Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average hourly earnings were of her Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.

    George Eustice

    Defra employees are paid within salary bands according to their grades, they are not paid by the hour. The tables below set out a calculation of average hourly pay for all employees within the central department, by grade, and by BME, Non-BME, and Undeclared ethnic status (employees that have not declared their ethnicity).

    2015

    BME

    Non BME

    Undeclared

    AA

    *

    *

    £8.96

    AO

    £12.15

    £12.17

    £11.43

    EO

    £14.96

    £13.92

    £13.80

    HEO

    £17.29

    £16.79

    £15.98

    SEO

    £20.54

    £19.96

    £20.05

    G7

    £27.43

    £27.33

    £26.30

    G6

    *

    £32.62

    £33.10

    SCS

    *

    £39.77

    £46.42

    2016

    BME

    Non BME

    Undeclared

    AA

    *

    *

    £9.84

    AO

    £12.06

    £12.17

    £12.16

    EO

    £14.89

    £14.41

    £13.99

    HEO

    £17.23

    £16.66

    £16.05

    SEO

    £20.47

    £20.51

    £20.42

    G7

    £27.40

    £27.35

    £26.65

    G6

    *

    £33.04

    £32.84

    SCS

    *

    £42.62

    £48.85

    *Number of staff in this group are below publishable level

    Good progress is being made on actions in the Government’s Talent Action Plan and Defra’s Diversity Strategy to ensure that Defra is able to recruit and retain employees from a diverse range of backgrounds, and to enable them to develop and progress on merit.

  • Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason his Department deploys speed cameras that photograph vehicles from the front in addition to speed cameras that photograph vehicles from the rear; and for what reasons his Department does not have a single policy on the deployment of such cameras.

    Andrew Jones

    It is for local authorities and police to decide how they wish to operate speed cameras. The Department issued guidance in 2007 entitled “Use of speed and red-light cameras for traffic enforcement: guidance on deployment, visibility and signing”. I wrote to all local authorities in England and Wales on 20 October 2015 to remind them of the guidance which is available on gov.uk.

  • Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many trainee GPs have been informed by Capita and Primary Care Support England that they are no longer allowed to practice as they are not currently on the national list for medical performers.

    David Mowat

    NHS England advises that, currently, there are approximately 720 applications for general practitioner (GP) trainees to be added to the performers list.

    The processing of applications to join the National Performers List was taken over by Capita in September 2015, and there have been some delays in Capita’s processing of applications. NHS England is working closely with Capita to identify all cases which may be affected by delays in processing applications, and those identified are being investigated and urgent cases prioritised. NHS England expects all GP trainees to be on the performers list by the end of October when their grace period for inclusion ends.

    The decision to admit a GP trainee to the performer list is the sole responsibility of NHS England rather than Capita. There have been some instances where Capita have informed GPs that they cannot practice because their application to the performer list has not been completed. Where we are aware of such instances, those GPs have been contacted by NHS England and provided with the correct advice relating to their individual circumstances. Where necessary, NHS England has taken further action to expedite the performers’ list process.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Afghan government on sexual abuse of and physical attacks on young boys and girls in Afghanistan.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK continues to raise this issue both with the Government of Afghanistan and in multilateral fora. We welcome the Government of Afghanistan’s public commitment of support for human rights and eliminating violence against women and girls, most recently at the September 2015 Senior Officials Meeting in Kabul.

    Through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights and Democracy Programme Fund almost £400,000 has been allocated to address the psychological needs of victims of sexual harassment and violence; support state institutions to improve their response to victims; and raise awareness of the threats.

    We are also funding the United Nations Population Fund in Afghanistan (UNFPA) to provide family protection units, which will include psychological aftercare for survivors of sexual violence. This complements the Department for International Development’s work to strengthen access to justice for survivors of violence.

    Afghanistan is one of six focus countries for the UK’s National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security, for which there is a joint implementation plan across FCO, MOD, and DFID. We have also been involved and continue to support the Afghan National Action and Implementation plan.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Return to Work plans produced by the Fit for Work service made recommendations to employers which were accepted in full since the launch of that service.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The number and proportion of Return to Work Plans produced by the Fit for Work service that made recommendations to employers which were accepted in full is not readily available and to provide the information requested would incur disproportionate cost.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers have been recruited through the Troops to Teachers scheme.

