 – 8% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 10Mbp/s and 2% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 2Mbp/s. These figures are likely to have reduced due to continued commercial and BDUK broadband deployment across the UK – superfast broadband access has increased from 45% in 2010 to 90%, and by the end of next year, 95% of homes and businesses will have access to superfast broadband. In addition, all premises with speeds below 2Mbp/s now have access to speeds greater than this through the Government’s Basic Broadband Scheme, and the Prime Minister has announced the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation, with a minimum speed of 10Mbps, to help ensure no-one is left behind.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2016 to Question 40374, what the estimated values are of Network Rail’s costs referred to in that Answer by (a) costs incurred with the supplier, (b) installation and (c) operational costs for the (i) Cardiff and (ii) Romford Rail Operating Centre.

Paul Maynard

The Department for Transport does not hold this level of detail on Network Rail’s costs.

01/01/2023
Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on Wales of the proposal to transfer responsibility for attendance allowance to local authorities; and if he will make a statement.

Alun Cairns

The Government is committed to working closely with the Welsh Government to ensure the implications of any reforms for devolved administration services or budgets are properly understood.

01/01/2023