    Nick Gibb

    One cohort has completed their training to date with a further two cohorts currently in training. In total, 144 teachers have been recruited through the scheme.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government for those trusts carrying out radical prostate cancer treatments, what were the results for the following responses to the most recent National Prostate Cancer Audit: (1) the number of operations undertaken in the audit period, (2) the proportion of those operations with a hospital length of stay of over three days, and (3) the proportion of those operations requiring emergency readmission within 90 days.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The proportion of men diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer between 2010 and 2013 (the Audit period) who had radical treatment, and the proportion who had a hospital length of stay over three days and who required an emergency readmission within 90 days following an operation, are presented by health region in the attached headed Table 1.

    It should be noted that the results presented are based on an analysis of data from the English Cancer Registry linked to the Hospital Episode Statistics. These data were collected before the start of the National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) in April 2013.

    The number of radical prostatectomies undertaken in men diagnosed between 2010 and 2013, and the proportion of men who had a hospital length of stay over three days and who had an emergency readmission within 90 days following an operation, are presented in the attached headed Table 2. The results of 56 men included in the data set used to generate Figure 8 in the NPCA Annual Report 2015 could not be included in Table 2. Of these men, 37 were treated in National Health Service trusts that treated fewer than five patients during the Audit period; and for 19 patients it was not possible to identify the NHS trust where they had undergone treatment without incurring disproportionate cost.

    The first results for the patient-reported outcomes of men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1 April 2014 and 30 September 2014, and who underwent radical treatment (prostatectomy, external beam radiation, brachytherapy, cryotherapy, and high-intensity focused ultrasound), will be included in the NPCA’s Annual Report 2016, which is due to be published in the last quarter of 2016. These results will include incontinence rates.

    Men who had radical prostate cancer treatment were invited to complete a questionnaire about their experiences of care as well as about treatment outcomes, 18 months after the date of diagnosis. It was decided that questionnaires should be sent out at this time after diagnosis because it can take more than one year for men who have radiotherapy, in combination with androgen deprivation therapy, to complete their treatment. Subsequently, it will take at least three months for men to fully recover from the transient side effects of the radiotherapy. In order to include all men and to measure the final treatment outcome – rather than outcomes still affected by the transient side effects – an 18-month period was chosen.

  • Robert Jenrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Robert Jenrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Jenrick on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure disabled access on all platforms at Bingham railway station.

    Claire Perry

    I would like to assure the hon. Member that we are committed to improving accessibility at railway stations. However, many stations date from a time when the needs of disabled customers were simply not considered and at present only around 460 of our 2,500 stations have step free access to every platform. We have therefore continued with the Access for All programme, launched in 2006, which by 2019 will have provided step free access at more than 200 stations and has already delivered smaller scale access improvements at over 1200 stations.

    In 2013 we asked the industry to nominate stations for the latest tranche of Access for All funding. 278 were put forward and we selected 68 of these to add to the programme. To ensure the best possible value for money, these were chosen based on their annual footfall, weighted by the incidence of disability in the area. We also took into account the priorities of the industry and other factors such as the availability of third party funding. Around a third were also chosen to ensure a fair geographical spread across the country.

    Bingham was not among the 278 stations nominated.

  • Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Life Chances Strategy will include the provision of funding to support positive family relationships; whether funding under that strategy will include families with teenage children; and if he will make a statement.

    Priti Patel

    This government believes that families play an essential role in improving the life chances of children of all ages. As the Prime Minister announced in his speech on 11th January, funding for relationship support is being doubled in this Parliament with an extra £35 million to support family relationships. More details will be set out in the forthcoming Life Chances Strategy.

  • Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with the Brazilian government on ensuring the safety of athletes and tourists travelling from the UK for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I met the Brazilian Minister for Sport on 7 June and discussed preparations for the Rio 2016 Games, including security. The British and Brazilian Governments, as consecutive hosts of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, have cooperated across a range of areas in preparation for the Rio 2016 Games. We have shared our experience of hosting London 2012 through visits to both the UK and Brazil by security and safety experts and through regular discussion of athlete and tourist safety. In advance of the Rio 2016 Games, we encourage all visitors to Brazil to consult our ‘Stay ahead of the Games’ consular campaign, which provides further advice on how visitors can best ensure their own safety during Games time.